This is Part 3 of 3 of my PEC Post. My quotations are coming from memory and are not exact word for word, but a representation of what was said. Again my tasting notes were made after I tasted the wine.
Geoff, who did his degree in History at Queens University worked for several years for CityTV in Toronto. Fed up with it all he decided to move out to Prince Edward County and start growing grapes and making wine. He wrote about this subject in his book 'A Fool and Forty Acres' which I have not read, but have ordered from amazon. Geoff is a self taught wine maker and told us that he has just read a lot about wine. He is also an extremely serious and passionate man who had some of the most interesting and poignant things to say while we tasted wine with him.
We met Geoff at 1:30 on Sunday afternoon he lead us into the tasting room of the winery which is where you walk in at the front door. It is a beautiful room with a tasting bar, large rustic wooden table and a gorgeous fireplace. We sat down and Geoff asked us where we had been during our trip to the County. This is where our conversation began as we had been to Closson Chase and as it turns out Geoff used to make wine out of Closson Chase under his own label. He knew Keith Tyers as well as Deborah Paskus quite well. With that we began talking about wine, the County and Keint-He.
Keint-He itself is a very new winery, as it just opened last fall and 2007 is its first vintage. However, the vineyards being used are some of the oldest in the County planted by Geoff over ten years ago. The winery itself is a collaborative effort between three wine lovers (Geoff Heinricks, Bryan Rogers and Ron Rogers) who are committed to producing the best wines possible in the County. As Geoff pointed out to me each partner brings their own specialty and perspective to help make Keint-He what it is.
Geoff takes care of the winemaking and the vineyards where he is allowed quite a bit of flexibility and freedom to really do interesting things. Bryan who has an M.A. in the sciences and arts is the GM of the winery and takes care of sales and marketing, something very important especially to smaller scale operations. Finally Ron, who is a retired VP from BMO, offers 35 years of experience in finance which is hugely invaluable to a new company like Keint-He. Furthermore, he provided the capital investment to help build the new winery as well as acquire the new vineyard sites. All decisions about the winery are made in consultation with each other and as Geoff said "all we do has to make sense to all three of us otherwise they wouldn't be in practice".
Keint-He is not your average County winery. The vines are planted at a very high density, 3630 vines per acre, at a 4' spacing, they have imported two specialty tractors from Burgundy to work on the vines. This forces the vines to complete and produce the best fruit possible. Yields are also kept very low with cropping at roughly 1.5 tons per acre which is around 28 hl/ha. To put that in perspective the average yields in France are about 55 hl/ha. Geoff said jokingly "if you mention my name or high density plantings many winemakers cringe". Keint-He uses only the fruit that they grow and everything is done by hand from pruning, to picking, bottling and even labeling, as Geoff says, "80% of wine is made in the vineyard if you do not see any workers in the field in the middle of summer you should be seriously concerned about the wines they are producing."
The grapes are grown organically and have been organic since they were planted. "we are an organic winery and the grapes have been from the beginning. Most growers spray when the calendar tells them to without even knowing if there is an issue if their vineyard. We are always among the grapes so we know what is happening to the fruit and can take preventative action when we see a problem." When I asked Geoff what he thought of biodynamics he replied "I follow certain principles of biodynamics, but I would not consider myself a biodynamic grower. Steiner didn't drink and thought wine was evil, how can you base your whole growing philosophy on a man who did not drink or know anything about wine?"
All of the wine is fermented using indigenous yeasts and are done naturally Geoff said that they can sometimes take 30 or more days to complete. I asked him if he thought yeast selection played an important role in the final bottled wine. He said that likely 3 out of 5 times the use of commercial yeasts will seriously affect the finished wine. He also said that he wants to make wine as natural as possible. "I want to make wine that changes and evolves when its opened. Real wine should be able to last for a week or more offering up new layers and nuances. Unfortunately most wine is meant to be consumed within the first hour of being opened." Furthermore, all of Keint-He's wines are unfined and unfiltered. All of this leads to Geoff's overall philosophy about winemaking. "With each wine are trying to create a snapshot of that year. From the various indigenous yeasts in the air, to the sun and water levels the vine receives. Each year will be different, but that is what makes our wines so unique they are true representations of where they come from. Some people will not like that, but I am letting the wine speak for itself."
After talking and tasting with Geoff I would have to say that he is one of those few winemakers that is really pushing the limits and moving the County wine industry in the right direction. Keint-He along with Closson Chase and Long Dog mark some of the most important wineries in the County in that they are actually exploiting the true potential of PEC terroir. Many people come to the County as a lifestyle choice because owning winery has a romance attached to it and others come out to make a buck. It is people like Geoff that are actually committed to proving to the world that the County can make some of the best wine around. I could go on much longer on the topics we discussed but I will move to the tasting now and let them do the talking about Keint-He's wines.
1. 2007 St. Laurent Foxtail Vineyard VQA Prince Edward County
This was my first experience tasting a St. Laurent and I was very impressed. The variety is actually part of the Pinot Noir family and originated in France. From there it moved to Austria where it is most commonly grown. These vines were brought to British Columbia in the 1970s and Geoff took some clippings and planted them in the Foxtail vineyard 10 years ago. I asked him why St. Laurent and he replied that he had done some reading and that he thought the grape would do well in the County. After tasting the wine I would say that he is right. The nose was great showing off County limestone earthiness with red berries, cranberry and some uniqueness that I suppose is a character of St. Laurent itself. In the mouth the wine was very interesting, delicious, multidimensional and possessing so much depth. This wine was so fascinating and unique yet was rooted firmly in the County. Geoff said that is could age easily another 5+ years. We bought a bottle, I cannot wait to revisit this complex and fascinating wine in the future and giving it my undivided attention. Score 91
2. 2007 Pinot Noir Little Creek Vineyard VQA Prince Edward County
Geoff is what you could call a Pinotphile and hence it is his most treasured grape. The Little Creek vineyard is their only Pinot bottling for 2007, but they will add another single vineyard release from Foxtail for the 2009 vintage. They planted more Pinot last year on their Big Lake vineyard which will start producing fruit fit for wine in a couple of years and will also be a single vineyard offering. This wine spent about 20 months in French oak with a touch of Hungarian oak for good measure. I don't know how else to describe this wine, but by calling it a showstopper. It has a ridiculous nose with so much going on all I can say is WOW! Sublime high toned cherry, earth, hay, barnyard, pinot fruit with so much depth it evolved in the short time we were tasting it. In the mouth this wine is just as good with a core of sweet pinot cherry surrounded by silken beauty. This wine is amazing to drink with so much depth and those 'je ne sais quoi' Pinot aromas and flavours that just wanted to be teased out over many hours. It finishes long and beautifully and is really the complete package. Geoff said it is drinking very well already even though it is just coming out of bottle shock. He said it will drink well now and over the next few years. We bought a bottle, I do not know how you couldn't after tasting it and I know it will not last long in our cellar as I don't think I have the will power. Most wine reviewers would have to put this wine in the mid 90s, really incredible stuff. Score: 94-95
The next selection of tastings Geoff offered us out of barrel as he showed us the winery.
1. 2007 Sparkling Base Wine
Mainly Pinot Noir with a small amount of Chardonnay and St. Laurent that did not make it into the regular bottlings. This base wine is just delicious and could actually be bottled right now and sold as it is. It will be a serious rich sparkling wine akin to a Blanc de Noirs. In March it is going into bottles for second fermentation I cannot wait to try Keint-He's sparkling it should be very good. As Geoff said sparkling wine has a big future in the County as its climate and soils are like a blending of Burgundy and Champagne. This could be very exciting stuff.
2. 2009 Chardonnay Foxtail Vineyard
Aged in seasoned Hungarian oak. A fresh, ripe, mineral laden Chardonnay with palate cutting acidity. Very Chablis-esque and it is already brilliant stuff. This actually may give Closson Chase a run for best County Chardonnay. Keep an eye out for this one it should turn out to be an incredible wine.
3. 2008 Chardonnay Foxtail Vineyard
Aged in new Hungarian oak. Completely different than the 2009. This is a big, rich and round buttery Chardonnay. If the '09 was a Chablis the '08 is a Montrachet. Really great quality wine, but I actually like the '09 better.
4. 2009 Pinot Noir Little Creek Vineyard
We did not taste this wine but looked at it and smelled it. The extraction is great and it seems that 2009 is going to be a great vintage in Prince Edward County. The nose is already gorgeous and shows some real potential. I will be looking forward to this in a couple of years.
5. 2008 Botrytis Affected Pinot Noir
For several years Geoff noticed that fog would form on one of their vineyards and blow away with winds from the lake by the afternoon and thought it could be a place to make a botrytis affected wine. The fungus is in the vineyards consistently and usually infected grapes are cut off so as not to contaminate other healthy clusters. In 2008 when they were about to get rid of the botrytis infected grapes Geoff said lets just wait and see what happens. Luckily the mornings got a lot of fog, but there was nice warm afternoon suns to dry the grapes out like a good year in Sauternes. Thus noble rot took over and actually worked. Geoff used a technique employed by winemakers in the Austrian village of Rust known for making outstanding botrytis affected wines. The wine took 9 months to ferment, but almost all the sugar was converted. It is being aged in Hungarian oak 2 new barrels and 4 seasoned. Geoff said he will bottle it eventually and the wine should last for decades.
This wine is just incredible, so unique, so interesting! This is unlike anything I have ever tasted. The wine was a lovely deep golden yellow and the nose showed sweet peach, blossoms and refined spice as well as complex that could take days to disentangle. Geoff said the nose changes every time he tastes it sometimes it displays those fruity notes, sometimes truffle and earth and other times earl grey tea. The nose is awesome and evolved in the glass while we tasted it. In the mouth the wine was amazingly rich and full bodied with so much peach and spice perfectly balanced by amazing acidity. The finish was eternally haunting and lasted forever. Geoff joked that one person who tried it said they could taste the wine all the way home. There was some truth to this as I could perceptively taste the finish about an hour after we tried the wine. I guess the closest thing to this wine would be a Hungarian Tokaji, but this is so utterly unique and so different. Geoff said that this is a wine that is made once a decade or maybe once in a lifetime. Truly remarkable stuff this is destined to become a County cult wine. I don't care how much a bottle will eventually cost I'll be buying it.
Overall Keint-He and Geoff Heinricks represent some of the best wine coming out of Prince Edward County. The quality levels are matched by very few and the uniqueness is matched by no one. It is the fact that Geoff is pushing the County to new frontiers that make Keint-He so exciting, I mean who else would try and make a Botrytis affected Pinot Noir and then actually pull it off? If you are in the County this winery should be your first stop then you will know what wine from the County should actually taste like.
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