Winery Spotlight #16- Tantalus

The story- This is one winery I really insisted upon going to and for no good reason was very excited about. All was repaid. For some reason I have a positive memory of Tantalus Riesling in my head, though I can't recall the exact circumstance of it's enjoyment. Probably at eighteen with Mr.Colin Davidson at the prow. That little guy gets me into heaps of trouble. In any case, here we were. The tasting woman was also from Ottawa, and was engaged to the winemaker, so she had an inside scoop, which was nice. Her fiance had also worked at Nu, sister restaurant to C, so she related to the industry and everything as well. She was awesome, told us a bit about the wines and such, told us to trash the wines if we didn't enjoy them, because she does all the time. It was refreshing as hell and really a nice welcome. The owner is a huge proponent of art, and the tasting hall is half museum half winery. It has a distinctly museum-ish feel, which can be bad or good, depending on your guests. From the outside it looks like a James Bond villains villa. All white and odd angles. The interior is slick and smooth, the wine wall adorned with the physical masks which are the printed labels as well. The masks are made by a local native artist. Before you write them off and think you've seen them before, you haven't. The artisanry is incredible in these masks and whoever made them clearly has some grounding in classical sculpture or european art. Anyways, it's a winery, so wines.
Wines-
We tried all their wines this time out.
Riesling- Is a nice Riesling, definitely drinking wine, but not particularly to be savored. This suits it's purpose perfectly, because it's made as such.
Old Vines Riesling- For a more serious classical Riesling, this is it. This is an amazing wine with a certain level of focus and craft we haven't seen in many others. its a single bench wine with grapes from a very small section of the vineyard only. It's really an amazing Riesling, so we bought a bottle.
Dry Rose- The most astonishingly interesting rose we tried. So dark in hue it's almost a really light red, but maintaining that aura of rose. The real bonus is the depth of flavour, which I've never seen in a rose before, and the balance. While roses tend towards sweetness and feminine characteristics, strawberries and such, this wine has real power and perfect balance. Like a chick in a suit with stilettos to kill. We bought this too. Too interesting and unique to pass up.
Pinot Noir- The pinot was actually not to my liking, but the taster girl said that's good, because it shouldn't be released yet. It needs to cellar for a while longer before it's okay for market. The tasting is just so you get an idea of what's to come. Crafty. Anyways, great wines all round.