The story-
Stratus came recommended from a couple people, including Jen, owner of the Black Hoof. I’d known of their wines from Ottawa back in the day, but had no real memory of any of them. They have a wicked tasting room, akin to Tantalus in BC, and with similar James Bond-ish characteristics. The tasting is expensive, but was a lot of information. The wines were generally of a high level, but some slacked well below their price tag. Their winemaker is a young guy, but he is french obsessed, meaning he really appreciates his blended wines. He figures there is more craftsmanship in blending than expressing a single variety, which is more common here in Canada. The only thing I can say is that the wines are a lot more complicated and less easy to identify.
Wild-ass White-
A blended white, meant to be their foray into more economic wines, was less than impressive. I felt like they took everything they didn’t want for their higher end stuff and squeezed it out into here without taking time to shape it up nicely. Not a great start, but hey, it’s economical and people drink it!
Riesling- A decent Riesling, maybe a little acidic for me, but nice lemony-citrus flavours.
Gewurztraminer- Very old world, lots of rosewater and white flowers, like too much as to be soapy.
White 06’- Lots of vanilla, cloves. A little too balanced between acid and fat, which made it to feel flat to me. Could just have too subtle flavourings for me to get though. Winemakers blend of 6 different varietals.
Riesling Icewine- Because the winemaker hates icewine, he made a very low sugar,high alcohol, no syrupy icewine, which is amazing, I think the best I’ve ever had. Lots of acid to balance out the sugars in there, with tons of spicecake madness. It didn’t just take like spice, but like spicecake, totally cakey and spicey and blended like a spicecake. Awesome icewine.
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