Ontario Wine Spot #5 - Fielding Estate

First winery in a string of side by sides, we started from the end and worked our way back. Fielding is founded by people from northern niagara, and they are trying to somehow work the feeling of cottage country into a winery. It seems incongruous, but for some reason it works well. Usually I picture cottages and beer, but after being there a while, I'd like to sit on a dock and sip a crisp white. They have a muskoka chair as their logo, and their tasting room is designed like a hyper modern lodge. They do a good job branding, including their sweet water jugs, with their other signature, the Fielding F. In case it wasn't clear, the owners love the area they were raised in, and are promoting it almost as much as their wines. Wines were generally good, and the tasting room was a friendly place. As soon as we walked in, we got a warm hello from the two ladies at the bar. We also got to meet their sales agent, who was running off to Toronto to do tastings at restaurants. Though initially I made errors in this blog, the winery has a keen ear to the ground, found the blog and told me. I was impressed he found me, and even more impressed the owner wrote me. If they continue to make good wines and have that attention to detail, they'll soon be one of the regions leading wineries. I want a bottle of the Syrah to live in my mouth, constantly pouring small amounts so the flavour stays forever.

Riesling-
-very light, citrusy
-Sparkling Riesling- uncommon to find sparkling around here, but they do a pretty good job, a little too acidic, but really nice bubbles.

Meritage 06’-
-Cab blend with merlot.
-Nice wine, lots of licorice and pepper aroma, ripe but light in flavour. Finishes vanilla and spice.

Syrah 07’-
A huge wine from a huge year, one of the best we tried in the whole Niagara tour. Masses of juicy dark fruit on nose and palate. Less peppery than it looks, perfectly integrated tannins, buy a case and drink immediately or sit a couple years and drink then. Touch of bell pepper.

Gewurztraminer 08'-
-lots of honey and ginger, sweeter smelling than it comes off on the palate, smarts of tropical things, which I can’t Id.

Fawnsbrook gewurz 08'-
A much drier gewurz in comparison with the other, more light fruits, less acid, lots of lychee and a touch of apricot and peach.

Ontario Wine Spot #4 - Stratus

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.

Ontario Wine Spot #3- Lailey Vineyards

The Story-
Lailey Vineyards tries to be as terroir as possible with it's wines. They grow a wack of grapes of all different varieties in a weird pattern all down their vineyard, but thats not what makes them special. It's their barrels. You cannot get more terroir than Canadian oak. The only problem is that the cooper that makes them is in Kentucky, because there are few coopers in Canada. They initially told us there were none, but that was a lie, because we found one in Prince Edward County, and he was awesome. In any case, I talked to the winemaker, and he said he got the idea from local folks, who make their barrels from the local oak by themselves. His problem was finding someone who could cooper enough barrels to make it worth his while, thus, Kentucky. Anyways, good thing they introduced us to Canadian Oak, because we wondered about it in the Okanagan, but noone knew anything about it there. It's really experimental to use Canadian Oak. The difference comes from the climate. It's similar to french oak, but with the sealing agent that trademarks North American oak. A best of both worlds situation.

Gamay zweigalt- fruity, to start, finishes toasty, spicey and with a hint of vanilla. Smooth. Very nice wine, bought.

Chard Canada vs. Chard France

We bootfucked French oak.Spicy and delicious, I would drink two bottles right now. I was really impressed that this wine came out as good as it did.

France was a nice chard as well, but didn't jazz in my mouth the way the Canadian oak.