Colio

Colio:

Today Stephanie and I were down at Colio meeting with head winemaker Tim Reilly. Tim has been with Colio since 2002 and took the reigns from original winemaker Carlos Negri when he retired last year. Tim took the winemaking course at Niagara College and learned from Jim Warren and others in Niagara. Tim began to change the style of Colio’s white wines beginning with the 2003 vintage changing the style of Colio’s Pinot Grigio to what it is today, and award winning full bodied style. In his second vintage, his new style Pinot Grigio won a gold medal at the All Canadian Wine Championship. The 2007 Pinot Grigio has ripe pears with brown sugar notes and a clean long finish. Tim is taking Colio’s white wines to a new level as he launched a Reserve Riesling. It is dry with lots of forward fruit without being too acidic. There are lots of mineral notes and a hint of petrol that I am sure will come through more as it ages. This Riesling does drink well young, but will only improve with age.

Tim also led us through a tasting of the 2005 CEV Reserve Red wines. This is the first vintage that Tim has had complete control of the reds. Starting with the Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Stephanie and I were both impressed. The nose on the Cab took me back to the tour of Napa Valley Steph and I took two years ago—lots of mint and eucalyptus. Unlike California Cabernets Colio’s is a finesse wine. There are nuances of cassis, red fruit and barnyard (aka Brett). The Reserve Cabernet Franc shows great potential as well as the structure is solid and cherry flavors are beginning to develop. The Reserve Merlot tastes the youngest of the three wines. Similar to the Cabernet Sauvignon, the Merlot showed mint and cedar notes but the tannins need to soften with some time in the bottle.

Tim took a tank sample of the 05 Reserve Meritage. It was starting to drink well despite not being bottled yet. Both Tim and I agree that the best example of what Lake Erie North Shore can produce is in our blended wines. The Meritage shows lots of potential with balanced tannins, ripe fruit and balanced acidity. To finish off the reds Tim had a sample of his 6 barrel Shiraz that should hit the shelves by the fall. It has lots of pepper and spice on the nose and the flavors remind me of Dr. Pepper—sweet cherry cola flavors.

On thing that I surprised me is Colio’s new pricing strategy. Their goal is to keep all their Reserve wines under $20 (except for their Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon which is priced at $21.95 because Cabernet Sauvignon is more expensive to grow). The wines are a phenomenal value considering Reserve wine in Niagara routinely hit $30 and up.

Meritage… Take 2!

A month ago I opened up a bottle I was saving for a while now, the 2004 Meritage from Sprucewood Shores, and it ended up being corked. I am pleased to say Gord Mitchell, the Owner of Sprucewood Shores dug into the last case they had in their wine library to replace it for me. I hesitated to open the replacement bottle fearing lightning would strike twice, but alas the wine was good. Very good actually. The wine opened up with big blueberry aromas and just a hint of cedar. The tannins were remarkably mature with a solid acidic backbone. The wine is not what I expect from a Meritage as far as weight goes, it is a little light lending itself more to be enjoyed with a very meaty fish (such a s blue marlin with a blueberry butter) or a dish like chicken in a cream sauce, but very tasty indeed. This is a very well made wine. The use of oak is restrained and even the tannins are on the light side of balanced. The pleasant acidic backbone of the wine will definitely keep this wine alive for a few more years to come.

I wish I had opened up its younger brother, the 2005 Meritage to compare side by side. Instead I will rely on my notes and memory to compare the two. The 2005 is a very pretty wine with more cherry aromas than blueberry. On the palate the 2005 shows a hint of anise not found in the 2004. Both wines showed similar cedar flavors and as they opened both wines developed the stereotypical peppery ness of the LENS terroir (although the 2004 is more black pepper-ish and more pleasant than the 2005’s spicy white pepper… give it another year and I am sure it will balance out nicely like the 2004). If I had them both in my cellar at this time I think I would drink the 2004 and see what the 2005 develops like over the next year or so.

Mastronardi Estates

So on my wine tour a few weeks ago I stopped by Mastronardi Winery. They are located just up the street from Colasanti’s on Mersea Rd. 3. The Mastronardi’s originally bought the property off of Colio (it was the original CEV vineyard) to turn it into Greenhouses, but they discovered they enjoyed the challenge of growing grapes so they started up their own winery instead. They have hired Lyse Leblanc (formerly of Leblanc Estate Winery) to make the wines and she is doing a great job. The first I would recommend is their Sparkling wine a’Dorah. It has very tight bubbles with lots of toasty bread and complexity (Plus my Daughter Madeline loves Dora… The Explorer… and before the age of two she seems to be taking to wine too). If you are fonder of still wines, their Chardonnay has a nice balance of oak and fruit and their Meritage is full of blackberry and tobacco. The wood is balanced and it has a refreshingly clean finish. They also make a Zweigelt that is a good simple easy to drink table wine with a hint of foxyness to it. Overall they are doing a great job and with the experience of Lyse in the barrel room, Mastronardi’s is a winery to watch.

Next weekend I am heading to Niagara with the family for Cuvee. A festival put on by the Wine Council of Ontario. I am looking forward to experiencing all the latest wines from across the province and on Saturday I have been invited to an ‘Experts Tasting’ put on at Brock University exploring the ‘Art of the Blend’. I am looking forward to this as I believe in my experience that wines from this area show best when blended together. I will bring you up to speed on the events next week.

The Joy of Cork

So I have waited until the last minute to write this column because I am spending “Family Day” with Stephanie, MJ and Madeline and I planned to open a special bottle I have been saving for a special occasion—a 2004 Meritage from Sprucewood Shores. The 2004 was Tanya’s first vintage and the Meritage won a GOLD medal at the All Canadian Wine Championship last year. It was in such demand that they sold out on their Grand Opening Day. I showed up at the winery a month later looking for some and had to use all my powers of persuasion to pry a few bottles out of what was supposed to be their library stock.

I was looking forward to opening this bottle as I just tasted the 2005 Meritage a few weeks ago. It is a very pretty wine with a bright cherry & cedar nose with red liquorices and balanced tannins. A touch of the peppery Lake Erie North Shore Terroir came out as it opened. I was looking forward to enjoying the 2004 with a steak and sautéed mushrooms. I opened the bottle and poured some into our wineglasses. As I brought the glass up to my nose with the expectations of more cherry and cedar notes, I had to stop. Wafting out of the glass was the unmistakable aroma of nail polish remover. Now acetate is not an uncommon smell in wine, I opened up a 2003 Amarone from Italy two weeks ago with the same smell and numerous other similar bottles in the past.

The thing that all the wines I have tasted with this distinctive smell have in common is a faulty cork. If you have ever heard someone refer to a wine as ‘corked’, ‘corky’ or ‘faulty’, this is what they are referring to. In addition, if you have ever wondered where the tradition of tasting the bottle of wine before serving it to guests came from, it has a lot to do with avoiding the embarrassment of serving a ‘corked’ wine to guests.

According to most wine experts, anywhere from 5-12% of all bottles of wine are corked—almost 1 bottle per case! To me this is one of the most disappointing parts of having a wine cellar—not being able to enjoy that special bottle that you have been saving, on the special occasion.

Now what should you do if you encounter a faulty bottle? If you find it at home, you can return the bottle to the LCBO for a full refund. If you are in a restaurant, politely inform your server that the bottle is corky and they should bring you a new one. I will share a story of a time that I had a corky bottle at a restaurant.

About a year ago Stephanie and I took a long weekend in January and went down to visit some friends in Pittsburg. On the way back we stopped overnight in Cleveland and went out for dinner. We happened to come upon a Restaurant called the Blue Point Grill. When I was looking over the wine list it said that they had won a number of Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence and that they have 20 trained sommeliers on staff (wine experts). I asked the waitress if she was one of the sommeliers (which she was), and I challenged her to pick the wine for us. I told her off the cuff that my restaurant had a Wine Spectator award as well (not to brag, just so she didn’t try to bluff me off with an inferior bottle of wine). Anyway our waitress brought out a bottle wrapped in a napkin to have some fun and play name that wine, which I did--- corked! It was no problem as she just went and got another bottle. (Not that it is important to the discussion of corked wines but just to brag a bit, to the amazement of our waitress I did recognize the second bottle as a Spanish wine).

So if you ever discover aromas of must, mould or nail polish remover, or if you ever have a wine that just doesn’t taste right, feel free to ask for another one or return it to the LCBO for a refund.