Welch's Grape Juice with a Kick

In early August we took a weekend venture to London Ontario and during that visit we took a side trip to Quai Du Vin Estate Winery in Elgin County, south of St Thomas. I wanted to get some inside footage to complete a segment I had shot several summers ago.
We tasted their Chardonnay and Riesling and we ordered some but what I want to talk about is their Concord wine. I have always been told that Concord grapes are fine for grape juice but not for making wine.
This varietal is native North American and is able to withstand the very cold winters that occur here and like all labrusca grapes the wines were terrible.
Well I got a big surprise. It was absolutely delicious. It was fruity as in grapey and semi sweet and had enough acidity to make it refreshing. It had 11% alcohol but I did not detect any heat.
It is not a table wine as the label says but it really is a wine cooler product as far as I'm concerned. Your not going to find complexity on the nose or the palate but to put it in a glass full of ice and then sip it on your back yard patio during a hot humid summer day is the ideal way to drink this.
Gary Vaynerchuk has said that if you want fruit juice then buy HI C , it is a hell of lot cheaper. I don't accept that concept, because although fruit juice is a lot cheaper, it isn't nearly as much fun.
The 6 bottles I purchased are now used up. If your near the winery check it out.
I have done a video tour of Quai Du Vin Estate Winery. You can check it out at the Wine Dining Vlog or Wine Dining Channel. The links are on the side
Click the title of this entry to get the winery's website

Industry Growing Pains

Recession Hitting Ontario Craft Wineries

Well as Ontario is gaining approximately 8 new wineries in Prince Edward County and 4 in Lake Erie North Shore (and probably more that I am not aware of in Niagara) we are also seeing some cracks in the operations of some wineries that have been on the block for a little while.
Thomas and Vaughan as well as Stonechurch Vinyards have been put up for sale because of financial difficulties and Steve Kocsis of Mountain Wine Company and Daniel Pambianchi of Maleta of Maleta Estate Winery discuss the finacial tribulations they are facing because of the current recession.
We visited Stonechurch recently and found it a very family oriented winery and had a great experience there.
I would be sad to see it go under.
An LCBO rebate program that was set in place to increase the wineries return on LCBO sales ended in march of this year. This has hurt Mountain Wine Company.
The saying that goes if you want to make a million dollars in a winery then start out with 10 million applies here. I have the utmost admiration for these winery operators who basically tie their nervous systems to a business that is not really known for its profit potential at the best of times.
Click the title and the link at the top of this entry for more specifics on this topic

Low Tar & Nicotine Ontario Amarone

The St Catherines Standard published on interesting article on the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program providing funding to Reif Estate Winery on three experimental projects.

Essentially tobacco drying kilns once used to dry out tobacco leaves will be used on wine grapes to make Amarula style wines, induce botrytis (noble rot) to produce sweet wines and to speed up and improve the quality of ice wine produced.

Its great to see innnovation so that Canadian wines can compete in special niche areas and create products of added value. I tried Ridgepoint Wines 2002 Nebbiolo  (Barolo style wine) and it was excellent in my view and was surprised that Canada could grow a grape that is normally associated with a warmer climate.
Having met Klaus Reif I found him to be a very down to earth gentleman. Now I can add the trait of innovator after reading this article.
Click the title of this entry to view the article

Two Great Winery visits

A last minute over night trip to Prince Edward County recently and as usual it turns out a great experience.
We used Yahoo maps to locate Redtail Vineyards and it turned out that we got the milk run route. After going through the village of Consecon and then through several turns in country roads we find it. Later we find out that there is a direct turn off Highway 33 a little further south from where the map says to turn.
The winery is located on 11 acres. It is a narrow rectangular shape running north-northwest to south-southeast. the center is lower than both ends. On a gentle south facing slope the vines are planted in the northern half of the property.
A hedgerow of mature deciduous and fir trees on the northern edge wrap around the eastern side and protect the vineyard from harsh winds of winter.
Owners Pauline Joicey and Gilbert Provost have realized their dream of growing vines
in their own vineyard and are doing in an organic manner. The winery itself is solar powered and off the grid. Pauline was very open and friendly when we visited and Gilbert came up and introduced himself to me. They specialize in Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. We very much liked the samples tasted and this was reflected in our purchase of their product. Pauline mentioned that they were not a member of VQA because they were small but I replied that it wasn't mandatory to join if they make good wine. As far as I am concerned they are there now.
Redtail is one of the new "garagistes wineries" (small scale and hands on) that will be opening in 2009. You can see the video of this winery on the Wine Dining Vlog or Wine Dining Channel (just use one of the links on the side)

After our visit we had lunch in Wellington. Then we headed over to the Glenora Ferry and used it to get to Adolphus Reach. Crossing was fun and was very picturesque as we saw the treelined shores of both sides of Quinte Bay. It looked exactly like being in Muskoka (except for the eye sore gravel pit you could see down bay.)
A ten minute drive along Highway 33 and we were at Bergeron Estate Winery.
The winery is in a house that was originally rented out to tenants before it's current use. The owner Dave Bergeron was attending to some very friendly visitors from Quebec. I took a look around and saw the vineyards with several homes in the distance at the waterfront.
When the Quebec visitors left we were given the grand tour of the vineyards. Dave is one of the friendliest people you will ever meet and he gave us the lowdown on how he runs his winery. It is a part time thing for him, he commutes to Kingston for his full time job during the week and attends to the winery on the weekend. The winery will be his full time occupation when he retires. He showed us how he burys his vine to protect them from frost damage. There is a vacant five acre lot next door which he owns which will eventually be used to expand his vineyard to fifteen acres.
Dave came from a agricultural background and wanted to expose his children to the same lifestyle. He lives on the shoreline of the property where he has an extra cottage he rents out. He will only grow vitas vinifera varietals in the clay soil that has limestone three to four feet down.
At harvest time he markets an event where volunteers pick grapes and they get a chili dinner and some wine as compensation for their work. They make Chardonnay, Gamay, Pinot Noir and a Vidal/Riesling Blend.
We will come by there again sometime as well as to check out the winery up the road that is located in a railway car. It's another thing Dave mentioned.
You can see the video of this winery on the Wine Dining Vlog or Wine Dining Channel (just use one of the links on the side)

Our visit to Applewood Farm Winery Markham Ontario

Several weeks ago we took a trip to Applewood winery in Markham to taste some wine and to shoot some footage.
The host was very friendly and professional and made suggestions on wines we might like to try.
The two that struck my interest were the Proprietor's Reserve as well as the Mac Meade.
The Proprietors Reserve (Price: $14.95 / 750ml) is described as the biggest of their wines "Elderberries, Wild Blueberries and Strawberries. Huge fruit nose, Huge mid palate, lingers with plenty of vanilla in the finish. Great with big beef". I would describe the wine as very Merlot like or a Cabernet that has aged and the tannins have gone. I found an elegance about it that I don't normally see in fruit wines and would agree it can go with beef but I wouldn't hesitate to try it with chicken or fish if it is properly spiced. My score 89
My wife normally doesn't like Mead and expressed that to the host but he challenged her to try the Mac Meade. When she tried it she gave the sample to me. I immediately liked it.
The Mac Meade (Price: $12.95 / 750ml) as described on their website "a sparkling wine made of Macintosh apples and honey. Crisp sweet apples and notes of honey are the perfect match to baked brie and roasted garlic." I would characterise it as a perfect fusion of honey apple and acidity perfectly balanced that gives a taste experience that exceeds the sum of it's parts. The only thing I can fault if for is that I wish that it had more bubbles but that is not a reason not to recommend this. I would try it with pork tenderloin My score 89
If you want to see the video go to the Wine Dining Vlog (the link is on the side ). The Applewood website can be reached by clicking the title of this entry

Bottle Shock Canadian Style

On a cold winter day in Montreal in January 2009, a restaurant named La Colombe was the scene of an upset rivaling the one in 1976 Paris of French wines by California's Chateau Montelena.
Le Clos Jordanne's Claystone Terrace 2005 Chardonnay beat out both French and California wines to take first place at a blind tasting nick named The Judgment of Montreal. This wine was secretly inserted into the tasting line up fooling the judges into thinking they were drinking a Burgundy.
The vines this wine came from were planted only in the year 2000. It is normaly expected vines should be around 15 years old before top quality can be achieved. The
Canaduan wine competed against wine from California which has been made for decades and against Burgundy which has been producing wine for centuries.
My closest experience to this kind of thing was purchasing Magnotta's Millenium Cabertnet Sauvignon which wound up beating first growth Bordeaux in a blind tasting.
That wine was made from grapes that came from Chile but was made in Canada (to my knowledge).
People should not be surprised that Canadian wineries are making top quality product. World class recognition for Canadian wines will happen again with absolute certainty.
Click the title of this post for the Le Clos Jordanne website

An Explosion in the County

I received a news release from the Ontario Viticulture Association and decided to visit their site to see who has joined since the last time I visited. Looking at their members list I was shocked to see how many new wineries in Prince Edward County that were scheduled to open in the summer of 2009. I counted 12 wineries that had opening in summer 2009 brackets beside their name. They include Bloonfield Estate Winery, Del-Gatto Estates Bella Vineyards, Exultet Estates, Fieldstone Estate Vineyards, Half Moon Bay, Hillier Creek Estates, Hinterland Wine Company, Karlo Estates, Lacey Estates Vineyard and Winery, Lift Haus Winery, Red Tail Vineyard and The Old Third Vineyard.
My experience has been that saying that you will be open does not guarantee that you will be open. Having said that, if even only three quarters of the wineries open this summer there will be 9 extra wineries to visit in the County. There is a season's worth of filming here for me. I may be hard pressed to find the time to go to Niagara this year. We will see.