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Sharp Chards: of ink & in the glass

If you read the Financial Times or more aptly follow a certain British wine critic who writes in the well regarded publication you might have the impression that Ontario wine industry is at its nadir.

I can't imagine that's what Bill Redelmeier was hoping for when he began genesis of what would become Seriously Cool Chardonnay.

The proprietor of Southbrook was inspired by an interview he heard with Thomas Bachelder on CBC. After besting French and Californian competition at a blind tasting in Montreal the Clos Jordanne winemaker said he felt that there are many Ontario wineries that could have had the same success.

Redelmeier spent the past year calling on Ontario's wineries to submit their best Chardonnays and spearheading a plan to showcase the best of the best to the world. The culmination was a tasting in London on May 17, 2010. The idea was much like a past New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc tasting which begat a world-class reputation for the Kiwi take on the varietal.

By all accounts it was a good showing for the 40 wines (although this still shows 39) from 22 wineries. Like all settings where scoring and judging is involved some distinguished themselves as top performers. Still even the lowest scoring wine was deemed good, decent but unremarkable. Although this wasn't exactly an affirming declaration of quality fit for a Hollywood movie, given that these critics taste the world it is a very respectable result.

Despite this the focus became a continuation of the Cellared In Canada debate, which began last year and spilled into this one. As Rick VanSickle pointed out, not only was it disrespectful to the spirit of the tasting, but focusing on something unrelated to the tasting certainly leaves readers with the implication that Canada's world-class Chardonnay is secondary news.

Another curious thing about the post-tasting coverage was the highlighting of Prince Edward County Chardonnay as "distinctive". Although it was encouraging to see two Prince Edward County producers receiving top scores, seven of the top eight scores awarded were for wines made with Niagara fruit. With all due respect to the passionate and inventive producers of Prince Edward County, Niagara has a good 15 years more experience to draw-on. It also seems at odds to me to write that Prince Edward County's colder climate results in a Burgundian elegance when it comes to Chardonnay yet describe the top scored wine using county fruit as big, bold and Californian in style.

Even though the event went very well, it certainly could have gone better. The scores only began trickling in almost two weeks later. That's a generation ago in today's news cycles. Still that would not have seemed so long had there been any hint of a word on when to expect news to begin coming in. Also now that the scores have come there doesn't seem to be much of an indication of whether the initiative continues and if so where does it go from here.

Still you can't argue with the assement that our best can hold their own in a competition with world's best. It isn't just chardonnay either Hidden Bench certainly showed that in 2010 Decanter World Wine awards. Now if we could just make the focus the positives and highlight the best of the Ontario Wine industry with it's VQA wines both the industry and the consumer will benefit.