TasteCamp Day 3: Niagara, U.S.A. Population Potential

If you're a Canadian and ever wondered what it might have been like to visit Ontario wine country in the early days I'd suggest taking a trip across the boarder to visit the Niagara, New York wine route. Sharing the ancient glacial-shaped soils of Niagara, Ontario and its climate this is essentially one continuous region. But even if you've only ever done a day-trip to Niagara, Ontario's wine region it doesn't take long to realise things across the border are remarkably different. From talking to some of the winemakers, winery owners and wine workers at Tastecamp it comes down to this—Niagara, New York is at a much earlier stage in its development.

For all the issues Niagara, Ontario wineries face like laws limiting how and where they can sell or high taxes and costs making it virtually impossible to sell a quality wine under $12 a bottle there are many advantages to growing grapes in Ontario. Many of those advantages are hard-fought ones that Niagara, Ontario wineries have earned over the past three decades. The real key to it all is without a doubt VQA. Reading Linda Bramble's book you get the impression that wineries were both scared and motivated to improve quality as the talk of free trade via NAFTA and unfettered access for California and other foreign wine superpowers became a real possibility. Quality producers knew great wine could be made in Ontario but they also knew that the industry as whole needed time to establish itself as a quality producer and explore where its particular strengths might lie. One of the ways this was done was fighting for government incentive programs to pull out old labruscas and then hybrids for quality vinifera grapes which take at least three years before they begin to produce commercially. This never happened on the American side so the cost of a pull-out is entirely on the individual. Naturally there are still prime sites full of lubruscas there to this day. For these growers more money can be made growing these hardy prolific native grapes best suited for juices, jellies and eating than growing vinifera best suited wine. So without incentives or a unified body showing an alternative unless an individual has a passion for quality wine and money to burn there's not much of a reason for change. There are certainly a few passionate individuals leading the way but it will take some time, effort, money and likely a little heartbreak before things develop to the same level as Ontario.

From TasteCamp

On such winery was Arrowhead Springs Growing vinifera on a modified Scott Henry trellis system, using rye and clover cover crops and fertilising with local horse manure as needed Duncan and Robin Ross have a focus on growing the best grapes they can. They also aren't afraid to experiment. They've barrel fermented some reds in local oak from from Key Stone Cooperage for instance. That's not a common practice given the difficulty of removing skins before barrel aging. After all barrels are meant to keep all but a bit of air out, let alone people, or else the wine inside would oxidise and ruin very quickly. One of Duncan Ross' favourite grapes to work with is Cabernet Franc for its hardiness against winter cold and disease pressure as well as its good yield. His 2008 was full of toasty oak-spice flavours as well as raspberry and some smoky tobacco notes.

Another memorable winery stop was Freedom Run. If you haven't heard of the Lockport winery you probably will soon because a recent purchase of 45 additional acres of pinot noir means the winery has five and half times the production than when it began. The fact that it is all pinot noir is also exceptional given that the persnickety grape is thin-skinned, prone to disease pressure and can turn on you if you so much as look at it funny. The sheer number is also significant considering that the terroir and pinot and chardonnay obsessed Le Clos Jordanne, co-owned by industry giants Constellation and Boisset, has 121 acres split between chardonnay and pinot noir. Six different 2010 pinot noir barrel samples were poured and all had an amazingly deep purple-ruby colour and a distinct bretty note that should be instantly recognisable to those who've have a Flemish sour ale. My favourite was probably the mixed vineyard blend which harmonized the characteristics of the single vineyard wines. It was full of black plum, raspberry and black cherry with medium plus acidity and a strong finish of bretty sour ale. Like a few wineries in Niagara, Ontario, most notably Foreign Affair the winery is also experimenting using the appassimento process of drying grapes to highlight and concentrate flavours.

From TasteCamp

One winery to look out for is Leonard Oakes. The Medina, NY winery is one of the furthest east in the region and they are growing a mix of hardier hybrids and vinifera trying to figure what works best in the their corner of it. The winery's winemaker Jonathan Oakes graduated from the viticulture program at Niagara College and trained under Brian Schmidt at Vineland. That experience shows in this reserve riesling. With flavours and aromas of juicy lime, smoky gun flint and crushed rock it's a classic cool climate riesling from Niagara. It's also perfectly balanced down the middle when it comes to sweetness, mouthfeel and acidity letting the flavours shine through. It would be really interesting to see what he could do with some Weis 21B clone riesling which he'd love to plant if he could get his hands on some vines. His vidal icewine shows his Canadian training as well. It's classic Niagara with the sweet flavours of honeyed apricots, peach and pineapple flavours and aromas. What's makes it exceptional is it possesses the balancing acidity which can often be lacking in vidal icewine.

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One of the curious things common throughout the Niagara, New York reds was deep colour almost always at the medium plus level of intensity even in thinner skin varieties known to be fairly light in colour like pinot noir. In some cases producers are using enzymes like Color pro to aid in the extraction. The reason is that local market prefers its wine deeply coloured. What's a bit odd with this is that on the whole the body of the wines was lighter than the colour would lead you to believe—almost always a medium minus intensity even in cabernets, malbecs and syrahs. It was an interesting dichotomy that I would be be interested to see again if it changes in a few years as the vines get a bit more age. The other thing to keep an eye out for in Niagara, New York is the creation of a body made of industry producers to promote and push the industry forward. Both the VQA and Wine Council of Ontario have been instrumental in creating the framework for quality standards as well as tireless promoters to both the public and government. There's talk of trying to set something up like the VQA with formal but voluntary quality-focused rules providing a base standard which will ideally push things forward on the American side. If the same holds as it did in Ontario the sooner this happens the better. So with land being very cheap, the industry in its early years and a climate shared with Niagara, Ontario its American counterpart is a region to keep a close eye on over the next decade. I know I'll be making my next visit sooner rather than later.

From TasteCamp

TasteCamp Day 2: up on the Bench Where it's Crisp

The focus of day two of TasteCamp was the Bench. The Bench is a colloquial term used locally to describe the wineries east of St. Catharines that are located along the escarpment. Higher-up, with vines on slopes and deep limestone-rich clay soils it really is a remarkably different growing area than Niagara-on-the-Lake.

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The first stop was Tawse. In its ten years Tawse has made a name for itself as a quality-focused producer. Its big coming out party was winning the Canadian Wine Awards Winery of the Year in 2010 under Paul Pender who was also recently recognised as winemaker of the year in 2010 at the Ontario Wine Awards. Pender is as passionate as he is humble. He's a firm believer that good wine begins in the vineyard and as such he has led Tawse through its organic and biodynamic certifications. The most likely spot you'll probably find him is amongst the vines so it was fitting that he led the group on an abbreviated version of a vineyard tour that he took bloggers on last year. After a tour through the gravity flow facility Pender poured a blind tasting of Tawse's two flagship Chardonnays. One was Robyn's Block from the home Cherry Ave. vineyard and the other the eponymous chardonnay from the Quarry Road vineyard. The Quarry Road Chardonnay is more linear with a tight focused minerality. The Robyn's Block is also an elegant taught chardonnay but it had a roundness and depth of flavour to go along with the pear, citrus and mineral-rich core. The wines taste quite different. Given that the winemaker and winemaking is identical it's a strong argument that terroir matters. But it's also an argument that vine age matters. Entering into its fourth decade Robyn's block is one of the oldest chardonnay plantings in Niagara. If you've followed Tawse for some time you know that Robyn's Block has evolved over time depending on who was making the wine at the time, but the current style with just enough oak to give it structure has been winning critical and consumer praise with elegance.

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Post-Tawse it was a visit to the house that Weis built—Vineland estates Winery. Under the care of the Schmidt family this Twenty Mile bench winery, located high-up on the escarpment on Moyer Rd., has a well deserved reputation for making some world class riesling. Winemaker Brian Schmidt believes that the St. Urban vineyard, where the Hermann Weis planted his Mosel Riesling clone, is a perfect place on the bench for the grape. The choice grape of Germany is a bit strong willed. As Schmidt explained when he was younger he tried tweaks to force the vines to do things he thought would make a better wine. For example, thinning down drastically to concentrate flavours. The vines just ended-up doing as they pleased anyway by doing things like growing bigger berries to compensate for the thinning. Over the years Schmidt has come to terms with fact that he's merely the caretaker for the vines and that the vineyard is truly the winemaker of the St. Urban Riesling. Now riesling is certainly a terroir-driven grape but it still doesn't make itself. One of the key areas where a winemaker shows his or her skill with riesling is in the blend. Schmidt showed this by isolating a 2010 riesling sample from a portion of the St. Urban vineyard called Field D. This sample came from fruit that was left on the vines until mid-October and had some botrytis. Made in an off-dry style it had ripe peach, apricot and tangerine flavours. The ripe flavours were balanced by mouth-watering acidity. Although this wine was brilliant on its own when it was added to the grapefruit, orange blossom, lime and minerality of the blended sample it really was on a whole other level. If you've ever done a blending session of a single variety wine the layering of flavours and complexity you can get simply by blending fruit from different blocks and sites is truly remarkable.

From TasteCamp

Next was a trip to Flat Rock and blends were also the name of the game. The Jordan winery has always thought a little differently from passionately embracing the screw cap across its entire line (even changing the VQA rules to do so in the case of its recent sparkling) to being one of the first to promote a crisp, aromatic white blend like its Twisted. It's also taken the attitude that wine doesn't need to be pretentious as proprietor Ed Madronich likes to say. It just needs to be good. Since rain kept us out the vineyard staff did a great job with a retooled itinerary of various activities. One of the most engaging was trying to guess the blend of Twisted by tasting all the individual components. As humbling as blind tasting is guessing the composition of blend is even more. It might seem easy since you know precisely what makes it up but nailing down the proportion of the Riesling, chardonnay and gewüztraminer isn't easy.

The finish of the evening was a TasteCamp tradition—the bring your own bottle dinner. This is a chance for the group to share a special wine and stories with their fellow attendees. This year's was at Treadwell Farm to Table Cuisine. Service was attentive while allowing this large group the freedom to mingle and chat. The standout dish of the meal was a cold mint and pea soup with a perfectly seared scallop. It was done well enough that the caramelisation brought out the natural sweetness of the mollusc but rare enough that it was still tender. The fresh bright flavours the of peas and mint also really complimented the scallop's inherit creaminess and the light briny ocean flavours. Between the food, the conversation and the special bottles from all over the world being shared it really is a one-of-kind experience that any oenophile would be lucky to attend.

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They Grow-up So Fast

So while we wait for our next work ticket I took the opportunity to look at the progress of our My Wine vines. I have to say what a difference a week makes. After the last post we had a week of rainy weather. As you can see the early start to the season and the water have the vines growing well. Although you can spot a bit of difference in the shoot height and the density of the canopy, you can definitely see it in the berry size. It's getting tough to see any of the stalk in there!

From My Wine

This week we're in the midst of a heat wave not since seen in these parts since 2005 & 2007 . If you're familiar with Niagara vintages those two are known for hot and dry conditions. Now that probably doesn't benefit our Riesling as much as Bordeaux varieties commonly grown in Niagara like Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot. Hot, dry growing conditions can sometimes lead to a petrol note that's usually associated with more aged Riesling earlier in the wine's life. But if this is any indication we're in good hands should you not care for a hint of fossilised-dino-car-go-juice early in your Riesling's life.

With lush and thick canopy growth like this I have a feeling we're in for a bit of trimming sooner rather than later.

From My Wine

Lookin' Good There, Good Lookin'

Given the early start to cherry season (what's good for tender fruit is generally good for grapes), I thought I would check out our My Wine, My Way vines. Please click the link here to view an album or look below to see a slideshow of how our vines are progressing. Brian Schmidt told me our vines are about six weeks earlier than normal with their vegetative growth (leaves, canes, etc.) and about two weeks ahead of schedule on grape growth progress. Things are definitely looking promising. I'm looking forward to our next ticket, which should be coming soon.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait:

My Wine's First Ticket

It's our first opportunity to make a decision for My Wine, My Way. We're being asked to crop thin now or in August. If we crop thin now it should increase the possibility of more uniformly ripe grapes come harvest time. So if we want to help our chances of making the best possible wine this year it's really a no-brainer decision. Time to get in the vineyard with the shears and get cutting—not so fast.

Coincidentally I've been taking a general viticulture course this summer and the one thing that's stuck above everything else is the underlying theme that it isn't easy or straightforward growing wine grapes in Niagara. Without getting into too much detail, Niagara has a short, humid, wet (especially at harvest) growing season followed by a harsh winter for a grape growing region. So what does this mean for Vitis vinifera, a plant of desert origins? It means certain varieties can be a struggle to ripen fully here. With little to no tricks or intervention cool climate varieties like Riesling need about 1700 growing degree days to fully ripen. Moderate climate Cabernet Sauvignon requires 1900 and the heat loving Grenache demands 2100. Niagara's weather fluctuates yearly affecting the quality of the growing season but it's a cool climate growing region, which is generally considered to be in the range of 1500-1700 growing degree days. The growing conditions in Niagara also mean grapes are susceptible to potentially crop-ruining fungal diseases and the grapes can become water logged or even burst when nearing harvest time. About 550 mm – 850 mm of precipitation per year is ideal for most Vitis vinifera. Niagara usually hits that target before the end of summer and exceeds it by year's end. If the grapes mange to get through all of that unscathed there's still the potential of vine-killing cold and frost severely damaging the buds in spring. Anywhere with winters below -23°C more than once every 20 years is considered unprofitable for viticulture—completely replanting can put you out of production for 3-5 years. Ideally the coldest winter month should average above -1°C. Plus most Vitis vinifera will die if the temperature falls below -15°C to -25°C (depending on the cold hardiness of the variety and clone). Niagara fails everyone of those criteria. It kind makes me glad that the vines our only our's until the Riesling gets made for the My Wine, My Way project.

So what does all this have to do with the decision to crop thin now or in August? As the My Wine, My Wine site explains, if we crop thin now we essentially lighten the vines' loads. The remaining grapes have to fight less for their share of sun, nutrients and other resources—thus more even ripeness. But unfortunately it's not just the grapes that get more of that good stuff. By lightening the load the canes stretch, grower thicker and you don't make wine out of canes. Unfortunately, these suddenly thicker canes have a tougher time getting ready for winter. As you know from the above anything we can do to help the vines prepare for winter is a good first step towards making a great wine next year.

Also if we crop thin now and (knock on wood) something should happen that puts the vines at risk, it would make it very difficult to produce a good wine in decent quantities. Even though the season started off warmer and earlier than usual, the recent moisture and humidity can be dangerous to this year's young grapes. In fact, just the other day there was a risk of severe thunderstorms and hail. I don't know about you but the risks outweigh the potential reward of grapes at harvest that are slightly more ripe vine-to-vine. Besides I'm sure there are some other upcoming wine making decisions that will allow us to help aid the potential ripeness of the grapes without risking next year's crop.

What's Cooler than an idea who's time has come?

This changes everything. You've heard it before but how many times when referring to the Ontario wine Industry?

Vineland Estates, a producer of some of the best Riesling in Niagara (and Niagara makes cellars packed with Melchiors worth of good examples) has an idea so simple and compelling you would swear Steve Jobs had started a winery. Vineland wants to make a Riesling for you and not only do they want you to help make it, but they want you to make it your way.

For any wine lover who always wanted to know more or get involved in the winemaking process in some capacity My Wine, My Way is your chance. Sure you could take a wine making course at your local community college, buy some local grapes come harvest time and then make and bottle your own wine. But this is more than that.

Talk to any passionate winemaker (Brian Schmidt is amongst the most passionate in Niagara) and he/she will tell you that good wines, especially those that come from one particular site, start in the vineyard. No good grapes means no good wine. This community based project will allow wine lovers to participate in all sorts of decisions that will help shape the colour, taste and aroma of the finished wine. Based on a brief explanation of the task at hand and its possible consequences you'll be asked to make decisions about shoot positioning, crop thinning, the harvest date and more.

Brian Schmidt & Vineland's staff will then apply your decisions for you. There may even be the possibility to apply some of these decisions yourself with some hands-on participation in vineyard should you desire.

But why bother going through the trouble of inviting the public in on the wine making process? I could tell you that the alcoholic beverage market is growing in Canada and wine's share of it is too. I could also tell you that Millennials (18-29 year olds) splurge more of their spending dollars on food and wine than any other group. They are epicureans and their worldly exiperience has their tastes ahead of previous generations. They are constantly connected to the internet, enjoy social media but growing-up with the technology they are both savvy and weary of businesses using them. Still they love being able to opt-in to participate in something genuine, useful, informative, engaging and unique.

But none of the above paragraph is the motivation behind My Wine, My Way. I'll repeat it. None of the above paragraph is the motivation behind My Wine, My Way. When I spoke to Schmidt about the idea behind My Wine, My Way he talked about how he saw it as a unique opportunity to interact with customers on another level and to learn from each other.

You simply have to have one conversion with Schmidt about Niagara wine on Twitter to know he and the staff at Vineland are doing this because they genuinely care about their customers and want to share some of their passion through this unique experience. Brain Schmidt is a tireless champion of Niagara wines promoting the great products of fellow winemakers before his own. He's also a great steward of the wine region taking the time to share his knowledge and passion at every opportunity. I've benefited from this on more than one occasion and always come away impressed, engaged and learning something useful. I believe this is one way he gives back for all the knowlege that he has said he has benefited from via the past and fellow winemakers of the region.

I will most certainly fully take part in My Wine, My Way documenting and adding what I can here. I encourage all Ontario wine lovers to do the same by participating on the website and joining in the conversation on the My Wine Twitter feed . With ideas like this one the present and future of Ontario's wine industry looks bright. This project certainly has potential to spark the passion that I know is driving Ontario's growing wine culture.