Niagara College 2009 Sauvignon Blanc - Kevin Watson Vineyard

Found May 2013

Sadly I am going to give this wine a very poor write up and it's really not it's fault; I blame myself completely for this fiasco of a wine.  When we bought this wine a few years back is was lovely and fresh with great citrus quality - unfortunately the review never made it to the website (ontariowinereview.com).  But I found this bottle while looking for something refreshing and fun to drink and with the date of 2009 I thought it just might have survived due to the high acidity that year brought to the wines - alas that was not to be.  I am to blame as I socked this one away instead of putting it in the forefront of my wine cellar.  But here is how it tastes now:  The nose was hay with some freshly mowed lawn thrown in, there was also some grapefruit rind added to the mix. But it wasn't the nose that was the problem, it was the palate, which had lost all elements of Sauvignon Blanc, it tasted rancid and bitter with a real unpleasant after-taste.  This wine was inadvertently lost and sometimes when that happens you can never get them back ... no matter how hard you look and pray that they'll come back.  It's true in life as it is in wine.  In the end the nose was passable but the palate was something you just couldn't get passed.  Lost & Found Rating:  Trash

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Niagara College Teaching Winery 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Found July 2012

Mama done told me lots of things:  My momma told me there'd be days like these.  Momma told me not to chew with my mouth full.  Momma also said, "if you ain't got anything nice to say, don't say it at all" (she also said that 'ain't ain't in the dictionary'), so maybe I heard that one wrong ... but I ain't got much to say positive about this wine so I'll be brief, cause momma also told me not to lie.  The nose is highly unappealing, not corked but just all wood and not much else (and that's being kind).  Being the researcher that I am I had to also taste the wine: it was like licking cardboard though again it was not corked - just overtly like sandpaper on the tongue and in the throat, so much so that one did not want to swallow.  This is an absolutely awful wine seven years from vintage date - too bad because it had such good pedigree being from the 2005 vintage, but over manipulation and over oaking has killed it in its twilight years (which means it would be good for vampires if you added enough garlic).  Lost & Found Rating:  Trash +

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while there sign up for Michael's free bi-weekly newsletter.