Tawse 2004 Dry Riesling

Click here to read the original review from August 2006

(Re-Tasted September 2013) ... I really want to give this bottle the benefit of the doubt - but I can't.  I want to say that maybe it was something I did - but I can't believe that to be true.  We opened this bottle while on an overnight trip to Stratford, I thought it would be interesting to taste this 2004 Dry versus the newer 2012 Quarry Road Riesling, so I brought a bottle of each.  I chilled them both the same length of time in our room fridge, and even waited till after dinner to give them an extra hour of chill time.  Excited I opened the 2004 first, the cork broke in half, but I can live with that - but what was in the bottle I could not live with.  It was absolutely beyond words how bad this was, and my wife, a Riesling devotee, had nothing positive to say about this wine:  she could barely choke down the first sip and a second sip she spit back into the glass - if you know my wife she does not spit wine ... ever.  The nose was off-putting and the flavours were not much better, in fact they were non-existent.  Alas I thought this wine would last a good 10 years but instead it was probably dead long ago ... if I said it was too dry and had no sweetness to balance it for the long haul does that make sense?  If somebody had a recent encounter with this bottle that was better than mine please do let me know.  By the way, the 2012 Quarry Road Riesling was stunning (as usual).

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Tawse 2009 Spark Rosé

Click here to read the original review from November 2011

(Re-Tasted September 2013) ... Friday night, I can't think of a better reason to pour a glass of bubbly - it's a personal celebration of getting through another week.  Tonight I felt like a Rose in the bubbly department and also decided not to dive very deep into the cellar as I picked out this rather recent release from Tawse.  It's still a pretty (in colour) and delicate bottle, but the nose has definitely changed over the past two years since first I tried it.  The aromas have become very sweet in nature: apple, raspberry and lemonade - quite inviting.  But the palate is far from sweet, in fact it is downright mouth puckering, sure there's a hint of fresh raspberry mixed in for added flavour, but what really stood out is the great lemon / citrus which brings with it a massive hit of cleansing acidity ... for those who like to smell 'em sweet but taste 'em dry this has turned into something you can really dig in to.

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Tawse 2007 Sketches of Niagara Riesling

Click here to read the original review from August 2008

(Re-Tasted August 2013) ... There is a review in here somewhere, just bear with me ... It's been a long couple of days, my wife (a nurse) had some new software installed at her work place and they are going thru the growing pains of learning it correctly (this is not an easy process it seems, she has been on the phone more in the last two days then she has in the three years we've been married).  Anyway the call came to me downstairs at about 5:00pm - "I need a drink" ... she wanted something fruity, so I was about to pull out a Riesling (her favourite) when she said, "I need something stronger - can you make something with Vodka".  So that I didn't get yelled at (like the people on the other end of the phone) I dutifully went off and created something using frozen berries, coconut water and, yes, Vodka.  I then quietly opened this bottle of Sketches for myself.  Hints of petrol greeted the nose, but nothing that was overpowering, they were subtle and mixed with lemon peel.  The palate was also filled with lemony goodness along with sweet peach and some lemon drop candy on the finish - I found the wine to be incredibly quaffable and smooth.  The acidity seemed to be lacking, but it was still a highly drinkable wine.  If you have any in your cellar this is a perfect time to drink it.

As for my wife, she finished off her drink in record time and heard my glass hit the counter while I was making dinner - she immediately wanted to know what I was drinking ... when I told her Riesling she wanted a glass of that too.  This software is tougher than I thought ... but my wife is tougher still, she will overcome ... and if not then we have enough booze to numb the pain.  More Riesling, STAT.

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Tawse 2006 Echos Bistro Red

Click here to read the original review from October 23, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted January 2012) ... What a difference 6 years can make.  I just read over my review from October 23, 2007 about this wine, and boy was I crowing about it ... but in hindsight I should have seen this coming a mile away.  2006 was not the greatest of vintages in Ontario and yet there I was telling you this wine would out-last it's 2005 counterpart (something tells me I have to go back and try that wine just to see which is drinking better). I guess I was just so happy to see a wine under $25 from Tawse that I was blinded by everything else.  Now I am not saying this wine is over the hill and should be tossed immediately, but it sure isn't going to be getting any better any time soon, so waiting is not an option with this one.  When first poured all seemed fine, but within 20 minutes a touch of volatile acidity seemed to come wafting out of the glass, and I just could not get rid of it.  The flavours were all dried fruit and spiced wood, the buddy I was tasting with called it "fruit leather" (he has kids so he is more familiar with this confection than I am) - there was also the disjointed smell of blackberries and alcohol ... in the end the wine just seemed to be more wood-spice than fruit and that's too bad.  I would say drink with a grain of salt, but Iam not sure salt would help - just keep an eye, and your mind, on the age of the wine: as an older wine from a so-so vintage it's not bad.

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Tawse 2005 Echos Bistro Red

Click here to read the original review from July 2007 - OWR Newsletter #60

(Re-Tasted February 2011) ... If memory serves, this was Tawse Winery's first attempt to bring their wine to the masses, what I mean by that is that the price of the wine was not in the stratosphere, this was a very respectable $25 dollars, and while not your average every day drinker it was a special occasion wine that you could have on more of those semi-special occasions.  Back in July of 2007 I wrote that the wine could age 7 years or more.  I said this for two reasons: the pedigree of the wine and the pedigree of the vintage - both have good reputations.  When I first stuck my nose in the glass I thought I was going to be disappointed because there was an awful stinky smell emanating from the glass, with a little swirl and some air it seemed to open it up a little more and created some raspberry and wood spice smells - have to admit I was hoping for more.  But hold the phone, this wine was not done quite yet.  The palate was smooth and proved to be quite complex: dark strawberry, cherry, vanilla wood, hints of spice and a cocoa-strawberry-woody finish.  Still quite nice and very drinkable, just don't smell it without giving it a swirl or you'll be disappointed.  Seems I will be revisiting my other bottles of this wine sooner rather than later, but we are approaching the 7 year mark, so its time anyway.

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Tawse Winery 2006 Echos Red

Click here to read the original review from October 23, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted August 2010) ... It's the day after the trying, and I just finished reading my previous review of this wine and can really see/taste the change in this wine over the past 3 years.  If you would like to refresh yourself with what I said previously click on the link above, I'll wait while you check it out.

Today I opened a bottle and was surprised at the incredible aromatics of the wine, lovely and red fruited - the taste was so-so, but what can I expect from a wine trapped for 3 years in bottle - so I let it breathe a little more, swirled it some more and let it sit while I cooked my dinner (BBQ pulled chicken).  When I finally sat down about half an hour later the wine told a different story.  The aromatics were still there with raspberry and licorice along with some vanilla wood backing it up.  The taste was much better after the initial sip:  sour cherry, cranberry (lots of sourish red fruit throughout) with firm acidity, but it paired well with the BBQ chicken and the sauce I poured over top.  The wine's a little lean but still good with food - the back label said it is a full-bodied wine, but I wouldn't go that far, medium-bodied at this point, at best.  Time to drink it up now and over the next 2-3 years.

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Tawse Winery 2004 Dry Riesling

 

 

Click here to read the original review from January 2007 - OWR Newsletter #47

(Re-Tasted April 2010) ... I expected a heck of a lot more from this wine, but instead this is what I got:  First, 2004 would have been a decent vintage for Riesling (Konrad Ejbich in his book about Ontario wine gave Riesling an 82 with "more aging needed") - not too hot, not too cold, it was a decent vintage.  My own review from January 2007 speaks of pineapple, mango, mineral and melon, a potential for improvement in the bottle and I concluded by saying "this wine's best years are still ahead":  I gave it 2-5 plus years.  Well that educated guess proved to be a lesson in humility because I was way off.  This dry Riesling is now almost totally unpalatable: petrol and apple are prominent upon opening (mostly petrol) with a massive amount of palate awakening acidity ... give it 20 minutes and now it's all acid and petrol with the fruit fading fast, it never recovers, it never gets better.  I remember hearing a story about this wine - it was suppose to have a touch of sweetness left behind, but instead it was fermented bone dry and had sweetness added back to it.  This science experiment was not a good moment in Tawse's short but illustrious history.  Instead of telling you this wine's best days lay ahead I should have said that Tawse's best days were ahead, because this piece of their history could have an only be improved upon - and it has been with a change of winemakers and production practices.  On the Yuk vs. Yum scale I think you know where I sit on this one - too bad, because I did have high hopes, the wine should have aged much better had it been made right.

Had this wine as aperitif at a family dinner - 

to see what 1970 Bordeaux we had with the main click here. 

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Tawse Winery 2005 Echos Bistro Red

Click here to read the original review from July 2007 - OWR Newsletter #60

(Re-Tasted October 2008) ... It’s time to go to the LCBO … usually I don’t tell you to buy your VQA wines from the LCBO, but when a great wine is being blown out the door it’s time to take advantage. So I bought a few bottles of this one myself and decided to re-taste it, just to make sure. Yes it is too early to do a real re-tasting but this seemed like a good opportunity.

Tawse’s Echos, named after the way it echoes their big gun wine (the way it is made) is actually the declassified barrels from their “Grand Vin” … the level of quality is definitely there, it just didn’t make the cut for some reason – and that has always been fine with me. I was at the Bayview Village LCBO and found about a dozen or so bottles at a considerable savings (by LCBO standards), five dollars off (now $20.00). Cherry and plum – with good spice and herb notes, this wine still has plenty of time that it can age in the bottle so consider this an investment for future enjoyment at a great savings.

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