Southbrook Winery 1992 Riesling Dry

Found November 2008

When wine first started to come into my life on a regular basis, and reading about it became part of a normal daily, or weekly, occurrence, I read two things: reds aged, whites didn’t – but with every "rule" there's an exception: Riesling was that exception. I had heard/read that Riesling can/could age fifty years or more. Wow, 50 years – a white wine. It has to do with a combination of the sugars and the acidity … being the ever curious sort that I am I just had to do an experiment. So off to my local winery I did go – in this case it was a 30-minute drive north to Southbrook Farms in Maple (just north of Toronto) and bought myself a couple of bottles of Riesling and then hid them from myself in a dark corner of my cubboard to test out this 50-year theory. Well I never made it to fifty years, as the writing of this review indicates. I unearthed these bottles doing a closet clean out … the 1992 Dry Riesling, that you are about to hear about, and a 1994 Semi-Dry Riesling … the semi-dry has it’s cork in it, but not for long. As for the ’92 … I can’t believe this wine is 16 years old. Un-fricken-believable.

I started out by chilling it for far too long – afraid to open what might be a dead-wine; when is the proper time to open history? At first the smells were light petrol, citrus, and green apple vibrant ... yes, vibrant (as it warmed peach started to emerge and whiffs of petrol became more prevalent). This was now exciting … what could have been the mistake of a lost bottle might now turn into something amazing. Lips to glass here we go: lemon rind … hints of petrol … good acidity … green apple … dry finish. This 16-year-old Riesling had held up amazingly well. As it warmed more white peach flavours and petrol emerged just as they did on a nose - the finish was short, almost abrupt in the way it ended. What's even more amazing about this wine is that at the time it was produced both winery and winemaker (Derek Barnett – now with Lailey) were in their second year of the being. Stay tuned for the opening of the 1994 Semi-Dry. Lost and Found rating: Unbelievable Treasure.

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Colio Estate Wines 2002 Barrel Aged Cabernet Franc

Click here to read the original review from August 2006 - OWR Newsletter #41

(Re-Tasted November 2008) ... Here we are tasting something with true Ontario flavours and has those tell-tale Ontario smells ... green pepper. This Cabernet Franc comes from the remarkable 2002 vintage, one of three great vintages (so far) in this decade (2002, 2005, 2007). Ontario always has it's challenges but those three vintages had some really great age-worthy wines come out of it. No exception here. I'm not sure how much time this bottle has left, I do have a few more to get through, and one is due to come out of the cellar in September 2009 - but i have no fear that it will hold up till then. For now, upon openning, the nose is loaded with cedar and green pepper notes, while the palate holds onto the cedar and green pepper as flavours but also adds a touch of pepperiness and dried blackberries ... the good news is the wines gets better and more flavourful as it stays open, it drops some of the overpowering green pepper and cedar for spiciness and dried black fruit. All-in-all this bottle is holding up quite well.

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Southbrook Winery 1997 Triomphe Cabernet / Merlot

Found November 2008

Years ago, when Southbrook was a young winery, and still resided in Maple / Richmond Hill (just north of Toronto), a buddy and I used to hang out there quite a bit. It was actually he and his wife who found the place, and knowing my love for wine started taking me there. I remember quite a few Sunday afternoons sitting in the tasting room talking with Nick or bumping into Derek Barnett, the winemaker, who talked passionately about his "hobby" or even Bill Redelmeier, owner, who could speak for hours on the history of the area. That was many moons ago for me and what seems like a lifetime for other principals of this story. Today, Southbrook finds themselves in the heart of Niagara, with a newfangled winery, an acclaimed winemaker and plenty of press about their new digs ... but they can't escape their past - which in truth is pretty good.

That brings me to this bottle of wine - seems I have a few older vintage Southbrook wines from the days of sitting in the old tasting room; those who manned it said the wines were meant for aging and it seems that I took that to heart. On a quiet evening in November I pulled out one of these elderly bottles with the burgundy label, popped the cork and gave it a try.

I tried a number of things with this wine: straight from the bottle, decanting and big glassware. Upon popping the cork I poured the wine directly into a Bordeaux Spiegelau glass and got dried fruit, wet grass, green pepper and dried cherry on the nose. The palate had wet leaves, and an earthy quality complete with a leatheryness and ... a metallic finish that changes into a Vick's cherry cough drop linger, but that metal is still there. I then decanted and let it sit - the nose improved and became a beautiful spiced dried cherry, but the palate did not seem to change, and over the next 30 minutes the wine completely collapsed, turning smoky and cedary, retaining the greeness and metallic finish. After 11 years this wine had become old and tired. Lost & Found rating: Treasure to find an 11 year old wine - became trash pretty quickly.

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Flat Rock Cellars 2004 Rusty Shed Chardonnay

Click here to read the original review from March 2006 - OWR Newsletter #26

(Re-Tasted October 2008) ... Is it possible for something to taste mature? Is that a descriptive term? Can something actual taste mature? Does that really mean anything? More questions than answer are being formed as I sit and sip this wine. This Rusty Shed Chardonnay was one of my favourites to come out of the 2004 vintage, and one of my all-time favourite wines to come out of Flat Rock (granted they are a relatively young winery in the grand scheme of things), but this was one fantastic wine when I tried it some 2 and a half years ago. So fantastic in fact that I decided that I just had to lay down a bottle and see what happens. Now here it is, the day I have been waiting for, and I am racked with questions about this wine. My first sniff and taste screamed out “green” and “mature” at the same time. But how can that be, green means young and mature, well that speaks for itself. Time for more aeration…

There’s definitely a vanilla-caramel note here that I’m just loving (that’s my sweet tooth talking to my nose), there’s also some butterscotch and toffee coming from the glass. Any fruit character I’m smelling is that of old fruit, there’s nothing ripe and fresh here, maybe over-ripe is a better term, a hint of cucumber wafts out of the glass and then there is definitely an caramel apple sensation. Taste still has a bit of a bite in the finish with good acidity and the caramel apple keeps coming back to me, but I’m thinking it’s a Granny Smith caramel coated apple and not a Mac; the colour has definitely gone golden yellow, and the finish is quite persistent. The more I sip the more I’m thinking I still like this wine. As many of you may know I am not a huge Chardonnay fan, but this one hits the mark as something different – and I like different. I definitely like different.

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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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Harbour Estates Winery 2002 Cabernet

Click here to read the original review from March 2006 - OWR Newsletter #27

(Re-Tasted September 2008) ... Over the past couple of days I have re-tasted a few Ontario wines and have noticed a mini trend, all the bottles I opened were sealed with a plastic cork. Now, granted, the three wines were only from two different wineries, but I just wanted to point this out and keep note of it somewhere. Some folks swear by, and some swear at, the plastic cork, I am still doing my own taste tests and will reserve judgment until I get a few more aged wines under plastic. This Harbour Estates wine was sealed under the spongy-mac-tac version of plastic (I am pretty sure the industry calls it Nomacorc); I get a little leery when I see these synthetic closures on anything I've aged, but again I reserve all judgment until the wine is tasted, and this one showed pretty well indeed.

This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc has really stood the test of time, smoky blackberries and cinnamon greet the nose and remained constant for the duration of my drinking and tasting, over the next 3 hours. The taste is a different story, while still very good the palate picks up smoky, peppery, a touch of spice and a bit of a woodsiness; over the course of those same three hours it smoothed out to the point of being silky and gulpable, and truly would have been if not for the black pepper spiciness making you stop and take notice. Very nice indeed - another 2002 wine that really hits the spot. I'd give this wine another 2 to 3 years, but it delicious now.

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Creekside 2002 Cabernet-Merlot

Click here to read the original review from March 2006 - OWR Newsletter #26

(Re-Tasted September 2008) ... After the appalling adventure that was the '03 Weir (see below) I decided to give Creekside a chance to redeem themselves by pulling out this 2006 Cuvee Award winning wine (Best General List Red), and I am so glad I did. This wine has evolved in such a beautiful way and still has some time left. There's enough black fruit in here, in the form of black raspberries, a hint of wood - but nothing overpowering, a touch of Ontario's signature green pepper (roasted), a smokey cinnamon note and a pleasant long finish; and what's more, it's very food friendly - my pasta tasted all the better with this to wash it down. Is this a fantastic wine, no; but it is still a very good wine, that's a great big YES. It's a wine that has reached it's maturity gracefully and is now ready for you to enjoy (and over the next two years). For it's original selling price this wine now seems like a steal, $12.95 ... if you have some of these in your cellar it's time to release them and start drinking them up.

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