Inniskillin 2003 Late Autumn Riesling

Click here to read the original review from August 2005 or OWR Newsletter #10

(Re-Tasted June 2012) ... It's been close to nine years in bottle and at least seven years in my cellar - it is the oldest bottle of white wine I have, or had, and so I held to it like a drowning man to a life raft.  But tonight I finally took the plunge with this bottle of Late Autumn Riesling and in truth, I was blown away by it.  The colour was golden in the glass and the nose had a mix of honeyed and poached pears and peaches with just the merest hint of petrol and some candied lime peels - as it sat in the glass the peach turned more into apricots and the poached part disappeared.  Now for the tasting ... and what a fabulous wine it was, especially on the palate.  The flavours were an odd dichotomy of dry and honeyed, switching as it glided through the mouth, apricots, creamed honey, spiced-peaches all balanced off by some really great acidity.  This was a stunning wine and I am glad I held onto it, but now is the time to drink.  It'll hold ten, but not sure it'll see eleven. 

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Huff Estates 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon / Cabernet Franc

Click here to read the original review from August 17, 2006 - OWR Newsletter #37

(Re-Tasted April 2009) ... On this Tuesday night I opened two bottles of Prince Edward County wine - this Huff Cab Sauv/Franc and a 2004 Grange blend. These were two different, yet difficult vintages for Ontario winemakers, and the grapes, and both these wines are from an up-and-coming wine region ... so how did the Huff wine fare:

This wine offered up more than the Grange wine and it was a year older - but, did what it offer up appeal? That is the big question. The nose was big on green pepper and quite stemmy (smelled like plant stem). The colour had definitely gone from red to brick and there was lots of wine diamonds on the cork and plenty of sediment in the bottle (and in my initial glass). So I decided to decant and wait.

The initial tasting, before decanting, was not as bad as maybe the nose would have indicated. The tannins had soften over the years, the taste was soft green pepper mixed with smoky-woody flavours - think green pepper cooked over an overly smoky wood fire. The decanting did its job, and an hour later the wood had soften to a palatable level, and there were even hints of fruit, of summer's past mind you, but there was an indication of dried by-gone fruit. I thought this wine showed a lot of character - but the question still remains: do you like that kind of character?

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Mike Weir 2003 Cabernet Shiraz

Click here to read the original review from April 2006 - OWR Newsletter #29

(Re-Tasted September 2008) ... Frank Sinatra put it best, "Ain't that a Kick in the Head", or was that Dean Martin? Sounds more like Dean actually, I don't think you would have lived to see the day Frank got kicked in the head; but I digress from the real issue at hand.

I remember back in 2006 when I tried this wine for the first time, I was enthralled by it, so I bought a number of bottles and told you to do the same, telling you to lie it down for "a few years". Well now I am wearing the egg smack dab in the middle of my face - I opened a bottle last night and was very disappointed, it was all wood and cedary, green as hell with nothing but pea pod as the only distinguishable feature (other than wood). The palate was no better: pea pod greenness, wood smoke and a sour/bitter finish - it was like drinking, you guessed it, liquid wood ... nasty.

I could blame the year, 2003 was a wet vintage and not particularly good at that, the boys from Creekside (winemakers for Weir) made a silk purse from a sows ear with this one ... the problem is that it had no staying power, and you would hope (no pun intended) a wine at that price point ($25.00) could stand up a few more years than the measily two it has not. This was a drink now wine ... it is now a drink not wine. And that kick in the head I refer to ... I have 2 bottles left. ' I'm willing to give it another go tonight, but if you don't hear from me again this review stands. If you like wood, this is your wine, for the rest of us, not so much.

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