Couple of Wines from the Cellar: Henry of Pelham & Thirty Bench

Henry of Pelham:  Not previously reviewed

Thirty Bench:  Click here to read the original review from September 11, 2012

(Tasted March 2014) ... Tonight I pulled a couple of wines out of the cellar from a couple of cooler vintages.  Started off with the Henry of Pelham 2004 Off-Dry Riesling, which proved it still had plenty of life left in it.  Nose of peach, apricot and apple seed (with no sign of petrol what-so-ever).  Palate was a show of balance between the sweet and the acidity:  apricot, peach pit, touch of green apple along with a bit of Mac, there was even some lilac and honey notes that came into play ... What impressed me the most about this wine was that it kept its sweetness but with good acidity to keeping it from being cloying plus it had a long dried apricot linger to the finish.  Obviously, 2004 was a great vintage for Riesling.  Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

(Re-Tasted March 2014) ... After that enjoyable feast of the senses I decided to move along to another cool vintage, but this time a little more recent, with a bottle of Thirty Bench 2009 Red.  In no sense of the imagination would anyone call the 2009 vintage in Ontario a great red vintage, but Thirty Bench managed to coax something special into their Red.  Now, some 5 years from vintage and 2 years from my last tasting of the wine I found the nose to be lacking of fruit but still appealing with its anise, oak, vanilla and spice; this continues on the palate, lots of vanilla and spice, but adds a hint of cassis to the background.  The wine is smoothing out nicely with silky tannins and sweet oak, but should not be held too much longer as fruit will start to fade even further.  Right now it is a real pleasant drinker for BBQ fare.

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Hillebrand 2004 Late Harvest Vidal

Click here to read the original review from August 8, 2006 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted February 2014) ... I have two of these bottles in my cellar and reading my original review again I have to admit I have no idea what I was waiting for to drink them because they sound like they were amazing back in 2008 ... the funny thing is, as good as they were back then they might be even better today, and that is really unexpected.  This is now a 10 year old bottle of Late Harvest Vidal, and those who question whether icewine can reach this maturity would be even more impressed at this wine.  I poured this as kind of a lark for my "niece" and her boyfriend after a dinner at Hillebrand, and I was enthralled by what I found in the glass: toffeed apricot, honeyed pear, nice acidity on the finish while the mid-palate proved to be creamy and luxurious, this wine has held up extremely well, in fact I would go so far as to say it is a stellar bottle; and aside from the color it would be hard to tell its age.  I am not going to wait any longer for the second bottle, it will be a dessert sometime this summer.

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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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Inniskillin 2004 Montague Vineyard Merlot

Click here to read the original review from June 2007

(Re-Tasted September 2013) ... I have often said that Ontario Merlot takes time to come around, maybe not this much time, but time none-the-less.  Here we are 9 years from vintage date and I am opening a bottle from a year not known for its red wine.  I was inspired to do so by a recent trip to the Great Estates of Niagara wineries (Jackson-Triggs, Le Clos Jordanne and, yes, Inniskillin) on which we stopped off to see the grapes hanging in the Montague vineyard.  I was a fan of the reserve single vineyard reds that came out of the winery this year (2004), which included a Shiraz and a Pinot Noir from such vineyards as Brae Burn and Klose.  Not sure why the Merlot was the one that caught my eye tonight, I still have all three wines in the cellar, but maybe it was the homemade chili we were having with dinner.  This was a very interesting wine when first poured and then as the hour progressed:  mocha / coffee was the first thing I smelled, then came licorice, a hint of smoke and oaky notes ... these all pretty much followed onto the palate ... what was lacking was an element of fruit - that came a little later.  About the 45 minute mark there was some definite smoked-dried-cherry that seemed to hang around pleasantly from mid-palate onward.  I am not sure how long that stayed as I finished the glass on that high.  You have to like mainly secondary and tertiary flavours on your wine to still be enjoying this one - or at least be intrigued by older Ontario Merlot.

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Hernder Estate 2004 Merlot

Click here to read the original review from August 2008

(Re-Tasted June 2013) ... This is one of those wines that I have been eying up for probably the last two or three weeks wondering when I was going to pop the cork.  2004 was not a great year for red wine in Ontario so one that is 9 years old does not inspire confidence, plus it's everyone's love to hate grape, Merlot.  But Merlot is Ontario is mighty different.  For one, young Merlot is usually a little tight and harsh, so it takes a few years to develop that signature smooth and easy Merlot-ness that California and Chile seem to have right from the get-go.  This one did not start off very well ... the aromas were funky and weird and there was even a note of stinky blue cheese to it ... this does not bode well.  The palate was pretty rough and tumble with vanilla and cedar being the dominant elements with hints of sour cherry and wood spice ... not only was this wine getting old it was old.  But I thought I would give it a little time to open before I passed complete judgment of thumbs down.  But a funny thing happened between first assessment and "one more try" - the wine woke up.  After about 30-45 minutes a miracle occurred, the stinky nose remained, but the palate opened and became juicy with sweet dried cherry and red licorice ... some spiced cherry also emerged on the nose, but the blue cheese-ness was always lingering about.  If you have any of this wine kicking about you might want to open and decant ... but I also wouldn't wait much longer to enjoy this one.

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Chateau des Charmes 2004 Paul Bosc Chardonnay

Click here to read the original review from June 2008

(Re-Tasted February 2013) ... We were over at a friend's house for dinner the night I opened this bottle - our friend's a big Chardonnay fan and I thought it would be interesting to open this, my last bottle of 2004 Chardonnay (from any winery).  It's a bottle of the Paul Bosc Vineyard Chardonnay - for those who don't know this is the vineyard directly across the road from the winery itself.  Looking at this wine bottle is like staring at the past, especially if you've bought any bottles from the Chateau in the last little while - the label is completely different ... those of you who have never seen the Chateau's old label will be amazed at it's simplicity and basic design.  But don't let the outside fool you, what's in this bottle is far from basic and simple.  Now, because I was away from home I could not put the wine into a proper glass (my glass-snob comes out again) so I had to try this wine is a few glasses so as to get the nose and taste properly.  The good news is the wine tasted wonderful in whatever I put it in - and it seemed to disappear quickly in everyone's glass.  The nose was very shy at first but did give notes of buttered toffee and baked apple ... on the palate it showed more complexity: butter, caramel, peach cobbler, cinnamon, spice all with a creamy texture until some acidity popped in right at the finish-line to keep it from being too blowsy in the mouth.  The oak also proved to be spot on as it carried the wine without being over-bearing.  A nice job with this Chardonnay ... I liked it back in 2008 and I'm liking it now, though I'm not sure how much longer I would have held it given the opportunity, nine years seems to be a good time.  If you've got some in your cellar might I suggest inviting some Chardonnay loving friends and popping the cork ... you will not be disappointed.

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Mountain Road Wine Company 2004 Botrytis Affected Riesling

Click here to read the original Taste it Again review

(Re-Tasted January 2012) ... This is the second time I have re-tasted this wine - and now the last, because I am out of bottles.  This was a wine I was planning to take to the Wine Writers' Circle of Canada's dinner party that was held in late January ... unfortunately weather forced me to miss the dinner so I decided to take it to a meeting of the same organization instead a few days later.  I was a little scared because after taking the capsule off I noticed my old nemesis - plastic cork - but I carried on anyway.  Seems that sweet and good acidity can beat out plastic cork ... though I still believe this was further oxidized because of the closure - or at least prematurely so.  But when you get a bunch of wine writers into a room to taste a bottle, no matter how funky you think it is, someone is bound to like it.  And so was the case, as descriptors like marmalade, candied green apple and Madeira-like were thrown out ... the wine was also a very rich golden yellow colour.  If you have any in your cellar you might not be a fan of this any longer - though I do know one person who could drink it everyday and twice on Sunday.

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Ridgepoint 2004 Medium Dry Riesling

Click here to read the original review from June 2006

(Re-Tasted July 2012) ... Do you keep hidden gems to yourself or do you share them with the world?  That is the question that plagues us all.  If we go about telling everyone then maybe one day there will be none left for us, if we keep quiet, there is the potential that none will be around when we do want some because they will not be making anymore (out of business).  One of Niagara's overlooked wineries is Ridgepoint, who has quietly has been making wine for a number of years with little to no fanfare.  They were in fact the first to release an Ontario Nebbiolo onto the market, but that was many years ago and there is kind of a 'been there done that' attitude about it (considering others are doing it now too).  On the same day that I opened a rather putrid bottle of Hillebrand 2004 Riesling, I had a back-up in mind, this 2004 (same year as the Hillebrand) Ridegepoint Medium-Dry.  This one proved to have beautiful colouring, hardly showing its age, the nose was lanolin, candied almonds with just the merest hint of petrol to give away it's aged quality.  The taste was lemony with lemonade notes and lemon pulp and lots of peach pit, the sweetness was barely perceptible, probably because the acidity was spot on and there was a beautiful long finish to boot.  A nice bottle that is drinking well right now.

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Colio 2004 Lily - Blanc de Noirs

Click here to read the original review from December 2007

(Re-Tasted October 2011) ... I am getting to the point in my sparkling wine collection that I can hold a few bottles on reserve to see how they age.  There was a time when I only had a couple of bottles on the rack, because bubbly was made for special occasions and it seemed that those "special occasions" were few and far between - so why have too many.  But then I came to realize that bubbly is for any and all occasions and as long as you're staying within your budget you can have a bubbly whenever you want, or whenever the mood strikes ... and trust me when I tell you that there is plenty of well-prices sparkling wines out there, and bubbly does not have to come out of Champagne to be good.  Now, with that preamble I can tell you that I opened this bottle on a Friday night 'just because':  Because it was the weekend, because it was the first weekend my wife and I were home at the same time and did not have the jet off to go somewhere; because it was Friday, and because it just seemed like a fun thing to do ... heck can you think of a better reason?  This Blanc de Noirs  from Colio is made from Pinot Noir grapes and was the first year they made this particular bubble (though they had been making a Blanc de Blanc version for years).  The nose had mostly a toasted hazelnut aroma with a slight raspberry character, very pretty.  The palate still maintained crisp apple with a hint of lemon and as it sat delivered biscuity, nutty and baked apple notes to go along with it, plus there was a pleasant long finish.  This wine has really developed into something interesting with plenty of character that was worth delving into ... glad I saved this one.

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Jackson Triggs 2004 Late Harvest Riesling

 

Click here to read the original review from February 2006 - OWR Newsletter #25

(Re-Tasted December 2010) ... Had some friends visit on the weekend, some non-wine-drinking American friends; obviously they were closer to my wife than they were to me.  The question is how do you get non-wine drinkers interested in wine.  I poured a few different wines on the Saturday night to very little affirmative reaction, until I poured this six year old sweetie from Jackson-Triggs, I turned my head to see if this one was being enjoyed and found an empty glass staring back at me, hurray.  I was not surprised to see the glass empty because this was a very tasty older Late Harvest Riesling with a wonderful blend of apricot, baked apple, along with honeyed peach and pear notes.  The colour was a pretty golden yellow and hints of petrol crept up the nose, but nothing could deter one from those other wonderful flavours taking over the tongue and winning you over.  Not sure how much time this bottle has left, I would say a year, maybe two - but it is a delicious mature sweetie right now, so if you have some it would be a perfect pour for the season we find ourselves in, especially when those non-wine drinking Americans come to visit.

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Inniskillin 2004 Montague Vineyard Merlot

 

Click here to read the original review from July 2008

(Re-Tasted October 2010) ... When you look at a bottle of 2004 Ontario red you secretly hope you haven't waiting too long to drink it.  This one's 6 years from vintage date, and a rather weak vintage at that, but this is a wine made by one of the old guard of Ontario winemaking ... it is also a single vineyard offering grown on the Montague vineyard, and finally, it's Merlot, a grape that does well in the big O and usually needs a few years to start showing well even in the best of years.  With this pedigree and knowledge I opened this wine with a bit of enthusiasm.  Smells were almost non-existent, maybe some dried and woody aromas started to emerge some 30 minutes after opening, but nothing really got traction in the aromas department.  Tastes were dried dark fruit, black licorice, wood and still with some nice spice character.  After 2 hours of being open it had gone more wood than fruit; but the interim was quite a pleasant experience.

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Stoney Ridge 2004 Founder's Signature Collection Meritage

 

 

Click here to read the original review from September 2007 - OWR Newsletter #66

(Re-Tasted May 2010) ... The first sniff of this wine did not give me very much faith that I would be consuming a glass, let alone a sip or two - but sometimes you just have to dive in and give it a try.  The first smell of this wine was like smell a mild turpentine or paint thinner ... not something I really wanted to put in my mouth ... but then I gave it a few more swirls and let it rest on my desk while I did a few other things.  Then I came back to it about 20 minutes later.  The turpentine smell had faded and it was now a sweet dried fruit smell, imagine sticking your nose into a bag of raisins and cranberries, maybe even some prunes, and snorting deeply and you would have the smell of this particular glass of wine.  Not everybody's cup of tea.  Flavours should give one pause also.  Not that fresh lively fruit that has become all the rage, this one is more dried fruit, but there is a sweet element that is rather pleasing, but there is a fine line here - give the wine too much air and the taste is pruney (okay if you like prunes I guess), too little and it like sucking on wet tobacco leaves, but a few quick suck-ins of air and a swish about the mouth brings out sweet dried cherries and a touch of vanilla-cinnamon along with some tobacco notes ... in this case, the complete package is better than the sum of its parts.  

I don't recommend holding onto this wine much longer (especially if you like a lot of fruit in your wine), but it is a very interesting wine to drink now and one I would not shy away from if offered again.  I have one bottle left, might be interesting to take this week and see if those at the Artevino judging agree.

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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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Ridgepoint Wines 2004 Meritage

Click here to read the original review from February 6, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted April 2010) ... I opened this wine with some trepidation - not sure why, but the year two-thousand-four holds a certain amount of dread for me ... something in my psyche that makes me think twice, except when I am opening a Riesling.  Thankfully, my dread of the vintage was ill-placed after sipping and sipping this wine, as it proved to be a real winner (still).  The nose stayed pretty much constant trhough my hour-and-a-half tasting of it, but the palate swung wildly to and fro.  At first sniff the nose was a little woody and a touch herbaeous (grassy), with a hint of fruit lingering in the background.

The taste was all over the map and yet proved to be very appealing at all stops along the way.  At first it was sour cranberry and woodsy with sourish tannins and ballsy acidity, which really took over and became apparent on the finish; thankfully, some fruit did play a part at the end with cranberry and sour cherry coming along to linger in the mouth.

Twenty minutes on and the nose is getting more woodsy with ever passing minute, but the palate has begun to smooth out and develop woodsy-cherry and vanilla-spice.  Another 20-minutes pass and the cherry-wood  turns to a soft green pepper, while the palate is still fairly smooth with only hints of green pepper beginning to emerge there too.  This wine is about a year or two passed its "peak", but it's still quite drinkable and a good example of a nice middle aged wine (6 years from Vintage date) from a so-so year.

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Inniskillin 2004 Brae Burn Vineyard Shiraz

 

Click here to read the original review from August 21, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted March 2010) ... Still in a Syrah / Shiraz mood and still wanting to go Ontario I looked further into my cellar inventory and found this Inniskillin 2004 version.  It's a single vineyard wine from the Brae Burn vineyard, from a year that is thought to be pretty dodgy.  Pouring the wine into the glass I noticed that it was still pretty red in colour with little signs of its age.  The nose gave little in the way of positive smells but the palate still had elements of spice and cassis.  The finish is where things got interesting, it was kind of a sour-butterscotch seasoned with white pepper, sounds odd and not very appealing but in a strange way it was quite drinkable and enjoyable.  Then there was the lingering finish which dropped the butterscotch note and left behind the pepper and some wood characteristics.  For the record, decanting striped this wine of any flavour or character so I poured straight from the bottle.

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Jackson-Triggs 2004 Proprietors' Reserve Meritage

Click here to read the original review from January 2007

(Re-Tasted February 2010) ... I'm not one to mince words and when it comes to plastic corks I have a real problem holding my tongue.  The guy who invented plastic corks should be taken out back and shot.  He/she has done wine no favours at all, in fact I think he single-handedly ruined a few vintages of good wine.  The other thing that drives me crazy, is when I peel back the capsule of a bottle of wine and find a piece of plastic staring back at me - the immediate thought that runs through my head is "I have been waiting x-number of years to open this bottle and now I have to worry that it has oxidized because I had no idea it was sealed with a plastic cork" - it's infuriating.

 

So here I am tonight with a bottle of Jackson-Triggs 2004 Meritage and plastic is what I see ... I am already predisposed to be slightly pissed off, but I push on.  The smells emanating from the glass are those of raspberry, licorice and a slightly sherried note; and with the passage of time it does not seem to be getting any better.  Taste-wise, at first there was a vanilla-caramel note surrounded by dried red fruits; alas that does not last long and the wine seems to be wilting quickly in the glass, becoming more dried and lackluster.

By the second glass fruit is gone and the smell is fishy and funky with the merest hint of dried black fruit and cedary notes.  Another 15 minutes past and I could have sworn I was drinking bilge water and that's too bad because this was a beauty in its prime.  Has it's day past?  That is a tough question, find one that wasn't sealed with plastic, or a plastic cork which has held it's seal and I think this one is ripe for the drinking - but the closure has helped age the wine faster, blast you plastic cork I still have two bottles in my collection.

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Jackson-Triggs 2004 Proprietors' Reserve Shiraz

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

(Re-Tasted January 2010) ... There are two kinds of wine in this world: 1) the right wine at the right time, and 2) the right wine at the wrong time; and we've probably all experienced both. The right wine/right time is when you are drinking a wine and the mood, place and taste is perfect - everything just seems to come together in the right way. Then there is the right wine/wrong time bottle - the one you thought you were going to enjoy but something happened on the way to the glass and in the end that wine just didn't "do it for you". I think this was one of those wrong time wines. The colour was good, the smell was okay and the flavour was there, but I am not sure it is what I wanted to be drinking this Sunday evening. So I looked at it with my reviewer's eye, instead of my drinker's palate. There was pepper and cassis all the way through the wine, though about 15 minutes in there was a strong smell of wood alcohol and a woody aftertaste; but then given another 20 minutes that disappeared. Now almost an hour after opening and pouring, there seems to be an intermingling of white and black pepper with a long cassis, black pepper finish. Drinkable but nothing that'll knock your socks off. I seem to have a couple more bottles left, I think I should give one a little more time and see where it ends up. For now it drinks well but won't leaving you screaming for more.

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Muscedere Vineyards 2004 Cabernet Franc Reserve

Click here to read the original review from January 2006 - OWR Newsletter #48

(Re-Tasted July 2009) ... When will winemakers and winery owners learn not to put wines under plastic cork ... heck I hope it's soon because I am tired of wasting a lot of time, money and taste buds on these atrocities. First things first, if you make a wine that you think will age, find a screwcap or a cork to seal it under, forgo the plastic cork, please. I remember liking this wine back in January 2006 - in fact I called it good value and recommended buying a few to lie down. So I now must apologize, had I remembered it was a plastic cork I would have told you back then to drink it up, and quick. This wine, from the very get go, had a funny taste and smell - once I got through that and started to identify what it was turning into I was able to pick out green pepper and smoky notes, and these aromas followed through on the palate.

I hope Rob and Fabio (owners of Muscedere) have changed over their closer, if not, be ready for more of the same in the coming years.

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Mountain Road Wine Company 2004 Botrytis Affected Riesling

Click here to read the original review from January 2006 - OWR Newsletter #21

(Re-Tasted July 2009) ... Today's word is "outstanding". That is the best word I can come up with to describe this wine. Back in 2006, when I reviewed this wine for the first time, I said it was under-valued. Today Steve Kocsis, winemaker and owner of Mountain Road has rectified that situation by putting this wine is a half bottle (375ml). But back in 2006 he was selling this beauty in a 750ml for $17.95 and people thought he was crazy ... today I don't think that opinion about Steve's state of mind has changed, but the wine sure has, and for the better. The nose is a beautiful combination of apricots, dried pineapple and a touch of petrol. The palate is just as interesting with lots of dried sweet fruits: pineapple, apricot, mango, and papaya - the only problem is that with such a big bottle it's hard to finish it ... well, not that hard - but still it is a lot of sweetness to deal with all in one sitting. The wine is also a bit on the thick side, meaning it has some viscosity, but nothing that's off-putting, it just has an anticipation factor when pouring (like Heinz ketchup - but much less thick). I also made note of the nice golden colour that this wine has taken on. Looking at my inventory it seems I still have another bottle of this one kicking around, and boy am I happy about that.

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Colchester Ridge Estate Winery 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot

Click here to read the original review from February 2007 - OWR Newsletter #50

(Re-Tasted May 2009) ... Here's a winery I have been impressed with since the get go, so I was excited to see a bottle of their wine come up in my Taste it Again program. If you haven't heard of Colchester Ridge then you haven't been anywhere near the Lake Erie North Shore region (outside Windsor) and you're missing out on one the unsung and up-and-coming wineries of Ontario; year-in and year-out this "new" (est. 2001) winery brings out wine that are as good or better than anyone in the region, and great examples of the vintage in Southern Ontario. The Lake Erie region has a longer growing season than Niagara or Prince Edward County and even in "bad" years they take advantage of this extra growing time. 2004 is far from the best year we've had this decade, but in this wine you'd never guess it. Upon opening there's wood, lot's of wood (which in some cases is used to mask problem years),but thankfully it's not overpowering, though it was certainly enough to cause some initial concern. Twenty-minutes later all that changed. The woodsy started to settle down and revealed herbs and spices, there's a smoothness to the palate and hints of dark, slightly dried fruit began to emerge. Forty-minutes on and its herbs and subtle green pepper notes that take center stage, still with that nice easy smoothness. After almost two hours the wine has reverted back to the start with lots of wood and some herbal notes. If you've got some in your cellar now's the time to drink this wine, but let it sit open for half an hour before drinking, and then drink over the next two.

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