Fielding Estate 2006 Chardonnay Musque

Found February 2014

thanks to K. Selezen for taking the pic

I put little to no faith in un-oaked wines being age-able (except Riesling) - and I've done plenty of tests to come to that conclusion (knowingly and unknowingly).  This year alone I've opened a 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, a 2008 Un-oaked Chardonnay and a 2007 Gamay each with no oak and each had its problems.  So when I found a bottle of Fielding 2006 Chardonnay Musque in a box of "to hold" wines in my cellar I had to question myself: "What was I thinking?"  Now Chardonnay Musque is traditionally an un-oaked, flowery, fruity version of Chardonnay made from a clone of the Chardonnay grape that has musky aromas to it - which is where the "musque" name comes from.  I popped the cork, poured the wine into a glass, and took a deep sniff, totally prepared to be disappointed and walk away ... but wait, it's non-offensive:  honey, melon and floral aromas greet the nose ... it's actually downright pleasant and most importantly it continues to be thus over the next hour.  Surely the palate is where this wine will fall apart (I think to myself) - but no: tropically tinged fruit, mainly pineapple, greet the buds, followed by over-ripe peach backed by wildflower honey aspects ... sweet fruit with an interesting medium length finish that keeps you coming back for more.  Surprisingly drinkable and pleasantly so, if you have some in your cellar I suspect now is the time to drink up and truly enjoy this find.  [I also served this during one of my wine classes and of the 7 wines poured this received top marks and raves from everyone].   Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

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Inniskillin 2006 Reserve Series Pinot Noir

Found October 2013
Read this review from 6 months ago - it's getting even better

This was a surprise of a wine.  Not that I didn't think it would age, but that it aged so well.  2006 was a year that Pinot Noir would have thrived as it was not an incredible vintage for big heavy reds, but the lighter ones would have done quite well and the acidity would have been good for things like Chardonnay, Riesling, Gamay and, of course, Pinot Noir - wines that really need the acidity to make them sing in the glass and helps them age well.  The Inniskillin 2006 Reserve Series Pinot Noir has a gold label, as you can see from the picture, and it truly deserves the gold status is gave itself.  Dried strawberry, earthy and smooth right from the get go and throughout the time I drank it; it was a delightfully tasty wine with a med long finish and something else that showed was a seam of strawberry that appeared in many facets and stages thru the course of the drinking.  The above noted flavours and smells were always there but there was also a myriad of others that came and went over the course of the couple of hours I sipped on it: things like vanilla, cedar, clove and cinnamon all managed to make and appearance and add to the enjoyment of this wine.  If you have some of this in the cellar it is now time to drink.  Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

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Rockway Glen 2006 RIesling

Found June 2013

Here's a 2006 I found in a box in my cellar from what was once a dodgy producer ... the reason I said "once was" because Rockway Glen now has recently taken on a new name, new identity and new lease-on-life.  Now called Rockway Vineyards the winery is starting to produce a very good small lot line-up of wines under their new winemaker David Stasiuk ... but this wine is from back in the day when the winery was a golf course first and a winery played a very minor second fiddle to that enterprise.  The nose has aromas of lime cordial with a drop of petrol ... the palate is dried apricot and lemon peel, there's also some decent acidity and a bruised apple sweetness to balance it off.  It all ends with a sort of bitter dried lemon peel / pith finish.  It's not the best aged Riesling I've ever tried but it certainly isn't the worst, which is why I am giving it the Lost & Found rating you see at the end of this review, and yes that is a minus sign.  Lost & Found Rating:  Tolerable -

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Inniskillin 2006 Pinot Noir - Reserve Series

Found April 2013

Here's another happy but surprising find in my cellar.  Not sure how I missed this one the first time through but am I glad I waited on this one, because I would say it's a perfect Pinot experience - but not for those who like em young and fresh, you're gonna have to like the aged character of wine here.  The nose is earthy and smoky with some balsamic-raspberry notes on both the nose and taste; that's how the palate kicks off before segueing into eathy-strawberry with more balsamic.  As it sits in the glass the balsamic continues to intensify all the while throwing in dried fruits and earthy character ... the finish is dry and slightly oaky with little hits of vanilla that appear here and there.  A lovely seven year old Pinot that's a delicious wine right now.  Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

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Konzelmann Estate Winery 2006 Red Moose

Found March 2012

I currently have two bottles of this wine in my cellar (well, one less now) and obviously I have tried it in the past, or it would`t be there, but it seems I have never written a single word about it ... and that surprises me - I guess the review got lost in the wash, or my dog ate it, or I left it in my other pants, or whatever other excuse I can give you as to why I have no record of trying this wine in the past (and writing about it).  But tonight I found a bottle in a box of aging wines and decided it was time to give it a try.  A few things scared me about trying this wine:  1) the silly label - critter labels are usually gimmicky and this one even more so.  2) the vintage date - 2006 was not the greatest of vintages in Ontario, in fact it might be one of our roughest, and a 6 year old wine from that vintage might be a little dodgy.  3) the grape variety - Zweigelt, barrel aged (as this was is) or not is an Austrian cross of Lemberger and St. Laurent that is Austria`s most famous red, but grown sparsely here in Ontario; and most versions I have tried have been meant to consume young ... so what was I thinking aging this wine???  Well it`s a good thing I did because this was one delicious wine.  The nose was of smoked-cranberry, white pepper and spiced-black cherry which continued to offer pure aromatic pleasure through its entire time in the glass.  The flavours yielded even more enjoyment: at first there were strawberry-cranberry notes with hints of vanilla and caramel.  But given some time it changed into something even better, there was more to find:  sweet dried fruit notes, like craisins (cranberry-raisins), vanilla smoke and then later the whole glass succumbed to black cherry.  A nice smoothness through the mouth led to a wonderful tasty smoky-black cherry finish with a sort of toasty-ash linger.  This one was a real find.  Lost & Found Rating:  True Treasure

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Mountain Road Wine Company 2006 Reserve Chardonnay

Found August 2011

I had this bottle twice over a 4 day span ... not the same bottle mind you, two different bottles.  The first was last Saturday when we had some friends over for dinner and they brought not one but two bottles of this Mountain Road Reserve with them - I am never opposed to two bottles in a night but when we only went through the one I figured I would age the other a little, then it hit me "salmon".  I think I have lost you so let's backtrack to Saturday. 

Saturday night we were having a nice lemon, dill cod and I opened this heavy Chardonnay and although I liked the wine on its own, and it paired so-so with the fish I figured I hadn't given it its proper due.  After-all cod is a very light fish and this was a very heavy Chardonnay.  So on Tuesday night it was back to the drawing board.  I put the second bottle in the fridge and whipped up a dill salmon ... now let's see how the wine performs.  The nose (on both bottles) was one of the wines best features: buttery, vanilla, caramel; and as the wine sat in the glass things melded together giving up smells of buttered almonds and vanilla peaches - hot damn!  Next came taste and it was quite a treat too: hazelnut, butter, vanilla; nutty and buttery all at the same time, there was also a creamy sensation but with good mouth cleansing acidity so that it did not weigh heavily on the tongue.  Turns out it paired much better with the salmon than the cod and would even stand up to some fuller red meats without being sacrilegious.  Bottom line is the wine is well integrated and compelling enough to drink right now, I'm not sure further aging is going to help this one, so drink up and enjoy.    Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

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The Ice House 2006 Northern Ice Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine

Found August 2011

I have a buddy who is not a wine drinker, how we remain friends I am not sure?  His passion for wine ends at the occasional rosé.  But then I learned there was hope for him yet.  He's a fan of Port and just this weekend I learned his passion for the sweeties extends past Oporto and into Ontario: Icewine.  So it was with great pride that I went into my icewine collection in search of something interesting to drink with him.  Now as every Canadian knows, we don't drink icewine, we hold on to it and give it as gifts, even the ones we get as gifts we re-gift somewhere down the line - it is the great Canadian re-gift ... I like to equate it to Christmas cake which seems to get passed along from generation to generation with nary a bite taken.  I was thrilled to locate this 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine from the Ice House, one of Canada's few Icewine only wineries.  At the time of its production few were making such a beast as a straight Cab Sauv sweetie, which makes this unique and, now 5 years later, really very tasty.  With regrets to Riedel and other glass manufacturers who insist Icewine needs its own vessel, I disagree (and you know my feeling on proper glassware) - Icewine is sweet enough that is cuts through whatever you are drinking it from and makes even a shot glass the right thing to drink it out of ... and tonight that is exactly what we did.  The wine has a beautiful strawberry sensation in the mouth with lovely acidity to balance it out and it's very good.   How did I know that, well first of all I tasted it, but secondly my buddy must have downed 6 shots of it in an hour - not bad for a guy that does not like wine.  Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

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Reif Estate 2006 Cabernet Franc

Found April 2011

As I sit at my desk to write this unfortunate review I can think of only one word to describe this wine: sinister.  I was at a get together with friends who appreciate Ontario wines and I thought this would be an interesting wine to try.  Here's why:  A few years back I held a Cabernet Franc Challenge and this wine was one of those wines that ended up in the bottom tier of the judging, I set it aside in the hopes that it would come around (after all it was one of the youngest Francs in the competition and the producer usually makes good product).  As it turned out my hope was for not.  This wine was nasty from the get go and now 5 years from Vintage date it has no redeeming qualities to it whatsoever.  Words around the room used to describe it were "bitter", "nasty", "cough syrup", "weird" and "not even good enough for salad".  I don't know what else I can say after that except if you happen to have any of this wine in your cellar (as I did) you might want to take the bottles directly to the sink, do not pass go because you will definitely not collect 200 dollars ... pour it down, my friends, pour it down.  Lost & Found Rating:  Trash

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Stonechurch 2006 Dry Riesling

Found December 2009

In my New Year's write up I mentioned three wines that we had that were very good and a number (without names) that were not up to snuff or, most likely, not what most people wanted to drink ... but this one took the cake. I know I said I would protect the names of the innocent but this is not an innocent wine, this was just plain and simple sloppy wine making, a bad marketing decision, or both. This Dry Riesling from Stonechurch was a "pre-release" wine, in fact the label had been handwritten on with a silver Sharpie marker. Over time I had noticed a little sediment in the bottle, odd for a Riesling, when I asked at the winery about it they said that was because it was a pre-release and they may not have filtered it as finely as they normally would. This should have tipped me off that something was wrong with this wine, but I wanted to believe, and I know I liked the wine when I tasted it at the winery. Tonight, I opened it and the cork made a bigger pop than the Champagne I opened later in the evening. The wine, when poured into the glass, fizzed and bubbled more than a can of warm coke and the taste, ick. The wine had re-fermented in the bottle and had transformed into an undrinkable sparkling wine, where once a still wine should have been ... no wonder the next few wines didn't go over well, most were still remembering this Riesling disaster. Turns out I still have a bottle left, this will be good for clearing clogged drains and cleaning the toilet. Lost & Found Rating: Trash

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Colio Estate 2006 Riesling

Found July 2009

Sometime it's not about what you find in your cellar, it's what you find in someone else's. Last night I discovered this '06 Colio Riesling in my fiancee's wine rack. Now truth is before she met me she did not have a "wine rack", she had a couple of bottle stashed away in her basement (one's a Chianti and one's a Merlot), which someone had given her and she put away to 'drink later' and never got around to it ... probably because red is not her thing (one day I'll brave the Chianti). Then when she met me, well her vineous life changed, which means she drank more wine (and that's a big change for a beer girl. She liked whites more than reds, Riesling was a favourite along with some Pinot Gris and Vidal - but nothing too sweet, and for sure she likes it dry; and that's what is now in her cellar, a lot of whites and a smattering of reds that I have collected here (in Michigan) for my consumption. She'll try the occasional red, but she really is a white-girl. Now enough about her, what have we discovered here in her cellar. This Colio Riesling is only 3 years old, so still a baby, the nose is very fruity with melon and green apple being the prominent smells, there's is also a lovely honeysuckle note that really ties the aromas together and keeps you sniffing with every sip. The palate proved just as inviting: mac apple, honeydew, lemonade with just the right amount of sweetness through the mid palate before finishing dry and lovely. The aftertaste linger for just the right amount of time, not too long, not too short, just enough time before your craving another sip. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure

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