Chateau des Charmes 2006 Chardonnay Musque

Click here to read the original review from June 20, 2008 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted March 2014) ... Buoyed by the finding of a Fielding Chardonnay Musque from the same year, I decided to open this bottle of Chateau des Charmes Musque to see how it had fared.  Alas, not too well.  I have to admit I really didn't expect much from it, it was a wine that literally had gotten misplaced in my cellar and I was surprised to find it.  But considering the Fielding had turned out so well I thought it a great opportunity to see how a wine from a different part of Niagara turned out.  Chardonnay Musque is an unoaked wine and not really known for it longevity, so the fact that it was even drinkable at all is testament to the wine maker.   The nose was very Musqu-esque with floral and perfumed apple notes, but the palate had a bitter mid and finish and an odd, almost sour, aftertaste ... not very appealing at all.  So the moral of this bottle is that if you think that a wine is not meant to age put it somewhere where you will remember to drink it sooner.

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Chateau des Charmes 2006 Gewurztraminer

Click here to read the original review from June 2008

(Re-Tasted February 2014) ... After a wacky experiment with a Fielding Musque that turned out to be a pleasant surprise, I approached this Chateau des Charmes '06 Gewurzt with a little more respect and hopefulness.  Gewurztraminer, although un-oaked, has the ability to surprise when aged ... but which side of the surprise line would this particular wine fall is the real question.  The nose had touches of toffee along with subtle lavender ... interesting perfumed notes and a fruity / floral combination that lured one into the glass.  The palate also had interesting nuances, like the coriander-pineapple mid-palate and the intense spice on the finish that seemed to play off the hint of sweetness leading to a drier than expected finish ... any sweetness the nose led you to believe was there dissipated in the end on the tongue.  This wine proved to be mainly dry and its only drawback was the short (there-and-its-gone) finish.  Another nice bottle of un-oaked white that makes one question their belief system about what can and can't mature when oak is not present.

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Konzelmann Estate Winery 2006 Shiraz

Click here to read the original review from April 2008

(Re-Tasted December 2013) ... In 2006 Konzelmann made a lovely, juicy, peppery, black cherry and spicy Shiraz for a mere $12.95 ... it's the kind of wine that you would drink by the gallon and never look back at.  Well, that is not my way of doing things, I drank a few but held back a couple of bottles to see what would happen to a $12.95 Shiraz from a vintage like 2006.  I have to say that if the nose was any indication of what I was going to find on the palate then I should have stopped immediately, it was pretty stinky right from the get go; but thankfully I'm a professional and have encountered off aromas but with good palate results, and this wine possessed that quality:  the palate kept me coming back sip after sip, I just didn't breathe in when my nose was in the glass.  This wine is a perfect example of the smell taking you part of the way there, but the palate taking you home.  Nose was overly-earthy with elements of pepper corn, while the palate was pleasantly raspberry, white  pepper with some smoky notes.  As the wine sat in the glass the nose rarely got any better than what it started out as, but the palate finishes with a dried raspberry smokiness that is quite appealing ... pretty good for a 2006 - drink up now.

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Hillebrand 2006 Wild Ferment Chardonnay

Click here to read the original review from June 2008

(Re-Tasted November 2013) ... The full name of this wine is (bare with me): Hillebrand 2006 Showcase Mori Vineyard Barrel No. 6038 Radoux French Puncheon Wild Ferment Chardonnay - now try saying that 5 times fast ... anyway, I opened this up on a Saturday night with a real Chardonnay fanatic (who seems to have turned me into, at the very least, an ABCer open to Chardonnay).  It is the oldest Chardonnay in my cellar and being a fan of wild ferment wines (in their youth) I was excited to give this a try to see how it ages ... if you're thinking fresh fruit, forget about it, but if you're into caramel, toffee, baked dried apple, burnt butter, touches of apricot and peach pit then this wine definitely delivers on all levels, plus more.  It has held up well but I think now is the time to be drinking it, waiting won't give you anything more that you're really looking for.

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Cornerstone Estate 2006 Riesling Reserve

Click here to read the original review from August 2008 

(Re-Tasted August 2013) ... If Jerry Kopanski has ever wondered why Cornerstone winery isn't a more widely known winery it's because of nasty pieces of business like this - and poor winemaking decisions.  Now before I go on let me say I have met Jerry (owner of Cornerstone) and like him very much - he's genuinely a nice guy - in fact I wrote his winery up in my early days (see here).  Of course we all know where nice guys end up , and being nice gets you nowhere when shady winemakers are looking to ply their "craft" on unsuspecting owners, and then you have the guys selling you things that will "make your wine better" (ie: closure).  This Reserve Riesling was sweetened with "ice wine quality" juice - it was decent in its prime and showed potential to be interesting when it matured - but here we

are 7 years on and it is attrocious.  The main reason is the cork: plastic ... I touched the corkscrew to the cork and it began to sink into the bottle - it took a concerted effort to grab it and keep it from going further in.  It was loose and it did not need any effort to remove it, there was also little to no pop, more like a simple slide and out.  The wine itself was orange in colour, literally orange!  (I hope the picture does it justice)  Being the consummate professional I am I gave it a taste: oxidized apple juice with some tin can linger - one is the result of the cork, the other from the winemaking.  So both contributed to the downfall of this wine.  On a positive note for Cornerstone, with the hiring of Andrzej Lipinski (a bona fide winemaker) as the new winemaker, Jerry Kopanski and Cornerstone are finally taking steps in the right direction, and hopefully putting the past behind them. 

NB:  I have one bottle left of this wine - I will give it another try, just in case.  But I hold no hope out that it will be - maybe I'll be surprised.

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Hillebrand 2006 Trius White

Click here to read the original review from June 2007

(Re-Tasted July 2013) ... This should be the last of the Hillebrand re-tastes for some time, it's interesting to see what comes out of some of these blind boxes as to what I'll be tasting again ... over the past month there have been a lot of Hillebrand wines.  This so happened to be the first vintage of the "white" which was introduced to the winery by winemaker Darryl Brooker and released July 1, 2007 - it is a blend of Gewurztraminer and Riesling with some oaked Gris and unoaked Chardonnay added for good measure.  My original notes say it was meant as a drink now wine (which was probably told to me by Darryl), but here we are 7 years later and it seems to still have quite a bit of stuffing left.  The nose is zesty with grapefruit, a cross of mac and green apple and some peach pit.  The palate is still front loaded with citrus and orange peel along with a grapefruit pith kinda finish.  After about 45 minutes after opening the wine seemed to get tired, so that's probably what Darryl meant when he said "drink now", he meant open and drink now not that particular year, because this wine has aged quite nicely, guess I should have gotten some clarification on his statement.  If you have some in the cellar bring it out and enjoy it.

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Back to Back Vintages of Trius Dry Riesling: 2006 & 2007

Click here to read the original review of the 2006 Dry Riesling from June 2008

Click here to read the Lost & Found review of the 2007 Dry Riesling from July 2012

(Re-Tasted July 2013) ... People are going to start to believe I have stock in Hillebrand with the amount of wines I have reviewed lately in this column ... but as it turns our it is just their turn to get picked on as their wines have come up in the run.  I noticed that one of the wines had an original review published at the time of its release, the other has a note some 5 years later in the Lost and Found column, both are linked above.  Let's start with the 2007 wine, which is the one that failed to garner an original review and  languished until I tried it last year around this time. Turns out that last year it was merely tolerable, a year later it is almost undrinkable (unless you have nothing else about the house and are dying for a drink).  The 2007 is fat, flat and uninspiring ... the nose is much better than the palate as it delivers grapefruit, lemon and lanolin notes; also noted was that the citrus fruit is zest based and not fresh.  The acidity on the palate is practically non-existent and the wine comes off as thick and sweet but with a bitter and unpleasant finish.  In 2012 I said "the wine gained more of an apple juice character", now I would say it's apple juice that has gone sour.  The 2006 is a completely different story, one year older this wine still comes off as fresh and lively:  pear, peach and apple rule the nose, with pear being the most prominent ... the palate retains a healthy dose of acidity and it appears on the tip of the tongue as well as lingers on the finish.  Mid-palate comes off a tad sweet with all that great white fruit character, but the finish forgoes any notion of sweetness for a mix of green apple and peach with hints of limeade ... okay so maybe sweet and mouth pucker fight it out, but very pleasantly ... the big winner here is the 2006 ... by a landslide.

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Thirty Bench Wine Makers 2006 'Triangle Vineyard' Riesling

Click here to read the original review from March 25, 2008 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted July 2013) ... Riesling fans had a new face on the Riesling frontier to explore in the 2006 vintage - it was the family of Rieslings from Thirty Bench:  three vineyard designates (Steel, Wood and Triangle) and a bottle of blended Riesling that encompassed all three vineyards.  Triangle is usually the most mineral, the most citrus-based, the driest and the one Riesling fans covet because of all the classic Riesling characters that offers.  But now some 7 years later it was time to re-look and re-taste this wine ... and let me tell you it is just as good, or maybe even better, now that it has some good age on it. Gone is the petrol that seemed to be there from the get go, now it's a lovely citrus and mineral blend, and it still tastes and feels fresh in the mouth.  The nose starts with lime and mineral and never lets up all the way to the finish ... the palate has lemon-lime zest with plenty of mineral, acidity and a long lingering finish.  This is one fantastic wine with no sign that it is ready to give up yet, or any time soon.

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Cave Spring 2006 Riesling “Dolomite”

Click here to read the original review from August 2007
Taste it Again from January 2010, another in July 2011,

and once again in February 2013

(Re-Tasted May 2013) ... It has not been long since my last tasting of this wine, in fact it's only been 3 months since I popped the cork on the last bottle of the Dolimite Riesling (circa 2006) ... The minerality is still quite good on both the nose and palate, there's a hint of petrol on the nose and palate as well but it's more prominent on the nose; the palate takes on more of a dried lemon-lime characteristic with slight green apple nuances especially on the finish.  You'll also find touches of dried apricot and peach along with good acidity.  The wine is still holding up quite well and makes for a great evening sipper as aperitif.

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Cave Spring 2006 Riesling “Dolomite”

Click here to read the original review from August 2007 

Taste it Again from January 2010

and another in July 2011

(Re-Tasted February 2013) ... It's almost as if I had planned to re-taste this wine every year and a half, but honestly it was a wine that I bought a lot of at the time of its release and just seem to gravitate towards (I guess every year and a half).  2006 was the first year of the Dolomite Riesling and it was the first time that a mention of the soil (not the vineyard) had appeared on a Cave Spring label.  They attributed the mineral notes on the wine to the soils and the older vines that went into this wine.  Since then they are growing in the same soils but using younger vines for the Dolomite wines ... so this was a real rarity.  Dolomite was made to be a restaurant exclusive along with a drop-into-the-winery-only wine, meaning that the winery was the only place you could buy some to take home.  Here we are some 7 years from vintage date and it is still showing some great aromas and flavours - this Riesling was built with longevity in mind and the milder 2006 vintage helped in that regard too.  I noticed in a previous note I mentioned a hint of petrol, well this bottle showed none of that:  nose of lime, wet stone and apricot, almost sweet in nature.  The palate also hinted at sweetness: apple, lanolin, lime cordial and mineral all mingling on the tongue with some nice acid replay on the finish.  There is an element of a sweet beginning but the wine actually seems to turn it around mid-palate to end dry - like licking a smooth wet rock that was rubbed with lime juice and pith.  This is still a wonderfully delicious, easy to drink wine and as it ages it seems to be developing some interesting characteristics while keeping most of it originals intact.  See you all again in a year in a half when we'll look in on this one again.

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13th Street 2006 Wismer Vineyard Syrah

Click here to read the original review from November 2008

(Re-Tasted February 2013) ...  For a 6 year old Syrah from a fairly unimpressive vintage here in Ontario the wine seems to have held up pretty well - if you let it get out of its funk.  The first smell might turn you off - but bear with it for a minute or two and it will start to reveal itself: smoky, leathery, licorice, cigar box, sour cherry and raw bacon all made an appearance during my hour and a half long tasting of this wine.  The palate also needed a little time to come around and when it did it also rewarded patience: smoky, meaty, anise seed, freeze-dried raspberry and white pepper ... currently there's a smoothness with the right amount of acidity.  Not sure how long this bottle will last, I would not give it anymore than two years if you have a bottle or two in your cellar, as it is already cresting the hill of age; but for the time being, given it's age and the vintage this find truly is a treasure.

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Daniel Lenko 2006 Reserve Riesling

Click here to read the original review from June 2008

(Re-Tasted October 2012) ... My wife is the Riesling lover in the family, so when we open a bottle it's usually for her and I just tag along for the tasting ... don't get me wrong, I love Riesling as well, but I'm good for any and all wines, it's just when a Riesling gets opened she's having some too.  Tonight we opened a bottle of Danny Lenko Riesling from 2006.  Now I remember talking with Dan years ago about why he has only a "reserve" Riesling and no "base model", he was pretty blunt when he told me that he learned years ago that people will pay more if the word "Reserve" is written on the bottle, even if it's the same wine in the bottle ... you gotta love that kind of honesty.  That all said I have to say I was excited to try this Riesling to see if it had stood the test of time - or at least the test of the past 6 years.  Ha-za it did.  The nose is full of wild flower honey and honeycomb notes along with candied lemon peel, mac apple and just a hint of petrol on alternate sniffs.  The palate was a little more complicated, not complex, complicated as it showed little in the way of fully recognizable flavours, just a mash up of a bunch of things:  lemon-petrol-mac apple-poached pear-lime cordial and waxy honeycomb.  All said and done it was a pleasant easy drinking Riesling that was tame in the acidity department and decent on flavour.  If you're sitting on some of this I would say it's time to drink.

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Featherstone 2006 Old Vines Riesling

Click here to read the original review from October 2007 - while there also see the re-taste note

(Re-Tasted September 2012) ... This was not the first Riesling we opened on this Saturday afternoon - the first was a Dolomite 2006 (same year) from Cave Spring Cellars, it unfortunately was oxidized ... considering we did not have another bottle cold I decided to open up another Riesling from the same year, though different producer.  This old vines Riesling is still holding onto its mineral component but is losing the battle with petrol, which seems to overwhelm most of the smells and flavours.  Everything I can mention as a flavour or aroma has a petrol note attached: there's apricot and petrol, poached pear and petrol and a little lime pith and petrol ... though I have to hand it to this wine, it shucks the petrol on the the lingering finish so that it does not taste like you've sucked back a whole jerry-can of gasoline.

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Fielding 2006 Sparkling Riesling - Charmat Method

Click here to read the original review from July 2007 and the re-taste from May 2011

(Re-Tasted September 2012) ... It was still the week of my anniversary - so far we have have two other bubblies this week to celebrate:  an Oyster Bay Rose and a Chateau des Charmes 2008 Rose (see a pattern) ... one last one before we lock up the sparkling wine cabinet (till next week).  I'm not going to tell you this was the best bubbly of the week (that goes to the Charmes wine), but I will tell you it was the most interesting and the oldest.  This 6-year old bubbly sure was the surprise of the week, as it had so much more complexity than I remember.  The nose had beeswax, lemon rind and a hint of petrol - the palate was baked apple, bosc pear, with apricot and a lingering finish of wild-flower honey ... the bubbles were good some 4 hours later as we poured the last drops of the bottle as a night cap.  Good job Fielding, for a charmat method sparkler this one stood up for longer than I would have expected.  For those with a bottle in the cellar, don't be afraid to pop the cork on a bottle , I think it is drinking better today than it ever has.

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Chateau des Charmes 2006 St. David’s Bench Viognier

Click here to read the original review from April 8, 2008 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted August 2012) ...  A few weeks ago I popped this wine into the fridge for some guests we had coming over ... sadly we never got around to popping the cork and so there is it sat in the fridge for a few weeks until last night, when I finally spied the bottle and decided that I would pull the cork to pair with some fish we were having for dinner.  I remember this wine being more tropical in its youth, but now it has developed more like a Chardonnay ... it's not surprising they call Viognier "the alternative to Chardonnay".  The nose is quite appealing with apricot and pear, but seems to have some smoky notes that also appear.  The palate still has good acidity and a lovely lingering long finish, but as I said (on the palate) I probably could not differentiate this from an oaked Chardonnay.  The taste is buttery and toasty with peach pit and apricot pit notes, it also develops a little poached pear as it sits in the glass.  Still very pleasant ... if I want Chardonnay without it saying Chardonnay on the bottle.

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Chateau des Charmes 2006 Estate Bottled Riesling

Click here to read the original review from July 2007 

(Re-Tasted July 2012) ... It truly is a summer for Riesling.  With the hot weather we've been having I'm not only digging out the new bottles, but also some of the old ones, to see how they are doing.  My original review says to lay this one down and watch it develop, and develop it has, into something lovely.  The fruit is still very much intact with apricot, apple and pear notes especially on the nose, but they are intact on the palate too; the acidity has stayed right where it needs to be to keep that lovely freshness and there's even a limeade, honey and lemonade note to the finish.  This is still one terrific wine that shows no signs of going anywhere, downhill that is, it seems to be holding its own quite well.  Wish I had a few more bottles so I could find out where it is going - cause I'd love to take the ride with it (and wouldn't you know it I do - we'll check back in a year or two).

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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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D'Angelo 2006 Iced Foch

Click here to read the original review from August 2008

(Re-Tasted October 2010) ... The lack of Marechal Foch wines reviewed on my site (OntarioWineReview.com) speaks volumes.  While I can find some redeeming features in Baco (another bane of my existence) there is very little in Foch that I find redeeming, to me it always has the faint hint of stinky feet or rotten cheese ... that is until I tried what Sal D'Angelo did in 2008 which turned out to be the greatest use of Foch I had tried, and the best use of a hybrid since I tried a Baco "port" from New York state.  The question is, did this wine stand up over the past 5 years?  Well I have to confess I think it did, but not as well as it could have.  You see Sal insists on using plastic corks and these spoil his wines something terrible.  But, since this was a sweetie with a nice balance of acidity it seems to have withstood the wrath of plastic better than some of his table wines.  There were signs of bricking (colour) around the outside edges of wine but there was still plenty of black cherry, plum and spice on the nose.  The acidity level has dropped significantly making it a tad cloying and more along the lines of sacramental wine but with an intriguing zinfandel-like character on the mid-palate and a very pleasant finish that seems to linger on forever.  All-in-all I would have to say it has stood up nicely and still retains the title of the best use of Marechal Foch I have tasted - though I 'd better start drinking these up or passing them around for Christmas presents, they don't have much longer to go.

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Legends Estates 2006 Semillon

Click here to read the original review from July 2007

(Re-Tasted October 2011) ... My momma once told me, "If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all" ... and if I were to stick with that theory I would leave this page blank.  This is truly one of the nastiest tasting wines I have ever had the misfortune of putting into this column ... and absolute disaster.  And I can't blame the winemaking, the winemaker or the grape - this wine was ruined purely on a closure decision.  This was, in its time, the first ever single varietal Semillon made in Ontario, and it was a beauty.  I remember fawning over this wine and had I been giving stars at the time it would have received the coveted 5-star rating.  Now Semillon is an ageable grape, so this had the potential to be something exciting as it got older.  But alas, a plastic cork has killed this wine's dreams of being something extraordinary in its autumn years.  The wine was oxidized all to hell and just plain nasty to smell and taste.  I can't stress how much I loved this wine in its youth, and how much I abhor what I found upon popping that plastic cork ... unfortunately from such great beginnings this wine isn't worth cleaning the toilet with.  I really wish we would learn our lesson about plastic corks ... the good news is I think some are getting the message, as I am seeing less and less of them, especially in Ontario wines.  If you have any of these wines, flush 'em!  Do not stop by the kitchen in the hopes of cooking with it, do not ruin your meal ... this is a lost cause.  And if you must know, I dumped 3 bottles - and smelled/tasted each one.  As for my mother's advice, all I can say to that is, "sorry mom".

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Huff Estates 2006 Wismer Vineyard Riesling Reserve

Click here to read the original review from November 20, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted October 2011) ... Reading my original review from 2007 I notice that the big change to this wine is the nose ... in the original the smells were sweet with peaches and apples, but now 5 years later those smells have move more toward the way the palate is going to offer them up.  The first aroma to grab the nose is petrol, but it subsides quickly to reveal green apple and lime notes.  The palate for this "dry" Riesling really is, and if you like sweetness in your Rieslings you've waited too long to enjoy this one; but if you enjoy 'em dry you've got what you came for: lime, sour lemon, orange peel and just a hint of petrol to show it has some age.  This one is definitely living up to its billing.

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