Lakeview Cellars 2002 Cabernet Franc

Click here to read the original review from July 2005

(Re-Tasted July 2012) ... I find it amazing how you can take a really good wine (this one) from a really good vintage (2002) and ruined it with one simple decision (plastic cork) - this was and is the case for this wine.  I really enjoyed it back in the day when I first reviewed it, and thought it had some great potential, I did not think a decade would be out of the question with this one (as I wrote in my private notes), my thought process was that it would take a few years to just mellow out and bring out that hidden fruit.  But the plastic that closed the bottle made that impossible.  The wine was full of sweet sherry aromas and the wine was oxidized, more sherry than wine-like and after a few minutes in glass it was even worse than that.  I got hosed on their 2005 wines, which were also under plastic - the '02's are even worse ... if you bought a case thinking you'd be enjoying it after a decade of aging I have two things to say: 1) sorry you wasted your dough and 2) hope you like salad ... though I am not sure I would sacrifice the lettuce.

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Lakeview 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Click here to read the original review from February 19, 2008 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted February 2010) ...  Many who follow this blog or any of my other writing about the wines that I drink know that I am anti plastic cork.  For the most part I find them an inferior closure that is only good for "drink now" wines - if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself face to face with an over 5 year old wine sealed with plastic you are most likely a goner (or at least the wine is) and you should find another bottle.  It happened with the brother of this wine, the 2005 Merlot, so I suspect the same would apply to the Cab.  But a funny thing happened with this wine - it actually came through okay.  Maybe I am just so used to being disappointed that when I am not, or not fully, the slightest bit of normalcy in the bottle is reason to celebrate ... and trust me I did go over this wine thoroughly.  The nose is full of raspberry liqueur, blackberry, anise and even some cedar notes.  The palate proved to have more of that woody-cedary sensation, spicy and dry on the tongue with rougher than expected tannins; dark fruit and cocoa powder also made an appearance.  A decent wine, and sealed under a plastic cork, wow, I'm shocked, I guess this proves that every dog really does have its day.  I have two more of these wines kicking around the cellar, I guess time will tell if they survived also - I know the other 2 bottles of Merlot I had were shot to ... (you know what).  If you have any in your cellar my advice would be to drink these bottles sooner rather than later - the law of averages are not on your side.

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Lakeview Cellars 2005 Merlot

 

Click here to read the original review from June 19, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted November 2010) ... I don't want to waste too much of your time reading this because to much time was wasted already on this bottle.  I wasted too much time trying to drink it and come up with something nice to say about it (I really can't), and I hope Lakeview wasted a whole bunch of sleepless hours trying to decide on the closer of this wine, because they really ruined a perfectly good bottle of wine with what they chose.  I took this over to a friend's house to watch a little Monday Night Football, eat some wings and, in general, have a good evening.  One of the attendees is a big fan of Ontario wine so I was looking forward to sharing it with him.  Off came the capsule and staring at me was a plastic cork.  But can't let that influence you because it's what's in the bottle that counts.  At first there was a big smell of black cherry and I breathed a sigh of relief ... but it took only 10 minutes before the wine was undrinkable, oxidized, woody and sour.  My Ontario-fan friend said, "it tastes like it's been in a decanter for about an hour too long."  I couldn't have put it better myself.  I have two more bottle of this wine which I will try to locate and taste to see if the same thing occurs with each.

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Lakeview Cellars 2002 Gamay Noir

Found August 2008

If you have any bottles of this wine kicking around, now is the time to drink it., according to many Gamay Noir isn't even suppose to last this long, but this bottle from the excellent 2002 vintage is still quite a lot of fun. It's definitely not the red fruity thing you think of when you think of wine made from the grape of Beaujolais. At this point of its life cycle the nose is a mixture of cherry liqueur and raspberry jam. It's exceedingly smooth in the mouth, almost to the point of having no flavour at all, then as it opens it has little else to say but "I am cherry hear me roar". There are no tannins to speak of and as it sits open to the air it became more like a cherry liqueur on the taste too. About 20 to 30 minutes after opening something funny happened: it developed a chocolatey-Kahlua-brandy component with a bittersweet chocolate finish. Not the most wonderful wine I have had, but it sure wasn't bad considering what it was and how old it was. As much as it lacked what it originally had, I liked what it had turned into, which is why I am going to give it a Lost & Found rating of Treasure.

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