Coyote's Run 2005 Cabernet Franc

Click here to read the original review from May 22, 2007 Weekly Wine Note

(Re-Tasted November 2009) ... There are those who swear by screw cap wines and other who swear at them - I am one who is all for the screw cap as long as the results are good after some aging occurs, because I like to age and re-taste my wines.  So if you give me a moment I am going to check out what I said back in May 2007 about this wine.

Seems that back then I was talking about a lot of black fruit coming thru on this one, but some 5 years from vintage date it looks like a lot of that fruit has dropped out and instead is giving off aromas of green pepper, red current and graphite.  The palate also has plenty of green pepper, regular black pepper and a lot of non-descript flavours, yet is soft and smooth with a good long finish.  The wine isn't great, nor is it unpleasant, it's perfectly suitable to drink and enjoy, just not something you would stand up and take notice of.  In the end I give this wine a pass because it is drinkable, and after all isn't that what we look for in our wines.

 

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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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Fielding Estate Winery 2007 Cabernet Franc

 

Found November 2010

Five years on and this wine still has so much stuffing left in it, not surprising considering 2005 was a very good year here in Ontario.  The nose is spicy and peppery with dark fruit and cassis aromas.  Flavours are all over the map starting with biting tannins, pepper, blackberry, cassis and sharp acidity.  This wine has some great drinkability when enough air is put through it, plus it has an enjoyably long finish.  There's lots of life left in the bottle and it's worth keeping it in the cellar a few more years to let those tannins mellow and that fruit start to emerge more fully.  Time will tell if it balances out, but I have faith in this one.  Lost & Found Rating:  Treasure

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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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Cave Spring Cellars 2005 Dry Riesling

 

Found October 2010

This wine has turned simple over the past 5 years, but simple in a good way.  The nose shows a heavy dose of petrol with a backing of lime rind ... while the palate is far more inviting.  The petrol has lessened from what the nose intoned it had the potential to be; there's still that lime edge, but with a pleasing lingering finish.  2005 wasn't the best vintage for Riesling (the heat was not the kind of weather Riesling likes) - but this wine was made by one of Ontario's masters of the variety and it shows.  nOt sure how much longer this will hold and be pleasant, so if you have some, drink up soon.  Lost & Found Rating: Treasure

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Jackson Triggs 2001 Proprietors’ Reserve Pinot Noir

Found October 2010

Whoa Nelly, I wish I had something good to say about this wine upfront – the smell is absolutely horrible, no fruit with lots and lots of stink.  On the backend, we’ll call that the taste, it’s earthy and woody with no signs of fruit, so there is little in the way of a pleasant taste here … the good news is that what is here is smooth and it tastes much better than the smell indicates, though that is not saying much.  Interesting colour to the wine, it is a blood orange hue.  Sorry to say this one did not stand the test of time.  Lost & Found Rating:  Trash

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Chateau des Charmes 2001 Estate Bottled Pinot Noir - Add Two More Years

Click here to read the original review from December 2005 - OWR Newsletter #19 - Pinot Tasting

 

First Re-Tasting: April 28, 2008

(Re-Tasted - again - October 2010) ... On the back of this bottle I had written, "Hold Two Years: 12/05"; so either I was telling myself to drink it in December of 2005 or I lay it down in December of '05 and was saying I should drink by December 2007 - either way I missed the deadline ... both time.  I opened this bottle for Thanksgiving (the Canadian version), we weren't having a traditional turkey dinner, instead I had whipped up a casserole using ground turkey, lentils and brown rice (actually tasted much better than it sounds) ... but I figured a Pinot Noir would make it feel more traditional than it was.  I also had a bit of a scare when I cut two fingers chopping onions (the folks on the Food Network make it look so easy) ... so I really needed a drink once everything was in the oven.  My previous foray with this wine, in April 2008, was not a good one - but I did not know that when I opened this bottle.  I pulled out a Schott Zwiesel Pinot Noir glass and poured the wine in.  The cork broke during the opening and it was a little on the moist side about 3/4 of the way up, but otherwise everything looked in good condition.  The wine itself showed little sign of bricking, or browning, and the smells coming off it were pleasant enough, if slightly non-existent.  The best way to describe the nose is what it settled into 20 minutes after opening, wooden-raspberries, up until then the wine was a little shy, giving away little at far as aromas go.  Taste-wise it remained fairly closed through the entire hour and a half it was in the glass, lots of tannins and wood spice, fruit barely perceptible, if at all there.  But it was not unpleasant to drink, in fact it seemed a nice pairing with the turkey-lentil casserole, and who knows maybe the wine needs even more time to come around - it has definitely improved since April 2008 when I could barely stomach it.

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