Ontario Hits Its Stride
2012 was a big year for Ontario, the weather was perfect, the grapes grew and ripened and gave the winemakers great building blocks to work with.
Now, if you check your nearest liquor store shelves, in the Ontario section, you’ll see that the 2012s are lining them, the reserve whites the reds – they’re there in full force and offering up some great wine for both drink now consumption and cellar candidates for the next decade.
Hidden Bench 2012 Chardonnay ($28.95)
This wine stops just shy of being a bombastic oaky number, straddling the line deftly between fleshy and delicate: apple, pear fruit mix nicely with butter and wood spice.
Coyote’s Run 2012 The Raven’s Roost Cabernet-Merlot ($19.95)
You know it’s a good year when 85% Cabernet Sauvignon leads your blend, aromas invite with cassis, blackberry, black cherry and mocha, while the flavours remain dark and brooding with dark chocolate, black cherry, anise, mocha, spice and fuzzy tannins.
Henry of Pelham 2012 Cabernet-Merlot ($24.95)
Another mouth-filling ’12 blend of the usual suspects found in Meritage: find black cherry, blackberry, vanilla, pepper and spice backed by some cassis and smoke … really nice complexity here.