Light golden colour; the bouquet is a rich amalgam of peaches, honey, baking spices, vanilla oak and minerals. It’s full and creamy on the palate with a mouth-freshening finish.
If you mistake this bubbly for a first-rate Champagne you wouldn’t be far off the mark. It has that characteristic bread-crust nose with a lemony, green apple flavour. Just a joy to drink.
The grapes for this Riesling were picked late despite the heat of the vintage, but it is finished with less residual sugar. It shows ripe grapefruit, green apple, floral and mineral notes on the nose. I love the texture in Charles Baker’s Rieslings and even though it’s from a warmer vintage, it still shows classic tension and acidity through the finish. I sense the 2009s and 2008s will outlast the 2010 vintage in the cellar, but this is a beauty for drinking now or two or three years down the road. A must for that CB vertical.
This is one of the best Chardonnays Deborah Paskus has made in years. Deep straw in colour, it offers a very Burgundian nose of undergrowth and spicy oak with apple nuances. Spicy and pure flavours of apple and melon on the palate, beautifully balanced and seamless with great length.
Emma Garner, Thirty Bench’s winemaker, continues her hot streak with Riesling. This is a truly impressive rendition, with huge grapefruit, lime, peach, apple and minerals. The crisp personality combines power with persistency, which will allow this wine to improve over the next decade.
The 3.2-hectare Mottiar vineyard is situated just above the town of Beamsville on the upper slope of the Niagara Escarpment on Quarry Road. Only 100 cases of this exquisite wine was made. The nose shows restrained poached pear, apple, apricot, vanilla, spice and a defining core of minerality. It displays beautiful elegance and layers of subtle fruit that swirl and change with each sip. This wine offers wonderful balance, racy and refreshing acidity and a pure expression of Bench minerality.
Soft and fresh. Gentle aromas and flavours of coriander and orange peel with the slightest hint of spice; clean, not a lot of complexity, but easy drinking and pleasant.