Aging in malt whisky barrels from Cape Breton’s Glenora Distillery has added complexity to this deep, dark amber brew. It offers soft red fruit and dark chocolate on the nose and rich fruit cake/liqueur/chocolate flavours, finishing with whisky-infused dry oakiness. Hugely flavourful but deftly balanced.
Still shy, this Chardonnay needs another year in the bottle to show its best. Currently, there is peach, pineapple, vanilla, spice and green apple. The palate is a mixture of cream, spice, and green apple, all supported by medium acidity and a lengthy finish.
A blend of 40% estate fruit from Lillooet and the rest from the Sundial Vineyard in Oliver, it consists of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The nose shows black cherries, crunchy raspberry, currants, cocoa and oak-derived spices. It has good tannic structure and a lovely mélange of red berries and currants to go with integrated spices and length through the finish.
It is my belief that this is the best Syrah being made in Ontario. Unlike many other renditions, which tend be over-extracted and manipulated so as to appear more Shiraz-like, this wine embraces its Ontario origins. Full-bodied, it busts out the pepper, smoke, hickory, violets, cassis, oregano and raspberry. The tannins are smooth, and the flavours echo long.
2011 was a superb vintage for the region of Cahors. Powerful and concentrated, this 100% Malbec, made from 60-year-old vines, exudes blueberry pie, plum and dark cherry jam, vanilla custard, earth and smoke, which carries long into the sunset. Make sure to pick up a few bottles for the cellar. Drinkability — over the next 20 years!
Refined bouquet reveals bottle-developed nose with dark berry, blackcurrant, cinnamon and clove. Succulent raspberry and blackcurrant flavours emerge in the mouth with moderately firm tannins, deftly balanced acidity and a medium length harmonious finish. Superb value!
Soft floral, honeyed and lightly spicy scents with a trace of tropical fruit aromatics shift to more typical green apple flavour with gentle fizz and an unusual hit of banana on mid-palate. Finishes just off-dry.