Ontario - Wandering the Wine Route: Cattail Creek Estate Winery

The Four Mile Creek sub-appellation lies south of the Niagara Lakeshore and west of the Niagara River. It is a vast, fertile plain, the largest of the sub-appellations in the entire Niagara Peninsula known for producing premium, full-bodied reds. During the growing season, the area experiences warm days and cool nights.

Red shale with high silt and clay make up the soils here, providing good water retention for the vines. This and the plentiful sunshine give many growers opportunities to try their hand at numerous varieties.

CATTAIL CREEK

In the midst of this extensive sub-appellation, you can find the small, family-owned winery of Cattail Creek. The Dyck family has grown grapes since 1957, providing premium fruit for local wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In 2006, Ken and Renate Dyck’s daughter, Roselyn joined the family business, helping the family create the present winery.

The family currently owns 40.5 hectares (100 acres) of vineyards growing numerous varieties. Pulling up to their boutique store and winery on Concession 6 in NOTL, you can feel the vineyards spreading off in every direction, the sunshine poring down from a clear blue sky.

Inside the boutique there is a long tasting bar and a sizable menu of varietal and blends to try.

Variety and quality appear to be the two key terms to keep in mind when trying their impressive wines.

CATTAIL CREEK: WINES

My moods take me in different directions and this goes for my wine moods. In the summer, I can drink red or white, it doesn't matter, I don’t have a preference for Pinot Grigios or other patio sippers. A wine is like a good book and sometimes they just pick you.

While visiting the winery, I found myself leaning towards the whites.

2006 Dry Riesling

This wine has a lovely nose and on the palate, a light mineral-lime-lemon-apple-spray of honey. Closer to a German style than New World versions like Australia and New Zealand.

2007 Off-Dry Riesling

A Medal Winner at the Canadian Wine Awards 2008, this Riesling offers more of a viscous peach-pear and orange blossom element than the above. For those that like stone fruit and a hint of sweetness, an excellent white to pair with Indian or Thai food.

2006 Riesling Reserve

Sourced from 30-year old vines, I found this wine resembled an Australian Riesling in its tartness. Expect greens apple and a chalky, mineral zest.

2007 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay

First off, I have to say, I bought two bottles of this wine. Usually, if I really enjoy a wine, I’ll pick up one bottle. I rarely buy cases. Drinking wine for me is about variety and what I open today is different from what I open tomorrow.

Another Medal Winner, this time at the Ontario Wine Awards 2009, not to mention a Best Limited Edition White Wine winner, this Chardonnay is exquisite. In the glass, give it a swirl and just breathe in the vanilla and toasted oak-apples. Take a sip, and the wine lifts you away into a buttertart-toffee–pear-almond-granola heaven.

Now you know why I bought two bottles. Wonderful value, it beats the best of California Chards.

2008 Serendipity Rosé

Another award winner (and not a surprise, this winery is a must-visit for wine lovers), this rosé is a blend of Gamay and Riesling. Even though summer is over, there are still traces of it alive in this fruity medley of strawberry and watermelon.

2008 Pinot Noir

Like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir has its own love-it-hate-it crowd. Wine drinkers are rarely on the fence when it comes to this grape. People who enjoy white wine can appreciate the occasional Pinot Noir as the wine’s acidity is similar to white wines. But those looking for something fuller-bodied, should look for a California Cab or Australian Shiraz.

I've become a recent convert of Pinot Noir. Cattail Creek’s Pinot doesn’t disappoint. It is soft and easy, a pleasant, approachable red with cherry and strawberry notes, not to mention a passing hint of barnyard.

2008 Merlot

I find Merlot especially delicious in the sub-appellations of Four-Mile Creek and the Niagara Lake Shore. (The other night I had the Hillebrand Trius 2008 Merlot – ready to drink but could age another year). Cattail Creak’s Merlot exudes ripe black cherries, smoky chocolate and light notes of vanilla.

CATTAIL CREEK – OTHER OFFERINGS

I didn’t have a chance to try the other reds which include several higher-end, limited edition reds. There is also a large selection of Dessert Wines, many of them again, you guessed it, award winners.

But please, if you go, check out the Barrel Fermented Chardonnay. This is just one of the reasons to visit Cattail Creek.

Cattail Creek Estate Winery

1156 Concession 6

RR #4 Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

L0S 1J0

Tel: 905-988-9463

Email: info@cattailcreek.ca

Hours of Operation

May - Oct., 10:00 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily

Nov - April, 11:00 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily

Read more...

Ontario – Wandering the Wine Route: Vignoble Rancourt Winery

It was one of those cool autumn afternoons. Under an overcast sky, I wandered “lonely as a cloud” as Wordsworth once wrote. I had nowhere to go, no one to see and just wanted to get out, take a drive.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is always the perfect place to visit. It may not have the rolling hills of Jordan and Beamsville but the flatness of the landscape provides the perfect canvas for the sky to express its vastness. Some days, I am simply overwhelmed by the sublime configurations of our clouds, their mountainous sweep, the tranquil but melancholy allure of their presence on windy sunset evenings.

When it is threatening rain, and the breeze picks up, I feel I am lost in a beautiful dream.

VIGNOBLE RANCOURT

After taking a scenic drive through Niagara-on-the-Lake, I took the East West Line back to St.Catharines. Just after Highway 55 I saw a sign for Vignoble Rancourt. I hadn’t heard of the winery before.

Just a few seconds down Concession 4, past a green, leaf-healthy vineyard I took a right into the long gravel drive of Vignoble Rancourt. At the end, a grey, modern two story structure, what you might call a blend between a barn and farmhouse, clean, unassuming.

I entered the tasting room, finding it peaceful, the dimmed lights lending a tranquil aura not unlike that of a monastery. There was a reverent hush. Mrs. Rancourt stood behind the tasting bar, welcoming me with her lovely French-Canadian accent.

I asked about the winery, how long it had been around. Only three years she informed me. She said the Rancourts had been in Canada for many generations and that her late-husband, Lionel Rancourt had started the winery.

VINGNOBLE RANCOURT AND THE NIAGARA LAKESHORE

While trying their only white, the Noble Blanc, a delicious blend of Riesling and Chardonnay, Mrs. Rancourt told me about the appellation. The winery is located in Niagara-on-the-Lake on the Niagara Lakeshore sub-appellation which runs from the Welland Canal to the Niagara River along the shorelines of Lake Ontario. The main influence on the vineyards here is the lake which moderates the temperature.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is the Niagara Peninsula’s largest wine region which also includes the sub-appellations of St.David’s Bench (under the Escarpment), the Niagara River (along the parkway), and Four Mile Creek (just south of the Niagara Lakeshore).

Some liken the wines of Niagara-on-the-Lake to that of Bordeaux in southwest France, further noting that the wines of Beamsville and Jordan are closer in style to that of Burgundy in eastern France.

For those just getting into wine, Bordeaux wines are blends, typically of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and a bit of Malbec. These are the five main varieties. For white Bordeaux, Sémillion, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle.

In Burgundy, the wines are always based on one grape. For the reds, Pinot Noir (unless you’re in the south of Burgundy which is Beaujolais and there the grape is Gamay) and for the whites, Chardonnay. There is some varietal Aligoté as well but not nearly as famous.

Tasting the reds of Vignoble Rancourt, I noted a predominant Bordeaux-influence.

TASTING NOTES

Rancourt 2007 Noble Blanc

As I mentioned above, this is a Riesling and Chardonnay blend. There are many people who can’t stand Chardonnay and you can’t blame them. Chardonnay is that celebrity everyone hears about and gets sick of quickly (think Julia Roberts after Pretty Woman or recently, Paris Hilton). But this wine is fruity, fun with a backbone of mineral apple-melon finesse. For white wine drinkers, a must.

Rancourt 2006 Noble Rouge

I fell in love with this one instantly. A delicious, up front red with notes of strawberries, cherries, and raspberries. For some red wine, room temperature is alright but this blend deserves to be slightly chilled to bring out the mouth watering acidity. For white wine drinkers that don’t really like red but should give a red a try, another must.

Rancourt 2006 Merlot

This is a wine for those that like their reds with a little vanilla action. Far too easy to drink, this Merlot invites you into a softer world of toasty-chocolate and black fruit. It would pair perfectly with veal.

Rancourt 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and Rancourt 2006 Cabernet Franc

These are wines to pair with beef. The Cab Sauv has a nice black tea/black fruit edge with a zing of cinnamon cranberry while the Cab Franc is herbal black fruit.

Rancourt 2006 Meritage

I mentioned Bordeaux above. A Meritage is actually the North American version of a Bordeaux blend. These wines cannot be called ‘Bordeaux’ unless they are from the appellation in France. For awhile, back in the 1950s and ‘60s, a great deal of wineries in California and Australia were calling their wines Chablis or Burgundy when the grapes weren’t actually sourced from the French region. It was just to give them a bit more European flair.

European Union laws are far more strict these days, quality has to be maintained, fraud avoided. You can't call your wine a 'Bordeaux' in Canada or the U.S. But instead of calling it a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Petit Verdot/Malbec blend, which can be a mouthful, the wine producers in the New World simply call it a 'Meritage'. Meritage essentially translates Bordeaux-style for wine drinkers.

This Meritage is delicious and packed with medium-bodied berry fruit and fragrant baking spices.

Rancourt 2004 Meritage

There are wines I am drawn to, that I want to sit with, savour, almost meditate with. The 2004 Meritage is such a vintage. When I tasted it I was entranced. It made me think of a quote I once heard: Taste is the memory of another time. I don’t know who said it or if I misheard it, but believe me when I write that this wine took me to another place. I was lost in a leafy-barnyard bouquet of black olives, green peppers, cranberries and seductive cinnamon. It reminded me of the scene in the famous novel, In Search of Lost Time in which the narrator dips his Madeleine cake into his tea, takes a bite and suddenly remembers the street he was raised on and all the other places of his childhood. Drinking this wine, I was somewhere else – maybe back in time, I don’t know. Another life.

Lionel Rancourt made this Meritage before he passed on. You can tell he put his heart and soul into it. I didn’t get a chance to meet the winemaker but this wine is a testament to the fine art of winemaking. Limited supplies on this one.

VISITING VIGNOBLE RANCOURT

The beaten path is not for everybody. There is an excellent book by editor in chief of Wired Magazine, Chris Anderson called The Long Tail. In the tome he explains that the more popular products, the hits in our markets are fleeting and eventually most consumers eventually want to explore the greater market for themselves.

The wines of Vignoble Rancourt are not showy or flashy like Australian or California wines (or the hits) we see bombarding the LCBO shelves. The winery isn’t huge, it’s modest and the wines available offer the consumer quality, giving us in Ontario a taste of the Old World, a world of Bordeaux in our own backyard.


Vignoble Rancourt Winery
1829 Concession 4
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
L0S 1J0
Tel 905-468-2882
Fax 905-468-9243
email lionel.rancourt@sympatico.ca

Hours of operation:
May – Oct., 10:00 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Oct. – April, 11:00 a.m. – 5 p.m

ANNOUNCEMENT: Happy b-Day, Johnny.

Read more...

Ontario - Wandering the Wine Route: Malivoire

As autumn approaches step-by-red-leafed-step, this is the ideal time to get in the car on the weekend and wander the wine routes. The harvest is in full-swing for some wineries while others are waiting for a bit more sun to get their grapes just right (or ripe). The slow but glowing changes in the trees give the atmosphere a crisp-gold allure amidst the fading, dying greenery. Autumn, yes, is truly the twilight of all seasons.

Growing up in Niagara, I spent numerous hours in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Lazy afternoons drives along the Niagara Parkway, through the country, to visit family or go see a band at the Angel Inn. It was always about experiencing the fresh, colorful scenery that makes this backyard of mine so beautiful to absorb in fall.

Lately, though, I’ve been exploring Jordan and Beamsville.

MALIVOIRE

On a day of mixed rain and sun, I drove along King St. to Malivoire. This winery sits on the rolling Beamsville Bench, which runs from the creek gully just west of Cherry Avenue in Lincoln to Park Road west of Beamsville. Whereas the majority of land in Niagara-on-the-Lake lies on a flat landscape, the wineries along the bench have some of the most visually stunning views of vineyards and Lake Ontario.

Malivoire is tucked up just off King St. on King St. E. The vineyards surround the winery in a sweep of slopes and the structures, Quonset huts, once designed for the U.S. Navy during the second world war, sit huddled on a hillside once considered too steep to grow vines.

The winery’s facilities are very modern and like Tawse on the Twenty Mile Bench, incorporate a gravity-flow system (actually they are the first to incorporate this innovative measure in Ontario). Martin Malivoire, a special-effects movie director and his partner, Moira Saganski bought two vineyards on the bench during the 1990’s. Winemaker Ann Sperling got the wines off to a great start. Assistant Shiraz Mottiar took over for the 2005 continuing in Ann’s impressive footsteps.

MALIVOIRE: THE VINEYARDS

The winery owns two vineyards, Moira and Estate on the Beamsville Bench while leasing the land of the Eastman (also on the bench) and the Epp Vineyards on the nearby Twenty-Mile Bench.

The main varieties grown include: Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Chardonnay, with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Marechal Foch, and Riesling.

Malivoire is dedicated to sustainability. The use of chemicals has become more of an issue for wineries as many wonder whether using quick solutions (i.e. pesticides that cause nutrient deterioration) is really worth the risk. While some 'irresponsible' wineries are more apt to abuse the land and leave it in a scorched-earth state, Malivoire has chosen to work with it. Cuttings and pomace are used for compost, herbal anti-mildew sprays replace chemical ones and grapes are picked by hand, reducing the emissions put out by harvesting machines.

The care taken to preserve the land shows up immediately in the wines. The Moira vineyard has been maintained under Organic certification since 2001.

MALIVOIRE: THE WINES

I came alone on my first visit to this winery. (When I go wine-tasting solo, I try to exercise a bit more caution. One day, I had been to two previous wineries and even though I had spit most of the wines, I was beginning to feel that buzz wine invites to one’s psyche and soul when lunch has been overlooked. When I get this feeling of romantic gregariousness, I tend to take a kind of sensual, laissez-faire approach to tasting. )

I asked the employee behind the counter what she recommended, what she thinks is the best. She recommended the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir.

She wasn’t wrong.

Malivoire Main Five Series 2007 Chardonnay

53% barrel of the wine was fermented in oak sourced from Burgundy, the remaining 47% fermented in stainless steel.

I was incredibly impressed with this wine as it brought on a bounty of bright, green apples, toasty butterscotch and delicious dashes of nutmeg. This is a fun wine, outspoken, easy to drink. My eyebrows shot up; I smiled. I dubbed this Chardonnay Party Girl.

Malivoire 2007 Mottiar Chardonnay

From vines planted on the Mottiar Family Vineyard on the Beamsville Bench, this wine is a bit more sophisticated than the Party Girl. Before I found out the vineyard had been planted with Dijon clones, I guessed Burgundy. The acidity was present, also the citrus and the stone fruit but there was an enticing Werther’s Original candy element that made it so much more beautiful. 

I have to say, I felt a moment of nostalgia but also this sense of immediate pleasure and wonder. The wine possessed a soothing depth. If it was a woman, she’d be blonde, tanned, dressed in gold and she’d take me out to the symphony. Falling in love, I called this Chardonnay Opera Girl.

Moira 2006 Chardonnay

The last and most expensive of the Chardonnays I tried was sourced from the Moira Vineyards. I took a sniff. It wasn’t as pronounced as the other two. I cupped my hands around the bottom of the glass to warm it up. I took another sniff.

There… but still, just slight, just subtle.

I found this wine to be a bit shy, perhaps it needed more time to come out of its shell. Taking in the mellow vanilla, the light melon and banana notes, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit rejected as if the wine had given me the cold shoulder or simply didn’t want to talk. The wine reminded me of a beautiful woman lost in a good book. She is there in the room but doesn’t respond to your footsteps, doesn’t hear you call her name. You kiss her neck and she just waves you off. Get out of here, I’m reading.

Call me crazy, but that’s the impression I got. I dubbed her Bookish Girl.

I shared my impressions with Anna behind the counter. She found the personalities I had attributed to the wines quite amusing.

I didn’t want to go yet. I had to try to two of the reds before I left.

The Malivoire 2006 Pinot Noir is both lively and tempting. Just imagine a red cherry dipped in paprika and red pepper, then add a shaving of pepperoni and you get my meaning.Complex and complete.

The Old Vines Foch was my personal favourite. For this wine, take a bramble berry pie, smother it with mulberry juice and drip on a few lines of pineapple glaze. Heaven - absolutely, irrefutably heaven.

Malivoire makes other notable wines - a Gamay, a Guilty Men red blend, their famous Ladybug Rosé, which I’ll try – hopefully - on my next visit.

Malivoire Wine Company Ltd.

4260 King Street East

P.O. Box 475

Beamsville, Ontario Canada

L0R 1B0

Tel: 905-563-9253

Toll-free in North America: 1-866-644-2244

Fax: 905-563-9512

Regular Hours:

Monday to Friday 10:00am to 6:00pm. Weekends 11:00am to 6:00pm

Sources:

http://www.malivoire.com/

Phillips, Rod, Ontario Wine Country. Whitecap Books, North Vancouver,

Wine Access 2009: Canadian Wine Annual

Read more...