Twenty-five Canadian wines that rocked in 2025

Godello in Vancouver

These past 13 years have offered countless opportunities to taste the coffered excellence of Canadian wine and in turn these Godello pages have produced 12, now 13 sets of recollection, reminiscence and appreciation. Formulating these lists has always been time consuming, the process delicate, the stress they induce troubling and wrought with hours of heedful consideration. The 13 years of tasting and assessing have accounted for more than 15,000 Canadian wines in glasses well-used, replaced and updated, through Zalto tragedies, Riedel and Spiegelau mitigation. The number 25 may appear to be an easy target because that seems like more than sufficient spaces to fill, but every year gets harder and the task weighs increasingly on the taster’s duty to accountability. These twenty-five Canadian wines that rocked in 2025 represent a cross section of Canadian merit always edging into brilliance, an annual catalogue never ignored nor glossed over, completed with conscientious thought towards the end goal of celebrating Canada’s best. Ethical and justified, by now a matter of tradition and in this opinion, a cultural imperative.

Godello in the Okanagan Valley

Twenty-five percent of this year’s tableau are sparkling wines, one less than 2024 but still a number that serves to prove the enduring coast-to-coast quality of that sector in Canadian wine. As a reminder, “the math is really quite simple. Cool climate viticulture means longer growing seasons for more developed, therefore riper phenolics matched dutifully by kept acidities. Climates have changed but Canadian growing areas have not yet lost their edge and besides, extreme events are more likely and increasingly the culprit when it comes to extenuating snafu circumstances like crazy cold snaps that take out wide swaths of grapevines. For the most part this country can still hang a wide variety of grapes to create killer sparkling wines. Be immersed in the emerging industry that is Canadian sparkling wine and you will find yourself amazed. Canadian wine regions form coast to coast are not trying to make Champagne, but, the promise grows for producing sparkling wine better than anywhere in the world…with the exception of Champagne.”

NWACs 2025

At the 2025 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada there were 100 medals awarded to sparkling wines. 100! 100 is an insane number of Gold, Silver and Bronze medallions allotted to any category and yet sparkling is in fact so deserving of the hardware. Of those 100 medals, 23 were Gold, 34 Silver and 43 Bronze. The two most expensive wines entered both received Gold recognition and the provincial breakdown at that level was 12 from Ontario, 10 out of British Columbia and one for Nova Scotia. In fact the average price of Gold winning wines is $56.10 which surely says something about two dozen WineAlign judges’ ability to identify the highest Canadian sparkling wines.

The School of Cool July 17, 2025 Edition
(c) Cool Chardonnay

One riesling, one roussanne/marsanne and six chardonnay make up the gaggle of white wines and there is never any wonder why this country’s most successful grape variety always occupies more spots than any other single variety. The 15th International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration took place in July, 2025 and while every annual Niagara chardonnay experience is cool, this above the clouds 2025 edition was something other. Unexpectedly Godello was tasked with steering the educational component as emcee for the Thursday School of Cool at White Oaks Conference Resort and Spa. An honour and indeed a privilege it was, to share a stage with Canadian and international winemakers, winery representatives, distinguished minds and presenters. There was a palpable buzz in the room at this year’s School of Cool and also an uncommon level of expert conviction conferred by the moderators and panelists. The Canadian wine industry has assuredly come of age and chardonnay’s cool weekend was the perfect time to express the explorative, collaborative and measurable maturity of experience. Over those four days from July 17-20, the i4C was the coolest place to be.

Another solid showing for pinot noir although three were chosen as compared to five the previous year, a drop attributed to more cabernet franc and syrah making it into the fray. The rise in franc quality is a by-product of a collective new understanding by winemakers producing pure, unadulterated cabernet franc equipped with a true and clear message to represent a sense of pace. A confident prediction will see the number of franc hitting best of lists rise with increasing regularity, not as a trend but with the notion they are here to stay. The syrah clusterf%*k is another matter because of the winter catastrophe that wiped out most of the Okanagan’s plantings. The three chosen for 2025 are all profound examples and are here because of their excitement inducing factors, not because of empathy or sentimentality. The finale is a remarkable red blend at a steal of a price from a winery that produces bigger red blends at much higher costs, but this one is “real indeed, honest as F and clearly made in good faith.” Far too good to ignore.

Meritage is still a big deal and stylistically speaking, some of the most complex Canadian red blends are the equivalent or coalescence of two famous European attributes, they being the French garrigue and Italian macchia. Still others bring about a mix of merde Française and Italianate animale. In such cases tasters are split between the forces of complexity and flaws. Unwanted microbes are distractions, especially Brettanomyces which is not an accent upon the language of great wine. Canadian wine consumers are fortunate because their makers’ cellars are cleaner (and not nearly as old) as many Euro counterparts and to a winemaker, clean and technically sound wine is this country’s wine religion. Thank goodness for that.

Canadian judges concluded the annual 2025 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada with a resounding roar in thanks to the ever increasing quality this country puts forth year after year. The 2025 edition was once again held in Penticton heading up towards the northerly growing areas in the Okanagan Valley. Evening programs between site visits took place at JoieFarm Winery hosted by BC Winegrowers; Liquidity Winery with Mission Hill, CedarCreek, Martin’s Lane, CheckMate, Red Barn at Jagged Rock and Road 13; Garnet Valley Ranch with the Summerland Bottleneck Drive members. These get togethers take judging wines blind to another level by solidifying their meaning when tasted with the producers who make them.

In nine days 2026 will be upon us and the new year will mark a change in job description with the addition of a new title: National Wine Advisor to Canada’s Great Kitchen Party. Thank you to David Lawrason, on a deeply personal level, for your many years of contribution and all you have done for Kitchen Party and Canadian wine. We have all witnessed the growth, maturity and excellence of the culinary events during which David has been instrumental in bringing the finest Canadian wines to light. “I will never forget how he stood at the Kitchen Party podium some 12 years ago and introduced me as “Canada’s wine wordsmith,” a compliment taken to heart and an encouragement to always be myself. You have been an inspiration, a great friend and colleague. As my true mentor in wine journalism it feels only fitting to take the Kitchen Party baton from you, now proud and honoured to act as this next messenger for Canadian wines and to share their world class quality with Canadians, from Victoria to St. Johns.”

Godello’s annual crème de la crème collection is a matter of messenger passing on a message from all the vintners, winemakers and marketers that bring Canadian wine to the people. So many worthy wines are omitted not because they lack stuffing, honesty or quality. Twenty five is still a very small number representing just two and a half percent of what is tasted each year and so let us give credit to those that are here. These are the twenty-five Canadian wines that rocked in 2025.

School of Cool squadra; Josh Horton (Lightfoot & Wolfville), Marty Werner (MW Wines), Ben Minaker (Andrew Peller) and Dr. Jennifer Kelly (CCOVI)

Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut Rosé 2021, Nova Scotia

Organic pinot noir and by now this must be the fifth or sixth leaf for Raven Hill Vineyard fruit situated directly across the road from the winery. The Lightfoot & Wolfville sparkling wine program has matured into one of Canada’s best under the leadership of talented winemaker Josh Horton and vintage Brut Rosé takes a giant leap forward with the 2021 vintage. Beyond balance and now riveted up with a next level transference of fruit gaining in experience aged on really fine lees. The result is increased clarity and a beguiling ride for the senses. An exciting Wolfville bubble, ideal for this holiday season and into the beyond. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted December 2025

With Jonas Newman, Hinterland Winery and The Grange of Prince Edward

Hinterland Blanc De Blancs 2020, VQA Ontario, VQA Prince Edward County

Hard not to couple Les Etoiles and Blanc de Blancs, especially when you taste the two side by each. From that blend of three varieties to here, a solo artist as chardonnay that speaks so succinctly in Jonas Newman’s scintillant of a sparkling wine. It takes a village and a warm vintage to make a B de B with this much polyteleías character, beyond luxe to luxurious and more. The estate-grown chardonnay is aged n 500L five year-old barrels for 10 months ahead of its tirage. Ages in bottle flat on slats for 36 months through to a November 2024 disgorgement. Where fruit meets limestone. The 2020 is quite glorious, thank you very much. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted December 2025

Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Estate Blanc De Blancs 2018, VQA Short Hills Bench

To invoke an Asteroid City concept, the time is always right to taste Cuvée Catherine, This becasue it’s simply never a sparkling wine we need to see in “the wrong way,” as Kafka once wrote, “to be able to see things the right way.” Many bubbles fall into the category of that conundrum but in Ontario the Speck brothers’ Carte Blanche always gets the art right. It excuses us the need to learn that artifice is the antithesis of affect, if simply because it is a fizz that presents a consistently clear vision of sparkling winemaking as an art form that casts a light, illuminates and enriches. Case in point and again with 2018, perhaps the most decadent of them all, perfectly aligning base wine fruit with secondary fermentation and felicitous acidity towards an elasticity that snaps back on the palate with each sip. If you need to ask did it turn out, the answer will always be, Cuvée Catherine always turns out. One day the H of P boys have got to pour this for the filmmaker because their’s is benchmark cinematic bubble. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted November 2025

Godello and Pender

Tawse Spark David’s Block Blanc De Blancs 2010, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Four months should not make much of a difference when talking about and assessing a sparkling wine spent….180 months on the lees…but time’s a tickin’ and so 120-130 days does change the matter. The soothsaying work of the late great Mr. Pender foresaw this ability to not only hang in, but do so with toughness, grit and impressive grip. The flavours are oxidative and phenolic freight demands our attention. In the end the wine thrives…and survives. Drink 2025-2027. Last tasted November 2025

En triage 12 years and just about as dry as they come for a sparkling chardonnay that then winemaker Paul Pender made the choice to go highest acid (9.8 g/L) and lowest dosage (2 g/L). Fascinating as always to look back at some of the earliest Spark! sparkling wines from the coolest of cool chardonnay. This bottle does however feel every day of its age. Notably mushroom, toasty and autolytic. Interesting and though there is some persistent acidity the freshness for this bottle has gone long in the tooth. Tasted at i4C, July 2025

No this is not an optical illusion but it may be a test. A 2010 Blanc de Blancs is in fact chardonnay by now aged nearly 14 years on the lees and if nothing else the colour of this sparkling wine is virtually impossible. Magic at least and the aromas tell another incredulous story. There is petrol in the aromatic mix, as if this were riesling and so maybe think about Icewine, how even chardonnay can develop these sorts of mineral-gaseous aromas with enough time in bottle. As here with sparkling wine and the most fascinating look at Spark in its many varied iterations. There is a note that reminds of Vermouth and so freshness is not the operative word but complexity surely is. Just a faint bit of Rancio, nutty and distinct, so worth the detour. And priceless. Tasted November 2024

Dean Stoyka and J-L Groux – Stratus Vineyards

Stratus Blanc De Blancs 2017, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake

Have always found the 100 percent Stratus chardonnay twice fermented as Blanc De Blancs to reside and take a rightful place amongst the most complex in Canada. Generally speaking the wine ages six years on the lees and now eight years post vintage you can add stunning idiosyncratic personality to already guaranteed complexity, because my goodness what magic and fantasy are going on here? What wizardry of physiological conversion from chardonnay to Blanc De Blancs is happening? Scents are savoury to a level that invokes some Mediterranean macchia, phenolics are indicated by a ginger and allied friends spice masala, bitters are of a fine digestive tincture, distilled from compound leaf exotica. Not only unfamiliar but come from a wild mix of South Asian and Southeast Asian aromatics to put this B de B in a sparkling guild of its own. Have never tasted anything like it. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted November 2025

Marty Werner

York Vineyards Reserve Brut, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake

Mon dieu the tight energy wind is ready to explode – but not quite yet. Pent up like no other Niagara sparkler, on the lake or otherwise, fuelled by emotion and toasty intensity this close to letting loose. Would wait another few months to allow for further lees meets fruit and acid development, pegging and coalescence. The sky is the limit for the Brut NV, top of the bubbling heap for York Vineyards. Drink 2026-2031. Last tasted November 2025

York Vineyards’ Brut is a two-thirds to one-third chardonnay-pinot noir joint that sees 72 months on the lees. A sparkling sensation taking the country and apparently also the world by storm. The attention to detail, focus and determination are credible, felt with palpable energy and there is no doubt as to how much trial, experimentation and consideration went into making this and other York Vineyards wines. The Reserve moniker may at times feel like an add on but here one can imagine the assessment of base wines and the selection being both a stringent and anticipatory one. This is richness off the proverbial Ontario charts with a toasty-autolytic complex character that defies regularity. Toned, defined and appreciable because the flesh is yet to fully develop. Tasted November 2024

Culmina Winery, Oliver

Culmina Riesling Decora Margaret’s Bench Vineyard 2021, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

There is Decora and then there is the high elevation vineyard above the Golden Mile Bench boundary qualification in the South Okanagan. Margaret’s Bench is one of the area’s top riesling sites – Think of it as the Okanagan’s version of carricante growing above the Etna DOC designation, say in Rampante or Guardiola. The levels of extract, tannin and phenolic grip gather to elevate, lift and transmogrify riesling into something other, magical and munificent. Some age has already brought about the savoury honeyed effect, like Hunter Valley sémillon and the aforementioned L’Etna mystery. But this is the Okanagan and riesling gets no more amazing than this. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted November 2025

Geoffrey Moss M.W. – Søren Wines

Søren Results May Vary Roussanne Marsanne 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Can’t imagine Geoffrey Moss M.W.’s choice of wording is in ode to Limp Bizkit’s fourth studio album, though you just never know and with this rather dubious first Rhône-ish Blanc he might say “Gimme the Mic.” Perhaps also “Red Light-Green Light” because along with his first kick at syrah the pair signal the arrival of two important wines onto the Okanagan, British Columbian and Canadian markets. Results May Vary is a joint roussanne-marsanne with a gently swaying mix of optimism, optimally ripe fruit and the sweet support of stride for stride acidity. Dutiful march up the sides of the jawline and across the palate with each green grape providing, integrating and then connecting for equal contributive proportion. Terrific effort for this dual purposed nexus of Rhône varieties done up with distinction as a promise of the Okanagan Valley. Can’t wait to try this again, but also future iterations that will surely evolve towards the profound, one subtle step at a time. Drink 2025-2027. Tasted January 2025

The Long Way Home Chardonnay 2023, VQA Beamsville Bench

The next Beamsville Bench 2023 Long Way Home chardonnay from one time Hidden Bench and South African winemaker Marlize Beyers may just be her deepest metaphorical exploration, of Escarpment longing and the quest for inner varietal peace. Notes of vivid aromatics and metaphors are imagined, whether conventional or unconventional, yet all speak to the long journey. Balance is struck between fruit and barrel, ripeness and elastic tension, all primed and relished this time around. Everyone waits for great chardonnay and when it is found, inner peace becomes the satisfying result. And so if you have ever said “love’s the only thing I’ve ever known,” consider adding chardonnay to the longing and looking past this 2023 would be a missed opportunity. Once again and this time with the writer’s original gravelly bawl, “come with me, together we can take the long way home.” Drink 2025-2030. Tasted May 2025

The Senchuks – Leaning Post

Leaning Post Chardonnay Senchuk Vineyard 2022, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

Sharp and pinpointed without equivocation in home base chardonnay of vines further matured into early adulthood. Now in delivery for fineness and a development into true realism in western Niagara chardonnay. In fact place does not get any more west and so we begin to believe that the west is indeed the best. The concept may express a subjective opinion and also convey a preference for a specific geographic region but who can deny what the Senchuks have accomplished with the clay based block behind the winery. The 2022 is in fact a warm chardonnay from a cool climate that shows just the existential where and when history of a wine like this. With depth of flavour, rise and length. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted at i4C, July 2025

Quails’ Gate Winemaker Kailee Frasch

Quails’ Gate Chardonnay Rosemary’s Block 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

From first nose you just know this is proper chardonnay and without question the one that comes from a pinpointed place. Sapid and tonic-driven chardonnay with wood spice and a whiff of smoulder, slightly higher acetic presence as well. All these things are within reason and the lemony character is really what defines the wine. The aromas are distinct, the flavours compact and the finish elastic. Everything reaches out to be experienced, snaps back, retreats behind the wood and comes back out again. Repeats the process ad infinite though not without a kind of quiet or demure. Grace and charm are evident while tension keeps the energy alive. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted blind at NWACs, June 2025

Grimsby Hillside Vineyard

Bachelder Chardonnay Frontier Block Grimsby Hillside Vineyard 2023, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

The golden Grimsby Hillside Vineyard child is Frontier Block, with no dis to Red Clay Barn Block, but of the two the weight, clarity, organic purity and morphological flexibility here is second to none. Simple to say but there’s so much more, including an elevated stone-mineral experience come from this GHV stunner, tasting exemplar finale for the Toussaint release played out in 14 chardonnay bars. If there were any wine produced from fruit raised out of this dubious reverse L-shaped vineyard located in the far western section of the Double “L” to make a case for designating a new Niagara sub-appellation – The Frontier Block would be that wine. The stage presence enables and enacts the most positive effect on pleasure and peace of mind. Pour this to only they who will appreciate the nuance, impeccable timing, structure and philanthropy. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted December 2025

Kaylee Barss, Checkmate Winery

Checkmate Chardonnay Capture Buena Vista Vineyard 2023, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

From the by now well famous Buena Vista Vineyard parcel near the US border at Osoyoos in the southern Okanagan. My goodness what restraint and linearity, tight lines and fruit wound around a spindle, winced like laces pulled perfectly tight. Fine and precise, a dare it be said perfect capture of chardonnay fruit from a perfect vintage. Simply, unequivocally and ostensibly wow. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted September 2025

Winemaker Taylor Whelan

Mission Hill Perpetua 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Comes from Dijon planted clones in four blocks at Mission Hill’s Border Vista Vineyard in Osoyoos. Most southerly and warmest location at the border with Washington, one of Canada’s great vineyard sites and capable of delivering the highest quality of chardonnay. As it does from 2022 with perfectly judged reductive element for freshness incarnate urged to fruition by citrus and orchard fruit in the flesh. Last tasted September 2025

Big and fulsome chardonnay with a whole lotta love, Rosie and barrel going on. Steals the show with fruit the AC, barrel the DC, arriving together. Working as soulmates should, integrating, sharing and complimenting on another, words unspoken. Notes of lemon, pencil led and an airiness, rising overhead. Hand in hand and this is what we ask from chardonnay. Want a whole lotta this. Drink 2025-230. Tasted blind at NWACs, June 2025

Apāra Winery Gamay Noir 2023, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

The work and dream of Nav & Andreas only began in 2021 when land was acquired and then with 5,700 vines put into the ground the following year. Their wines are made at Rigour & Whimsy Winery in Okanagan Falls. Just 113 (sold out) cases were made of this three-day wild carbonic fermented gamay, 15 days total on skins, aged 6 months in neutral French oak, unfined and unfiltered. Love the spice cupboard on the gamay nose with freshest of fresh red fruit. Crunchy red without trying hard at any moment for the how, what and why it generously delivers in waves across your palate. Simply awesome cru-Beaujolais style. Drink 2026-2030. Tasted September 2025

Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir Hieroglyph 2020, BC VQA Naramata Ranch

Stony does not begin to describe the nature and character of this phenolic pinot noir. First vintage for a single, south-facing block at the most northern end of the Naramata Bench, bordering Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park. Cliff-perched over the the lake and nutrient-poor soils of fine talcum powder glacial silt. Smallest of parcels for 100 cases from fruit picked on September 29th. Spontaneous fermentation, 80 percent whole cluster, 18 day maceration, 16 months in (25 percent new) French and Austrian wood. Magical conversion rate to 12.8 percent alcohol, impeccable balance between medium-key (5.8 g/L) acidity and (3.66) pH. Serious, structured and my kind of tension. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted June 2025

Closson Chase Pinot Noir South Clos 2023, VQA Prince Edward County

From demure to exuberance, leaving that absolutely fine and elegant 2021 and moving ahead two years into this powerful 2023 pinot noir. Then again the County and South Clos-ness can never be shaken or removed from the equation and frankly this sku is one of Canada’s most balanced varietal wines. Punch and circumstance combine for more power and pop but restraint as the wine’s middle name does keep SC grounded, with thanks to the agriculture meeting Keith Tyers’ acumen, steady in experienced winemaking hands. Some savour with verdant crunch this season, parts that will bolster structure and see this pinot noir age well into the next decade. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted November 2025

Thomas Bachelder and Mary Delaney-Bachelder

Bachelder Pinot Noir Wild West End Wismer Parke Vineyard 2023, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Sure feels like we’ve left coach and now live comfortably in business class aboard the Bachelder pinot noir train. Still in Wismer Parke yet the seats are in the Wild West End, in most vintages a place of untamed territory, but 2023 is not every vintage. The amenability factor now runs about as high as it could possibly fly and while Wismer Parke expresses its sneaky structure at the last possible moment, in the Wild West End it makes itself known from the very beginning. This dichotomy of immediate gratification juxtaposed against age-ability makes this the most fascinating of the 2023s. The music is no longer Bluegrass but now Wild 80s Country where guitars, Cadillacs and hillbilly rule the day. That’s where pinot noir comes in because on this train “it’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on.” Drink 2026-2032. Tasted December 2025

Ron Giesbrecht – Wending Home

Wending Home Cabernet Franc Estate Vineyard 2021, VQA Creek Shores

First tasted blind and this second go leaves me duly impressed. This time knowing full well what wine is poured but no change in attitude or assessment – only reinforcement because Wending Home’s 2021 defines the beauty and potential of Niagara cabernet franc. Last tasted August 2025

Fulsome and well-oaked cabernet franc with all the fruits involved, of blacks, reds and especially blues. Very varietal in that respect yet without any sidling kinship to varieties like tempranillo, malbec or petit verdot. This is a seamless expression in which acidity plays a key role to lift, cool down and stretch fruit in the face of skin plus wood tannin. Impressive expression all around. Drink 2026-2029. Tasted blind at NWACs, June 2025

Winemaker Jonathan McLean, Black Bank Hill

Black Bank Hill Cabernet Franc 2022, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

Tasting this from a bottle opened yesterday only reinforces the finding for what will go down as one of the finer cabernet francs ever made in Ontario. The cup runneth over with red fruit and varietal intangibles that only these Lincoln Lakeshore vines could have possibly produced. BBH’s 2022 was most certainly made in the vineyard, coaxed along in the cellar by the estate’s and founder Taylor Emerson’s most thoughtful winemaker Jonathan McLean. Last tasted July 2025

Juiciest of the cabernet franc and also one of the more tannic, a.k.a structured expressions. Comes at the palate (especially) in waves and with layers waiting to be peeled away, exposed and experienced. There is everything in this ultra special cabernet franc and it will live a very long time. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted blind at NWACs, June 2025

Grange Of Prince Cabernet Franc Edward Aurelia Series 2023, VQA Prince Edward County

What absolutely killer, beautiful and appropriate volatility in the sweetest and most elastic vein. There are Loire and Ontario cabernet franc and then comes along Aurelius at Prince Edward County’s Grange made by Jonas Newman – and the skies re-open. Feels like a cabernet franc epiphany sent after a storm with order restored post chaos and darkness. The wine’s opening salvo is something understood to be professional and artisanal rolling into the proverbial emergence from risk relatable to reward. Brightness and potential ensues. Near, near absolutely brilliant bottle of cabernet franc. The pinnacle is coming soon. Drink 2026-2031. Tasted at i4C, July 2025

Jesce Baessler – Corcelletes

Corcelettes Syrah 2022, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Easily the biggest and most structured syrah of the lot, dripping with hematic juices, sanguine and also the greatest ferric presence. Massive waves of fruit and tannin, wood so very much a part of the mix and the style incomparable, save for like-minded efforts and with a nod to the motherland. Smoky bacon and acid structure. The most complete example for aging long term. Drink 2027-2033. Tasted blind at NWACs, June 2025

Rainmaker Wines Syrah Viognier The Modernist 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

The epitome of (Barbecue) smoked meats as a hunch in syrah, more beef than pork and with all the attributes the variety is bent to display when a place and winemaking conspire to bring purity and reality to the table. Love the meat sweats feeling, the full concentration of fruit and the seriousness of mineral running through. Top notch without any semblance of lean, mean or green character. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted blind at NWACs, June 2025

Black Hills Winemaker Ryan McKibbon

Black Hills Estate Winery Bona Fide 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Real indeed, honest as F and clearly made in good faith, of 42 percent malbec with carménère and syrah for one of this country’s most determined and yet genuinely restrained red blends. There is no mistaking or missing the purity of the blue meets purple fruit of malbec, nor the righteous use of toasty and sweetly vegetal carmenère. The syrah is the tie that binds, the meaty and juicy rare cut of beef that lends both a mildly smoky but also rich depth of plasma and iodine. You will be forgiven for imagining Chile, Argentina or South Africa, yet you will be rewarded for celebrating the Okanagan Valley-ness of the final effect. That from a complete wine which is silken, virtuous and proper. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted September 2025

Okanagan Valley

Painted Rock Syrah 2022, BC VQA Skaha Bench, Okanagan Valley

The 2022 is a bold and patented syrah with trenchant purpose and likely clocking in at a higher alcohol level than the rest of the Painted Rock reds. Just a hair short of 15 percent, wily, woolly, fruit gilded and exotically perfumed to the hilt. Silken and suave but not without a sense of “animale,” as can also be said of some northern Rhône syrah. Drink a glass too fast and you may feel as though you are sporting a hairshirt on the skin as a form of religious penance or self-discipline. The structure is in fact impeccably conceived and constructed, which is to say a few years down the road you will appreciate this wine for how it has moved from green to red. Share it with people who make a difference in your life, put on the seminal pop-transition record by R.E.M. and say to them “feed me banks of light and hang your hairshirt on the lowest rung. It’s a beautiful life.” Drink 2027-2034. Tasted April 2025

Good to go!

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Twenty-four Canadian wines that rocked in 2024

Dec23

Godello and Hare

Composing a best of list is something that takes a sedulous amount of time, a year’s accumulation of thought and above all else, ultra careful consideration. When more than 1,000 Canadian wines are tasted in a calendar year, narrowing it down to 24 feels like a profound task and weighty sense of responsibility. These twenty-four Canadian wines that rocked in 2024 represent the twelfth consecutive such register first published in 2013, annually iterated and guaranteed, never gratuitously settled upon and always as a show of Canada’s highest level of quality. Integrity too, which will become clear by the time you finish reading this exercise.

Godello at Dobbin Estate

Seven out of 24 (that’s nearly 30 percent for those scoring at home) are sparkling wines, a number that will only come as a shocking surprise to those who haven’t been paying attention. The math is really quite simple. Cool climate viticulture means longer growing seasons for more developed, therefore riper phenolics matched dutifully by kept acidities. Climates have changed but Canadian growing areas have not yet lost their edge and besides, extreme events are more likely and increasingly the culprit when it comes to extenuating snafu circumstances like crazy cold snaps that take out wide swaths of grapevines. For the most part this country can still hang a wide variety of grapes to create killer sparkling wines. Seven sparklers are here, from five growing areas in three provinces.

WineAlign dines at Hidden Bench

Six of Godello’s 2024s are chardonnay, if for no other good reason than it always being on Canadian minds. What’s the best way to go about growing and making wines of the highest quality? Is chardonnay a victim of its own ubiquity and adaptability? What makes it so special then, as an expression of place, as well as production and technique? Chardonnay should taste like it has come from a place, but also from a time. No one said it was easy but one thing is certain, it’s a hell of a lot easier to make great chardonnay that has been planted in the right location. Still the endeavour is puzzling, like getting lost and running through a maze, fraught with wrong turns and dead-ends. It’s about hunch work, gauging probabilities, accounting for what has come before and extrapolating towards what might be. In Canada trying to find locations that gift the sweet spot is, as if at midnight, where sugar ripeness, acid structure, phenolic ripeness and fruit character will probably meet for optimum results. We who feel like this and nod at one another knowingly are lovers of chardonnay; eager and desperate to be one with its varietal psyche, to imagine it synched in sycophant fixation with our own. Yet all the salient facts and aspects of a wine’s journey, in viticulture, pH, residual sugar, total acidity, élevage and in tasting, are really nothing if we are unable to find the theory of the wine and by extension, the winemaker who made it happen. Fortunately for us the top six Canadian chardonnays chosen here (and the list does not stop at that number), have all made it happen.

Flight #1 at the 2024 School of Cool
(c) i4C

A reminder that “Chardonnay is never too cool for school.” The article published after i4C 2024 had this to say. “Will fully admit to having seriously considered not using the word “cool” in the title for this latest exposé on i4C, Niagara’s annual International Cool Climate Chardonnay Conference. Then good conscience and reality set in because the original dub for Canada’s most important and successful wine congress will always be too good to dismiss. They coined it, built it and people have most certainly come. To foresee and then to consummate this collective pursuit of excellence inscribes Cool Chardonnay into the lexicon of wine forever. Hard to predict just how many more of these joyous to potentially annual profound (four-day) weekends there will be, but were this the last then hundreds upon hundreds of producers, winemakers, media, influencers and consumers over the years will have walked away happy, better for it and with memories to last a lifetime. The extraordinary 2024 edition of i4C went deeper still, to deliver the coolest quality and finest balance between information, socialization, revelry, society and of course, chardonnay. Cool as ever, gotta be cool, relax and never too cool for school.”

Twenty Mile Bench

It was a very good year for tasting pinot noir and thus the grape is also well represented with five on the list. No other grape causes more of a stir, is responsible for more hair to fall and breaks more hearts. Does not play well with others, refuses to share, to be blended, to give anything less than 100 per cent. For many, there is no other grape variety. How often does a conversation begin with “what is your favourite wine” and end invidiously with “Burgundy?” While Bourgogne certainly persists as the historic locale possessive of the title “when it’s great, it’s the best,” pinot noir has found immense global success and Canadian soils are largely responsible for that. Thoughts with doubts about pinot noir’s viability in Canadian vineyards have long been laid to rest with proof arranged and clarified after yet another edition of the 2024 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. The judging week saw the fourth most number of flights, all intriguing and arguably the finest collective showing of bottles poured from the fickle grape. From lithe, transparent, high-toned, red berry charmers to darker, brooding, seriously ripe and often tannic iterations. As it has been said, “beauties and beasts, belles et bêtes,” pinot noir the good can succeed one way or another, with harmony and in balance.

With Magdalena Kaiser

So what is the number one takeaway with regards to Canadian pinot noir? The answer lies in the way winemakers approach their product. Lowest of low cropping to achieve density and concentration is no longer the launching point towards making great pinot noir. Aggressive pressing, intense macerations and long wood aging, especially in newer (and smaller) vessels all lead to astringency and imbalance. All of these things are fading into the rear-view mirror, slowly but surely being replaced by first and foremost, sustainable and regenerative agriculture resulting in healthier vines. In the winery there is less handling, more finesse and attention paid to detail leading to more purity and also clarity in the wines. This is what pinot noir needs. If the most suitable and only the most suitable sites are used, the future will move from optimistic to auspicious. The number one takeaway? Canadian pinot noir has long been searching for and is now beginning to find inner peace. Let’s just hope it keeps on this path, despite and in spite of climate change.

Godello’s annual best of bundle feels easier to create because with each passing year there are so many more wines of wonderment tasted and yet, and yet the jumble is harder to defend. Great wines are not left off the list for reasons of inferiority, deficiency or lack of character. The game is one of numbers and the pool from which to choose grows exponentially every year. These are the twenty-four Canadian wines that rocked in 2024.

With Heather Rankin – Obladee, Halifax

Benjamin Bridge Nova 7 Sparkling 2023, Nova Scotia

Benjamin Bridge is indeed correct and fully justified in self-proclaiming Nova 7 as “Nova Scotia’s favourite wine” because, well it just is. The blend for this resilient, magical, a decade and a half in the making, lightly effervescent and low alcohol sparkler is muscat, ortega, riesling, geisenheim, l’Acadie, vidal and petite pearl. The latter is a cold-hardy hybrid cultivar bred using a cross between MN 1094 and E.S. 4-7-26, grown in 25 US states and four provinces of Canada. The acidity for Nova 7 at 9 g/L integrates with ease and swirls 49 g/L of residual sugar into a comfort zone like a balanced Spätlese, with the peachiest of flavours and a refreshing, thirst-quenching and salty iced tea finish. A throwback in many ways and yet the 2023 is quite frankly as good as any Nova 7 there has ever been. Age a bottle three or four years to see what happens. What could go wrong? Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Blue Mountain Reserve Brut R.D. 2014, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Aromatic complexity, a chardonnay and pinot noir (55-45) sear of raging citrus but never lean because there is flesh all over the palate. The lemon segments are ripe and delicious, the red fruit character compliments with added spice, the persistence endless and the winemaking clearly coming from a place of experience and respect to place. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Always pleased to welcome the BR R.D. into a glass and here is an old but a proverbial goody, that being 2014 and consumers must be reminded just how special this research and development is to determine the excellence of Blue Mountain’s indagative sparkling wine. A blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, the first 10 percent more than the last with some of the most restrained, reserved and demure aromatics in the Okanagan Valley. All ways to say this is lovely, quietly generous and so settled to gift pleasure above all else. A most complex game of citrus and orchard fruit, distillate by nature, expertly seasoned with fine sea salt, white pepper and lemongrass powder. Such a gift nine years after vintage at a ridiculously reasonable price. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Last House Joie De Vivre Blanc De Blanc 2021, VQA Prince Edward County

No dosage, categorically Brut Zero sparkling wine of leesy significance and gentlest positive oxidation. A bubble set up this way from the start and carrying the torch forward on a justifiably sound plateau that should see no significant changes for the next few years. Only chardonnay and no vintage heat to set its trajectory hastily forward, with full orchard and citrus fruit flavours on a sturdy frame backed by bedrock as backbone PEC limestone intensity. You need to try this – it represents a significant style and profound bottle of sparkling wine. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted November 2024

The Senchuks – Leaning Post

Leaning Post Blanc De Blanc Traditional Method Sparkling 2019, VQA Beamsville Bench

Old (35 year-old) chardonnay Hemeris Vineyard vines are the source for the LP traditional method Blanc de Blanc that sees four-plus years on the lees. The sugar is not quite zero but to be honest, nine-plus grams of acidity renders three g/L of RS essentially obsolete. And yet the mouthfeel is full, substantial and acting gregarious. Packed with aromas and flavours, seemingly impossible and so this from a less than heat-cumulate Niagara vintage (that would have made for seriously piqued and biting still chardonnays) is almost a sparkling oxymoron. As far from severe as B de B will be, instead generous and celebratory. Unexpected and mind-blowing in many ways. What sorcery is this pray tell, Senchuk and Senchuk? Drink 2025-2032. Tasted November 2024

Dean Stoyka and J-J Groux – Stratus

Stratus Brut Nature Zero Dosage 2013, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake

J-L Groux explains that the main factor for making this kind of sparkling wine is PH, “because the aromatics will be built upon six to seven years of lees aging time.” J-L feels this ’13 is going to be the winner now, and for 20 years. Not far off it would seem because of the “partial disgorgement” method, well within VQA rules and thus you arrive at a toasty smoulder unlike any other sparkling wine. The lees are the thing, in fact they are everything. They prevent the aromas and the wine from oxidizing. Amazing. Last tasted July 2024

Comes across a bit cloudy, at least as compared to the B de B with thanks to the natural, lees left intact style. The citrus component is so pronounced, as is the taut, direct, lean and intense manifold destiny of what is truly a singular Sparkling wine. That being a living, breathing, inhaling and exhaling wine, slowly releasing proteins, acids and realizing its B de B Nature dream. Just amazing what lees can do for sparkling wine. Tasted July 2021

Released side by each with the Stratus Blanc de Blanc 2013 and while vintage and grape are the same, the similarities almost seemingly, ostensibly and allegedly end there. Yes in fact this 100 per cent chardonnay is a child of the most excellent varietal vintage and like the B de B spent six years on the lees. Comparisons cast aside it is the very fact that because much of the lees were transferred to bottle by a minimalist’s disgorging that this cloudy bubble with a Canadian artist’s series set of labels can’t help but elicit another memory. The Lilies of Monet and their clouds represent neither the horizon, nor the top or the bottom. Nor does a bottle of this Zéro Dosage Brut. The elements of water, air, sky and earth become intertwined in a composition without perspective, or so it goes in this hazy, opaque and dry as the desert sparkling wine. So many layers of lemon can be peeled, juiced and scraped away. If a Stratus wine could be a a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma then here it is. The texture here is palpable and the intrigue factor surely high, so it should be imagined that longevity will be this wine’s calling card. It’s more austere than the Blanc de Blanc but I think in fact it will. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted November 2020

Tasting The Old Third at White Oaks

The Old Third Pinot Noir Sparkling À La Volée 2011, Prince Edward County

First bottle opened since last tasting this unicorn of a PEC sparkling wine back in October of 2015. Now in a state of settled grace, of a collected, stored and persistent slow release of energy that keeps on keeping on. Every County maker using pinot noir for a Brut zero (or near zero) style should find a bottle of À La Volée 2011 as a reference point because as interpreters they must translate still wines to become bubbles “on the fly,” without waiting for the end to begin, acting with hindsight. Last tasted December 2024

“On the fly” is not exactly what comes to mind from this 100 per cent Pinot Noir, first Sparkling wine made by Bruno Francois. Calculated, attention to detail and intensity of ideation more like it. Three years on the lees, no dosage and from a vintage to speak in more than whispered voices, of acidity that announces its arrival with immediacy and a summons to contest. The nose does yeast, toast, citrus and ginger. A first release revelation as ever graced Ontario’s waves, as dry as the desert and lingering with switch back traces of its yeasty, toasty self. A single vineyard can be this way, equally and in opposition of natural and oxidative, with a hue less than Pinot Noir, though unrequited as a triumph when you get a ripe white from such Pinot. The production of 1200 bottles is relatively house high in a stunner that needs no sugar to draw up its flavours. Drink 2015-2023. Tasted twice, July and October 2015

Marty Werner – York Vineyards

York Vineyards Reserve Brut, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake

Emma Garner – Thirty Bench

Thirty Bench Steel Post Vineyard Small Lot Riesling 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Escarpment

An Ontario legend in terms of riesling and the one from Emma Garner at Thirty Bench that defies logic with a magical spell cast upon the grapes put to bottle. Probably the driest of the Small Lot series at just 11 g/L of residual sugar, impossibly converted and qualified by just 11.2 percent alcohol with what must be an acidity number that’s just about as high as the sweeter rieslings in the portfolio. The energy and vitality are exceptional, the warmth of the vintage delivers top quality, if absolutely pristine fruit and then there are the qualities of extract and tannin cohabitating at this highest level of composure. The potential here is unlimited. One of the finest rieslings ever made in Ontario and this one goes up to 11. Drink 2025-2035. Tasted March 2024

Charles Baker Picone Vineyard Riesling 2021, VQA Vinemount Ridge

The word “tannic” does not often first (second or third) come to mind when riesling is the subject but ’21 and Picone from Charles Baker strikes that way from the first sip. This after a most unique aromatic begin, dried herbals for one thing and exotic spicing in a cumin-coriander masala way. Even more so fenugreek leaf and wait for it…maple syrup. Hard to say why ’21 emits this way but when these scents give way to the riesling’s body politic the effect is both exotic and promising. Baker himself says that the “2021 CB from Picone is true to form and represents the vintage properly. Elegant, refined, absorbs the richness with fine acidity. Long floral green toned finish. Will age beyond me.” Indeed this may just turn out to be Charles Baker’s longest lived of the Picones, right up there with the ’06, ’11 and ’16. Drink 2024-2036. Tasted October 2024

Morgan Juniper – 16 Mile

16 Mile Cellar Civility Chardonnay Single Vineyard 2020, VQA Creek Shores

From a block called Susan’s Vineyard, wild ferment, full malolactic, raised in oak puncheons of light toast. The growing location may be the lower Escarpment’s steppe of Creek Shores but who would not feel, see and recognize this 2020 as truly Bench chardonnay. No ambivalence in the method, execution or design, ample and plush, of an all in lemony curd to speak of the finest and cleanest lees. Truly singular style and without a doubt winemaker Morgan Juniper’s most comprehensive chardonnay to date. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted June 2024

Maenad Wine Co.

Maenad Wine Co. Chardonnay Unfiltered And Bottled With Lees 2021, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

From the young vines of Grimsby Hillside Vineyard and while this label shall remain nameless, the block is actually 295. “A wild terroir exploration” says the winemaking show that is Yvonne Irving, a winemaker used to making a full bodied style of chardonnay from the Queenston Mile Vineyard. Unmistakably GVH and if you’ve tasted a Senchuk or Bachelder iteration than you’d know the vineyard wins every time. The richesse is belied by this specificity of intensity that is unequivocally GVH. This northern spot produces the most brightness against the backdrop of ripeness, barrel fermentation and oak-aging. Full malolactic but always beneath the fruit, full on lees and amazing crunch. So full up the middle and yet vertical. Real deal, whole package and so much more to come. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted March 2024

Henry Of Pelham Speck Family Reserve Chardonnay 2022, VQA Short Hills Bench

There is some truth to the advantage of tasting a stellar ’22 like this from Henry of Pelham when a great deal of other chardonnay being poured alongside are ‘21s, but letting chardonnays be chardonnay it matters less than we should actually be talking about. The SFR ’22 lives up to its blind billing and thrills without a moment’s hesitation. End of story. Last tasted August 2024

The only reductive chardonnay in this flight of nine which speaks to an overall change in winemaking and in fact there have only been three like this, out of let’s say 50 tasted these days. Reductive as much as any chardonnay though the fruit can stand up and hang tightly on the upright frame. Notable style, bit of pyrazine, Behind the veil is most excellent and concentrated varietal fruit that to this mind celebrates a very specific sense of place. A Bench on a step up against a hillside or escarpment and its maker’s care is more than evident. Tastes akin to high end Marlborough chardonnay. Well thought out, serious intention and should age well. A seriously structured and balanced wine that drinks well now but will only improve over the next two years. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024

Jessica Otting – Tawse

Tawse Chardonnay Quarry Road Vineyard 2021, VQA Vinemount Ridge

No shock or surprise that Quarry Road ’21 is a mineral bomb, coming away on that rocky side of the 50-50 fruit to stone compendium. Forget everything you’ve heard or read about this arch-cool Vinemount Ridge chardonnay, but also ignore all the noise about unmitigated disaster by vintage. Niagara winemakers should always make quality cool chardonnay these days and Tawse holds more water and responsibility than most. Jessica Otting is ten times equal to the task with a Quarry so precise and focused it may just make a tooth or two feel the mineral pain. A chardonnay chillingly representative of its vineyard yet, rewriting the jazz because of the shall not be named vintage. The naysayers can run away and hide in their holes because history will be kind to these wines, especially when they shine on in tastings ten years forward. No crutch or apology, sorry not sorry. Remember 2011 and 2013. Now forget them and only speak of 2021. Just great chardonnay. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Alex Baines – Hidden Bench

Hidden Bench Chardonnay Felseck Vineyard Unfiltered 2021, VQA Beamsville Bench

My goodness this is special chardonnay, coming as no surprise and if your thoughts and emotions for 2021 Niagara chardonnay need buoying than begin the bob right here. Precise aromas, immediate and echoing, more fruit than frankly necessity should expect as the mother of invention because mineral and saltness demand our utmost attention. Yet the fruit stands firm and even pulpy in the face of the crushed stone infiltrate from a vineyard stop on the grandest of Niagara cru tours. Exemplary to speak on behalf of a vintage that separates wheat from chaff, pinpointed location from just anywhere and adults from the gambling trials of youth. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted July 2024

Wade Dobbin, David Lawrason and Peter Gamble

Dobbin Estate Chardonnay 2019, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Not labeled as such but essentially a Reserve wine taken from a single barrel housing all estate fruit. High level of concentration and richness in the face of a vintage considered cool and challenging, but when you take a smallest of small lot wines like this that just does not apply. Everything about this is classic, basket pressed, natural ferment, full natural malolactic, 22 months maximum for oak aging, Burgundian obviously and medium of toast. “We come to barrel turbid – we like density,” notes Peter Gamble. (Peter) and Ann Sperling really liked this one particular barrel and decided to put it to magnums only. From late September and early October picks, finished at 14.5 percent alcohol and ultimately mouthfeel that rivals some pretty warm wine growing regions. A chardonnay that moves beyond Bourgogne to offer up its very own definition of Niagara’s Twenty Mile Bench. Last tasted July 2024

This may be just the first stages of Dobbin’s tenure making high end wines from the Twenty Mile Bench but auspicious does not begin to describe the level of sophistication marking these beginnings. The erudite oenological consulting team of Ann Sperling and Peter Gamble have taken chardonnay into territory they are quite familiar with but always keep in mind that top terroir, vineyard conditioning and uncompromising preparation are what collectively set this up for success. This 2019 is from a cool climate vintage out of a cool climate place and recent history tells us that these are chardonnay that live good, long and healthy varietal lives. Luxe yet still crunchy, high quality wood used generously if judiciously and in the end this kind of rocks the world. In a chardonnay way. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted April 2024

Spearhead Pommard Clone Pinot Noir 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

A bit of aromatic restraint from a pinot noir keeping some secrets and what scents as some whole bunch percentage inclusive style. Good palate richness and berry to citrus emulsion like a fluid smoothie of reds, greens and acidity. Plenty of understated depth, so ample, focused and really well defined. Brightest of the flight, red fruit in flight, breathing easier, acids also up there and structure never too demanding. Could always drink a glass. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024

Thomas Bachelder in the wilds of the Twenty Mile Bench

Bachelder Wild West End Wismer Parke Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

For Thomas Bachelder Wild West End, Wismer Parke Vineyard and pinot noir started out as the one of the most mystery, namely because Wismer could not name the clone and the first wine was even more sanguine than that of the Wismer Parke. Which says that the West End’s soil affects the clonal material in exaggerated ways and the question has always been, to tame or not to tame. The answer is vintage and not needing “a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Bachleder had to hang loose, stay cautious and learn about the vineyard’s situation, take other’s opinions into account and then proceed with action. This vintage feels like a culmination of necessity, a varietal mother of invention, a reality on display of full capabilities realized. The height of an epoch acceded by a grower and a winemaker on the same page. A wine of intelligence and acceptance because the ferric meets hematic parts oversee and tell fruit what to be and how to act. The people have learned how not to get in the way and the degree has been earned. The question is what’s next? Drink 2026-2033. Tasted November 2024

Kerri Crawford – Le Clos Jordanne

Le Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

As with Claystone Terrace the Grand Clos Vineyard blocks running from west to east move through this fruit gradation from structured and austere through to soft and amenable. For 2021 the middle ground is duly noted with a signature and arch classic Jordan/Twenty Mile Bench pinot noir that sings in youthful life as early as it ever has. The team (Thomas Bachelder, Kerri Crawford and Phillip Brown) have coaxed out the sweetest natural fruit. While it flows with ease it’s also equipped to slow down, reflect, and then re-emerge a few years thereafter, post pause and not atypical varietal dumb phase. Th3 2021 is found to be chic, suave and stylish as ever, fruit in a dark red cherry state and acidity meeting texture for mouthfeel of a most finessed kind. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted July 2024

Carrying Place, Prince Edward County

Trail Estate Winery Pinot Noir Revival 2020, VQA Prince Edward County

Has to be the top of the top drop for Trail Estate but also for PEC, not to mention perched up there at the precipice of breaching the Provincial price rubicon for all wines. Some are one dimensional, others expressed in two and then there is Trail’s, which most definitely incorporates a third. Reductive and diesel fuelled with almost no precedence towards understanding just exactly what this aromatic unfamiliarity is all about. Confounding and yet a sip quickly adjusts the viewpoint because layers of recognizable fruit glide over the palate. The vintage is worth waiting for, the phenolics so ripe that not a stem should be wasted, while the savoury pastry of said whole bunches makes sure no holes are left unfilled. When the lowest yields and the most stringent selection meet risk-reward winemaking techniques there can be something special to come from all these hopes and dreams. If revival speaks to the human condition, a.k.a. struggles with sin, forgiveness and redemption, well then this pinot noir may just be the answer to a winemaker’s struggle, quest and renewal. Now let’s see her repeat this every vintage, or at least one here and there deemed worthy of the pain, journey and prize. Oh, and please give this at least another year to find its way so that the enigmatic behaviour should wane and eventually subside. Those who can afford the cost will then see the forest for the trees and be granted some personal form of immediate gratification. In the end the question begs as to how we value Revival as a three-dimensional pinot noir? By definition three coordinates are required to determine the position of a point (and a pinot), namely those you can pick up, touch, and move around. But in the end the simple answer is depth, which is what Revival and all great wines simply have. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted April 2024

Jonas Newman – The Grange

The Grange Of Prince Edward Aurelia Pinot Noir 2023, VQA Prince Edward County

The golden one, Aurelia, from the Latin Aurelius and if you want to delve deeper, the name for Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor from 161 to 180. Even deeper still the character portrayed by Richard Harris in Gladiator. Also the top of the opus pinot noir at The Grange and what a golden one it surely is. Needs to be because it is bloody expensive but just 98 cases were made of a varietal harbinger that gets the full on spa treatment. Double sorted, first in the vineyard, then at the table. Whole cluster fermented, including carbonic for five days and then foot trodden. Ten days of délestage before being pressed off and blended to finish ferment in tank. Ages in the most expensive wood for 10 months, 33 percent new. Burgundy anyone? Yes this is the idea and the result is a pretty good approximation, all the while tended to by that County high life in acidity with a generous amount of volatile compound effect. Yet the fruit and that acidity are in cahoots, sweet, inviting and enlivening. At nearly $75 there is a whole lot of swagger, ambition and confidence but if money were no object I’d happily drink through a few bottles. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted December 2024

Roche Wines Amulet Syrah 2021, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Semi-serious syrah, surely built upon an upright skeletal frame with flesh hanging on its bones and acids piquing through the supple textures of that flesh. Also floral and the meatiness seems to increase with every sip. Iron bloodiness and tannins also grow as you work with what is now becoming a fully serious wine. Chocolate melting and coating the back end with the same function as the tannins of the wine. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024

Phantom Creek Kobau Vineyard Syrah 2020, BC VQA Golden Mile Bench

Here is the syrah bomb that means serious business. Smoked meat, iodine, sanguine and that classic black olive tapenade. A veritable hematoma of red, black and blue, fruit, acid and tannic intensity. If it’s showing some volatility that’s just because of rebellious youth and unresolved structure. This is very serious wine. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024

Okanagan Valley

LaStella Cabernet Sauvignon La Sophia 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

When you look at the last 10 years of Okanagan wine-growing there is no doubt that 2019 resides near the peak and is a vintage that should be filling collector’s cellars. La Sophia is one of those wines, a cabernet sauvignon with a track record that speaks to consistency and excellence. Imminently recognizable as both La Stella and their extension of Black Sage Bench terroir in Oliver. If any local cabernet will resonate with the Oliver equivalent of the Tuscan coast’s Macchia Mediterranea than La Sophia would be it. Not exactly balsamico or garrigue but yes something Italianate, of rich dark fruit set against fine-grained tannin and that brushy, herbal, vinous and resinous scents of the terrain. Black Sage Bench issue, nothing standard about it and it needs a name. Like Okanagan Briar or Chaparral, but regardless you can’t miss the outback in this wine. Yes the 50 percent new wood needs to integrate further and it will, given the requiem necessary, in air and also time. Drink 2026-2035. Tasted May 2024

Two Sisters Riesling Icewine 2023, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake (375ml)

Spicy waft from the 2023 riesling and a level of viscosity to speak of Icewine made in the most serious of ways. The haute and cultured fragrance makes one wonder why $89 should be the price when three times that amount might make sense, after consideration is taken for the time, effort and work required to make such a wine even possible. The fruit is extraordinary, the acidity at a high level for the vintage and Icewine in general. This is the what, how and why for the category to be celebrated, wines exulted, performance perpetuated and raison d’être defined. Give this two more years to fully see the riesling respond in the way it surely can. Drink 2026-2036. Tasted June 2024

Good to go!

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Twenty-three Canadian wines that rocked in 2023

Dec24

What makes a list? The question is like asking what makes a Martini dirty or how much VA is too much in sangiovese? There are some things in life that aren’t certain and others that are. The porcino is the king of all Italian mushrooms, just as the morel is in Ontario. This much is true. A young wild leek is best sautéed as briefly as possible in soft scrambled eggs while an older bulbous ramp should only be pickled. Chicken of the Woods mushrooms are the most striking fungi of them all and chanterelles are the only true frutto del bosco. Composing a best of list is not like these things but something other that takes time, a year’s accumulation of thought and above all else, patience. When more than 1,000 Canadian wines are tasted in a calendar year, narrowing it down to 23 feels like a weighty sense of responsibility and a profound task.

We are so far past discussing the merits or collective quality of wines produced in Canada. Canadian wines rock. They rock you like a hurricane, rock this joint and this town. They rock and roll all night, around the clock and the casbah. They are a rock and roll star, a rock and roll fantasy, old time rock and roll, a rock lobster and just a singer in a rock and roll band. Canadian wine is still rock and roll to me. Got it? This annual agglomeration gets easier to create and harder to define. In no particular order, in other words one through 23 are not systemized in any ascending or descending order. They are arranged to begin with this country’s most successful style of wine, that being sparkling, followed by riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet franc, red blends and Icewine. These are Godello’s 23 Canadian wines that rocked in 2023.

From the Naramata Bench

Tantalus Blanc De Blancs Traditional Method 2020, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Truly noses as blanc de blanc made from only chardonnay, orchard fruit suspended in sparkling animation. Gingery and rightly oxidative while tightly wound, grippy and ready for anything that is to follow. Flesh from the fruit of the trees fallen in to the hand even before it was picked from the stem. Croccante, succulent, a scintillant raciness in every respect, satisfying and long. Would really like to see this again after the decade strikes ten. Drink 2023-2032. Tasted blind at NWAC2023, June 2023

WineAlign National Awards of Canada judging in the Okanagan Valley

Hinterland Les Étoiles 2018, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario

Traditional Method and the archetype for making bubbles to speak on behalf of a very specific terroir whilst using estate grown Prince Edward County chardonnay and pinot noir. Hinterland is THE PEC version of Grower’s Champagne because Jonas Newman and Vicki Samaras spend more time with their vines than anything else. Considering how many waters their toes dip into that says something and Les Étoiles means business. It is a serious sparkling wine, with intense flavours and the kind of backbone most fizz can only dream of hanging their flesh upon. The 2018 is precocious and wise yet the exploits of its behaviour have only just begun. So taut, so tightly wound and yet so bloody generous. Fresh and with gingery oxidative moments but ultimately in control and introspectively complex. Re-visit as often as possible for up to 10-plus years. Drink 2023-2030. Tasted March 2023

Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Estate Blanc De Blancs 2017, Traditional Method, VQA Short Hills Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

Consistently crafted as a Blanc de Blancs that sees 60 months on the lees from estate grown chardonnay. From a varietal growing season so ideally destined for sparkling wine because a cool and wet spring plus summer emerged in late August to hot days and cool nights through October. In the middle of that spell is the chardonnay pick for sparkling and as good, complex and riveting as this arch-classic Ontario bubble may have been beforev- well bring on 2017 for next level complexities. Tasty, piquant and toothsome, of toasty brioche like never before and this swirl of creamy fruits and exotic seasonings. Feels like aged Growers’ Champagne and the fact that it is from Niagara makes it all that much more satisfying. Plenty of crunch, succulence and acid-driven energy from a meticulous bubble. The benchmark for local. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Okanagan Valley

Blue Mountain Reserve Brut R.D. 2014, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Always pleased to welcome the BR R.D. into a glass and here is an old but a proverbial goody, that being 2014 and consumers must be reminded just how special this research and development is to determine the excellence of Blue Moutnain’s indagative sparkling wine. A blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, the first 10 percent more than the last with some of the most restrained, reserved and demure aromatics in the Okanagan Valley. All ways to say this is lovely, quietly generous and so settled to gift pleasure above all else. A most complex game of citrus and orchard fruit, distillate by nature, expertly seasoned with fine sea salt, white pepper and lemongrass powder. Such a gift nine years after vintage at a ridiculously reasonable price. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Trail Estate Pinot Noir Sparkling (P.N.17) 2017, VQA Ontario

Here flies from the glass a sparkling gambit that has to be winemaker Mackenzie Brisbois’ most conventional wine. Just pinot noir and from an inverted vintage that gets better and better with time. A 2017 of wildly fantastical aromas and gravitas that make every aspect, component and iterated moment shine. This is a scintillant of excitation that delivers succulence we richly desire from Ontario sparkling wine. The mix of heady perfume, intensity of palate raciness and texture sliding into structure is truly something. If you are not put into an absolute tizzy and hypnotized by this fizz you may not be paying attention. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted November 2023

Simon Rafuse, Blomidon Estate

Blomidon Estate Winery Brut Blanc De Blancs 2016, Nova Scotia

A 2016 Bland de Blancs that saw 60 months on the lees. Super aromatic and expressive as if breezes were blowing through, Fundy winds with sea kelp and wet clay. Ideal phenolics in an idealized B de B that surely captures place, especially in a vintage like this, but truth is tells Simon Rafuse, “extreme climate event weather in Nova Scotia is making vintage cuvées nearly impossible.” Much of the fruit here comes from the estate block on the bay north of Port Williams, a sandy site that makes for more gentle, elegant and abiding chardonnay. Using old barrels helps to fatten and flesh up that fruit. Seems like an ideal match for the scintillant style of traditional method Nova Scotia sparkling wine. Super fun and energetic bubble. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted at i4C, July 2023

Lightfoot & Wolfville estate vines overlooking the Minas Basin

Lightfoot & Wolfville Cuvée Evelyn, Nova Scotia

Pinot Noir 85% Chardonnay 15%. If a bit too oxidative in tendency confirmed by the preserved lemon, well it also supports an ambitious style (reminiscent of top, top Cap Classique) that defines this traditional method, pinot noir controlled sparkler. Amazing toasty quality and just the right level of acid sourness to electrify and stretch in the finest nimble way while maintaining balance. Just has to be a top tier cuvée for this house. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted blind at NWAC2023, June 2023

Godello and Taylor Whelan, CedarCreek Vineyards

CedarCreek Pinot Noir Rosé Platinum South Kelowna Slopes 2022, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

As perfumed as it can ever get for Rosé with a salutary seasoning to elevate flavours up into a complex level of vinous gastronomy. Just scents like ripe pinot noir set up for food matching where plates like tamarind-glazed duck tacos, lemon thyme roasted game birds or anything spit grilled (a.k.a. al pastor) would willingly sidle alongside. Can handle a side of pickled onion, beet or turnip and also the truth. What a terrific use of Home Block and Simes vineyard pinot noir fruit, a white-like wine of protected aromatics, lees addendum, not to mention how blessed it is by a beautiful autumn that made sure Rosé could also be graced by true Okanagan phenolic ripeness. Perfect storm of a Rosé and we should all be thankful for the happenstance. Will age more than a bit as well. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted June 2023

Vineland Estates Riesling Elevation St. Urban Vineyard 2022, VQA Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

Credit know-how, track record and pedigree – all those essentials of a producer with varietal experience from THE place in this country where it all began. Yes, all this matters but step forward and know that Vineland Estates uses modern technology in both their farming and also winemaking practices in ways no one else seems to equal. So what does this mean for this archetype of an Ontario riesling? So much. St. Urban 2022 is the cleanest, freshest and most luxe yet, simply put it’s all about pinpointed accuracy, finesse and well, great science. The fruit is crisp, the acids purposed and the finish long, silent, salient and salty. This will age alongside some of the best, with noticeable phenolics in tow, making for sapid moments too. Drink 2023-2032. Tasted September 2023

Gabriel Demarco, Cave Spring Cellars

Cave Spring Riesling CSV 2019, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

From the first 2019 CSV holds the intangible riesling cards and feels well-ripened, despite the vintage not being one of the warmer ones up on the Niagara Escarpment. Truth is CSV ’19 wears its phenolics on both sleeves as noted in the botanical resins, melon skins and stone fruit pit aromas. Already possessive of a subtle petrol kiss and acidity of a clear and present high number. Nothing dangerous mind you and the phenol-acid relationship in the wine is quite static, stoic and immovable, at least in this stage of early youth. Will mature quicker than some though the mineral quotient will always ride shotgun. CSV 2019 feels like healthy drinking. It will likely assist in averting the damage of cells resulting from free-radical oxidation reactions and also promote anti-inflammation capacity. More than riesling. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted April 2023

Tawse Riesling Carly’s Block 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Ontario

Stoic, cool, gelid and reserved riesling in the vein of a cool climate though the palate richness suggests a warmer vintage. High sugar and also equally so in acid, well-balanced and bespoke where the relationship between grape and geology is ideally matched. This is extremely well made. Finish is extraordinary, with tremendous grip. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted blind at NWAC2023, June 2023

ed. The 2007 Carly’s Block tasted in July during a visit to Redstone Winery also rocked for 2023. One of Paul Pender’s great works indeed.

Charles Baker

Charles Baker Riesling Picone Vineyard 2019, VQA Vinemount Ridge, Ontario

Crisp and crunchy but more importantly indelibly phenolic and with all parts moving as one, in synch and so incredibly harmonic. Symphonic riesling from the fabulous Baker boy out of 2019 and with this amount of time now passed, increasingly uncovering proof that it is indeed a vintage for the ages. Texture and intensity with shots of umami are created as a result of that stamp of particular Vinemount Ridge ripeness. Drink 2023-2032. Tasted April 2023

August Chicken of the Woods

Westcott Chardonnay Block 76 2020, VQA Vinemount Ridge, Ontario

The 2020 may be as ideal as it gets for chardonnay across most sub-appellations of Niagara and Block 76 from Westcott up on the Vinemount Ridge proves the theory in so many ways. The statuesque musculature and moment frozen in time visage is something else from a chardonnay so stoic, confident and the kind of act sure attitude that speaks to farming and winemaking cohesiveness. From Garrett Westcott to Casey Kulczyk – there are no holes in this chardonnay. The barrel is huge and yet subtle, the fruit pristine and treated to precision, finesse and at the end of the day, Westcott family love. Benchmark for vintage, ridge and estate. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted August 2023

Hidden Bench Chardonnay Felseck Vineyard Unfiltered 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario

Estate chardonnay is a cracker 2020 for Hidden Bench and along comes single-vineyard Felseck to crank up the volume for something off the charts. The aromatic bites and flavour washes deliver a Beamsville Bench wall of varietal sound. This is driven, single-vineyard minded and stubborn chardonnay to put symphonies of sound in our heads. Like massed pianos, guitars and string arrangements from which pervasive aromatic perfume and transonic flavour intensity collect to personify cool climate Bench chardonnay. The farmer, maker and proprietor may not be the fruit themsleves, but Felseck 2020 is most definitely their wine. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted July 2023

Leaning Post Chardonnay Senchuk Vineyard 2020, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Ontario

Not just the next vintage of the Senchuk homefront chardonnay but potentially one that will be talked about for a decade in retrospective tastings and longer. Whether or not a bottle is present, the reverberations will percolate through the ages. Not just a matter of varietal stuffing created by soils rich in clay and alluvial alloy in which stones feel pulverized into the textural fabric of this wine. You can chew this like taffy and feel the juices run as it liquifies and spreads across the palate. Hovering acidity keeps all the fruit covered, then lifted and placed just where you want this cleanest and purest of Lincoln Lakeshore fruit to be. We are all impressed and those who are not should be mystified due to reasons misunderstood. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted July 2023

Chardonnays of i4C 2023

Rosehall Run St. Cindy Chardonnay 2020, VQA Prince Edward County

The ode goes to Cindy Zwicker Reston, Rosehall Run co-founder and the honour is more about good deeds and love than it is just about name. St. Cindy is no small gift of a label and the good thing is Dan Sullivan’s work puts the saint in the Cindy. Few Prince Edward Country chardonnays were able to avoid ripening, softening, elevated alcohol and loss of tension but double R’s Cindy is the balanced one. Yes it is ripe and also rich but even more important is the pitch perfect seasoning, grip retention and finest moments where extract and tannin collide. This is really, really good chardonnay. The kind of stuff taught in chardonnay winemaking school but riffed upon in the real world. What else needs to be said? Drink 2023-2026. Tasted March 2023

Grimsby Hillside Vineyard

Bachelder Chardonnay Frontier Block Grimsby Hillside Vineyard 2021, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Ontario

Vintage number three from Grimsby Hillside Vineyard and now more specific by way of a split, with the Frontier Block as the plot within the larger plot, along with that of Red Clay Barn. Drilling down into this historical vineyard that has risen as fast as any New World terroir, just about anywhere these sorts of things are measured. Here named for the final frontier, that being the “last terroir” in Niagara and who knows, maybe it will soon be the first rolling off of everyone’s lips. GHV-FB 2021 is a force, that much is clear from the first look. Or nose, for what matters. Cool and stony style from a wide open space where limestone, shale and gravels conspire to create something new and with absolute potential. It’s already arrived thank you very much and while words like luxe and opulent do not come to the tip, others like succulent and scintillating do. Just something so real and right at your doorstep, vivid beyond chardonnay compare, a stealth fish swimming in clear waters. Truly complex for chardonnay and it must be noted, unlike any other in the world though at the same time feeling like something you’ve known your whole life. Make an exception to delve into this exception because when it comes to chardonnay, this is what we need. Remarkable clarity and distinction, precision extraordinaire and a wine to cast nets far and wide to secure as many bottles that could be found. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted December 2023

Ramps of 2023

Stanners Pinot Noir The Narrow Rows 2020, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario

Warmest of vintages and yet as only pinot noir (especially from PEC) is want and capable of doing there is no dramatic rise in alcohol. Conversions will be conversions and they are almost always magical as it pertains to the County. The specificity of the Narrow Rows elicits a varietal human response like few, if no others out of the County and that means love. The wave of fruit effortlessly tumbling into sweet acidity and structure fitting like a glove makes all parts happy, singing and generous. They do their work with chivalry, philanthropy and love. The vintage is a conundrum for PEC reds but the Narrow Rows and subsequent actions will be judged as right in the future, in part because of the block and in part because the Stanners team abides by what this pinot noir needs to be. A top pinot for 2020 Prince Edward County. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted March 2023

Judges of the 2023 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada

Privato Tesoro Pinot Noir Woodward Collection 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Inviting, sexy and rising in high spirit, song sung hitting the high notes and a pinot noir that rocks from the first. The perfume is just so very brushy hillside or escarpment and perhaps a bit northerly in location. Crunchy and succulent, judiciously oaked and spiced. mid to more than that in weight, impressive concentration without density and length – such never-ending length. This is the right pinot for the people. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted blind at NWAC2023, June 2023

Thomas Bachelder

Bachelder Old Eastern Block Lowrey Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021, VQA St. David’s Bench, Ontario

For Lowrey Vineyard go east young man, the east is the best – or at least east is oldest, planted in 1984 by the family for the legend Karl Kaiser. The lineage of alliances runs from Kaiser at Inniskillin with Jaffelin (now Rémoissenet), through Le Clos Jordanne and Bachelder forays into Oregon. Today the eastern block of old vines have passed their 35 year mark which means they are truly heritage, not only for Niagara but for anywhere in the world. A glacial heritage too, with limestone being a determining factor to make pinot like this seem soil-driven, mineral-bent and shaped by millennium. Bachleder’s job is to not fuck it up and though he never does, for 2021 he finds another gear. One that is measured and paced for pinot noir – which is exactly what it needs and wants. The sweetness and purity of both fruit and acidity is seamlessly braided to spin a wine that will surely be timeless. Truly special and deserving of much love so give it. Success? Did it come out? All his wines come out. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted December 2023

The first Morel of 2023

Thirty Bench Cabernet Franc Wild Cask 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario

Full and splendid varietal expression with such a distinctly captured frank-ness in concentration that really sets the Bench on fire. All the fruit imaginable with help from ant ideal growing season and then the salt and pepper seasoning that sees wood do what’s right and also necessary. The linearity and even-keeled notions of this Thirty Bench are just so measured, persistent and incremental. Will age gracefully over 10 years time. Last tasted April 2023

If at first this may seem like middle road taken for grape and vintage, of medium specs all the way through, keep coming back to this wine. From fruit through acidity and into tannin there is harmony, seamlessly woven and without falter. Good pH balance connectivity to structure so that the cabernet franc doles in sapidity as much as anything else. Right amount of chalkiness and a temperament that is really quite fine. No mind that oak persists as a factor just on the right side of heavy for now. Should show beautifully in another year’s time and with (Bench) distinction for many years to follow. Equal parts salty and sapid is always great combination. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted blind with the Experts’ Panel, April 2023

Stratus White Label Red 2020, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario

The blend for Red is always vintage dependant but can’t say there is any shock to see cabernet sauvignon art 40 percent taking the 2020 lead. Next there is cabernet franc (27), followed by merlot and malbec (13 each) and finally petit verdot (7). Six weeks of picking between the merlot and the cabernet sauvignon with specs in the end right on par with that (latter) varietal wine. Meaning magnanimous, ambitiously structured and of a potential to see the 2020, 20th anniversary Red as becoming one for the Stratus ages. Certainly more juiciness and also fun (and pleasure) but make no mistake. These tannins bite back, the wood is far from integrated and years will be required to see this make good on its promise. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted September 2023

Peller Estates Riesling Icewine Andrew Peller Signature Series 2019, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Densely concentrated and from the beginning an impressive balance in accord between sugars and acids so that the two move swimmingly along from the start through to a long lingering finish. One sip and the Icewine becomes one with your palate, hangs on, repeats upon itself and as far as that kind of attraction is concerned you welcome the linger. Special dedication and technique here to be sure. 179 gL RS and 10.5 percent abv. Last tasted January 2023

Good to go!

godello

Twitter: @mgodello

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WineAlign

Twenty-two Canadian wines that rocked in 2022

Dec27

Godello taking in the spirit of Grimsby Hillside Vineyard

I am a forager. I forage in the natural world, for plants in their season, pulled from the soil, from earth to pan, for medicinal teas, to preserve by drying or pickling, whatever the most appropriate case may be. Wild herbs, allium and beneficial greens are prized but mostly I use my mycological senses by looking for signs beneath my feet as to where the mycelium below will choose to fruit as fungi above. I look for the saprobic and the decomposer but also the mushroom that works through symbiosis, to aid and abet other species while receiving something beneficial in return.

Laetiporus Sulphureus, aka Chicken of the Woods

I am a forager of wines as well, perhaps not in the same spiritual or personal way, but as I do with the forest I try my best to listen and become one with the vine, to imagine what it will beget, that being quality grapes and eventually honest wine. Vinifera success in Canadian vineyards is a recent phenomenon and there are plants more suited and native to our land but we should and will continue to pursue both realities. This is not a manifesto about natural wine, no far from it, but it is a confession. I love great wine, well made wine, wine in balance. I am open to all wines and like the fungi I choose to eat or to ignore, I can’t be sickened by something I choose not to taste. I taste what I trust and drink what I must. Most often it take years of research and seeing the same fruiting body appear in the same location with consistent markings to make the decision to eat that mushroom. That is why wines of history, pedigree and consistency are the greatest and most exciting. They have earned the recognition. Others gain reputation much quicker and they too deserve the kudos but the choice comes down to the individual. I just want the wines I choose to rock. Canadian wines, yeah they rock.

Hypomyces Lactifluorum, the Lobster Mushroom

Nova Scotia wines at Obladee Wine Bar in Halifax

The full scale return to not only tasting but rallying around Canadian wine began in earnest back in June of 2022. In a span of less than 30 days there were judges’ panel assessments and events during the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, To July and 10 days spent in Nova Scotia wine country followed by a glorious weekend in Niagara for the i4c Canadian Cool Climate Celebration. Get back to Cool Chardonnay was the impetus and the reminder how much we Canadian wine folk respect one another and truly enjoy each other’s company. How great was it to interact once again, to taste with and experience the verities of vignerons and winemakers? To gather Insights, illuminations and incidentals from illustrious voices. To enter discourse with thought provocateurs who question sense of place, who consider vines and their relationship with the land. To reconnect with old friends forging new directions, seek flights of fancy and return to places always familiar, like coming home. The road ahead may still be uncertain but onward we will go.

Godello and Pender

Devastating news and especially the loss of a friend takes time to process. At the time I did not know what to do but suddenly the words poured forth, in one take and so in February I penned The Walrus is Paul. I miss Paul Pender. He was not my closest bud nor was I his but there will always be a hole in our lives without him. The thing about sadness is that it never goes away, but the trick is to remember the people we loved in a way that helps us through another day. “Paul Pender humanized everything in his life and all that he touched. He never expressed any dismay at comments I may have made about wines not being perfect, nor did he exalt in high scores or praise for wines about which I may have gushed or waxed rhapsodic. He was always zen, even-keeled, grounded and humble. Paul was the personification of gravitational constant, THE universal gravitational constant, a constant of gravitation. His presence and being related force to mass and distance, and he lived his life within the law of gravitation. I hope he taught everyone to be this way and that we can all go forward with his wise, sage and calm demeanour, safely tucked into our own lives. Thank you Paul. I love you, man. You are the walrus.”

Seafood by Godello, Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia

This might just be the 10th annual list and another spot is in fact added each year but the process just keeps getting tougher to complete. According to WineAlign I reviewed more than 3,000 wines in 2022, which means I tasted at least 3,500, if not more. The number of Canadian wines is likely one third, say 1,500 examples tasted this past year, in great part because at least one-third of that number is tasted at the Nationals. The process of nailing down this summary comes out of a shortlist of 100-plus that were what would be considered exciting. The exercise must be one that filters, fines and refines again and again so that every wine is reviewed and re-considered on repeat. I find it near impossible to make final decisions these days and yet somehow feel compelled to continue the discipline. Thank you to all; associates, colleagues, wine professionals and especially friends who poured, for every sip and taste, with heartfelt thanks. Especially to the WineAlign Crü; David Lawrason, John Szabo M.S., Sara d’Amato, Steve Thurlow, Megha Jandhyala, Bryan McCaw, Sarah Goddard, Miho Yamamoto, Carol-Ann Jessiman and Heather Riley. Godello gives you 22 Canadian wines that rocked in 2022.

With The Thinker, Jean-Benoit Déslauriers, Benjamin Bridge Vineyards

Benjamin Bridge Glooscap First Nation X Rosé 2021, Nova Scotia

Benjamin Bridge Glooscap First Nation X Rosé is first a wine. A lithe, 10 percent alcohol and bone-dry vision in pale pink hue, described by thinker Jean-Benoit Déslauriers as blessed “with a softness from within.” My family and I taste along and become privy to why this project means so much more. The Rosé marks a turning point for Benjamin Bridge and is crafted neither for reconciliation nor to undue the past. Instead the path leads forward, for mutualism, cooperation and respect. A harbinger towards a more balanced future. Meaning is gleaned for the team after a decade-plus of grape growing now widened to include 13,000 years of sustainable and synergetic preservation of an ecosystem. Twenty years ago the BB understanding was of vineyards producing grapes exclusively focused on the sensory profile of wines, how they reflected the terroir and stacked up against Europe. Yet the Mi’kmaq have lived in balance within this unique ecosystem for millennium and the goal is to return to this symbiosis. It may take another 13,000 years and while subsequent generations will not be obligated to complete the work, neither are they free to desist from it. This Rosé establishes a “Ni’tap,” a relationship as ally-ship and friendship between Benjamin Bridge’s McConnell-Gordon family and Glooscap First Nation; Elder Lorraine Whitman, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada and Advocate for the rights of Indigenous women, girls & gender-diverse people; her daughter Zabrina Whitman and Chief Sidney Peters. Glooscap First Nation X Rosé is a direct product of climate change with no need to soften the sear of acidity by backsliding into residual sugar. Do not forget the effect created by the air pump that is the Bay of Fundy that allows the vines to always take their time and manage a slowly gained phenolic development. The Bay means Rosé can indeed be forged this way. Dry and bright, aligning ortega, gamay and riesling in such a pointed and profound aromatic Sikunme’katik (Gaspereau) Valley way. The connection to Nova Scotia is real but very much a singular notion. The fact that modern agriculture has erased what really happened in this valley, as it pertains to vines and this terroir it is the kind of commentary that is “by definition profoundly inaccurate.” This is the charge of Déslauriers and all who take this path forward. Indigenous plants were in fact replaced with European plants so BB makes a clear point. How can it be said that these wines capture the essence of this terroir? The argument is compelling and will eventually change again, after 13 or 13,000 more years, or perhaps somewhere in between. In any case the wine is grand and the prospects even greater. Bravo all around. Drink 2022-2025. Tasted July 2022

Mackenzie Brisbois, Trail Estate

Trail Estate ‘Oh Julius’ Skin Fermented White 2021, VQA Ontario

A plus or minus 10 days skin contact for 59 per cent riesling, (35) gewürztraminer and (5) muscat that drinks with full submission, symbiotically speaking. The wine gives and our palates lay down, receive this effortless elixir and allow it to pass on through, no questions asked, no wondering why. Something like 550 cases are made of this wild-fermented, Benchlands (Wismer) fruit-sourced quencher, aka refreshing drink. Easy enough in the tart citrus vein, no lacking for energy and in turn, our interest. Weird? No not really. Cool? Ticks all the boxes for what the kids are all making these days, but this is more a case of being made by and for kids at heart who are adults with kids of their own. At 10.4 per cent alcohol, no acetic meanderings nor cider-y complications neither. Well that just about wraps it up in a big natural bow and guarantees a good time. Drink 2022-2023. Tasted June 2022

Canoe Trip cooking

Blue Mountain Blanc De Blancs R.D. 2013, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

The research tells us chardonnay and time conspire for beauty while development reminds how years upon years upon lees directs a Blue Mountain R.D. into sublimity and profundity. A vintage to recall, reflect upon and surely celebrate, to mull over its integrated and subtle spices, controlled energy and slow time release of responsibility. A sparkling wine of nature that has become one of nurture, now a perfectly posit tug between edginess and oxidation, tension and generosity. They call this the sweet spot. Raise a glass to recently disgorged. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted November 2022

WineAlign judges at Stratus Vineyards

Stratus X Trials Blanc De Blancs 2012, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Looking back two years the bar was set so very high as noted when we first began tasting the culmination of years put in towards this Sparkling program. Far be it for Stratus to regress or work in reverse but they are now grooving further back in lees cumulative time and out there comes a chardonnay spent what must be nearly 10 years on those lovely yeasts. Trials they were and fruition they have become. It’s not so much the toasty and beautifully oxidative-fino nutty character. The impression digs deeper than green olives in brine and sweet pear compote, it grabs us by the emotive heartstrings and holds us close. In fact it’s not unusual for B de Bs ’12 X Trials to be loved by anyone. There’s just something about the subtleties and the open invitation, to love and be loved. “Whoa oh, oh whoa, oh oh, oh oh!” Drink 2022-2026. Tasted November 2022

Sunset over The Twenty Mile and Beamsville Bench

Flat Rock Cellars Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Distinct mineral and petrol aromatic riesling rising, up into the stratosphere. in no hurry to come back down. Cracker citrus and acidity, tart and fuelled by intensity with no boundaries nor atmospheric pressures or deadlines neither. Sugars and structure are one in the same, seamlessness is the result and everything falls into its right place. The poster child, educator and pioneer. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted blind at NWAC2022, June 2022

Felseck Vineyard

Hidden Bench Riesling Felseck Vineyard 2017, VQA Beamsville Bench

Not quite but just about 20 year-old vines as of this stellar 2017 vintage and a benchmark Bench riesling of all that has been developed, given, remains and jazz. A stoic propellant and scintillant of fineness, fruit in ample preserve, acids convergent and power releasing ever so slowly in perfect pace. Pitch is spot on, balance ideal and direction effortlessly forward. The Mario Lemieux of riesling. Drink 2023-2032. Tasted February 2022

The family with Josh Horton and Rachel Lightfoot, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Lightfoot & Wolfville Chardonnay Small Lots Oak Knoll Vineyard Stainless Steel 2020, Nova Scotia, Canada

“People have always said we need to make a stainless steel version,” says winemaker Josh Horton, to lighten the room and the mood. This being the first go at it, protocol kept very similar to the oaked (Ancienne), by wild ferment, aka “brown” maceration. Gone to bottle quicker (eight months after pick) and this will be slowed down in the future. Absolute tightness and freshness, purity of chardonnay as expressed in a juiced lemon and almost no reduction. A chardonnay of isolated terroir, specificity and one helluva beautiful experiment. Drink 2022-2024. Tasted July 2022

Thirty Bench Small Lot Chardonnay 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Really quite primary, an undisclosed while pleasingly reticent chardonnay from Emma Garner of gratitude and grace. The first because it thanks the Beamsville terroir and the second because it does so with soft spoken respect. A mélange of different fermentation batches, each small and precise come together for the final sumptuous and restrained blend. The tenets of fruit, acid and what ties them together is just about as seamless and easily layered as any of a Bench ilk and idiom. Not a chardonnay of style but instead stylish, not chic but surely sung with notes held, seemingly forever. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted July 2022

Grimsby Hillside Vineyard

Ilya and Nadia Senchuk, Leaning Post Wines

Leaning Post Chardonnay Grimsby Hillside Vineyard 2019, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Delicate, bright and efficacious wine from a north facing nook of the Escarpment vineyard in the narrowest spit of land between the rock face and the lake. Once the viticultural labrusca home of Parkdale Wines and now owned by the Franciosa family. A special wine occupying a place in my family’s history and heart. Apposite to Wismer in that there are more piques and peaks in and out, up and down, hither and thither in this singularly focused chardonnay. Pay attention to nuance, to barrel as well as it speaks in extra density because the terroir encourages the ambition. Remarkable structure despite how short a relationship there has been between maker and farm. The instant brilliance creates an effective and then profound buzz, a desired effect and the future is WIDE open. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted June 2022

Melissa Marotta-Paolicelli, winemaker Adam Pearce and Angela Marotta

Two Sisters Chardonnay 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

With part in part thanks and a nod to the experimental minds and vineyard management acumen at (then) Parkdale Wines, back in 1959 Bill Lenko took a flyer on vinifera in the form of chardonnay. Today Two Sisters is the primary beneficiary of Niagara’s oldest chardonnay vines and this primo vintage extolls the virtues of those wise plants and their concentrated fruit. Still showing balance and tenderness, never mind the barrel beauty, bullocks or beast, in fact it all comes together in seamless fashion because the fruit is indefatigably remarkable. Winemaker Adam Pearce heeds the directive, does nothing to get in the way and what is delivered comes away with such a sheen and energetic burst it just may blow your mind. This is the finest result to date, a lightly reductive, subtly lees inflected, full fruit captured chardonnay. All of its lines run parallel, incline up the same slope, coextend in collateral company and with time will eventually relent for the great transversal. The fruit will cross over both acidity and backbone, resulting in the ultimate complex equation. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted August 2022

The fishy work of Ryan Crawford (Ruffino’s and Bar Bea), Raoul Duke of Chefs

Bachelder Hill Of Wingfield Chardonnay 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Hill of Wingfield, as opposed to the flatter portions of the large chardonnay expanse and one can’t help but conjure up vineyard monikers like “Hill of” Corton, or even Grace. Ancient and modern tracts can be descried by farmers and writers so with Thomas Bachelder as the guide we too can play this game, by extension and in a most semi-serious way. Everything is derivative and by association anyway so Hill of Wingfield it is. Same lush, luxe and top of the pops richness as Wismer-Wingfield yet here with some reduction and an almost candied shell of protection. Nearly impossible and yet every reason to believe that vintage, grape, block and maker can combine to execute such a phenomenon of chardonnay. No understatement or restraint here, nor were any grapes harmed in the due process. My goodness what gumption, ambition and monkified execution. You gotta believe in the truth! Drink 2023-2028. Tasted December 2022

With Shiraz Mottiar and the uni, I mean photo bomber Anthony Gismondi

Malivoire Gamay Courtney 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Youthful is the understatement when coming at this 2020 Courtney but my how juicy, meaty and pinpointed a gamay it truly is. There have been serious and fully formed Courtneys before but never have the assets in fruit, mouthfeel and acid-tannin structural interplay grabbed attention like this young and in charge ’20. Adds up to big, boisterous, ripe to the hilt, of zero austerity and so much possibility. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted April 2022

Meyer Pinot Noir McLean Creek Road Vineyard Old Block 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Falls, British Columbia

Plenty of substance fills the aromatic glass in this immortality jam of substance, acid and textural intensity. Good red fruit if turning to act youthfully grainy in its unresolved structural demand, especially as it lands on and then scrapes over the palate. Dutifully solid wine, nothing to some and to others a pearl needing time. High arcing, a factor of indefinite continuation for pinot noir existence and “he who forgets will be destined to remember.” For such a delicate (aromatic) and working (palate) pinot noir it carries more than ample finishing strength, energy and power. “And I wish to hold on, too, but saw the trapdoor in the sun.” Drink 2023-2028. Tasted blind at NWAC2022, June 2022

Closson Chase Pinot Noir South Clos 2020, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario

As a reminder the South Clos Vineyard is six hectares of Prince Edward County Hillier clay loam and shallow crumbled limestone overlying fractured limestone. A top site (within the limit of vinifera capability) where chardonnay and pinot noir present as viable as any combo in Canada. Bring on a warm gift of a vintage like 2020 and the possibilities suddenly become endless. The site is always a place of high pH and allowable root penetration but 2020 just tops the show. The intensities are boundless in a most youthful and exuberant South Clos pinot noir that clearly act as the embodiment of one for the ages. Never before have acids tasted so sweet and tannins wept such tears of joy. South Clos is the culmination of decades put in, torches passed, hard work and experimentation. A victory for the 2020 season and perhaps the beginning of a Keith Tyers’ led dynasty. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted November 2022

With Chef Michael Olson

Bachelder Pinot Noir Wismer Parke “Wild West End” 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Wismer-Parke’s western section on Victoria Avenue just up from Highway 8 is planted to what Thomas Bachelder refers to as a mystery clone of pinot noir “whose identity is lost to the mists of time.” Twenty-one years to be exact at the meter of this vintage yet in nostalgic ways that kind of statement feels like something dating back to the 1950s or ’60s. Either way it’s long enough to make one wonder and wonder why. There’s a whole lot of “duh duh dun dun dun dah,” and “bah ah bah ah dun dun dun bah” then “beh do beh do,” followed by “bah doo doo bah,” and finally “wop, wop, wop, wop, wop” in this pinot noir. Why? Because this beast of the east is so strong-willed, immoveable and timeless with unparalleled layering and nuance. Doo Wop tannins in total control, winning out over dark fruit in black olive, fennel and tarry tones playing second fiddle. Why is there more oomph and grip to this savoury flavoured pinot noir of scrub and scorrevole across the palate?” The answer my friend is blowing in those mists and in the time you must give to see this wine come to its fruition. Wismer-Parke Wild West End may not necessarily save your soul, but it will make your soul worth saving! Drink 2024-2029. Tasted December 2022

PEC wines

Rosehall Run Pinot Noir St. Cindy Unfiltered 2020, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario

In 2004 and 2005 the first County Rosehall Run vineyards pinot noir fruit were given the name Cindy but between ’06 and ’19 the name JCR defined the estate’s best fruit. With a vintage as great as 2020 in vessel Cindy was anointed once again as saint of the top pinot noir. The ripeness and extract here are in fact the finest ever from these PEC lands so the choice was and remains perfectly clear. What the JCR misses in terms of tension is here fully trenchant and oblique, angles run in slants, musculature neither parallel nor perpendicular to the long axis of structure or bones. This is fascinating wine geometry and anatomy, clearly regimented yet offset and in the end, simply wondrous. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2022

Le Vieux Pin Syrah Cuvée Violette 2015, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Five years after first tasting Cuvée Violette blind the opportunity arises for an up front and centre moment with bottle, label and glass. Though this syrah would have been more than satisfying before it must be said that its peak performance is in fact NOW. Takes an aromatic leap of faith and suspends at that Black Sage Bench/Dead Man Lake syrah apex where violets and pepper drip their eau de parfum down upon dark varietal fruit. There are many a more expensive Okanagan syrah but there are none as benchmark to combine age-worthiness with price as this Severine Pinte stunner. I for one am thankful to taste this vintage again and at its best. Last tasted December 2022

Let’s put up our hands so we know who we are, we who expect three P’s in syrah; perfume, pepper and pulchritude. This syrah is possessive of all three. It’s quite the dark purple beauty but also savoury, reeking of black olive and brushy garrigue. The wood is exercised with admirable restraint and then there is this fineness of tannin. A very pretty, seamless and structured syrah of great length. Drink 2018-2023. Tasted blind at #NWAC17, June 2017

Creekside Broken Press Syrah Reserve Queenston Road Vineyard 2016, VQA St. David’s Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Good years have got behind this syrah with a touch of viognier so that five-plus in there’s an open window through which to find the heart of this wine. A democratic vintage, fruit at peak, elongated and built to last, last longer than anyone who knows not what capability is in store for this wine. The tannins are just beginning to wane and with great acumen they have melted into the karst of what is truly a special BP vintage. A minimum five years remains and quite possibly 10. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted April 2022

CedarCreek Winemaker Taylor Whelan

CedarCreek Syrah Platinum Jagged Rock 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Inky and cimmerian, full syrah extraction, maceration, skin contact fermentation and finally, thankfully and for the win, concentration. All adds up to as big as it gets, with iodine, soy and yet this amazing floral indemnity that tells the whole story, but also one that celebrates a truly special site. Yes the tannins are omnipresent but they are reasonable, metered, mattering and real. So very polished. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted blind at NWAC2022, June 2022

Vines in the Similkameen

Corcelettes Talus 2020, BC VQA Similkameen Valley, British Columbia

Talus makes balanced work of all fine main Bordeaux varieties, led by merlot (40 per cent) and cabernet franc (35), with (20) cabernet sauvignon, (3) malbec and (2) petit verdot. The names refers to the Talus “slides” that accentuate each mountainous side of the Similkameen Valley and the wine slides across the palate in equal, opposing and proportionate waves. Mostly a precise ripeness of fruit but also some passionate acids and truly purposed tannins. The merlot does seem to stand out with its verdant, creamy and downy character as it pertains to soaking up some barrel. There is a notable amount of quality dark chocolate here and still all parts just seem to synch up. Proper Meritage indeed. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted September 2022

Black Hills Nota Bene 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

The blend for the Black Hills flagship red in 2020 is 42 percent cabernet franc, (33) cabernet sauvignon, 24 (merlot) and (1) petit verdot. Merlot fared very well in 2020 and yet the team chose franc as the anchor, why, well it seems for structure over beauty and longevity over immediacy. This vintage is quite a remarkable example because all of these aspects show up, repeat, shuffle, reorganize and collectively speak a Black Sage Bench truth. Hard to imagine a more seamless set of red blend circumstances or astrological linearity. The stars do in fact align for this bright constellation of an Okanagan wine. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted November 2022

Phantom Creek Phantom Creek Vineyard Cuvée #24 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

At the top of the heap and pops for Phantom Creek is the red blend cuvée from the homestead vineyard and a wine denied absolutely nothing. The finest of the best is grown, nurtured and gathered with equally prized vessels providing the nurturing environment. There are some silky, suave and stylish red wines in this portfolio but nothing compares to the desire in Cuvée #24. These are the richest fruit sets, sweetest acids and silkiest tannins, none more important than the other and all working towards a common goal. That being beauty and longevity which the wine surely boasts. The only question is cost and a decision to be made to decide if the extra $60-100 dollars buys more wine and age-ability. The answer is yes, it surely does but is this “perfect” style the kind you like, want, need or deserve. Only you can be the judge of these things. Drink 2024-2035. Tasted November 2022

Good to go!

godello

Godello surveys Grimsby Hillside Vineyard

Twitter: @mgodello

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WineAlign

Twenty-one Canadian wines that rocked in 2021

Dec29

Another year comes to a close, one filled with the dark moments and the light, the romantic entanglements and debacles, highs and lows. In life, love and wine, here with any reference to a gesture, gaze, smile or any other sensory reaction coming from an account of someone who witnessed it. In this particular case that would be Godello and much of what he saw and heard included odd little episodes that reveal how grapes really lived under the conditions of not only this vintage, but also the ones that came before. This ninth edition of 21 Canadian wines that rocked in 2021 comes out as a derivative, spin-off and postscript to all of this.

Godello in the Similkameen Valley

As a reminder, year-end lists are a matter of personal fascination and should be met with a certain level of judgement so that highly subjective descriptors such as “best” or “most” can be consumed with doubt, thoughts askance and even heated moments of disbelief. That which makes us feel moved, stirred, excited, ignited and set aflame could very well be someone else’s nothingness. Classification, indexing and charting is truly personal and as such opens up wide for criticism and hopefully, healthy debate. So keep it real but also civil, if you please.

If we thought the 12 months that made up the 2020 calendar took things deep into the arena of the unfathomable and the absurd, then 2021 left the stadium and flew into the stratosphere of the preposterous. One silly year led to another but this one just seems to be concluding with some sort of level best described as fraught with “Vonnegutian violence.” Thank goodness there is Canadian wine to fall back onto and though it has been said before, this was indeed the very best year for the local stuff. A 2021 from which the highest to date level of greatness was achieved. Though these holidays are bittersweet and conditioned with some great unknowns, take solace in Canadian wine and what can be learned from their progression, evolution and continued excellence. They never give in or up but always strive forward, getting better all the time. To quote and then paraphrase from Britt Daniel and his band Spoon, “when you think your thoughts be sure that they are sweet ones. Don’t you know, love, you’re alright…don’t you know your (glass) awaits and now it’s time for (tasting).”

This latest rocking roster of Canadian made wine is now the ninth annual for an exercise that first began back in 2013. When 2022 comes to a close the 10th will come to fruition in print, with 22 of Canada’s best laid to order. In 2021 Canadian wines were made available at every turn, especially at the WineAlign tasting table. In July the WineAlign critics’ crü took in Niagara for a pseudo-i4C 2021 Cool Chardonnay weekend. Godello made his own way to Nova Scotia in September to meet with and taste alongside eight of that province’s great winemaking teams. In October the WineAlign judging cartel sat through more than 2,000 entries at the National Wine Awards of Canada in the Okanagan Valley. Events such as the VQA Oyster competition, Somewhereness and Terroir Symposium were still no shows, or gos, nor walk-around tastings neither. Once again sad to miss Tony Aspler’s Ontario Wine Awards and David Lawrason’s Great Canadian Kitchen Party, the artist formerly known as Gold Medal Plates. Here’s to hoping 2022 will finally usher in a return to assessing and celebrating together.

Related – Niagara’s cool for chards

As per previous incarnations of this annual compendium, “the numbers chosen to cant, recant and decant excellence in Canadian wine continue to march ahead, as promised by the annual billing. In 2019 the list counted 19. In 2018 there were 18 and in 2017, 17 noted. In 2016 that meant 16 and 15 for 2015, just as in 2014 the filtered list showed 14, after 13 for 2013. Last year? You would be correct if you guessed 20. “Whence comes the sense of wonder we perceive when we encounter certain bottles of art?” Note that a third of the 21 most exciting Canadian wines of 2021 are in sparkling form. Does that need to be qualified? Of course not. Godello gives you twenty-one Canadian wines that rocked in 2021.

13th Street Premier Cuvée Sparkling 2015, Traditional Method, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Racy sparkling wine of traditional ways, dry, toasty and of great vigour. Top notch autolysis, fine lees and guesses to the end would have to be in the 48-plus month arena. The real deal, richly rendered, acids in charge, instructive and carrying the fruit to the mountain’s peak. Hard to top this in Canada. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021

Avondale Sky Winery Méthode Traditionelle Blanc De Noir 2013, Nova Scotia

While Ben Swetnam had wanted to dabble in sparkling going back to 2009 he can thank everyone in the Nova Scotia industry for showing him the ropes. That includes Gina Haverstock at Gaspereau, Bruce Ewart at L’Acadie, Simon Rafuse at Blomidon, Jean-Benoit Deslauriers at Benjamin Bridge and others. The 2011 would have been the first vintage of pinot noir production with the intent of making sparkling wine, of hot to cool years and all others in between. Dijon clones and a warmer edge of a ’13 season, a riper style but brought in at classic sparkling numbers, acids 11-12.5 and brix 17-19, picking in the third week of October. An early vintage. Intensity meets richness halfway there, fruit flavours are exceptional, just shy of eight years on lees, disgorged three months ago. “For the pinot I always wanted to do a minimum five years and the acidity was always there,” tells Ben. “The tertiary qualities were not out yet so the pause every six months kept the decisions at bay.” Got this apricot chanterelle fungi character, mousse and bubble are really in tact, dosage is 7.5 g/L almost fully hidden by that Nova Scotia acidity. There is something about this sight that maintains higher acidity levels while sugars rise but as an example perhaps it’s the gypsum based soil underneath the whole vineyard, or the tidal rivers and the specific diurnal fluctuations, cooler at night and “it’s something we can always rely on, in every year, that backbone of acidity.” So very Nova Scotia. Usually 500 bottles produced per year. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted August 2021

Benjamin Bridge Méthode Classique Brut Rosé 2017, Nova Scotia

One of the first wines to come to the surface with Pascal Agrapart’s involvement with winemakers Jean-Benoit Deslauriers and Alex Morozov. When tasted the sentiment was that this particular vintage of this very particular sparkling wine was not yet there yet in terms of readiness or rather publicizing but truth be told, never have texture and acids come together as one in a BB Rosé. Crunch and chew, riff and rise, bellow and beauty, all despite the spiralling zeitgeist that underscores its urgency. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted August 2021

Blomidon Estate Winery Méthode Traditionelle Blanc De Noirs 2016, Nova Scotia

Give or take 76 per cent pinot noir and 24 meunier, a similar vintage to 2015 (though a touch warmer) and here picked on the 17th of November. Almost all from Woodside Vineyard and some meunier off of the Blomidon estate vines, no longer here. Disgorged today, yes today and my oh my the potential here elevates to a very high ceiling. Just under 6 g/L RS so exactly extra brut, really primary but with the dosage that will arrive before you know it. The pinot delivers more fruit than the chardonnay, perhaps a counterintuitive concept but that’s Nova Scotia. And every vintage will flip the head and make you think again. Small lot, 50 cases or so. Searing succulence, a structural richness and transformative beyond the complex, curious and interesting. Assiduous if conceited blanc de noirs, pejorative to chardonnay, entangled inside enigma, mystery and riddle. Literally. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted August 2021

Blue Mountain Blanc De Blancs R.D. 2012, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

A varietal estate grown chardonnay that spent upwards of 78 months sur lie is nothing short of dramatic, if not unconscionable. Not that no one else, anywhere else does such a thing but to do so, change so little and deliver unquestionable excellence is what dreams, expression and delivery are all about. If the Brut Reserve is Fillmore East than this Blanc de Blancs is Montreux, electric, mind-bending and so very exotique. João Gilberto, Marvin Gaye and Lou Reed wrapped into one, a sparkling wine of influence that only incidentally expands into mainstream visibility. This has stage presence and breaks fresh ground with creative sensibility, not to mention a deliciousness of flavour and mousse. That and 2012 in pocket permanently affixed to to the album cover. Drink 2021-2029. Tasted March 2021

Henry Of Pelham Estate Winery Cuvée Catharine Centenary Estate Blanc De Blanc 2010, VQA Short Hills Bench, Ontario

As a reminder this top H of P traditional method sparkling wine is named after Catharine Smith, Henry of Pelham’s wife and this Centenary is the crème de la crème for the label. A rarity for the estate and for Canadian wine, partially (20 per cent) barrel fermented and aged for up to 100 months on the lees. All Short Hills Bench chardonnay, all in with a hyperbole of toasty development and the most brûlée of any bubble in the village. The sparkling stage presence and prescience of being so connected to grape and place make this true to itself. Not to be missed. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted December 2021

L’Acadie Vineyards Prestige Brut Estate Méthode Traditionelle 2014, Nova Scotia

Was embargoed until September 9th after having just received the Lieutenant Governor Award. Has evolved into a seriously toasted arena, gone long with lees contact, looking for peaceful co-existence between yeast autolysis and the fruit of the wine. “You don’t want conflict, you want that harmony, tells Bruce Ewart.” Disgorged January 2021 and so spent more than the minimum five years on lees. An insignificant dosage (more than most of these wines). Bruce’s program goes at it in terms of two and five year aging and he believes that while Nova Scotia can do ten or more there is only a minor incremental increase in complexity by doing so. This at six-plus has hit such a sweet spot, still in retention of currant and white/red berry fruit but also low and slow golden, tanned and long as an August afternoon Gaspereau shadow. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted September 2021

Two Sisters Blanc De Franc 2018, VQA Niagara River, Ontario

Stellar work here in blanc de franc, understated and effusive, lifted of black currants and sweet pepperoncini yet grounded by serious grape tannin. A sparkling wine of grape extract so full of depth and breadth. Not a wine of high autolysis but rather tart, tight and in command of all it wants to be. Last tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021.

The third vintage of Adam Pearce’s ground-breaking Blanc de Franc is as you would imagine a white sparkling wine made from the red cabernet franc grape. The aromas are distinct and secure, squarely wrested from the red currant and sweet peppery varietal post, expressed in a uniquely Two Sisters bubble that may once again, or rather should continue to rock one’s world. More richness and also excitement than ever before, risk taken and reward achieved. No acquiescence, no adjacent meanders but head down, goal in sight and hurdles overcome. At the end of the day this is one of the most impressive and essential wines made in Ontario. Nova Scotia is on the franc idea and others locally are beginning to follow. Autolytic and delicious, on point and regal. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted September 2021

Malivoire Rosé Moira 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

From vines planted by proprietor Martin Malivoire “close to home” in what is the eponymous vineyard. Moira is a Beamsville Bench icon and has been for quite some time now, without question, nothing to discuss here, case closed. There is a complex and layered developed notation that Vivant does not have, not fort better or worse but Moira requires more thought and consternation. You can no longer think on it in terms of salinity, sapidity and satisfaction. Something more and other must be considered. Style. Style is what separates Moira from most other Ontario Rosé and in 2020 it exudes with prejudice and finesse. When a sip of a wine in this category stays with you for as long as Moira does, well you just know greatness is in the glass. This can saunter with the very best of Southern France. That’s the truth. Kudos to winemaker Shiraz Mottiar for this. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted April 2021

Martin’s Lane Riesling Fritzi’s Vineyard 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Shane Munn’s riesling from the volcanic, clay and white quarts Fritzi’s Vineyard continues to get better, all the while with a wine he seems to do less and less to try and control. Must be the place and the fruit from this 21 year-old block (as of this 2018 vintage) seeking a 48 hour skin-contact for oxidatively handled juice. Pressed once, lightly and so softly treated, then transferred to German casks where it stays for up to eight months. Just bloody delicious, hard to not conjure a frothie for this freshest of phenolic rieslings, which incidentally was only sulphured once, four months into the trek. Walks about from grippy to lovely and back again, with silk stops along the way. Will shine brightest two years from now. Drink 2023-2029. Tasted twice, October and December 2021

Mt. Boucherie Original Vines Lost Horn Vineyard Sémillon 2020, VQA Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley

A really creative sémillon, rich, creamy and fulsome which is classic Mt. Boucherie while never abandoning the grape’s pointed and intense linearity. Hard not to be impressed by the soil intendment and how it creates a backbone in the wine, beyond acidity and into something sarsen-like, upright, timeless, forever. Plenty of grip, essential elements, minerals and metallics. Keeps the sémillon sensibility alive of an unconquerable nature, varietal invictus, solid construct but with more than ample fruit. Convincing follow-up to 2019 and really quite on par in every respect. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2021

Closson Chase South Clos Chardonnay 2019, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario

Notable reduction marks South Clos’ youthful entry and with that first nose in the glass we are put on immediate notice that 2019 will be a structured year for winemaker Keith Tyers’ and Closson Chase’s chardonnay. This and the following vintage will trade blows for bragging rights, longevity and excellence, so pay attention to this pool of varietal estate wines. That is something CC so generously affords their customers. Here at the top level the fruit is glorious, pristine, pure and cut by diamond clarity. The reduction flies away and a nose of marzipan, lemon preserve and a fresh bitten Ida Red apple come away from the vineyard. Acids here are tight, crunchy, friable, felt from the tongue’s tip to the wisdoms. The liquidity is so finely chalky with all signs pointing to spirit and balance with that ’19 crop of South Clos fruit at the core. Does not get much better from PEC, Ontario or Canada. Anywhere. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2021

Hidden Bench Chardonnay Felseck Vineyard 2019, VQA Beamsville Bench

Tasted as part of an #14c21 seven year vertical Felseck Vineyard retrospective. No stirring, “I don’t like bâtonnage,” tells winemaker Jay Johnston, “unless I’m trying to get a wine to dry.” Never mind the lees aeration or the emulsification because texture in this ’19 is extraordinary to behold, gliding across the palate with Bench orchard fruit cleverness, penetrating perspicacity and juices running through unblemished flesh. Tighter and taut than ’18, while seemingly improbable but here yet unwound, far from the pinnacle at which point full expression will surely ache to be. The ’18 may be a beautiful thing but the ’19 is structured, manifold in destiny and ideal for those who know, or at least think they do. Drink 2023-2030. Tasted July 2021

Lightfoot And Wolfville Ancienne Chardonnay 2018, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

Frost year for the valley but again an escape by the vines at Lightfoot & Wolfville with thanks to the tidal influence to keep the chardonnay vines happy, healthy and secure. So much fruit and warm summer sunshine, a glade bathed in light and a luminescence rarely found in chardonnay. Consistent L & W elévage, increasingly into puncheons and away from 225L barriques. You can never forget and not remember what chardonnay has done for L & W, while now the richness and restraint work in optimized tandem. Less reductive than previous incantations, with new and improved connotations, consistencies and harmonic sway. Also a matter of vintage and cooperage. Stability is the key to being great. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted September 2021

Westcott Reserve Chardonnay 2020, VQA Vinemount Ridge, Ontario

Almost seems redundant to say anything about the Reserve from 2020 because what more is there that was not already expounded upon from the Estate chardonnay. Same soft entry, slow developing charm, fruit neither richest nor gregarious but yet in Reserve truly ideal, less variegated and hinting at opulence. That is the crux and the key, hints, in shadows, speculations, possibilities and in Reserve form most surely probabilities. Elevates the crisp crunch and gets real trenchant with the pulverulent and tactile sensations. Seriously credible, professional and still emotive work here from Westcott at the pinnacle of Vinemount Ridge, but also Bench and Escarpment chardonnay. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted October 2021

The Bachelder Vineyard Map

Bachelder Bai Xu Gamay Noir Niagara Cru 2019, VQA Four Mile Creek, Ontario

Bai Xu is unique within the Bachelder gamay domain encompassing whole cluster ferments and cru investigations. It reminds us all that time and patience are a must, an academic approach is not enough and one must follow their intuition, instinct and heart to deliver appreciated wine. In Niagara the philosophy has merged with gamay in ways the monk could never have known were possible. Here 20 per cent whole cluster may be less than the 22 and 52 crus, but this is a broader matter and one that fruits beyond the Wismer-Foxcroft Vineyard. In a sense, a villages-plus wine (think Côte d’Or) but as a conceptual one. The clarity and slow release of flavour in Bai Xu happens without power, grip or forceful intent. The acidity neither startles nor does it cry out, but instead acts as architect for the infrastructure and the mosaic. Bai (it is presumed) from a Chinese language, meaning “pure,” (depending on the dialect and vowel’s accent) and Xu, “slowly, calmly.” Thomas Bachelder is surely looking for the chaste gamay, unadulterated and one that rushes nowhere, takes the slow and winding path, feet securely on solid ground. More than anything else, this gamay cru won’t chase after what it thinks may make us happy or search for things that deliver one and done, immediate and short-lived excitement. As another one of nature’s mysterious constructs the captured poise and effect make cause for great delight. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted June 2021

Cloudsley Cellars Cuesta Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Cuesta as a vineyard has more history behind it than one might have assumed, having been planted back in 2002. Adam Lowy has made 65 cases from Cuesta’s deeply resonant and soulful fruit, so as a consequence given it more new oak (28 per cent) than any of his other three single-vineyard pinot noirs. Clearly the brightest, most tonally effusive and transparent of the quadrangle, as Burgundian as it gets when it comes to mapping or contemplating the connectivity with the mothership. Just a lovely, elegant and sweet-scented pinot noir, classically arranged, scientifically opined and romantically delivered by Lowy’s prudent if so very hopeful elévage. The Côtes de Nuits notation is clearly defined, intuited and understood. Not quite but resembling Marsannay, or perhaps even something just a plot or three further south. Cuesta conduits as the “Robbinsian” one for which “the scientist keeps the romantic honest and the romantic keeps the scientist human.” Drink 2022-2027. Tasted August 2021

Checkmate Silent Bishop Merlot 2015, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

One of four Checkmate merlots, regional expressions, here a blend of three benches, Osoyoos West, Oliver North and Golden Mile. A Silent Bishop and a merlot are more powerful than those who speak and their ordinations may also be called consecrations. Here the silent 2015 is one that is dedicated, coordinated, devoted and sacred to proprietors, winemaker and place. When a merlot is silent it moves in dynamic tactical effect and like the bishop moving on a position, does not capture or attack an enemy piece. Truth be told this is a stealth merlot, of fruit so dark and mysterious, of structure hidden, enigmatic and prepared to go the distance. Such an efficient wine and the kind to cause a ripple effect. Taste this and you too will want to pursue making profound Okanagan merlot, an endeavour as frustrating as it can be elusive. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted June 2021

La Stella Maestoso “Solo Merlot” 2017, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

The decision whether to listen to Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 or Handel’s Allegro Maestoso (Water Music Suite 2) while tasting and sipping through La Stella’s “Solo” merlot is a difficult one. Less obvious than it might seem and the question is which piece best exemplifies “the highest peak in the crescendo, that moment of realizing you are in the presence of majesty.” Both, to be fair and so I find myself in good ears, and taste by the triad grace of Chopin, Handel and La Stella hands. Let’s revise to encompass all three, in decadence, rolling rhythm and Okanagan Valley merlot-defining precociousness come crashing onto a shore of strings. This is where the maestroso moment happens, in cumulative fruit substance joined by fine acid intensity, wrapped up in structural soundness. All this after a great deal of strong tempo variations which are prominent features in this Severine Pinte interpretation. The instruments are Glacio Fluvial and Fluvial Fan; Clay and Gravel mix, Alluvial deposit and Clay, playing in the orchestra of Osoyoos Lake District and Golden Mile. Support from the Okanagan’s best, written as a top merlot composition and executed flawlessly by the winemaking team. Bravissimo. Drink 2023-2032. Tasted May 2021

Phantom Creek Phantom Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2017, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Two weeks later than the usual norm defined the 2017 spring but hot and dry summer weather confirmed the intensity of Phantom Creek Vineyard’s southern Okanagan growing season. The cabernet sauvignon grows on the lower terrace of the Black Sage Bench’s Osoyoos sandy loam and it has been approximately 15 years that these vines have been fostering these wines. Magnanimously ripe and conspicuously copious fruit sees the unabashed generosity of (75 per cent new) French wood in a bone dry, healthy acidity endowed and elevated pH cabernet. This is essential edging up and into quintessential Okanagan varietal chattel, a wine of substance, grip and winched binding, oozing with expensive taste, fine dark chocolate and a depth of fruit that aches to be heard. That will have to wait and so should you because the structural parsimony will need three years or more to release and allow for stretching and breathing room. A prouheze as they say. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted May 2021

Stag’s Hollow Syrah 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Roes floral, elegant, ethereal, really effusive and just lovely stuff. Nothing remotely over the top, no blow to the head nor a crashing upon the senses. Sweet acids and silky tannins are the finality in what is clearly generated to conclude upon the notion of a very great wine. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021

Good to go!

godello

Twitter: @mgodello

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WineAlign

Wines in the Similkameen they are, sometimes they blow my mind

Nov5

Ben in back, Goode standing tall

Last month the WineAlign judges spent an evening under the Similkameen Valley stars against a rugged mountain backdrop of glacial rock formation, the vineyards quiet, their fall foliage bright at dusk above stony, gravelly, and silty loam soil. The pizza oven was firing and the Similkameen growers hosted our motley crew with wines pouring all night long.

Similkameen Valley

These are the facts. The Similkameen Valley lies west of Osoyoos with the majority of vineyards located around Cawston and Keremeos. Significant winds help naturally keep vineyards in this arid valley free of pests and disease, making this region well-suited for organic farming. Due to the steep surrounding mountains, and the reflectivity of the rock, heat remains in the valley long after the sun sets. Did I mention how beautiful a place this is?

WineAlign judges Janet Dorozynski, Michaela Morris and Michelle Bouffard

Our hosts were the owners of Crowsnest Vineyards, a Cawston property purchased by the Heinecke family in 1985 and named after the Crowsnest Highway #3. The family was an early contributor to the development of the Similkameen wine region, led by second generation family siblings Sascha and Anna Heinecke. Here are 12 wines tasted that evening.

Clos Du Soleil Winemaker’s Series Pinot Blanc Middle Bench Vineyard 2020, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Pointed and punchy pinot blanc, stone fruit with a verdant piquancy. Not exactly edgy but crisp, quite precise and yes, surely punchy. Early picked acids maintain freshness and this is nothing but bloody delicious. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted October 2021

Wines in the Similkameen they are, sometimes they blow my mind

Clos Du Soleil Capella 2020, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

From the Upper Bench of the South Similkameen Valley and winemaker Michael Clarke’s signature Bordeaux-inspired white blend of sauvignon blanc and sémillon. Knowing the maker’s education and professional past one might look at this Capella as a branch of blancs that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. In other words Capella a.k.a. the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga, presents a case of two complimentary grape varieties made profound by the abstractions of soil, gently inclined land and the reflectivity of mountain rock. These building blocks of terroir and warmth may be real but it is the philosophies and methodologies of growing and winemaking that allows us to vindicate the greatness in this 2020. A virtuoso deportment of fine salinity and truffled perfume speaks in subtle Similkameen tones and a light touch is noted by both délestage and elévage restraint. This pure citrus distillate is sharp and pointed but then come the poignant flavours. Like the assyrtiko of the Similkameen with Bordeaux structure. Theoretical and physical, void of experimental tools and yes, c’est bon. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2021

Vines in the Similkameen

Corcelettes Micro Lot Series Chardonnay 2020, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Fulsome, not bullish, cream centred and with exteriors all bite and wood spice. Almost too youthful still, previously misunderstood, not yet in full perfume bloom. Hinting at what’s coming, tree fruit part orchard and part tropical but no bloody pineapple. Chard of interest. Last tasted October 2021

Part of the Micro Lot Series and a cool to gelid chardonnay well into the yogurt and lemon curd with finishing almond flavours. Texturally speaking there is flesh and fluidity in a Similkameen chardonnay that receives much barrel addendum. Silky and creamy, all about mouthfeel and development. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted September 2021

Brad Royale and Crowsnest Gourd

Crowsnest Family Reserve Chardonnay Stahltank 2020, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Stahltank as in stainless steel fermentation for full retention of freshness, which this energetic 2020 shows, but also big and substantial fruit. Crowsnest Vineyards is located near Cawston in the Similkameen Valley and chardonnay is clearly a specialty. Soft, creamy and devoted, available and amenable. Subtle spice, crafty and just crisp enough to remind of the fresh intendment and lively persistence. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted October 2021

Hugging Tree Moonchild Merlot 2016, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Solid merlot in many respects, rich and caky, thick and chock full of ripe fruit. Edgy as needed, split by a streak of right proper greenness and out of a quality vintage. Steeping in acids and tannins running down grain for a result that has and will continue to please for a few years yet to come. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted October 2021

Orofino Riesling Hendsbee Vineyard 2018, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Made from the other Alsatian Clone (as opposed to the oft employed 49) from the 2006 planted vineyard by Cheryl and Lee Hendsbee adjacent to and with great soil similarities to Orofino’s home block on the Cawston Bench. A place of rich caky soil atop gravel and river rock for 100 feet. Prudent to experience this with some but not too much age and the hope is to have an experiential moment, say one or two years forward to do so again. Just now moving into some development, a secondary dance step, trip of the tongue, coupling fruit and mineral salts. Quite dry with elevated but knowing and promising acidity. At present a true matter of delight mixed with complex notions in this time of emerging secondary emotions. The appendages work together, in rhythm and forward motion. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2021

Orofino Gamay 2020, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

So bloody primary, a fresh smack of Similkameen juice, a touch turbid and seemingly not quite at the curtain call of its final act towards being a finished wine. Still swimming in carbonic waters, openly fragrant and inviting. A squeeze of blood orange and tart edging while in full control to effect positively on the palate. You think it might turn botanical or volatile but it never does, instead staying a fruit persistent course. Can see this being underestimated when in fact it is simply a joy to drink. Drink 2021-2024. Tasted October 2021

Orofino Wild Ferment Syrah 2014, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

A well developed smoulder, purely be variety and place, not by wood. Still persistently and openly fragrant, earth, brush, flora and fruit intertwined as one in a syrah of end game integration. What was once folds, waves and shadows is now seamlessness, inertia and assimilation. Orofino’s WFS resides in a place of great comfort and equally important regard. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted October 2021

Robin Ridge Winery Gamay 2016, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Has advanced well into the denouement of its life with fruit persistently black of cherry and what tannins there ever were have melted into a glass darkly. Even the acids wane, effecting little to no meaning at this stage. Drinks quite well actually if showing signs of imminence. Nothing wrong about a glass with a good slice of pizza on a cool Similkameen night. Drink 2021-2022. Tasted October 2021

Seven Stones Speaking Rock Estate Chardonnay 2015, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Reductive even after all this time, spicy chardonnay chai and wasabi spiced though still some juicy fruit. Showing well for its age, far from oxidative, of clotted cream and some drying to desiccating flavours. Lemon namely and a dollop of that cream. Fully developed and soon to finish all the softening. A lovely drop at this moment. Drink 2021-2022. Tasted October 2021

Vanessa Vineyard Syrah 2018, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

Quite a big syrah expression while balanced and showing an ease with which it carries itself this way. Maintains composure and control in the face of a deep and hematic meatiness, high-toned culture, level, pulse and pace of play. Clearly a wine of site, revealing in a meaningful style because it just seems to be the kind of weighty wine it needs to be. No two ways around it. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted October 2021

Vanessa Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2018, BC VQA Similkameen Valley

A whopping 16 per cent alcohol but truth is you’d not really fully feel or know it. The level of fruit and the flesh it expounds hangs snugly, fitted and tied to the bone. The chalky and peppery liquidity want to be about juiciness and freshness, some way, somehow. The cigarillo smoulders still and the wine finds those realistic and honest moments. Suffers and survives, delivers the varietal goods. Well perhaps there is a moment of shock and awe but ultimately the wine is the wine, for its time and place. Drink 2021-2024. Tasted October 2021

Good to go!

godello

Ben in back, Goode standing tall

vvv

WineAlign Nationals meet the Iconic Wineries of B.C.

Nov1

Judging Rosé at the 2021 WineAligjn National Wine Awards of Canada – Photo (c) WineAlign

Back in the first week of October a special anniversary took place in Penticton, British Columbia. Special because it was the 20th running of Canada’s greatest wine show on wheels, now and for the past 10 years known as the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. Remarkable because the week of judging Canada’s finest wines and ciders brought together a group of erudite and beautiful people for the first time in nearly 28 months. It was in June of 2019 the last time a 50-plus strong NWAC gaggle assembled, of back room volunteers, behind the scenes technical wizards, scoring junkies and FOH judging professionals. The 2021 results are beginning to roll out, including the first four categories last week; Sparkling, Gamay, Pinot Gris and Rosé. Today you can read up on chardonnay and pinot noir. I was entrusted the Rosé category write-up and you can view it here:

A record-setting number of wines were entered from coast to coast. The two-decade journey has been worth every moment for this most respected and important Canadian wine competition. I have been at these judging tables since 2013, to capture this most essential snapshot of Canadian wine and by now have witnessed a great change and evolution, as have mentors Anthony Gismondi and David Lawrason over two decades. The inaugural competition in 2001 drew 528 wines from 71 wineries and in 2021, 26 judges tasted 2,075 entries from more than 260 wineries.

Backroom at NWAC2021, photo (c) WineAlign

I have now published more than 270 wines tasted at the competition that can be viewed on WineAlign. Most have only been tasted the one time, that being during blind varietal and stylistic flights in Penticton and those reviews have only been edited for spelling, grammar, syntax and in a few instances musical reference fact checking. No information, estate history, principals’ stories or winemaking data have been added to those notes. In cases where wines had been previously reviewed or tasted in Kelowna just prior to the awards then the blind notes are added in.

Day one judging @winealign #NWAC2021 ~ With the inimitable @trevering and @bryantmao ~ Only 2,000 more to go ~ #canadianwine #winejudging #thenationals #wineawards

Upon arrival in the Okanagan on the eve of day one at the awards we were privileged to be guests at a walk-around tasting hosted by Anthony Von Mandl’s Iconic Wineries of British Columbia at Checkmate Artisanal Winery in Oliver. All seven estates were present and pouring some of their top tier bottles; CedarCreek Estate Winery (Kelowna), Checkmate (Oliver), Liquidity Wines (Okanagan Falls), Martin’s Lane Winery (Kelowna), Mission Hill Family Estate Winery (West Kelowna), Red Barn Winery (Oliver) and Road 13 Vineyards (Oliver). The following 19 tasting notes are from the bottles poured by all seven members of the IWBC.

CedarCreek Platinum Block 3 Riesling 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

From the Kelowna home vineyard and the oldest block of riesling vines at 30 years of age. A wild ferment, kept on the skins for 12 hours and aged half in stainless, half in German oak (not to be confused with the 1970s prog. rock/psychedelic band). “It’s very easy to make lime juice from this block,” is a reminder from winemaker Taylor Whelan to take great care, find focus and another gear. “We’re aiming for GG (Grosses Gewächs) numbers,” here emerging at 8 g/L RS, but the intensity and grip make the wine seem much drier. No detention or detection of wood whatsoever in a currently bracing riesling but one set up for a readied future of full embrace. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2021

Cedar Creek Platinum Jagged Rock Vineyard Chardonnay 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

A 100 per cent wild and in barrel though with truncated malolactic fermentation, “because we’re CedarCreek, not Checkmate,” quips winemaker Taylor Whelan. Some banana emits in this moment of estimable youth and we both admit the wine is “not yet quite ready.” From the vineyard down in the valley below Checkmate Winery, a contributor to the freshness in a chardonnay straddling the line between reduction and flesh, flintiness and splendored expression. Tropical fruit hints, nary a creamy plasticity and zero gratuity, but plenty of gravitas. To say they are on to something would be a gross understatement in this a vintage readying to unroll later on in 2022. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted October 2021

CedarCreek Winemaker Taylor Whelan

CedarCreek Platinum Simes Vineyard Natural Pinot Noir 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Dark as a syrah night, pressed, full on violet to balsamic, rich beyond the pinot pale and fully into a film noir genre. A bit Wagner north, with gritty tannins and hidden greens. Last tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021

Approximately 55 per cent (Clone 115) whole bunch concrete fermentation. A crunchy red in the guise of Beaujolais and the reference point is not such a stretch. Recently planted gamay vines will do the same or take the torch when they come to their fruition. Some pretty serious pitch and tannin, a cru on steroids, wild man, far from reductive and big. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted October 2021

Looking out from Checkmate Winery

Checkmate Queen Taken Chardonnay 2018, BC VQA Golden Mile Bench

From the unknown 1975 planted clone, same one used by Mission Hill going back to 1994 with a musqué intonation. The Vineyard is called Dekleva, coolish spot on the Golden Mile Bench. Lower slope soils are patch sandy, with fragmented rocks aboard a fluvial fan. The 2018 is a preview of what the vintage can be for chardonnay or perhaps better described in prologue as to what it has already shown to be. Layers upon layers, alternating chew and crunch, great freshness matching the buttery croissant and if you drop your guard this chardonnay will crush you. It has the game. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted October 2021

Checkmate Opening Gambit Merlot 2017, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

From the Osoyoos Bench with 100 per cent merlot, a wild ferment and 21 months in new wood. Truly, ostensibly varietal Okanagan realism. Could be nothing but and anything at all, a merlot so cured, verdantly specialized and toasty because the growth cycle and viticultural handling all lead down a path where grape and place walk cane and shoot. Bramble, fully loaded spice masala, a modicum of intensity fleshing out the layers of brush, underbrush and ultimately a silken merlot style. Structured but not overtly so, best in the mid term though it will linger well into the latter stages of the decade. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted October 2021

Liquidity Reserve Chardonnay 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Poured by winemaker Amy Paynter, a Reserve chardonnay so aptly named as it submits to the ease with which assets of fruit and structural security are converted into ready to drink pleasure, without affecting cost, value or age worthiness. No searching for richness, nor unction neither, not to mention mille-feuille layering. Chewy enough, fleshy for certain and textural throughout, but always this ease of transitions, conversions and fluidity. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2021

Liquidity winemaker Amy Paynter

Liquidity Viognier 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Golden hue, ripeness at the top, surely only B.C. can effect. Not nearly as unctuous as expected yet there is some sweetness and spice to be sure. Spicy too, tart, tincture of tang and all the while circumstantially evident. Last tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021

Part estate with fruit from Oliver and Osoyoos. Very apricot in a chanterelle way so it’s scents is like the idea of a mushroom that smells like the memory of a ripe apricot. What else does one need. Drink 2021-2024. Tasted October 2021

Liquidity Estate Pinot Noir 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Made with one hundred per cent Okanagan Falls fruit, picked in lots, each small batch fermented, 14-15 months in (25 per cent new) wood. The decision as to what qualifies as Reserve is made at the time of bottling. A true OK Falls Liquidity Reserve in such regard, much in the way sangiovese is dealt with in Chianti Classico or Montalcino. But this is pinot noir, an animal all to itself, fickle and choosy, hard to get and yet Liquidity has their fruit down with proof right in this glass. Smooth, supple, strong and sure, a confident if simply delicious pinot noir of balance, harmony and grace. Tasted with incumbent winemaker Amy Paynter who’s first full vintage will be 2021 and look for her work ethic (and measured risks) to take this wine to a whole new level. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted October 2021

Martin’s Lane Riesling Fritzi’s Vineyard 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Shane Munn’s riesling from the volcanic, clay and white quarts Fritzi’s Vineyard continues to get better, all the while with a wine he seems to do less and less to try and control. Must be the place and the fruit from this 21 year-old block (as of this 2018 vintage) seeks a 48 hour skin-contact for oxidatively handled juice. Pressed once, lightly and so softly treated, then transferred to German casks where it stays for up to eight months. Just bloody delicious, hard to not conjure a frothie for this freshest of phenolic rieslings, which incidentally was only sulphured once, four months into the trek. Walks about from grippy to lovely and back again, with silk stops along the way. Will shine brightest two years from now. Drink 2023-2029. Tasted October 2021

Martin’s Lane Riesling Fritzi’s Vineyard 2017, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Fritzi’s Vineyard on Mission Hill Road is a volcanic block on dry yet rich clay, with white quartz below, planted in 1997. The winemaking is consistent from year to year and as time passes forward what’s done to this wine “is very little, less and less” tells Shane Munn. Such a phenolic riesling and irrefutably circulating in a floating balloon of immaculate freshness. Yes there is some creamy richness but it can’t hold a candle to the level of “frische und enger” in a riesling interfacing the land at the base of Boucherie. Fritzbox and very cool cat. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2021

Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir Fritzi’s Vineyard Missing Ear 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Some changes in 2018, nothing earth shattering but alterations nonetheless. This time around a 70 per cent whole bunch natural ferment for 42 days (and nearly Piedmontese cappello sommerso as such). No punch-downs nor pump-overs neither, instead a “semi-délestage,” notes winemaker Shane Munn, a fanning over the cap two or three times a day, to polymerize the tannins. Call this the Munn manifesto, unique to pinot noir, Fritzi’s Vineyard and the Okanagan, an infusion rather than a maceration. Fanning acts out so very gently, allowing for an elegant transfer of fruit through structure all the while in retention of some of the noble elements found in the skins. Surely an old-school reference point, a consciousness at the very least and a way to make a big but not dense wine, fulsome yet far from heavy, with great finesse and emotive wakefulness. Munn’s pinot noir is alert and at the ready, as should we all be, from the get go and with the slow moving current that will see aging take place over a six to eight year period. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2021

Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir Fritzi’s Vineyard Missing Ear 2017, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Tasted with winemaker Shane Munn, a 50 per cent whole bunch natural fermentation in concrete for 32 days, in this vintage quicker to resolve (five to seven days earlier) than the average. Polymers culminated, “melted” and melded with the richness of tannic volcanic thrush. The optimum if classic Fritzi’s pinot noir fruit at first precipitously gliding down so easy but the stem inclusion thankfully graduates the incline and slows the consumption process down to a much necessitated trickle. Also keeps the wine from lunging or lurching into its immediate future, ahead of promise and proper compulsion for brilliance. No comeuppance or envy here, only pinot mercy and possibility. Log life ahead, breezes in sails, drifts and finally, sandy shores. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2021

Mission Hill Perpetua 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Top of the flinty pops, super reductive and oh so tight, taut and implosive. The fruit rolls on through, states a territorial claim and give thanks for all the right reasons. The includes a high level of quality salt, pepper and wood seasoning, which it submits to and willfully accepts. Fine work in chardonnay all around. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2021

Mission Hill Terroir Collection Vista’s Edge Cabernet Franc 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Tasted with Graham Nordin, General Manager for Iconic Wineries of B.C. and a man passionate for cabernet franc, especially this fifth vintage of Vista’s Edge for Mission Hill. A wine that began in 2015 after winemaker Darryl Brooker took over from John Simes and the first full vintage for Aussie Ben Bryant who in 2018 succeeded Brooker as chief winemaker. The vineyard can be seen looking out from Checkmate Winery and just past Phantom Creek. The 2019 cabernet franc was fermented in concrete and then aged in Bourgogne wood. My this packs a punch, of fruit so primary, succulent acids secondary and bones tertiary, the latter only because so much flesh and antioxidant donation hangs upon the very backbone of the wine. A cabernet construct like this is neither common nor fully understood in such youth. Will exude charm and captivate to the fullest in two to three years time. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted October 2021

Red Barn Jagged Rock Vineyard Lost Art Sémillon 2020, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

Red Barn is the newest Black Sage Bench project for Anthony Von Mandl’s Iconic Wineries of British Columbia (IWBC). The seventh member joins Mission Hill, Cedar Creek, CheckMate, Road 13, Liquidity and Martin’s Lane. The winery should be ready to open its doors in 2022. The sèmillon is raised in both stainless steel and concrete, coming across with esteemed richness of fruit so very tropical, nearing a stylistic that usually comes from Okanagan viognier. Viscous with a lovely salt line running through, keeping the varietal faith and boding well for future renditions of this wine. Drink 2021-2023. Tasted October 2021

Red Barn Jagged Rock Vineyard Silent Partner Cabernet Franc 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

The newest kid on the Black Sage Bench for the Iconic Wineries of B.C. is Red Barn and this cabernet franc from Jagged Rock Vineyard of 30 per cent whole bunch fermentation was aged in concrete. Only 165 cases were produced for an all in, full varietal monty of great transparency, wonderful red fruit and perfect simplicity. A terrific entry point for vineyard and new order outfit. “I know, you know, we believe in a land of love,” that being this institution of an Okanagan bench, a pleasure zone for fun, ripe fruit and the sun’s perfect kiss. All the distractions are kept at bay in a cabernet franc well on its way. Drink 2021-2024. Tasted October 2021

Road 13 Vineyards Sparkling Chenin Blanc 2017, BC VQA Golden Mile Bench, Okanagan Valley

Lots of fun here, funk too, western richness, sunshine and fulsome palate flavours and texture. Lots of lees and layers. Last tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021

From some of the oldest chenin planting in the Okanagan (1968) and North America for that matter, used exclusively for the sparkling wine program. Vinous yet sleek, rich and intense. Mineral fascination in bubble form, loaded with character. Spent 36 months on the secondary lees. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2021

Road 13 Winemaker Barclay Robinson

Road 13 Vineyards Sparkling Chenin Blanc 2012, BC VQA Golden Mile Bench, Okanagan Valley

Spent eight years on the lees, still now vibrant and acting as a solemn totem to what distance and time can do for chenin blanc in sparkling significance. Now a wine of fully developed character at the peak of complexities possible. Will linger in this lovely suspended state for a few more years. Drink 2021-2024. Tasted October 2021

Road 13 5th Element Jackpot 2019, BC VQA Okanagan Valley

The intensity of blue fruit is something to behold, with imminent proposal and one’s imagination trends towards a high percentage of petit verdot (when in fact the number is only in the three to five range). Winemaker Barclay Robinson smiles a wry smile because he knows he’s onto something great and perhaps he too imagines a jackpot at the end of this rainbow. The merlot and malbec offer up interwoven waves of red and black fruit, all the while bespoken to chocolate and goji berry. Then the perfume hits, violet and hibiscus, followed by a return of that beautiful blue fruit. Onto something indeed. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted October 2021

Good to go!

godello

Judging Rosé at the 2021 WineAligjn National Wine Awards of Canada

Twitter: @mgodello

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WineAlign

Twenty Canadian wines that rocked in 2020

Dec24

Year-end lists and greatest hits have always elicited a personal introspective fascination, not any lists mind you but mostly those involving music. Always curious to find out if someone else thought the same songs or albums aligned with your own. Such lists are met with growing skepticism and so the words “top” or “best” should be taken with a grain of salt, scrutinized with impunity, viewed with subjective prejudice. Music and wine need not be considered as ranked, top or best but instead contemplated with dead reckoning, as if throwing a buoyant opinion overboard to determine the speed of the mind’s emotion relative to thought, which was assumed to be dead in the waters of judgement. The feeling of being moved, stirred up in sentiment, excited and reaching deeper into understanding, these are the reasons to tally a culminating register. Neither for enumeration nor for classification, but for the indexing, of harbingers and that which makes us feel.

What transpired over the previous 12 months has not left the arena of the unfathomable and the absurd, but with respect to Canadian wine there can be no doubt that a next level of greatness was reached. Holiday time will be somewhat solitary as 2020 winds down and while the sharing of bottles will surely mean more repeated sips for the few involved, they will be sweet ones and are not to be taken for granted. As for the exercise of creating a rocking roster of Canadian made wine, well here on Godello this so happens to be the eighth annual for an instalment that first appeared in 2013. Now adding up to seven more entries than the first and acting as natural segue, a transition and salvo towards crossing over the threshold where 2021 awaits.

Twenty. Not an arbitrary number but rather an arbiter of perpetual and developmental prowess of a nation’s wine-producing ability and surely while knowing that no fewer than 20 others could of, would of, should of made the grade. The quote is a timeless one and will be employed once again. This curated list is “biased, exclusive and decisive but it is meant to celebrate a select few with a mandate to elevate and exult the rest. It’s also a proclamation read to many who remain ignorant to an ideal of great wine being made in Canada. The winemakers in this country are in full command of their acumen, craft and future. They own it.”

In 2020 Canadian wine came to my tasting table in ways no other year made it happen. There were no excursions to British Columbia, Nova Scotia or Quebec, save for a 36-hour round-trip drive to Halifax in delivery of precious human cargo. No Cuvée or i4c. No VQA Oyster competition, Somewhereness or Terroir Symposium. No walk-around tastings. Despite going nowhere the opportunities to sample Canadian wines were of a number higher than ever before. Safely distanced tastings at WineAlign headquarters, at the welcome emptiness of Barque Smokehouse and in our homes brought Canada’s finest bottles to us. Though we were unable to convene in June at the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, a prodigious alternative became surrogate in the guise of the Guide to Canada’s Best Wines, a.k.a WineAlign’s GCBW. Over the course of six weeks we tasted through 860 samples and not just any mind you but truly Canada’s best. We were sad to miss Tony Aspler’s Ontario Wine Awards and David Lawrason’s Great Canadian Kitchen Party, the artist formerly known as Gold Medal Plates. Here’s to hoping 2021 will usher in a return to assessing and celebrating together.

Aldé Rosé, Interloper and As Is

The numbers chosen to cant, recant and decant excellence in Canadian wine continue to march ahead, as promised by the annual billing. In 2018 the list counted 18. In 2017 there were 17 and in 2016, 16 noted. In 2015 that meant 15 and 14 for 2014, just as in 2013 the filtered list showed 13. Last year? You would be correct if you guessed 19. There is no red carpet for 2020, it just doesn’t feel appropriate or right but keeping on is essential. “Whence comes the sense of wonder we perceive when we encounter certain bottles of art?” Here are 20 most exciting Canadian wines of 2020. Twenty Canadian wines that rocked.

Le Vieux Pin Ava 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley ($29.99)

Calculated, figured and reasoned, a 51 per cent roussanne, (36) viognier and (13) marsanne organized, Rhône motivated blend that just fits right. A kiss of new wood and a 35 per cent wood campaign, slightly more in steel and then the other freshener, that being a fifth of this exceptional vintage fruit having seen time in concrete tank. Yes the aromas are wildly fresh, far away tropical and cumulatively enticing. A white blend of rhythm and soul, actionable in every part of its drift and coil, democratic, of no accident, come up to please and at the same time, foil. Offers this and that, high tempo acids opposite fully ripened fruit and all tolled, wrapped up with a tailored bow. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted October 2020

Cave Spring CSV Riesling 2018, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario ($29.95)

Cave Spring’s is Ontario riesling and along with three or four others the CSV has been the benchmark for decades. CSV is one of the reasons to believe in riesling, versatile, brutally honest, speaker of the mind, telling us like it is. As for 2018, frosts in late ’17 reduced the upcoming vintage’s yield potential. Long, hot and dry was ’18’s summer and so doubling down occurred. Less yet highly concentred fruit was pretty much assured before September turned wet and humid. CSV embraces and stands firm in its dealings with nature so while there is more flesh and flavour intensity there too is the tried and true structural backbone. Surely a highly phenolic riesling but every aspect is elevated in this game. A hyperbole of itself, gangster riesling, the jumbo package, age-worthy and stone-faced beyond compare. Best ever, perhaps no but perchance something new, riveting, magnified, extravagant and well, fine. Drink 2022-2032. Tasted October 2020

Charles Baker Picone Vineyard Riesling 2017, VQA Vinemount Ridge, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario ($37.20, Stratus Wines)

The concept behind Baker’s single-vineyard riesling is for the top tier one to be possessive in the matters of majestic and dignified, which quite honestly it is. Funny vintage that ’17 was and yet in riesling there can be this slow melt, tide and release of intricacy and intimacy, which this Picone does. Like taking a picture with the slowest shutter speed, allowing the sensor a full allotment of time in its exposure to light. This is the dramatic and hyper-effect and how Baker captured the highest riesling resolution imaginable. The succulence in the acids over top juicy, juicy fruit and this great entanglement is majestic and dignified. My goodness Charles, I think you’ve done it. Drink 2021-2032. Tasted April and October 2020

Martin’s Lane winemaker Shane Munn

Martin’s Lane Riesling Simes Vineyard 2016, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($45.00)

First tasted at the winery in 2018 after only one year in bottle. A cooler vintage and less residual sugar (4 g/L vs. 6 in 2015) and also one reaching for its phenolics. The Alsace Clone (49) planted in 2008 is coming into the zone with this textured ’16 from one of three single vineyards on granite in East Kelowna. There is that minor number of sugar but there are acidities and reminiscences to the motherland that supersede and infiltrate the nooks and crannies of the fruit. Who in the Okanagan neighbourhood would not be envious of the clean clarity that this riesling achieves. Very focused, tightly wound and surely able to unravel ever so slowly, developing beeswax, honey and gasses as it will, over a ten year period. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted April 2020

Tawse Chardonnay Quarry Road Vineyard 2016, VQA Twenty Mile Bench ($37.15)

Wound tight like a coil around a winch with precise threading and pinpoint spacing for chardonnay that wins the vintage. Reductive style to be sure but only truly noted because of the freshest vibes this side of Motown. Got rhythm and blues, not to mention funk and soul. Clean beats, in step, three-part backing vocals and a purity of sound. Taste relays all these things and more, of succulence and in satiation guaranteed. In other words timeless and the willingness to pour on repeat will be a continuous thing of perpetual satisfaction. Last tasted October 2020. There is no secret that 2016 can align itself with the best of them in Niagara and chardonnay is clearly right in the middle of the discussion. Knowing that, how could the iconic triad of varietal, producer and vineyard not rise like fresh summer fruit cream to the top of the discourse? The years of Pender and Bourgogne barrel studies have come to this; spot on in blending Quarry fruit from wood and associated forests, staves and toasts, here the crux of sonic, sonar, and olfactory waves are met in optimum phenolic crash. The crush of chardonnay, the cryogenic liquid wait and the ultimate goal is achieved. Balance is struck at 12.5 degrees alcohol and all the perfectly seasoned grape tannin you could want. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted May 2020

Leaning Post Senchuk Vineyard Chardonnay 2018, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Ontario ($45.20, Nicholas Pearce Wines)

Set apart from the Bench wineries and while still beneath the Niagara Escarpment Senchuk Vineyard sits on more of a plain that gently slides down the Lincoln Lakeshore and into Lake Ontario. Perhaps it will become Ontario’s next sub-appellation. Sandy soil is maculated by largish stones three to four feet down. This atop a bed of grey clay so the low vigour of the sandy soil will be offer up a flip-side, a foil to the heavy clay of nearby locales like the Beamsville Bench. This third chardonnay from the home vineyard comes off of vines planted in 2011 so now this seven-year old fruit is starting to really mean something. And Ilya Senchuk is a winemaker who studies, concentrates and plans his work around clones. It’s not just about where to plant which varietals but which clone will work best and where within the greater where. Vineyard, vintage and variance. Senchuk truly believes that greatness is determined by varietal variegation, from vineyard to vineyard and from year to year. From 2018: 64 per cent Clone 548 and (36) Clone 96. Listen further. Warm season so picked on September 18. The grapes were gently whole cluster pressed (separated by Clone), allowed to settle in chilled tanks over night. The juice was then racked into barrels; Clone 548 – one puncheon and three barriques, Clone 96 – three barriques, where they underwent spontaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. The lees were not stirred and it was allowed to age for 16 months. Power, body, tons of fruit, definite barrel influence, a southern Bourgogne kind of vintage, so maybe Pouilly-Fuisée or Maconnais Village with a specific Climat. For the time being we call the Village Lincoln Lakeshore and Senchuk Vineyard the geographical designation. The lemon curd and the acidity are there in a great tangle so yes, this is trés cool chardonnay. I think we can safely say already that the Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay grown in Ilya and Nadia’s home vineyard is on its own, one of a kind and makes wines that don’t taste like anywhere else. This 2018 cements the notion and opens the next stage of the discussion. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted July 2020

Lightfoot And Wolfville Ancienne Chardonnay 2017, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia (462093, $56.95)

Exceptionalities worthy of hyperboles are befitting this chardonnay of concentration, textural satisfaction and immediate gratification. Apple distillate to nose, a walk through a perennial garden on Fundy shores in late summer bloom and then citrus in so many ways, incarnate and teeming with briny, zesty flavour. If your are counting at home, this Lightfoot family wine by way of Peter Gamble and in the hands of winemaker Josh Horton is now six years into its tenure. As the crow flies, qualitatively and quantitatively speaking refinement has never ceased to improve. Has arrived at its new Minas Basin tidal heights, crisp and salivating, finishing on the highest of notes. Chardonnay god of ocean tides, “all night long, writing poems to” Nova Scotia. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted October 2020

Mission Hill Perpetua 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($60.00)

Dichotomy in chardonnay, grand and graceful, powerful and elegant. Reductive and not acting this way but rather in what is now descried as the post modern style of chardonnay, from Australia to New Zealand, Bourgogne to B.C. Huge fruit concentration, wood equalizing yet in check, acids controlling yet relenting, structured assured though not overly complicating. Orchards combed and fruit brought in to make the composition sing with flavour while the work put in shaves down the rough edges and pieces fit snugly together. Top vintage for this label. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted October 2020

Blomidon Cuvée l’Acadie, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia ($35.00)

The entirety of a sparkling wine oeuvre is modified and transmogrified, designed and decreed of a new morphology where l’Acadie is concerned. It must be conceded that the Nova Scotia varietal speciality is destined to create cracker, lightning rod, back beats and bites in Nova Scotia sparkling wine. This from Blomidon adds spice, apple skin, orange zest and stony moments throughout. It’s amazing. Drink 2020-2025. Tasted October 2020

Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Estate Blanc De Blanc 2015, Traditional Method, VQA Short Hills Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario (315200, $49.95)

As always 100 per cent chardonnay and 2015 is perhaps the vintage of the most golden toast, as if made by agemono, with the most lemon and lees ever assembled in a Cuvée Catharine, vintage-dated Sparkling wine. An intensity of aromas swirl around in citrus centrifuge into which the gross cells don’t seem to want to go. On the palate is where they rest, layered and leesy, textured with a sense of weightlessness and wonder. Henry of Pelham channelling an inner Japanese cooking technique. Feels like some time is warranted to pull all this together. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted October 2020

Stratus Blanc De Blancs 2013, VQA Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario ($75.00)

The first (commercial) J-L Groux foray into traditional method Sparkling wine has been six plus years in the making, or in this case, senescence as the lees fly and his Blanc de Blanc has finally arrived. A notable moment in the Stratus continuum as they too now own a program of development, time, investment, research and acumen. The nose on this bubble tells a pensive story, or as fantasy goes like dipping your face into a tale-spun pensieve as it takes you back in time. In 2013 chardonnay excelled on the Niagara Peninsula and still today in 2020 we are drinking vintage examples persistent in their freshness and durability of construct. That this reeks of varietal lore is a hallmark moment, that and a conscientious adherence to reverence for solids and the focus on rotational detail. Speaks a Blanc de Blanc vernacular as a chardonnay should, with a bite out of a sharp fall apple, a pesto of verdant aromatics and a crunch of texture before drifting saline, briny and fine. Pretty good work J-L. Kudos for getting from there to here with intelligence and humility. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted November 2020

Bachelder Wismer Foxcroft Gamay Noir Niagara Cru 52 Whole Cluster 2018, Twenty Mile Bench, Ontario ($27.00)

At a Somewhereness gathering a few years back Thomas Bachelder poured me his first gamay and while I remember the light, I could not have known what complex cru notions the maniacal monk had up his sleeve. Who knew that Twenty Mile Bench gamay would gain standing in “Villages,” “Naturaliste,” and two Wismer-Foxcroft iterations. And so here we are with the more intense of the two whole cluster siblings and the one chosen to celebrate its 52 per cent wild bunch inclusion. The fermentation technique transposed seems almost “alla vinificazione Piedmontese a cappello sommerso,” though by way of sangiovese in Chianti Classico what with a glycerin feel and a formative fabric so tactile to the mouth’s touch. Stemmy? Not a chance. Herbal? Nope. More like a Côte de Brouilly to the Wismer-22’s Brouilly, not quite Morgon but savour and structure are serious, righteous and very much here. That I did not buy cases of this stuff is a real concern. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted November 2020

Malivoire Courtney Gamay 2018, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario (524231, $29.95)

What Courtney brings to the table in gamay is what we’ve come to expect from Ontario, that is structurally contracted and age-worthy wine. Now understood to be a Cru designate, carved from a decade of research and well-defined. You could build an entire cellar by way of Malivoire’s multi-varietal work and the many tiers they fashion from drink now, through mid-term aging and up to here in a gamay that will go long. I’ve tasted a few older Malivoires lately and have been blown away by their longevity and also tasted this Courtney from barrel last winter. The whole bunch strategy has come to this, a knowable, beautifully swarthy, fruit protected and into the future protracted guarantee of fortitude and change. Reminds me of Michael Schmelzer’s Montebernardi Panzano sangiovese. Grande. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted October 2020

Rosehall Run’s Dan Sullivan and Goode

Rosehall Run Pinot Noir JCR Rosehall Vineyard 2018, Prince Edward County, Ontario ($42.00)

Fortuitous time and place are the combined recipient of the primary assist for Rosehall’s JCR Vineyard pinot noir, a varietal stunner that seduces from the word go. A drinking vintage, early, ethereal, not lacking but easing in and out of structure, ready to please in the proverbial vein of immediate gratification. Then the County tones, reverb and static mosey on in like a Telecaster’s light jing-a-ling. Rises to an interlude crescendo and explodes into rock ‘n roll bands. In the County the poets make these things happen, then “sit back and let it all be. Tonight, in Jungleland.” Drink 2022-2026. Tasted July and October 2020

CedarCreek Platinum Pinot Noir Block 2 2017, BC VQA Okanagan Valley ($54.90)

Block “2” is genuine and fine pinot noir, a pinpointed example multi-faceted in its origins. An exclusive block and also a dedicated clone to make this what it is; ripe stem earthy in phenolics ripe and ready plus a natural and wild fruit sweetness that can’t be replicated by anything but what happens on and from the vine. Anytime pinot noir is experienced as a wine at one with site, clone and vine you know it, feel it and intuit the connection. The forging is a bond unbreakable, as here with Block number two. Drink 2020-2025. Tasted October 2020

Culmina Hypothesis 2014, Golden Mile Bench, BC VQA Okanagan Valley (414243, $49.95, Arterra Wines Canada Inc.)

The Triggs original, Hypothesis is an Okanagan Valley flagship red that celebrates the upper benches in what has become the great Golden Mile. This district is no longer a matter of new fashion, it is in fact a place to make serious Bordeaux-varietal red wine. Whether cabernet franc or merlot take the lead there is always cabernet sauvignon to tie the room of lit luminescence together. Culmina’s is bright-eyed on a face of dark fruit, chewy like liquorice and sweetly herbal, naturally sweetened by dessert warmth ripening. You smell, feel, sense and taste the land in this wine. That’s what makes it so special. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted June 2020

Black Hills Nota Bene 2018, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($68.99)

Methinks winemaker Ross Wise is giddy (and that’s a stretch for the stoic man of leisure) in what he must know will be the great eventuality of the Nota Bene 2018. By way of reminder this is one of Canada’s most accomplished and massive reds of great notoriety. The flagship of Black Hills in Bordeaux blend apparel, master of ceremonies and lead singer for B.C. Climat, Somewhereness and terroir. The maestro blend to speak of mystery, riddle and enigma. This ’18 is smooth and I mean smooth, ganache silky and focused. In youth you chew the mouthful, later on you’ll draw and imbibe. Further on down the road you will sip and savour. Quietly luxurious, rampantly delicious and pridefully profound. Top. Grande. Drink 2023-2031. Tasted June 2020

Megalomaniac Reserve Cabernet Franc 2017, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Ontario ($49.95)

Ah, finally! This is the aromatic profile of a reserve style Ontario cabernet franc, well, not “the” but “a” godly one. Concentrated and layered, like phyllo or puff pastry folded again and again upon itself. May seem dense and without air at this time but with time the folds will expand and stack with weightlessness. The variegated red fruit in betweens are juicy, sumptuous and so packed with flavour they will burst when bitten into, or in this case, explode in the mouth. Texture too is all pleasure, as will be the eventuality of exceptionality created by a triangle that includes complete and fine tannin. One of the finest and from a vintage that holds the cards for cabernet franc excellence. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted October 2020

Thirty Bench Small Lot Cabernet Franc 2017, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario ($75.00)

Niagara’s most premium solo cabernet franc is turned upside in 2017 and does everything that needed doing to make what is quite possibly the best solo effort in that vintage. Of fruit so dark yet pure and allowed to act, move and speak as varietal in place. Walks that Beamsville Bench walk and talks that cabernet franc talk. World-beating, wholly and truly. Drink 2020-2023. Tasted October 2020

Hidden Bench La Brunante 2016, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario ($85.20)

From a La Brunante year to speak of truths and there is no doubt the team was excited about the prospects of this formidable Beamsville Bench blend. The triad is merlot (43 per cent), malbec (35) and cabernet franc (22). I’d say it was the warm climate and long season that lead to then winemaker Marlize Beyer’s decisions of assemblage. You could pour this blind with red blends from Bordeaux and Australia with nary a taster being able to truly separate one from many others. And yet there is a singularity about these aromatics that are so hard to define, like spices in their simmering infancy ahead of what brand of togetherness they will assign. As for texture and length, balance is exemplary and longevity guaranteed. Drink 2022-2030. Tasted May 2020

Good to go!

godello

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WineAlign

Nineteen Canadian wines that rocked in 2019

Dec26

Love year-end lists? Stick around. Hate ’em? See ya. It is always a matter of great difficulty to contain the retrospective excitement in thinking about what happened over the previous 12 months with respect to Canadian wine. This while enjoying holiday down time, with December winding down. The exercise began on Godello in 2013 and this seventh instalment naturally not only includes six more than the first, it also happens to act as segue, transition and salvo to usher in a new decade.

Unity opinions aside this nineteen as a number is but a fraction of what could, should or would be celebrated in this coast to coast entity we call Canadian wine. Allow a quote to be used again, in unabashed redundancy of repetition. This curated list is “biased, exclusive and decisive but it is meant to celebrate a select few with a mandate to elevate and exult the rest. It’s also a proclamation read to many who remain ignorant to an ideal of great wine being made in Canada, to tell the insolent they are not welcome here anyway. The winemakers in this country are in full command of their acumen, craft and future. They own it.”

Fearless #ontariowineawards leaders @tony.aspler and Deborah Benoit running a tight #owa2919 ship @gbcchca ~ best quality work coming out of Ontario folks

In 2019 the opportunities for tasting Canadian wine upped the ante and increased the possibilities hundreds fold. This despite doubling international travel over a year further afield and abroad which made it twice as difficult to keep up the Canadian pace of assessment. That said there were more than 1000 tasted once again. The WineAlign team never wavers in the relentless pursuit, often at the WineAlign headquarters and in 2019 in convene at the June WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Ontario wines were judged as well thanks to Tony Aspler and also with David Lawrason at The Great Canadian Kitchen Party, the artist formerly known as Gold Medal Plates.

Aldé blending session day @ravinevineyard ~ Rosé 2018 looking stellar

Over the past 12 months the little négoce project known as Interloper Wines with Scott Zebarth, Marty Werner and Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery continued the pursuit of Niagara Lakeshore and Niagara-on-the-Lake excellence with Aldé Rosé 2018, a 100 per cent cabernet franc. The third vintage of Interloper Cabernet Franc appeared with the 2018 release, as did the second incarnation of the As Is Field Blend 2018.

Oh hey @nicholaspearce_ thanks for making us look so good!

In 2017 there were 17 and in 2016 there were 16 noted. In 2015 that meant 15 and 14 for 2014, just as in 2013 the filtered list showed 13 as the number chosen to cant, recant and decant excellence in Canadian wine. Last year? You would be correct if you guessed 18. Roll out the 2019 red carpet. Whence comes the sense of wonder we perceive when we encounter certain bottles of art? Here are the 19 most exciting Canadian wines of 2019.

Avondale Sky Sparkling Rosé Méthode Traditionnelle 2017, Nova Scotia ($27.82)

Leon Millet like you’ve never experienced with red currants folded into tomatillo salsa from a traditional method upbringing and a recent disgorgement. Energy, excitement and then boom, black currants and a whoosh tidal wave of Fundy exhilaration. An entirely new look at bubbles and from a Nova Scotia class where the sky is the limit. Drink 2019-2020. Tasted September 2019

NWAC19 Gold Medal Winner

The 2014 vintage, labelled as Balance Blanc de Blanc Brut, marks the Teaching Winery’s first venture into the style of Sparkling made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes. It also marks the first product made 100 per cent from grapes grown on the College’s Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus vineyards. “It celebrates the balance of knowledge, passion and creativity of the winemakers, professors and students who all pursue excellence in the field of winemaking.”

Niagara College Balance Blanc De Blanc Brut 2014, VQA St. David’s Bench, Ontario ($26.95)

Gingered entry for blanc de blanc of stoic beauty, marbled bust focus. Lemon and a dustiness indicative first of low yields, but then, the obviousness of do not disturb winemaking. Toasty and preserved lemon richesse, elegant and cumulative. So good. Drink 2019-2026. Tasted blind at NWAC19, June 2019

From a crown cap versus cork closure tasting with Flat Rock’s owner Ed Madronich and current winemaker David Sheppard. The two wines count as one for the purpose of this list.

Flat Rock Sparkling (Crown Cap Closure) 2006, Traditional Method, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario (383315, $34.95)

Wines were all under crown for 36 months, disgorged in January 2010, three quarters pinot noir plus chardonnay and then re-sealed under crown, Six cases were sealed under cork but otherwise both wines are exactly the same, same cellar conditions, same dosage, same everything. Less hue in this number two (crown), same but different, less oxidation, less caramelization and yet on par or near in terms of that ginger-miso tone. Lemon adds to the milder orange crème brûlee and the energy, spirit and lift is more pronounced. Greater vision in acidity and even some lingering reduction. Like the first it is in fact full of sensibility, reason, plenty of seasoning. Likewise and differently so much fun to behold and to drink. Certainly more heightened sensation created by mousse and carbonation that actually affect the mouthfeel and texture. Made by Marelise Beyers. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted September 2019

Flat Rock Sparkling (Cork Closure) 2006, Traditional Method, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario (383315, $34.95)

Wines were all under crown for 36 months, disgorged in January 2010, three quarters pinot noir plus chardonnay and then re-sealed under crown, “However,” explains Ed Madronich and the big raison d’etre for this tasting is that six cases were sealed under cork, complicit with or perhaps explicitly for Ed’s Mom. Both wines are exactly the same, same cellar conditions, same dosage, same everything. Just the seal on 72 bottles changes the nature of the game. The colour is deeper in this number one (cork), more oxidation, more caramelization and more deep ginger-miso tone. Quite orange crème brûlee as well. Acidity persists, wealthy, rising, more than intact. In fact it’s well-reasoned, seasoned and in tact. So much fun to behold and to drink. Made by Marelise Beyers. Drink 2019-2020. Tasted September 2019

Charles Baker Picone Vineyard Riesling 2016, VQA Vinemount Ridge, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario (241182, $37.20)

Baker’s ’16 is the child of a great vintage’s phenolics and so without needing to concern oneself in wondering about ripeness or fruit quality it allows for a beeline straight to the tannic structure. That’s the crux of 2016, built upon a core that may as well be centred in the very heart of Colmar. Sugar may as well be nowhere and nothing because balance induces dreams utterly grounded in aridity. So reminded of Bernard Schoffit and The Rangen, austere yet entangled, lean, direct, sure, focused and precise. In the zone and will be for 12 blessedly slow developing years. Drink 2021-2030. Tasted October 2019

Ravine Vineyard Chardonnay 2011, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (173377, $28.00)

Looking at this 2011 Chardonnay now and with learned imagination back through time this screams the vintage. Great Scott, cracker jack Chablis dressing up into Premier Cru status cloaked candidly in Ravine clothing. This eight year-old chardonnay shows off as one of then winemaker Shauna White’s great early moments, an achievement of planning through execution and clearly a success from a cool, austere and so very varietal vintage. Maybe even a legacy defining moment for what was and can continue to be. A purveyor of land, a youthful precociousness and all the local possibilities on offer. This is so pure and purposeful for the grape and for Ravine. Just great right now. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted September 2019

Le Clos Jordanne Winemaker Thomas Bachelder

Le Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos Chardonnay 2017, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (184549, $44.95)

Welcome back, to that grand vineyard place that we’ve talked about. Down on the farm near the water where chardonnay was purposed grown and put in the hands of a young Thomas Bachelder. The results were dramatic and now that unparalleled fruit is back in the monk’s world, he wiser and more experienced than ever. The transition is spooky seamless and the awe in hand providing breathtaking posits in moments more than fleeting. Behold the presence of orchards and their just ripened glow of fruit with sheen so fine. Let your glass allow the ease of the aromas and flavours to fall in and emit with conscious movement, without conscience or effort. That’s the 2017 Grand Clos. Chardonnay that is. Drink 2019-2026. Tasted November 2019

Closson Chase Churchside Chardonnay 2017, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario ($44.95)

Platinum hue and reserved aromatics indicate a reductive tendency so give it some air. Comes out and away clean and more expressive, with periodic mineral notes, not exactly saline but certainly from the table. Lovely fruit in the melon to orchard way and elevated by acidity plus fine grape tannin. Lovely and composed wine right here. Last tasted blind at NWAC19, June 2019

Truth be submitted, discussed and told the 2017 Closson Chase Vineyard is a lovely, accessible, County for all chardonnay but this, this is something other. This Churchside ’17 from a block of vines at the prettiest little chapel around delivers the fullest fruit compliment of the times, in headline, lede and body of work. It does so with a posit tug of tension and spot on, pinpointed and precise attention to balance. States a case with best butter, better toast and even greater purpose. The ’17 Churchside undulates and circles, coming to rest in the moment where it all melts down, like a ball in place on the roulette wheel, always having known what number it would be. Drink 2019-2026. Tasted June 2019

Meyer Micro Cuvée Chardonnay Old Main Rd Vineyard 2017, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($65.00)

The Old Main Road is a Naramata Bench growing site of silt over clay loams at 350m. The northerly aspect links fruit to indirect sun for higher acid-driven chardonnay. This specialized plot-block-pick-separation of origin intensifies the citrus and the savoury strike of scintillant. It’s reductive and not redacted in that it’s protected by a shell of tannin but bursts with rumbles and shakes. This is singular and unique in ways most Okanagan chardonnay does not begin to touch. Great potential and possibility exist so expect so much from this wine now and for a half decade minimum more. Drink 2020-2028. Tasted April 2019

Stratus White 2015, VQA Niagara Lakeshore, Ontario (660704, $38.20)

The latest incarnation of Stratus White is a gem-like one, part reductive and part honeyed. The dual attack is duly noted and doubly paid great attention. Warmth and this remarkable phenolic multiplicity add up to the most strikingly reserved White in quite some time. It will develop more secondary personality and less fade into lean, smoky, shadowy and unfruitful feelings than many that have come before. By many stretches of imagination this is a deeply curious blend and ultimately a beautiful one. So bloody didactic and interesting. A ten years forward retrospective will regard White 2015 as a benchmark for the locomotive Ontario appellative white locution. Drink 2020-2028. Tasted February 2019

Congrats to Cliff and Colin @stannerswines for their The Narrow Rows Pinot Noir 2017 Gold Medal performance @judgement.of.kingston 2019. We the judges deliberated long and with great care to come to this well-deserved conclusion.

Stanners Vineyard Pinot Noir The Narrow Rows 2017, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario ($45.00)

A super-saturated, honed and zeroed in upon place in a vineyard ripeness with a touch foxiness. Reality from limestone bled into fruit wavering on a spectrum where berry fruit sits on one end and earthy beetroot all the way over on the other. Touches both and then properly meets in the middle. Cherries are red, herbs are green and tension stretches a wire between two poles. Tomato water and tomato leaf with fresh basil. That’s just matter of fact and a good struck balance in combination. You almost feel it’s at once too ripe and then a bit green but those moments are fleeting and so the summation in accumulation is the thing; must, seeds, stems and the work of kind, nurturing and gentle hands add up to great delicacy. It’s local and it’s so bloody good. Delicious even. Unlike any pinot noir ever made previously in Ontario. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted blind at the Judgement of Kingston, November 2019

Hidden Bench Pinot Noir Locust Lane Vineyard 2015, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario ($48.00)

Locust Lane is the one of greater tension and posit tug, holding court and keeping fruit on a short leash. The aromatics are not as sweetly floral but what you will note, if you wait for the fleshing is this glycerin texture and seamless weave of structure. This is the savoury, almost minty and surely cantilevering pinot noir, from the field and out over the length of the wine’s attention. Will linger, prosper and live long. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted March 2019

NWAC19 Platinum Medal Winner

Howling Bluff Pinot Noir Century Block 2016, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($35.00)

Wow. Now we’ve come into pinot of some curious, unusual and stand up to be noticed excitement. The aromatics are circling, rising, elemental, exaggerated and complex. There’s umami here that few others seem to find or are capable of seeking out. Fine if slightly tonic tannins and structure, texture, architecture and blessed complexity. This will morph into many things by way of many stages. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted blind at NWAC19, June 2019

Thirty Bench Winemaker Emma Garner

Thirty Bench Small Lot Cabernet Franc 2016, VQA Beamsville Bench, Ontario ($75.00)

In many respects this is the flagship of all the Thirty Bench wines, a varietal exploration like no other, of direction, microcosm and intention. It’s an extracted and concentrated cabernet franc but stays free of encumbrance, hinderance or adulteration. It’s dramatically plush and yet shows nary a note of green or gritty, nor astringency neither. It’s a showpiece to be sure and even of an ambition not typical of its maker but as for structure, well that’s as impressive as the concentration. We’ll be tasting this at an Expert’s Tasting in the mid 20s. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted August 2019

NWAC19 Platinum Medal Winner

Desert Hills Estate Winery Ursa Major Syrah Eagle’s Nest Vineyard 2016, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($40.00)

Inky, ferric, serious, structured, regaling and ripping syrah. Full throttle, absolute ripeness, carefully extracted and utterly purposed. The acidity, tannin and overall structure seal all the deals and put this in a category of its own. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted blind at NWAC19, June 2019

Big Head Raw Syrah 2017, VQA Niagara Lakeshore, Ontario ($65.00)

Never before have we encountered syrah this way in Ontario. A wild ferment and use of concrete vats is one thing but the Brettanomyces off the charts is intonate of something wholly other. The exclamation is emotion both Andrzej and Jakub Lipiniski acknowledge and embrace. The thought and the recognition lights up their faces. It expresses itself in peppery jolts, with sultry, hematic, ferric and magical notation. It’s like liquorice on steroids, melting into a feral liqueur. “Wow that syrah is crazy,” tasters are heard to exclaim and yet you can see how much they relish the experience. As I do, without knowing why, except for the fact that in its big headedness this is a very balanced wine. Some way, somehow. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted March and April 2019

Lawrason and Gismondi

NWAC19 Gold Medal Winner

Nk’mip Cellars, 51 percent owner by the Osoyoos Indian Band Cellars, part of the Arterra Wine Group, as per Anthony Gismondi is “ably guided by winemakers Randy Picton and Justin Hall. Nk’Mip Cellars took home one platinum, two gold, three silver and five bronze medals, adding to its legacy of consistent performances at the nationals. The unique, First Nations winery is well worth a visit, as is lunch on the patio.”

Nk’mip Cellars Winemakers Talon 2016, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($23.99)

Really juicy shiraz based blend (44 per cent with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, cabernet franc and pinot noir) with rich, ropey, red berry and savoury tones. Big fruit and if oaked with generosity it’s a construct that seems more than capable of the handling. Big effort, personality and acidity to carry it high. Boozy to a degree and again capable of finding balance. Isn’t this what cool climate blends should strive to achieve? Forget the formulas. Look to great agriculture and a master blender to realize goals. This reaches a milestone and likely at a ridiculously affordable price. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted blind at NWAC19, June 2019

Tawse winemaker Paul Pender

Tawse Meritage 2015, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (581165, $67.95)

That aromatic combination of dark plummy fruit and tangy blood orange is a straight give away for many more impending complexities to come. A three-pronged Bordeaux varietal mix of merlot (45 percent), cabernet sauvignon (28) and cabernet franc (27) with so much going on you might not understand what it’s trying to say. It’s like Glossolalia, a “fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning,” a.k.a. in tongues. Never mind the distractions and the madness but instead head straight to the intersection of structure and balance because that’s what matters. The fruit is bold, the woodwork finely chiseled and precise and the end result is the work of masters; agriculturalists, oenologists and winemaking hands. This will live on through epochs of Canadian Meritage notability and infamy. Drink 2021-2031. Tasted blind at NWAC19, June 2019

With Phantom Creek’s Anne Vawter

Phantom Creek Phantom Creek Vineyard Cuvée 2016, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($100.00)

Some of the estate’s finest cabernet sauvignon makes its way into the flagship red, also made up of the other four Bordeaux red grapes. There is a sweetness that comes through from layering so much quality fruit in a way that neither the Becker blend nor the varietal cabernet sauvignon seem capable to manage. There’s also a deep sense of tannin and an almost dark brooding character, but also a smoky, savouriness that adds to the mystery and the dimension. So stylish and composed, amalgamated of the finest fruit bred from great attention to agricultural detail. Incredible length too. One of the most professional wines in Canada. Drink 2021-2030. Tasted February 2019

Southbrook winemaker Ann Sperling

Southbrook Organic Vidal Icewine 2015, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario (581165, 375ml, $49.95)

The most unusually brick red-orange hue makes this vidal Icewine a one-of-a-kind wonder and the best news of all is how complex the wine is to follow suit. Yes the curiosity factor runs high but so do the gamut of aromatics and flavours. Coffee, toffee, crème brûlée, apricot, guava and strangely enough the spongey filling of a Crunchie Bar. What a childhood memory that digs up. Acids are strong, relevant and still humming so the sugars are carried along with great companionship. Benchmark vidal usage and to no surprise. Ann Sperling’s work with varietal orange wine combined with her knowledge of Icewine make for a union divine. Drink 2019-2025. Tasted December 2019

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WineAlign

Single white varietals: No roommates required

Aug1

Godello

as seen on WineAlign – Riesling, Other Single Red and Single White Varieties – Medal Winners from NWAC 2019

It may or not need clarifying but the single white varietal category does not include chardonnay, riesling, pinot gris/grigio and sauvignon blanc. In terms of medal winners it does include albariño, arneis, bacchus, chenin blanc, coronet, gewüztraminer, grüner veltliner, marsanne, muscat, obrigado, pinot blanc, roussanne, sémillon, sauvignette, siegerrebe, sovereign opal, trebbiano, unicus, viognier and white pinot noir. The total medal count for single white varietal wines in 2019 was 70, an unprecedented number awarded for this competition covering 20 grape varieties. Can you guess which was the most celebrated? If you said gewüztraminer you would be correct at 21 total medals, with viognier a close second at 17.

There is little surprise that these French vinifera grapes make up more than half of the awarded wines because their acreage, vine age and their winemaker’s acumen in crafting quality goes back a generation or two, or even three. That 10 percent are pinot blanc is truly encouraging, as are the multiple medals doled out to grapes with great potential on Canadian soils, including grüner veltliner, albariño and chenin blanc. This will encourage more plantings and pioneering work backed up by post-modern viticultural theory, while also ensuring biologically genetic and varietal diversity. Most surprising is that two of the top wines made from marsanne and roussanne represent two of only three medals awarded to wines from these classic and exceptional Rhône Valley grapes. If two can be great, why not others and why not grow more?

Congratulations to the Road 13 Marsanne 2017 out of the exceedingly promising Similkameen Valley. There can be no denying the effect of ripe fruit and the richness of developed sugar into proportionally knowing phenols in this beautifully integrated wine. Black Hills Roussanne 2017, Blasted Church Small Blessings Sémillon 2017, Thirty Bench Small Lot Gewürztraminer 2017 and Road 13 Viognier 2017 round out the judges top picks from the competition.

Littlejohn Farm‘s Smoked Trout, soubise, french onion rings, pickled shallots – at Closson Chase Vineyard, Prince Edward County

The question truly begging to be answered is with 20-plus different grape varieties represented and being assessed side by side how do the judges separate the apples and oranges to figure out which wines stand apart as being more impressive than the rest. It may sound cliché and redundant to hear but balance is the key to our single white varietal hearts. If acidity matches, supports and elevates sugar than all will fall into place and if the wine is a dry example it will likely be flesh, mouthfeel and texture that work to elevate its status. Proportion, seamlessness and length are all essential tenets of quality single whites, as are energy, drive and spirit.

Plain and simple, single white varietal wines are able to succeed because of their inherent ability to express their varietal selves, provided they are planted in the right location and their handlers allow them to speak on their own behalf. Quality single white varietals display attributes of confidence and are anything but insecure. No roommates required.

I’ve also tasted some more single white varietal wines as of late and all would certainly qualify for medal consideration in this category. These are the three.

Mission Hill Family Estate Viognier Reserve 2018, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($19.99, WineAlign)

Perfectly lovely, archetypal, required varietal sipping viognier here from Mission Hill. Yet another notch on the Okanagan Valley pioneer’s impressive climb to forging wines moving from strength to strength. There is nothing over the top about the the florals, the texture or the flavours. Fruit east to west, from the B.C. orchards to the south Asian trees is graced by a dreamy and creamy marzipan texture and finished with low and slow rendered spice. Just what viognier can be for one and for all. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted July 2019

Harwood Estate Gewürztraminer 2017, VQA Prince Edward County, Ontario $20.00, WineAlign)

The 2016 was made from Niagara (Four Mile Creek) grapes and vinified in Prince Edward County but the estate 2007 plantings have now matured so this 2017 marks a new era for gewürztraminer grown in the disapora. It’s one of extreme aridity, lightning quick reflexes, focused and intense. Quite the singular style of expression for Ontario. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted June 2019

CedarCreek Platinum Block 9 Ehrenfelser 2018, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia ($29.99, WineAlign)

Ehrenfelser is the German crossing of riesling and sylvaner, kept alive on slopes like CedarCreek’s lakeshore vineyard in semi-mimic of those cresting on great angles above the river Rhine. There’s a notable juicy sweetness to this from 13-16 year-old, low yielding vines in a very concentrated mandarin orange way. That sweetness yields to many other pronounced attributes like tropical fruit skins as well as creamy orchard fruit under a squeeze of lime. The acidity is ripping and there’s some potential for a bit of flinty, lit paraffin smoulder to emerge in a year’s time. The fun quotient runs high in this unique white wine and it offers up moments of both crushable and cerebral. Good on CedarCreek to keep the dream alive. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted July 2019

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Godello

Twitter: @mgodello

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WineAlign

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Category Archives: WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada

Twenty-five Canadian wines that rocked in 2025

Twenty-four Canadian wines that rocked in 2024

Twenty-three Canadian wines that rocked in 2023

Twenty-two Canadian wines that rocked in 2022

Twenty-one Canadian wines that rocked in 2021

Wines in the Similkameen they are, sometimes they blow my mind

WineAlign Nationals meet the Iconic Wineries of B.C.

Twenty Canadian wines that rocked in 2020

Nineteen Canadian wines that rocked in 2019

NWAC19 Gold Medal Winner

NWAC19 Platinum Medal Winner

NWAC19 Platinum Medal Winner

NWAC19 Gold Medal Winner

Single white varietals: No roommates required