Twenty-four Canadian wines that rocked in 2024

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

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. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted November 2024

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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Crush on Benjamin Bridge

Dec12

Benjamin Bridge Vineyards

It’s late October and I’m walking the vineyard with viticulturalist Scott Savoy who gestures below our feet into the genius loci where multiple layers of loam and sandy loam are mixed with river stones. In the vested interest of micro-climate orientation he points out the modest mountain ridges to the north and south, the stretch of valley to the east and west, to the big Bay of Fundy beyond and back down to the earth. He notes the fault line running diagonally away from the crush pad and tasting room, through the vineyard and down the slope to the river below. Today the namesake belongs to the winery but Benjamin Bridge is first and foremost a place. We all want to know about its history because there is something very special here. In this valley the apples are different and the vines grow berries smaller and unique. It’s a place that pulls on the heartstrings of innate curiosity.

Related – Consider the Gaspereau Valley

It comes from the name of the bridge that crosses the Gaspereau Valley and pays tribute to the Benjamin family who dammed up the river to become the first industrialists here. The name is a historical one, not one of fashion, trends, aggrandizement or narcissism. The ownership and the management of Benjamin Bridge Vineyards are fully cognizant of their place within a King’s County pantheon, of the past and for the future. Who among them wouldn’t pay a king’s ransom to protect it? They fully recognize how the tenets of farming, progression, life, struggle and ethos came before them and will continue long after they are gone. Just in case their work in making sparkling wines headed up by chief winemaker Jean-Benoit Deslauriers is not legacy defining enough they recently supplied a bottle of Benjamin Bridge Méthode Classique Brut Reserve 2012 to christen the first Irving Shipyard built Arctic patrol vessel. Sophie Trudeau used the bottle to christen the Harry DeWolf during an October ceremony on the Halifax waterfront. An interesting and poignant aside, this gesture.

Frost damage at Benjamin Bridge

The 2018 Nova Scotia harvest will live in infamy and perhaps not for the reasons everyone involved will want to remember. Frosts, rain, grape growing pressures and more frosts reduced quantities so drastically that emergency fruit was transported across two provincial borders from Ontario, a fact not lost as a notion that is pathetically-monopoly ironic. Annapolis Valley Vineyards were looking at losses of at least 50 per cent following a late Sunday frost overnight and into the morning of June 4th. Temperatures plummeted from the high 20s just two days earlier to minus three degrees celsius. There were some miraculous exceptions to the rule, like Avonport’s Oak Knoll Isle but damage ran from 20 to 100 per cent. Frost that settled in the lowest sections of valley vineyards were hardest hit.

All that happened to Nova Scotia’s wine industry plus more in, outs and twists than a Coen brothers comedy-drama and yet the greatest things happened anyway. The community of growers and producers banded together, traded grapes, shared experience and pulled each other through. This is a place where everyone understands that making wine is not about one vintage, individual accomplishments or accolades. Turning grape water into wine is a life-long partnership with the land, with the weather, the Bay of Fundy and each other. Success is wrought with challenges, adversity and responses to the contretemps of the day. Such tremendous odds give credence to Nietzsche saying “that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” leading to an alignment with a maritime band of brothers and sisters. The year 2018 is the vintage during which the Nova Scotia wine producers in and around the Annapolis Valley were forced into a situation of needing one another and to become les retrouvailles, the reunited.

#lookoff in Canning, Nova Scotia

At the fore of this happenstance is Benjamin Bridge Vineyards, both in terms of being the helped and the helper. The Gaspereau Valley sparkling wine specialist is the unquestioned leader of their cottage wine industry and for so many reasons. Decisions made more than a decade ago to invest everything into this stretch of land south of the Bay carved through two micro-climate catalyst ridges for the purpose of creating the newest and most important innovative sparkling wine on the planet is nothing short of historical. The speed bumps may be serious but mark my words (and by many who have stated this before me), Nova Scotia is second only to Champagne for making the kind of sparkling wine we should and will want to drink. No disrespect intended to Franciacorta, Alta Lange, Prosecco, Crèmant de Loire, Bourgogne, Jura or d’Alsace. No ill will meant towards Sonoma County, Ontario, British Columbia, Tasmania, England or Roberston’s Méthod Cap Classique. I love you all but Nova Scotia can raise grapes for traditional method sparkling wine in ways and with results that blow everything else out of the proverbial water.

Not sure you need the banger. Jacket should scare them off!

Case in point, time and again, with variations on the theme, measurable and of a ceiling reckonable through infinite possibility. In this part of Canada vinifera varietals like chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier can linger well in the autumn months, reach brix levels ideal for sparkling wine and still maintain acidities at levels all other regions can only dream of. The effect of the Bay of Fundy creates a unique environment, plain, simple and complex. Imagine adding up the flow of all the rivers in the world and asking that accumulation to submit to the power of one body of water’s tides that lower and rise as much as 17 metres every day. The Bay is like an air pump that moderates climate. Frosts be damned the picking in the Gaspereau of grapes just ripe enough for making wine is the latest anywhere. In Franciacorta for example picking of chardonnay happens in early August, just to keep natural acidity. In California it’s July and in the dead of night. We have begun to taste Nova Scotia bubbles at eight, nine and ten years on their lees. The results are astonishing with a combination of texture and acidity never seen before. As I said, the ceiling is boundless.

Crush at Benjamin Bridge: Chris Campbelll, Godello and Jean-Benoit Deslauriers

The charge at Benjamin Bridge is led by founder Gerry McConnell who purchased the property with his late wife Dara Gordon in the Gaspereau Valley in 1999. McConnell worked with Canadian oenological consultant Peter Gamble and Sparkling Wine Consultant/Champagne specialist Raphaël Brisbois to establish vineyards, a protocol and a long-term strategy for making world-class bubbles. Within three years of launching the project they knew it would work.

Sunday morning, #Kingsport Nova Scotia

The unfortunate passing of Raphaël Brisbois left a huge hole in the hearts and the ethos of the BB project but great timing, fortune and intellect came to the company in the extraordinary ethic and cerebral meanderings of head winemaker Deslauriers. Originally from Québec, J-B joined in 2008 and for 10 years has explored, extrapolated and elevated the game. No combination of diversity and focus is more apparent than it is now at Benjamin Bridge.

Winemakers at work, Jean-Benoit Deslauriers, Alex Morozov and Chris Campbell

The team on the ground and in the cellars is led by Head Viticulturist Scott Savoy and Chris Campbell who aides, abets and manages the trilogy of harvest, cellar and production operations. Alex Morozov is Assistant Winemaker to Deslauriers. Gerry’s twin daughters Devon and Ashley McConnell-Gordon have run the daily operations of the winery since early 2010, Keltie MacNeill manages the BB Club and Gillian Mainguy is the face of the place. Some of you may remember Gillian at Wines of Nova Scotia but now she is marketing, public relations and tireless world traveller on behalf the BB brand.

Racking chardonnay with head winemaker Jean-Benoit Deslauriers

In the third week of October I spent 48 hours with the gang at Benjamin Bridge. Crushing, talking, pressing, tasting, pumping, discussing, racking, ruminating, walking and speculating. There is a foundation of land, people and spirit you can’t know until you come here to really know.

The base is the matter and what matters comes from the great base

The discussion with Gerry and Jean-Benoit is now woven into the fabric of relationship with Pascal Agrapart who has been making wines at Champagne Agrapart & Fils since 1983. BB is keen on keeping a lineage with Champgane, a connection, to pursue more richness, texture and wines structurally rounder and fuller. Says Deslauriers, “we’re looking for the growers taking a Burgundian approach to winemaking, in the vineyard first. Pascal’s wines have always had that compelling textural quality.” Has anyone in Canada ever taken a grower’s approach to sparkling wine is the question. Here in Nova Scotia these are the wines with a stamp, of an equation in confluence from estate plus local vineyards and growing environments. The wines are not in jeopardy by adding this richness. “We still recognize the parcels we have selected through the wines we have made. There is still an inherent Benjamin-ness to the wines, ” adds Chris Campbell. I tasted the following wines off the record, some unfinished and others still who are the children of experimentation but even more so as matters of conceptual links to the reasons why Benjamin Bridge even exists at all.

Minas Friday morning

Brut 2016

Part estate and part Kingsport chardonnay fruit, with effervescence not the thing but it should tell a story. Already showing off its richness, density and concentration, even herein the “entry level,” the first full vintage for and from Pascal’s influence and tutelage. Cool stuff in here, decoupement particulare, this taking of different parcels for micro-vinifications.

Brut Reserve 2016

Of chardonnay and pinot noir, from the oldest estate blocks. There is so much more complexity, legit and from the word go. The terpenes are exceptional ones, and that is something they can be, built on acidity. Even without bubbles you can fully relate to it as the wine it knows it is. Grapefruit and tangerine, dry and sumptuous. The base is the matter and what matters comes from the great base. Perspective comes at you in solicitation of your emotions and opinions in many ways. You don’t always need CO2 to make contact with sparkling wines.

The future

Blanc de Noirs 2016

Now into pinot noir this new perspective makes you want to admit that it may be that chardonnay and pinot noir come together with a higher ceiling as a sum of their parts. Here it’s the antithetical aromatics of lemon rosewater and an amaro-herbal-red currant thing. Also oranges with spirit and a linger that reminds of the best athlete, with the greatest potential, but not the flashy star who scores early and often.

Brut 2017

The secondary fermentation is only a few weeks old and it’s a very primary notation, with the bubble still on the way up. The rise is lime as a slow crawl along a coaster’s upward track, welling with tension and a coursing flow of anticipation. By way of comparison there is a tonic phenolic uprising either not noted or now having dissipated from the 2016.

Peculiar samples

Brut Reserve 2017

Once again the youth and the young phenols of very early fermentation but also a course led by the most unusual of vintages, cold and wet all summer long followed by 30-plus degrees in September and October. That’s 30-plus higher than right now in 2018. The contact here is unlike ’16, almost agitating and certainly unsettled. It would prefer not to be bothered at this time.

Brut NV

A non-vintage ’16, tirage in ’17. Could be vintage-dated but isn’t and won’t be. Higher acidity and more of the tonic phenolic-ness that the young ‘17s are showing. So I conclude that the NV is less structured and as an acumen-accumulated base wine it’s like a Blanc de Noirs or a reserve when younger. The translation states they are not only on to something and a real pattern is forming but they really know what they are doing, in separating micro cuvées and the outstanding wheat from the excellent chaff.

Kingsport cabernet franc

While I tasted these unfinished wines and other tank samples I also assessed 10 new wines from the portfolio. Here are my notes. The prices are all Nova Scotia retail from the winery.

Benjamin Bridge Méthode Classique Brut 2013, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, $45.00, WineAlign)

Disgorged June of 2018, now four plus months in bottle. Right from the beginning it is energy, spirit and tension. It’s mostly chardonnay but suggests richness marked by toast and flint. Quite a smokiness, not from oak, but an autolytic one. A true wine of secondary fermentation, naked and smouldering. Richness comes naturally, in second term existential notability, followed by density and length. The linger turns to mineral and salinity and you really want more right away, to layer upon what’s still left lingering behind. This is the Benjamin Bridge project incarnate, defined, teachable house style. The words of Jean-Benoit Deslauriers echo in your head, “with the possibility of absolute transcendency.” Eventually. Drink 2018-2028. Tasted October 2018 benjaminbridge liffordgram @Benjamin_Bridge @LiffordON @benjaminbridgevineyards @liffordwineandspirits

Benjamin Bridge Méthode Classique Brut Reserve 2012, Nova Scotia, Canada (275396, $74.95, WineAlign)

Now into a real vinous notion, with extra concentration that reminds you how Reserve wines have to be perfectly exceptional as still wine. The bubbles bring an added dimension but they are not the be all, end all. The richness here is taken to another level, still of course with a toasty edge but it’s the 2002 blocks of estate chardonnay and pinot noir (then 10 years old) that deal in this endearing fruit and enduring length. The sip expands and increases, with knowledge that it is that fruit, very apple orchard but a variety not fully known that drives this wealth. It’s also knife-edged and able to keep this youthful tension cut and fissured through the mouth. Not a sprinter but a climber able to amble and scramble up to heights for a decade plus. Drink 2018-2029. Tasted October 2018

The following two wines were tasted in 2017 and a few months earlier at #i4c 2018, Ontario’s Cool Climate Chardonnay Conference in Niagara.

Benjamin Bridge Méthode Classique Estate Blanc De Blancs 2013, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, $119.50, WineAlign)

Tasted from a bottle disgorged in May 2017, there alights a plugged-in, three-pronged, dazed, charged and enchanted energy about the Bridge’s ’13 Blanc de Blancs. The history of go it alone pure chardonnay is a relatively short one for the estate so this quickly makes up for lost time or rather with haste sets the timer and heads out at first light. “Like sittin’ on pins and needles, things fall apart, it’s scientific.” Wild, of talking heads temper and yeasts, done up in demi-muids, with a wilder secondary fermentative push riding on the coattails of the primary fermentation. Everything in this wine is a productive child of the vineyard, of no third party sugars or consultations. “How do you do that without making a Pétillant Naturel,” I wonder aloud. It’s a second ferment, non-contiguous is the reason, even if the former is both influencer and mentor to the latter. It certainly falls under the category of “micro-cuvée. Like its cousin and predecessor (Blanc de Noirs 2011), this ’13 BdeB is mired intensely inward within its own specificity and is not so much a sparkling wine with competitive soul. It is a pure representative of chardonnay grown in Nova Scotia for one purpose. So let’s talk about true stories and wild, wild life. “You get on board anytime you like.” Drink 2018-2024. Tasted July 2017

Benjamin Bridge Méthode Classique Estate Blanc De Blancs 2012, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, $119.50, WineAlign)

The vintage 2012 marks the beginning of the Benjamin Bridge oak program, here with some purchased fruit from friends and neighbours Lightfoot & Wolfville. This January 2018 disgorged bottle spent 66 months on its very, very fine lees and represents the inaugural departure away from reductive chardonnay in traditional method housing. Its acidity is striking, ripping and amazingly shot straight up to light and ignite the olfactory nerve. That is seems another six months to a year will only lead to textural and mouthfeel home improvements tells us there is seemingly no ceiling for how long on lees these south Fundy shore valley sparkling wines can go. The research is still one in progress but this much we know. The house of Nova Scotia is built on acidity. It’s a commodity much of the rest of the wine-growing planet will want to pay anything to use. Drink 2018-2024. Tasted July 2018

Now back to October 2018.

Benjamin Bridge Riesling 2016, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, $24.95, WineAlign)

With time rieslings change drastically, much more so than traditional method sparkling, completely disconnected from their youth. So where is this going? Energy, tension, Nova Scotia. This is a Bay of Fundy riesling, ocean-wise, saline, poignant, direct. There are herbs and fennel but already this onset of glück and proverbial riesling stamp. Lemon-lime, tart angling, green to ripe apricot. Mostly fruit from grower John Warner, it’s not too edgy, a dry, albeit 15 g/L RS style. The Mosel frame is obvious and the ceiling for potential great but this strikes me as being three to four years away from really moving into another gear. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted October 2018

Benjamin Bridge Riesling 2013, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, $24.95, WineAlign)

There is something I can’t simply put a nose or a finger on. It’s floral but also aerified, stratified, stratospheric, atmospheric. It’s sugary honeyed and very beeswaxy but not in a sticky way. The balance is a roundabout one where you have to travel the entire circumference in order to tie the whole room together. Something umami meets intangible allows you to imagine where 2016 will travel but it’s just an inkling coupled with a hunch. The wax is lit or rather unlit, snuffed, smouldering and beautiful. So worth this five years forward visit. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted October 2018

Benjamin Bridge Sauvignon Blanc 2017, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, Approx. $47.95, WineAlign)

The 2013 was the inaugural release and so here the fifth marks the man, the myth, the legend. Should sauvignon blanc be a Nova Scotia something, grown here is this tiny stretch of narrow valley? The answer is no but taste the impossible results and then try to say it with a straight face. A man who loves Sancerre and has the vision to stick with this project through unsurmountable odds and adversity deserves to drink his very own, very excellent sauvignon blanc. This 2017 strings forward a great moment of continuity although in less tropical, more saline and increased tension ways. There is an infiltration by tonic, lemon and lime and yet still explosively aromatic with citrus peel that connects the two vintages by way of this unequivocal substance and emotion. Let’s wait on this buffering streamer. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted October 2018

Benjamin Bridge Sauvignon Blanc 2016, Nova Scotia, Canada (Agent, $47.95, WineAlign)

The difference between this and the previous vintage is turbidity, having it and not. It’s a negotiable varietal that doesn’t really prepare for winter and it’s not a match made in heaven with the climate. That said the adversity makes for wines of great interest. Not driven by rational motivation but by passion and love, from 0.75 tonnes of yield per acre. Explosive from the concentration delivered to each privileged berry. Dry extract is through the roof. The passion fruit on this ’16 is uncanny, almost tropical in fact it really is and yet in the end there is a revival of salt, tonic and lime. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted October 2018

Benjamin Bridge Nova 7 Sparkling 2017, Charmat Method, Nova Scotia, Canada (256289, $24.95, WineAlign)

You’ll be pleased to know that Nova 7 is a child of wild ferment and made in 15,000 cases. It’s not tied to any real natural winemaking processes, but considering all that is in the balance it was decided not to add any sulphur in the winemaking process, only before bottling. Hard line indeed. No messing with the aromatic spectrum, not the terpenes nor the esters or anything else, so that the wine has developed its full aromatic possibility. Just the greatest lithe hint of effervescence, the crushable one, better than mega purple sweet confections for people who want to drink flavour. Peach, strawberry and juicy fruit for the people, for everyman, woman and non gender specific imbiber, for people in the sticks who don’t, won’t and can’t drink grower’s Champagne. Aromatic backbone is New York Muscat, plus ortega, seyval blanc, l’acadie, vidal, riesling, chardonnay (and no perle). “It’s all a lot of oyster and no pearlA, perfect for this long December. And no need to swirl, so you get a kick from the natural CO2. Drink 2018-2020. Tasted October 2018

Benjamin Bridge Cabernet Franc Rosé Small Lot 2017, Nova Scotia, Canada (Winery, $26.95, WineAlign)

“We knew in this season we wouldn’t have enough for a full-on commercial Rosé,” tells Jean-Benoit Deslauriers. This was harvested same day, red or pink, November 10th, whole cluster pressed for a few hours and then after débourbage transferred into concrete egg. There is remained for nearly six months and in March it was highly turbid at ferments’ end. No fining, no filtration, never a sulphur addition with thanks to natural acidities that protect. It’s a perfectly lovely oxidative note with creaminess brought by the egg, never to be stripped away. It emulates the Kingsport vineyard and the varietal. Orange skin, salinity and integrated variability, with good tonic bitters. Even a bit of firmness of tannin that says its come into its own now and will be a cerebral bit of fun for two or three more years. This is Rosé very much meant to be. There were in and around 200 cases made, this essentially estate exclusive, with a few exceptions. Drink 2018-2021. Tasted October 2018

Benjamin Bridge Cabernet Franc Small Lot 2016, Nova Scotia, Canada (Winery, $57.95, WineAlign)

Still from the Kingsport farm fruit, a whole cluster ferment, no messing with stems, fully oxygenated, no carbonic maceration, 30-40 per cent whole bunch. Total output is “a barrel and a bit.” An infused aromatic ferment, green spice and a char of tobacco, utter intensity, compelling and a phenolic reality. “A myth buster incarnate,” says JB, ripened beyond the sensory borders, miles away from other territories, with generosity and juicy ripe legs. From a warm vintage, nine months in neutral oak plus nine in the bottle. Then a decant and oh how the florals open up, furthered, blooming and intoxicating. More than just a fun little experiment so please wake up and smell the Gaspereau Valley. So lively, a wee salty and all energy. Drink 2018-2024. Tasted October 2018

And one final tank sample.

Cabernet Franc 2017

A good portion of, as in 100 per cent whole berry, whole cluster fruit ferment. Heavily oxygenated, non-carbonic, from four barrels, to be bottled in December and then released next fall, so nine plus nine. There’s the floral rising from the glass, so pronounced. Strawberry, mint, cherry and liquorice, amaro, spice and tobacco. Green and pyrazine are looked for and not found. It’s the sand layer under the strat of mixed recent glacial run off rocks that mitigate the bubbling water beneath the soil and give this a tannic structure unheard of in Nova Scotia reds, Also remembering the urgency at the hands of the whole cluster ferment. There are 900L available. Grab ’em by the growlers.

crush #interloper standing with harvest giants

Good to go!

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