We decided to have our 2^nd challenge. If you look back, we tried several Italian reds and were pleasantly surprised. It was amazing to see the quality available in the sub $8 range. After aeration, these reds gave a good showing for themselves.

This challenge is for the white lover. A wine that I certainly love and one I find surprisingly versatile. Gewurztraminer is the wine of choice. From Alsace this wine is luscious, round, spicy and fruity. Food friendly and a wonderful wine on its own.

Test procedure: several potential wines were chosen the day previous and placed in the same shelf of my wine fridge. This allowed a randomness in wine chosen (by our guest  panelists) and avoided any predisposition from myself to choose specific wines in specific order to alter outcomes. Wine glasses were standard white wine glasses...nothing special. 

A control wine was chosen….ie: one which I have known very well and is thought a good sample from the real region. In this case we used Pierre Sparr rather than my ‘ringer’ as two participants do not like my ringer….I just don’t get it but it may be used in part 2. 

Food started with an antipasti platter, then dinner. Dinner consisted of veal rolls stuffed with artichokes braised in red wine and tomato sauce, boiled baby potatoes and a cabbage pie. Dessert was creme brule with blueberries.

Guest testers were Tom and Carolyn. The had just gotten home from skiing after Chicago and seeing the Spice Girls...they claim that they only took their girls and they went to dinner….yeah right!!!! So when they arrived I slapped in a cd of Spice girl music we had downloaded and had Bend it like Beckham on the tv ( sir david and posh make a cameo at the end). Well, Tom disappointed us as he didn’t wear his Posh t-shirt...oh btw we survived all 3 songs. Better music was played thru the night.

Wine #1: Angel’s Gate     It’s from the Bench in Niagara. The winery is simply beautiful. You can see the lake and the vines go down the escarpment. This would imply that the wine has a great chance to be good due to the slopes….like Alsace.

RESULTS: it appears that the nose was well liked by all, but the wine really did not impress. Comments range from: pedestrian to ‘would not buy’.  This is not a good start and I was really disappointed as I always liked this winery.

Wine #2 Niagara Teaching College Well the college is somewhere in Niagara on the Lake, but don’t ask as I got really lost getting there (is that something different LOL!). I was really impressed with the enthusiasm of the students and they were so proud of their work.

RESULTS: The nose was very aromatic. Everyone commented on that. The mouth feel was nicer and it was very fruity slightly light but all liked it. This one is a keeper. The difference between this one and the first was dramatic. This simply is a much better bottle of wine(ok my imput).

Wine #3 Pierre Sparr This is the control wine. From Alsace, it should be the real thing. It is not expensive and I really enjoy this wine. Peppery, fruity, just a good bottle.

RESULTS: All liked it, yet one person preferred the Niagara College wine. 3 of 4 had very positive things to say. Fruit aroma, light taste, tangy, refreshing, mild were the comments. As expected it was well liked. It was assumed to be sweet but it really isn’t. Very well liked.

Wine #4 Mastronardi A favourite of mine. Made down the road across from Colosanti in Ruthven. I find that they make great wine. So the first local wine was making me be very anxious as I wanted it to do well.

RESULTS: All agreed that the nose was wonderful…..floral aromatic ...very nice. One noted that it would be great with spicy( food which is what Gewurtz is acclaimed for) so they ‘hit it’. Another noted that it should have been the dinner wine. Light, floral, clear et someone noted Big Bold so there is personal taste. 

Simply a wonderful wine.  

Wine #5 Pelee Island Reserve This is from the good line at Pelee. If you buy Pelee Island I suggest this range as it is much better than the lower lines. 

RESULTS: Well the results by now may be not as good as early ones but this wine was also universally liked. Aromatic perfumey nose, fruit taste. Results were consistent that the taste was very good and fruity. A well liked wine and after the rave comments for the Mastronardi this wine was well liked therefore it is very good. Being available in the licbo is also a plus.

OVERALL: It appears that the favorites were Niagara College and Mastronardi. Terry loved the College, and our guests were more for the Mastonardi.

What can I say…...I was disappointed with the Angel’s Gate, really liked the Niagara College and always liked the Mastronardi. Can I pick a winner????? Well, I would happily drink Mastronardi ever day, its that good…...but I like Pierre Sparr too and the College and Pelee…...I am so conflicted.

So here are my personnel rankings: 

A+   Mastronardi

A Niagara College, Pierre Sparr (an old friend)

A- Pelee Island Reserve

B- Angel’s Gate

Round 2 is forthcoming and I will use my ‘ringer’ with Mastronardi against the Harrow wines with Smith and Wilson and some more Niagaras. We have a standing invite to some friends from down the Arner so they now have to come. 

 

This year Terry and I took my brother and his wife. She has shown interest in the areas wines so we hoped she would like it. Al is into cars...teaches racing actually and since the MG club was there it gave him something too as he ain't a wine guy. Both appeared to have a real good time.

 

Alma and Harvey are excellent hosts and seem to really enjoy putting on these events. They do it very well and should be a model for the other vineyards. It is unpretentious, adult and casual but it is good where it counts,

 

They have the MG club for an activity, good food and excellent help.. The music was good and fun..That is, it made me feel like I was at a friend's home and not in church. Everyone seemed to have a casual good time about them. Also they have the parking thing down to a tee. It usually is a disaster but it is very organized. Actually the whole thing is very organized, but in a nice way.

 

Above all. Terry has taken a liking to MGA's so maybe I can get one. If anyone snickers about buying an old English sports car...I had a FIAT Spider so an old MG is definitely a step up in reliability. It looks so cool too.

 

The vineyard looks wonderful. The grape bunches look great...green, full, beautiful. Since I am such an expert at growing stuff (I've got my 20 square foot herb farm on my patio) you have it from me that this could/should be a great year. Actually I have that from a couple of vintners that this could be a GREAT year if the weather holds up.

 

New wines: I tasted 2 and had a couple of glasses, though not enough for a review, but enough to get an idea.

 

The are about to release a Reserve Cabernet. The 2005 vintage was very good so they held back some and released them now. All I can say is that I liked it a lot. Now I agree with Michael Pincus regarding the fake/stupid reserve wines being released, but this one is a real reserve. Erie Shores tends to sell their wines young so holding this one back a year to me makes it legitimate. It also allows them enter a new market segment while not alienating their present clientèle and to see the turnout they have a lot of clients. A good move to me and it tastes good too!!!!!. I will get me some soon but I am really overstocked.

 

The second wine was the new Rose... very different from summer sun and in a cool cobalt blue bottle. Looks good and tastes really good. Its light and happy, just like the Summer Sun and compliments it very well. I really liked it and would tell you the name but I can't spell it and Open Office's Spell check isn't that good and jeez I just don't want 50 emails from my 'editors'. But anyhow it was liked by everyone.

 

Al and Pam left with a bottle of Summer Sun and I am about to open a bottle of their Riesling. Congratulation to Erie Shores for their great hospitality and presenting us with another wonderful afternoon.

 

Therefore, I'll entertain myself and hopefully you with my best of the year pronunciations. It's a major award and I know everybody will be proud if they win and claiming conspiracy if they don't. Kinda like Jose Mourinho.

 

Least Favorite Winery:  Beyond a doubt it's Peninsula Ridge. They make great wine, but nobody should be treated the way they treated us. I had come from my mentor's funeral, so I was in a suit and Tso was dressed well too and their manager decided it was better to conduct an interview at the tasting bar rather than serve a customer. Not only is interviewing a worker publicly completely classless, I would have bought more wine. Now I hate the place. I cannot get the image out of my head. So, when I'm the power wine reviewer I will not forgive them. Tso wants to go to the restaurant, but if I did I would ask how Ned is. The owner fired him years ago and Ned seems to be doing quite well for himself in Calgary now.

 

Nicest Winery People: well right after we left Peninsula Ridge we went to Malvoire. Now, they didn't have a strong act to follow, but they were excellent. Not only did they treat us as if we were important, they guided us to other cool wineries that all treated us well and were cool like them. Moreover, having a winemaker named Shiraz is simply too cool.

 

Most Beautiful View: Angel's Gate. It was just beautiful all around and the wine was excellent too. I really want to go back there. And this time I hope I get their Pinot, which is supposed to be great. I still find it hard to believe that I wasn't in Napa. It just didn't look like Canada.

 

Now I will divide the awards to Local and Niagara, as we simply don't have the beauty that they do. Smith and Wilson is very nice, and has a beautiful view but cannot compare to Angels Gate.

 

 

Favorite White Wine

 

Local: this one wasn't even close until I tasted Wagner's Sauvignon Blanc. That wine just floored me. It was soooo good, but I have to still say my local favorite white wine is Muscedere Riesling. I just love this wine and it is so different from the other local Rieslings. It is round and just soo fruity. The other locals remind me of California wines, which is good too, but the brothers just hit this one right, I just hope it wasn't a one-year event and will become typical.

 

Niagara: wow this is a tough one because I had so many good ones, but I will have to go for Konzelmann Grand Reserve Riesling. It was very very good and it compares nicely to the good ones from Alsace or Germany.

 

 

Rose

 

Local: Erie Shores  Summer Sun-- I just think they hit this one right on. Not trying to be ‘special' but is so much fun to drink. It is my summer choice beside Vinho Verde from Portugal. A wine for fun evenings on the deck. I like others but this one hits the fun of rose spot on.

 

Niagara: though none are as good as Erie Shores to me, they are also very good. Their failing is that they try to make too much of the rose and miss the fun. I do like the offering from Angel's Gate the best.

 

Red

 

Local: this is a tough one. There are a lot of really good reds being made here so the choice is a hard one. But if you had to make me choose it would have to be ‘Bird Dog' from Sanson. It is a great bottle of wine. I have a few bottles hidden away so when they run out I can still have some.

 

Niagara: I can't pick one here. It's so tough. Malvoire, Angel's Gate, Ridgepoint, Konzelmann all made such great wine. To pick one I'll take the Angel's Gate Gamay Noir. It was so classy so nice. Yup, that's my choice and I'm sticking to it.

 

Dessert

 

Local: Smith And Wilson Raspberry Ice Wine. I know they call it something funny but it is just so special, fruity and just classy.

 

Niagara: Peller Estates Cristal Sparkling Wine. They charge this one with ice wine. Just really nice and a major cut above their other wines.

 

 

Favorite Winery

 

Local: Smith and Wilson. I hold by the belief that the wine is made in the vineyard and since George is a farmer whose family has been there for over 100 years he falls into my theory. He makes great wine, but his strength is his fruit. He makes a variety of wines and I like them all, from his fruit wines thru his big reds. Yes, you heard it here, I like his big reds. Now that he is playing with gamay noir grapes, I am even happier. He somehow avoids the trap of making too many varieties and none good by making a lot of variety and they are all good. I don't know how he does it but he really seems to enjoy his work and it shows in his wine.

 

Niagara: I would say Malvoire as the place is really nice and the people were so good to us. The wines are excellent and their methods are quirky. Gravity flow, no metal wires holding the grapes up (bad vibes) and then there is Shiraz.

 

Up and Coming Winery: Muscedere. They released their first wines this year and they are all (4 varieties) very good. I even enjoy their Chardonnay. I just can't wait till they get a few vintages under their belt, but by then I probably won't be able to afford their wines as they probably won't be able to meet demand if they keep going like the way they are.

 

Biggest Disappointment: the non-opening of Viewpoint. I was looking so forward to the event and just wonder what the problem is. It is a wonderful site, which looks just about finished except for the landscaping.

 

Since I don't want to end on a low point I want to congratulate the organizers of the wine fest at Fort Malden. You did an excellent job and made it more fun than last year. Next year I think I will get a hotel room.

 

So there are my choices. No scientific study, but I have been to all the open wineries down here. The quality has risen greatly with the addition of the newer wineries and I believe will get much much better in the years to come. Look to the Meritage and Reserve Pinot Noir from Pelee Island to see what a large winery can do and to the three offerings from Colchester Ridge to see what a new small winery can do. Add the marketing ability of Erie Shores (they do it so nicely that I can't call it marketing but the open house was superbly done) and Muscedere and I see a great future. You heard it here first-- in twenty years; Harrow will be the place to live. Bistros, artists, B&B's: they will be the epicenter of the wine district and Lake Erie North Shore will be a very well known and respected Appellation.