2012 Niagara Icewine Tour Report 2/4

Berserkers,

Our second tour stop was at the family run and owned Marynissen Estates. By good fortune, the Marynissen’s son Grayson had been cleaning out the barrel cellar room a week before the Festival began and found a skid of unmarked wine boxes tucked away in a corner gathering dust. He opened them up to find they all contained library icewines from the 90’s and early 2000s. He tasted them all to ensure they were viable and the winery decided to put them on sale.

These library wines were also the feature tasting at the winery when we arrived. The actual vintages found were 90, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, and 99 Vidal icewines and a single 91 Riesling icewine. Grayson was gracious and entertaining and actually matched me wit for wit as I joked with him about moving in to the winery. During the rest of the presentation, he kept referring to me as his “new roommate.”

We tasted the 98, 04 and 93 Vidals as well as their standard 2004 Vidal icewine as well as the 91 Riesling. The 93 Vidal was so good I was compelled to post a completely separate note on it.

We then went to the tank room where winemaker Jeff Hundertmark and his wife Kimberly (who organizes the Icewine Festival) poured us some table wines as Jeff regaled us with the history of the winery as well as his personal journey from Ottawa restauranteur to embarking on a second career as a winemaker at the ripe old age of 42.

Jeff also gave us an exclusive barrel tasting which was a highlight as many people on the tour had never had a barrel tasting experience before. On to the wines. Speaking of which…

98 VIDAL ICEWINE – Wild honey, caramel and bruised peaches.

93 VIDAL ICEWINE – Wine of the entire tour, see my separate note. Absolutely fantastic icewine, the icewine equivalent of a Vintage Port. Unbelievable that this aged 18 years and is so drinkable.

04 VIDAL ICEWINE – More wild honey and apricot flavors than the 93 but of course it’s a much younger icewine. Perfectly respectable but pales to the greatness of the 93 Vidal above. Of course, it’s also only 1/3 of the price.

91 RIESLING – Petrol and caramel, a touch of baked pineapple. Considering that Riesling as a varietal has so much more natural acidity than Vidal, it’s a bit surprising to me that this was second best to the 93 Vidal.

07 66 CAB SAUV – A cabernet Sauvignon named after the Lot number the grapes came from, aged 14 months in oak. This wine is a tribute to John Marynissen, the winery’s late founder who passed in 2009 and sale proceeds go to the Niagara Region Hospital which he supported. Great drinking Cab Sauv, with smooth fruit and soft tannins. Jeff feels it has aged to the perfect drinkability stage and I’m inclined to agree.

UNNAMED BARREL RED – Their newest wine creation, this barrel sampling was of a wine made from blending Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Merlot and Malbec. It’s also being aged in a stainless steel tank, so maybe this should be considered a tank tasting as opposed to a barrel tasting. Very fruit forward red blend with nice acidity and soft tannins. Very fresh tasting wine, it will be interesting to see what this eventually becomes.

OVERALL: This was a fantastic visit and a good example of why we should go out of our way to visit smaller wineries. The tour experience is much more personal and entertaining and frankly it feels good to support a smaller family-owned business as opposed to a giant corporation.

That said, the wines must still be of great quality as goodwill alone won’t support a winery. They were. The aged icewine flight was an incredible experience and the table wines were very respectable as well. Both the attention and quality resulted in a number of sales of their vintage icewines and table wine and they deserved to be rewarded in such a fashion.

Wow–you had the luck, Tran. Maybe I need to get out for a visit there…soon! I had been down on the Marynissen wines, but I have candidly not been there in quite a few years and owe them a visit. Thanks for spurring me on.

Mike