TNs--quick Niagara visit with Gary Schulte

ORGANIZED CRIME

2010 Organized Crime Pipe Down Red
Such lovely cherry, violets, nice spice and sweet plum jam. Oh, it’s really pretty, has a fine spiciness and real mocha-cappucino side. Very, very tasty, quite a bargain at $22

2008 Organized Crime Download Red
This has more green notes with pepper, and some blackberry. On the tongue, still nice structure, but for interest and enjoyment, not a patch on the 2010 Pipe Down

2009 Organized Crime Pinot Noir
Delicate and floral with just hints of raspberries and strawberry. Decent acidity, hint of perfume, it is gentle but not overly memorable, mainly raspberry. Still, it self-possessed, not bad.

2008 Organized Crime Chardonnay Reserve
Wow, this has an enchanting honeydew/melon and peach side to sniff, almost don’t want to drink it. Highly unusual aromatic profile for these here parts. A little less presence on palate, but great replays and smooth butterscotch. I did buy a bottle of this.

AURE WINERY

2010 Aure Winery Riesling
Plenty of apple and, well, more apple and some bits of petrol. Some OK grip, petrol more prevalent in the mouth, it’s somewhat disconnected.

2010 Aure Winery Cabernet Franc
A good red fruit profile, plenty of chocolate too. Spent 1 year in French Oak, good chewiness with tastes of red and black fruit. OK.

COLANERI WINES
I hadn’t been here before and Gary Schulte and his wife Gayle had traveled up from NY to meet with Andrzej Lipinksi, the winemaker here. I was delighted to have the time to meet them both and was graciously allowed to join in on the fun. Andrzej was terrific, spending a good 1.5 hours at least with us, we discussed everything from pick window at harvest to destemmers and presses. We also tasted plenty, both from tank and at the tasting bar.

2011 Colaneri Riesling
Right now, gooseberry and nettle side to the apple, has some SB profile. To taste, tingly and quite sweet, has 20g RS, wow, that doesn’t really show, that’s almost icewine levels.

2011 Colaneri Pinot Gris
Bits of nectarine and unripe pineapple on nose. Some pear also. Le gout is light but good flavor replays, with nip of white grape. Better than most efforts from Ontario.

2011 Colaneri Sauvignon Blanc
A real NZ profile, ton of smoke, nettles, gooseberry and pine needle. Extremely dry style, it has plenty of vivacity already in the mouth. Gayle really liked this.

2011 Colaneri Gewurtztraminer
Really lovely, pear, melon, lychee scents, all in balance. This also has great carry and good acidity, with tasty ginger and pear. A winner.

2010 Colaneri Cabernet Franc
16 months in new oak. 14.9% alcohol. Well, it has fantastic aromatic expressiveness—wowful meats, spices and rich berries. And it follows with a dynamic mouthfeel, great sweet-spiced plumcake, wsweet blackberry and sidebar of meats, yet plenty of elegance and carry too. Wow. Really. One of Andrzej’s secrets, he tells us, is that he dries many of his grapes for a short period before fermentation

2009 Colaneri Cabernet Sauvignon
End of December, believe it or not, was the pick for this. Dried for 2 months and then 27 months in barrel. This shows just that dried fruit side and slight overripeness. But on palate, perhaps the drying has gentled the grapes, a fair mix here of herbs, spices and sour black cherry. 09 will never be my favourite red vintage here, but this is a credible effort.

2010 Colaneri Pinot Noir
Strawberry—wild strawberry—much in evidence. Tiny touches of cloves maybe, sweet and spice in equal but small measure. This is OK, a bit of bubblegum in the midpalate, but relatively balanced. Again, will be hard to make a bad wine in 2010, it looks like
(from bottle for rest)

2009 Colaneri Chardonnay
13 months in 60% new oak. Andrzej really loves this wine. Good combo of almond paste, apple, pear and toffee. Good overall presentation, it has some sweetness and some glycerin grip at the back, this is a little hot at the back, but should filter out with time, good overall, but not quite in the class of e.g. Le Clos Jordanne’s Le Grand Clos or the Tete de Cuvee from Hidden Bench.

2009 Colaneri Sauvignon Blanc
Melony this time, with only bits of that smoke in the 2011. Fruitier than the 11 for sure. Not great for me

2009 Colaneri Riesling
Touches of ginger, star fruit, lime maybe. Dans la bouche, fairly abrupt, almost hits you like an icewine up front. Hmmm

2009 Colaneri Gewurtztraminer
14.3% alcohol, but seamless and seductive—emphasizes some dried fruits surprisingly. The winning formula is in the mouth, where it has a round and very lovely feel—structure, complexity and lots of svelte pear and orange marmalade. I bought one bottle and I think Gary quite liked this too.

2009 Colaneri Insieme
A Bordeaux blend, but with Syrah replacing Malbec. Peppercorns and some herbs with blackcurrant waft up out of the glass. Palate is smooth and quite yummy, enough depth, tasty with meats/bacon, sweet raspberry and chickoree. Really rather a triumph for this difficult red vintage.

Hi Mike - Gayle and I enjoyed meeting up with you at Colaneri. Nice notes on their wines. My head was still swimming in viticulture and winemaking details from the discussions with Andrzej Lipinkski. Very passionate man with a drive to try experimentation in the vineyard and the winery. For some wines his appassimento drying method blurs the variety by giving you something different than expected in flavor profile and also makes the harvest year difficult to pick. Whatever one thinks about this method away from the areas of Europe where it is tradition Andrzej might be starting a new tradition for Ontario.

On Friday we did not get a chance to visit Hidden Bench as we spent half the day at Southbrook and the other half with Francois Morissette of Pearl Morissette. For the latter we discussed viticulture and winemaking for several hours with particular attention to growing pinot noir. Francois is clearly a risk taker but an intelligent and experienced one that I think, for whatever one thinks of pinot noir from the Niagara region, he is pushing the viticulture envelope to make world class pinot noir. It is early days for his project but he knows it’s a high risk and the results are still a few years off. After barrel tasting through his chardonnays, rieslings, and cab francs I would pay close attention to this winery as I think pinot noir has a chance to be special here. We will see and I certainly hope his pinot experiment succeeds.

On Friday evening we did have a bottle of a 2009 Bachelder Niagara Project chardonnay at the wonderful restaurant Zest on Fonthill. This was a lovely chardonnay with lots of minerality and acidity offset with lemon, apple, and asian pear fruit to make you think of a primer cru Chablis with a touch more fruit.

On Saturday we headed off to Prince Edward County for a couple of days and then yesterday, Monday, made the long drive back home.

Without a doubt the Ontario wine industry has much to be proud of and offers many pointers on how other wineries in the eastern provinces and northeastern states could be doing…Cheers, Gary

Thanks Gary, great that you were able to fit everything in except Hidden Bench. It sounds like your time with Francois especially was very worthwhile. The Bachelder Chard style sounds very much in the vein of the Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos chardys that he used to make.

Hope to see you both again soon.

maluhia,

Mike