Sunday, May 26, 2013

Niagara College 2009 Sauvignon Blanc - Kevin Watson Vineyard


Found May 2013

Sadly I am going to give this wine a very poor write up and it's really not it's fault; I blame myself completely for this fiasco of a wine.  When we bought this wine a few years back is was lovely and fresh with great citrus quality - unfortunately the review never made it to the website (ontariowinereview.com).  But I found this bottle while looking for something refreshing and fun to drink and with the date of 2009 I thought it just might have survived due to the high acidity that year brought to the wines - alas that was not to be.  I am to blame as I socked this one away instead of putting it in the forefront of my wine cellar.  But here is how it tastes now:  The nose was hay with some freshly mowed lawn thrown in, there was also some grapefruit rind added to the mix. But it wasn't the nose that was the problem, it was the palate, which had lost all elements of Sauvignon Blanc, it tasted rancid and bitter with a real unpleasant after-taste.  This wine was inadvertently lost and sometimes when that happens you can never get them back ... no matter how hard you look and pray that they'll come back.  It's true in life as it is in wine.  In the end the nose was passable but the palate was something you just couldn't get passed.  Lost & Found Rating:  Trash


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Featherstone 2003 Cabernet Franc - Estate Bottled


Found May 2013

I visited Featherstone earlier in the week and made the decision to try my oldest bottle of Featherstone wine, which just happened to be this 2003 Cabernet Franc.  I want to tell you it was lovely.  I want to tell you it held up so well that I was shocked.  I want to tell you that 2003 is a better year than we give it credit for ... but unfortunately I can't say any of that.  The wine isn't horrible - that's the best thing I can say ... in fact it's not bad and tolerable, but it lacks any depth or elegance, it's a one note pony (to steal from a few phrases).  It's leafy and herbaceous with some smoky dried tobacco leaf on the nose.  Palate has some bitter coffee notes from the get go, goes to dry and smoky tobacco leaf and settles into something leafy with a little tannin.  It's not a great wine, it's definitely drinkable but it's not going to be your favourite old wine and by the two hour mark it's very nondescript and not very appealing.  Lost & Found Rating:  Tolerable