Cilento 2002 Pinot Noir Gamay

Found July 2010

I admit that right from the get go I had little hope that this wine survived all these years gone by - the grape varieties alone told me I might be dealing with an over the hill wine here.  Unwrap the capsule and there's a plastic cork staring back at me, strike two.  And if those two didn't give me pause, the colour should have, it made me wince as I saw it hit the glass as I saw dirty brown cascade my crystal vessel of choice.  But here is where I have to do my job, I dedicated myself to bring you the good, the bad and the ugly in this column, and by gone it I'm gonna do it, after all I had bought this wine at some point in my life, I must have liked it at some point.  I even had the wherewithal to slip it into my wine cellar ... where I obviously forgot about it, until today.  The smell was as unappealing as the colour and the taste, well let's just say I would have been better off using this one for salad dressing.  The wine was prunish and oxidized, there were hints of some old fruit here but those hints were few and far between.  What's more, I could not bring myself to swallow a full sip - the little I choked down was enough.  This wine is, was and always shall be from this day forward DOA ... In truth, I should have popped the cork a week after I bought it.  I will be apologizing to myself and my taste buds later.   Lost & Found Rating:  Trash.

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Lailey Vineyard 2002 Canadian Oak Pinot Noir

Found February 2010

I rescued this bottle from the scrap heap of annihilation - basically someone I knew was going to throw it down the drain figuring it was too old (without even trying it) - what a waste. I brought it over to share with some friends one wine soaked evening. Not exactly at it's peek this bottle was making it's slow decline - but it still had enough stuffing to keep all in attendance interested. Loads of dried fruit and tons of sour cherry, all backed by a touch of wood tanins and lots of acidity. In its prime this would have been one fantastic wine, but I think at this stage, old age was taking its toll and getting the better of this bottle. Lost & Found Rating: Tolerable but fading

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Cave Spring Cellars 2002 Pinot Noir Estate Bottled

Found January 2010

This one goes out to all you good little boys and girls who have been cellaring your 2002 Ontario wines: Kids, it might be time to start looking at these wines and in fact, breaking into them; not that they are over the hill, far from it, but some are starting to drink very, very well, let's take for example this this 2002 Pinot Noir from Cave Spring. Starting from the nose this wine had everything your looking for in aged Pinot, smells of sour cherry, dried cranberry with a slightly smoky nuance. On the palate those cherries turned black with a delightfully delicious smoothness and a touch of tannins - this was a real pleasure to drink, I'm not stretching it at all when I say, "what a beauty", especially when given a little air through decanting. I recently reviewed the 2007 version of this wine, and if it ages as nicely (and I suspect it will), I suggest making a multiple purchase of the '07, the '02 is long gone (unless you have some in the cellar). Lost & Found Rating: Treasure +

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Stonechurch 2006 Dry Riesling

Found December 2009

In my New Year's write up I mentioned three wines that we had that were very good and a number (without names) that were not up to snuff or, most likely, not what most people wanted to drink ... but this one took the cake. I know I said I would protect the names of the innocent but this is not an innocent wine, this was just plain and simple sloppy wine making, a bad marketing decision, or both. This Dry Riesling from Stonechurch was a "pre-release" wine, in fact the label had been handwritten on with a silver Sharpie marker. Over time I had noticed a little sediment in the bottle, odd for a Riesling, when I asked at the winery about it they said that was because it was a pre-release and they may not have filtered it as finely as they normally would. This should have tipped me off that something was wrong with this wine, but I wanted to believe, and I know I liked the wine when I tasted it at the winery. Tonight, I opened it and the cork made a bigger pop than the Champagne I opened later in the evening. The wine, when poured into the glass, fizzed and bubbled more than a can of warm coke and the taste, ick. The wine had re-fermented in the bottle and had transformed into an undrinkable sparkling wine, where once a still wine should have been ... no wonder the next few wines didn't go over well, most were still remembering this Riesling disaster. Turns out I still have a bottle left, this will be good for clearing clogged drains and cleaning the toilet. Lost & Found Rating: Trash

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Southbrook Winery 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon - Lailey Vineyard

Found December 2009

New Year's Eve 2009 ... as we move from 2009 to 2010 I decided to open quite a few wines (well actually 3), the others can be found here ... as for the Ontario component of my evening it was this well aged Cabernet Sauvignon from Southbrook. Those who read my entries to this blog know that Southbrook used to be my local winery and I seem to have quite a few bottles of theirs that go back a few years. This wine would have been made from fruit sourced at Lailey Vineyard down in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Southbrook at this time, did not own their own vines. I drank this one after a much younger, more alcoholly, richer fruited Malbec from Argentina, but it still held it's own. The smells were that of an older wine with cranberry, dried raspberries and blackberries with the mildest whiff of green pepper (an Ontario signature smell around this time period). The palate was smooth (though a tad gritty from the unfiltered floaties - but it is this element that has allowed the wine to age so gracefully so no use complaining), there was also a touch of white pepper and a bit of woodsiness to mix with the dried fruit base. Paired well with the New Year's Eve pizza. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure

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Vignoble Rancourt 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon

Found November 2009

Lionel Rancourt was one of those guys that made wine fun and made you feel welcome. The first time I happened upon his winery it was after 5 o'clock at night, I was leaving the Shaw festival, having just seen a play with my mother. Today I'm not sure what the play was but I sure remember Rancourt's winery. We were puttering along Hwy. 55 (Niagara Stone Road) and spied his sign, we made the right hand turn and then another to pull down the driveway, all the time wondering if the winery was still open. The door was locked and the sign on the door said they closed at 5. I was getting back into the car when I heard a voice, "wait ... I'm coming." I turned to see a little limping man hobbling down the stairs of a house across the drive. "You came all this way to see my winery," he said as he got closer, "the least I can do is give you a taste of what you came for." And with that we shook hands and he opened the winery door. That evening Lionel took me on a tour of his winery and of his wines - told me of his great plans for the future and his passion for the wine industry. Alas, many of Lionel's dreams never came to pass, he passed away suddenly a couple of Chirstmases ago, but I still remember that visit. Tonight, I was having dinner with mom and dad and found this bottle to Rancourt's 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon in my cellar; I brought it along to bring back the memories of that interesting evening, my mother still says "poor Mr. Rancourt" whenever she passes the winery or sees a bottle of his wine. We opened it to try. Yet again I must say alas when it come to Mr. Rancourt: the nose was pruney with celery and other veggie notes , and when given a little air the woodiness shone through. On the palate there was much of the same with woody and vegetal notes. Gone was the fruit. When decanted all that was left was wood: cedar planks and sawdust. This wine had crested the hill and was in its steady decline, but something tells me it happened within the last year, so this one is just barely trash, but trash none the less. Lost & Found Rating: Trash

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Jackson-Triggs 2002 Proprietors' Grand Reserve Merlot

Found November 2009

It seems like it's been awhile since anybody had something nice to say about Jackson-Triggs, what with that Cellared in Canada issue blowing up in their face (not saying it was just them, but they did take the brunt of the blame). So I'm here to tell you is that when J-T puts their mind to it they can make some awesome VQA wines, like this Proprietors' Grand Reserve Merlot from 2002 ... after finding and tasting it Saturday night there's was little doubt in my mind as to why this bottle had a gold label adorning the outside.

Back when it was released this wine was a real beauty, one ripe for laying down and re-discovering in years to come; and why? The combination of a good growing season and plenty of barrel age (18 months in new French oak). So here we are, some 7 years from vintage date, and this wine is still going strong. Upon opening, I noticed the cork was in perfect condition, no seepage up the sides and the tip was as black as pitch. The initial smell was one of smokey green peppers and spice, while the taste was plenty spicy with black pepper on the palate and a hint of dried black currants lurking on the mid-palate ... but for the most part this wine was all smoky, spicy and peppery in the mouth.

Being the impatient sort that I am, I decided it was time to decant, so I pulled out my Vinturi (a great little by-the-glass decanting device perfect for when you're on the road and require the use of a decanter but have none available) and passed the wine through it. The sharp spice was toned down to a more manageable level on the tongue and the smoky aspect came through as extremely pleasant. The green pepper, that once lived on the nose, dissipated quietly into the background, while the acid and black pepper were pleasantly intensified ... now, with the wine more in tune with my palate's needs, it was time to sit and sip away the evening. As I did so, and about an hour later, there seemed to be some blackened fruit that showed up, more as an after thought than a main player - but it was welcomed to the party with open arms (or lips as the case may be).

This wine proves to me that when Jackson-Triggs focuses on 100% Ontario VQA wine there is no controversy, they make fantastic stuff. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure

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