WineAlign

It’s horribly cliché, but it’s true, so what can I say? The 10^th Annual Canadian Wine Awards organized by Wine Access Magazine in beautiful Penticton in the Okanagan Valley was the finest showing of Canadian wines yet, at least out of the 5 years that I have been a judge. And I’m willing to venture that the first five years weren’t as strong in terms of the overall quality of wines presented. Everyone knows which way Canadian wines have been heading in the last decade: more, better, best. “A great and satisfying tasting”, said arch veteran Tony Aspler.  “I was more impressed than ever this year by the high level of quality”, had to say Véronique Rivest, one of the country’s top sommeliers, and “just an awesome week of tasting!!!” according to Alberta-based sommelier and wine buyer Brad Royale, all judges at this year’s awards. New Brunswicker Craig Pinhey was so enthused that he could hardly wait for next summer’s competition: “I think we need a winter wine competition. Shall we meet in Winnipeg? Quebec City?”.

Our own David Lawrason, judge at nine out of the ten awards, had a more philosophical take-away from the experience: “We may all have different notions about wine, and competitions, but there is something about blind tasting together that speaks to the purpose of our vocation. We have all invested so much time caring about quality and taste both on behalf of consumers and winemakers, and it’s very gratifying to share that with you all.” It’s certainly not war, or high school, or even a three-week canoe trip, but it is a real bonding experience, with but one singular purpose: to find and award the producers of Canada’s best wines (with multiple interpretations) with some deserved recognition. We obviously enjoy, but it’s for done for you the consumer, to settle the turbid waters of the vastly populated wine store shelves, as well as for all of this country’s dedicated producers, to offer a non-binding, suggestive direction of what’s working best from an assembly of people who spend their lives immersed in the subject. The ultimate goal? To further the Canadian wine industry and make wine drinking a little more pleasurable for all. Ok. And sell a few magazines, too.

But I’ll spare you the tiresome details about the grueling tastings of 100s of wines over the course of a week, the long nights of great camaraderie with colleagues from across the country, the welcoming and generous Okanagan hosts, the outstanding locally-sourced, low pomp, high flavour dinners, and cut to the chase.

This year there were about as many entries as in previous editions, yet there are more wineries, and wines, being produced in Canada than ever before. My interpretation, born out by the results, is that wineries were more selective in their entries, submitting mostly the best stuff. It was harder than ever in the preliminary rounds to sort out the wines that should move forward to the finals from the rest. The obviously low-quality wines are easy to dismiss, but this time the majority required serious sensorial scrutinizing to separate the good from the best. And that’s a very good thing.

So what’s happening in Canada? Several things came into sharp focus for me during the week in Penticton. For one, the grape varieties that perform most consistently, and that yield the best quality wines in the right areas, became more evident. The results, or at least my interpretation, show clearly what’s working and where. Chardonnay and Riesling have become the most exciting categories to judge. From the ponderous, overly oaky and clumsy chardonnays of the bad old days to now, there were too many outstanding wines to count (well, somebody did). Lees oak, no oak, more class, elegance, finesse, minerality. Exciting stuff. And Riesling, a long time top performer, firmly entrenched itself as one of Canada’s best, particularly from Ontario. And thankfully, people are finally starting to drink it. There are certainly great examples of sauvignon blanc, viognier, pinot blanc, pinot gris, gewürztraminer and others, but the consistency across the range is not as deep.

Sparkling wines: yes we can. Aromatic white blends is another clear winning category. In my view it’s the most sensible approach to making consistently tasty, charming mostly unoaked whites in our always unpredictable climate. Bets can be hedged against any single variety, allowing maximum flexibility to take the season’s best components and craft good wine. More of this please.

For reds, pinot noir has finally taken its rightful place. For years we’ve predicted, half wishfully, that it will be one of the country’s more successful wines. It’s a tricky variety as pinotphiles know, but it’s purpose-made to grow in cooler climates – it’s a short cycle grape that ripens early – it should work here. And now that more than a handful of producers have learned to coax the best out of it in both the vineyard and the winery, there is critical mass of really good examples.

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, on the other hand, were perhaps too enthusiastically planted in the early days. They simply don’t work everywhere; few and far between are the places warm enough, with sufficient frost-free days to ripen them up to the point where they become interesting on their own. Oak flavour, green tannin and alcohol alone cannot carry these monovarietal wines. This is not to take away from the top examples that are made in Canada, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. As with whites, the smart thing to do is blend, as was shown in the reds blends category, where there were many excellent wines made from a vast array of sometimes traditional, sometimes whimsical assortments of grapes. And here there is room to grow and experiment with many fringe varieties like malbec, petit verdot, tannat and others.

Syrah/shiraz has proven now for several years that it can make top class wines, both in the peppery northern Rhône style and in the riper new world style. It has produced past red wine of the year champions. Though it must be said, BC has the strong advantage here over the rest of the country due to the warmer, drier climate of the southern Okanagan. As for cabernet franc, touted to be the best of the traditional Bordeaux grapes, I found disappointing. And red hybrids. What to do with hybrids. I may be shot for saying this, but let’s rip them out. Even the best examples (of which there are barely a handful) are merely good, never great. To paraphrase Michelangelo, the failure in life is not to have aimed high and missed it, but rather to aim low and achieve it.

For more on the 2010 Canadian Wine Awards, check out the #CWA10 hashtag on Twitter, and read the real-time reactions of judges flight by flight.

My personal, unofficial, top picks:

Sparkling

NV Hillebrand Trius Brut, Niagara Peninsula

No real surprise here when the bottles were unveiled after the competition, this has consistently been one of my top picks for bubbly in Canada. Classy, complex, elegant and half the price of champers.

L’Acadie Vineyards 2007 Prestige Brut, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

Definitely a surprise. I know that Nova Scotia has the potential to make killer sparkling, and I’ve even tasted a few superb wines, but acadie bubbly? You bet. Crisp, clean, minerally and lively.

Fruit Wine

Rodrigues Winery N/V Raspberry

Raspeberries seem to lend themselves well to making fruit wines. They are among the most pure and easily identifiable, a good thing (points off if you can’t tell what fruit it’s made from when tasting blind…) This was an intense, concentrated essence of raspberry, sweet but balanced. Check it out with chocolate.

Mead

Rosewood 2009 Mead Blanc, Niagara Escarpment, Niagara Peninsula

Yes, that’s correct: mead. An alcoholic beverage made from honey. The judges requested to move the tasting into a medieval banquet hall, don Viking helmets and swap crystal for pewter, but the Penticton Lakeside Resort couldn’t accommodate so we settled for a more wine-like environment. It didn’t prevent me, however, from enjoying the super-intense honey, beeswax, pollen and propolis flavours. I actually saw open wounds heal and bacteria scatter as this was consumed. Weird I know, but if you haven’t tried it yet, you must. Totally compelling stuff. Rosewood’s Mon Cherie mead mixed with a little cherry juice is also worth checking out.

Riesling

Tawse 2009 Riesling, Niagara Peninsula

Tawse is getting riesling right on. Super tight, minerally, austere, barely off dry but balanced by electrifying acidity. The way we like it

Creekside Estate 2008 Butler’s Grant Vineyard Riesling, Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara

Wooly, honeyed and lemony in a German spätlese trocken style (dry late harvest). Great intensity.

Vineland Estates 2008 St. Urban Riesling, Niagara Escarpment, Niagara

Another Ontario classic, from some of the oldest riesling vines in the province. Steely, minerally, delicately honeyed, with deceptive weight and power – you need to pay attention to this and give it time in the glass (or bottle).

Thirty Bench 2009 Winemakers Riesling, Beamsville Bench, Niagara

Another fine edition from Thirty Bench. The 09 is all citrus blossom and lemon-lime flavours, sprinkled with crushed limestone. Riveting acid, saliva and appetite inducing.

Aromatic White Blends

Road 13 Vineyards 2009 Viognier-Riesling-Sauvignon Blanc, B.C.

A fullish, succulent, peach-flavored blend dominated by the viognier component. Highly satisfying.

Flatrock Cellars 2009 Twisted, Niagara Peninsula

Different from the rest of the wines in the category, this is less effusively aromatic but has great texture and minerality, and long finish.

Syrah/Shiraz

Jackson-Triggs Okanagan 2007 SunRock Vineyard Shiraz, Okanagan Valley.

Again no surprise here; a perennial favorite of mine and most of the other judges. Peppery, cassis and smoke flavours, compelling intensity, great length. What’s the secret? I guess it’s a sunny vineyard and the grapes get ripe.

Jackson-Triggs Okanagan 2006 Grand Reserve Shiraz, Okanagan Valley.

Whoa! This smells quite simply like great wine. Mature, floral, violet, tar, red and blackberry fruit; well structured with plenty of life ahead. Top shelf.

Mission Hill 2007 Select Lot Collection Syrah, Okanagan Valley

A more elegant, peppery-floral style of syrah, the way we like it, with no shortage of sweet ripe cassis flavours and warm, satisfying palate.

Cabernet Franc

Cerelia 2008 Cabernet Franc, Cawston, Similkameen Valley B.C.

A surprise newcomer from the lesser-known Similkameen Valley (though the fruit for this wine comes from the South Okanagan), Cerelia is off to a great start. This has all of the hoped-for leafy, tobacco, wood spice and wild violet aromas and flavours that make cab franc such a fine variety.

White Single Varieties

Vineland Estates 2008 Chenin Blanc, Niagara Peninsula

One of the best of the ‘other’ varieties, Vineland’s Chenin is wonderfully wooly, honeyed, mineral and just barely off dry in a classic style.

Red Single Varieties

Twisted Tree Vineyards & Winery 2007 Tannat, Osoyoos, B.C.

There isn’t much of it in Canada, but if tannat can be this good then we should plant more (in the right places). Smoky, meaty, savoury in an old world style, yet not too rustic. Lovely stuff.

Red Blends

Cassini Cellars 2007 Maximus, Okanagan Valley B.C.

Beautiful, slightly rustic, floral and dried-herb-scented blend of cabernet, merlot and malbec. Firm, finessed, balanced and elegant.

Road 13 2008 Rockpile, Okanagan Valley, B.C.

A blend of just about everything  (8 grapes) led by syrah (not sure which genius assembled it but it works). It’s more modern in style, with notable wood influence but well within the limits of respectability, and smooth tannins. I could drink this all night. Well, I have. Just to prove the point.

Mission Hill 2007 Compendium, Okanagan Valley B.C.

Aerial infrared imagery, subsoil moisture probes, pressure bombs…. Mission Hill is on a mission, and will stop at nothing to make the best wine possible from their 900 acres of vineyards scattered throughout the Okanagan from Kelowna to Osoyoos. Compendium is a classy blend of cab sauv and franc, merlot and petit verdot full of ripe fruit, oak and spice all judiciously measured.

Chardonnay (Oaked)

Tawse 2008 Robyn’s Block Chardonnay, Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara

A fabulous 08 Niagara chardonnay here, bright, fresh, restrained, mineral, with well-measured wood influence. Hate to draw vulgar comparisons, but this is like top notch Burgundy.

Henry of Pelham 2007 Speck Family Reserve Chardonnay, Niagara Peninsula

Absolutely top-notch effort from the Speck brothers, the exception to the rule that 2007 Ontario whites won’t age. This is a hefty, intensely flavoured wine with beguiling complexity and impressive finish.

Rosehall Run 2008 Cuvée County Chardonnay, Prince Edward County, Ontario

The County proves its suitability for first class chardonnay with this effort from Dan Sullivan of Rosehall Run. It’s more Chablis-like is style and I wondered if it should be in the oaked chardonnay category, then I stopped fussing over details and just enjoyed the lively green fruit, superb balance, wood integration and limestone minerality.

Pinot Noir

Howling Bluff 2008 Summa Quies Vineyard Pinot Noir, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley B.C.

Howling Bluff is a boutique producer on the celebrated Naramata Bench, obviously doing a superb job based on the class of this pinot, one of the best I’ve tasted in Canada.

Tawse 2008 Lauritzen Vineyard Pinot Noir, Niagara Peninsula

The first pinot released from Tawse from the Lauritzen vineyard, this could easily be the top wine of the vintage from Ontario. Silky, elegant, smooth, fruity and spicy, this has everything one could hope for in a pinot, and should satisfy both old world and new world palates.

Filed under: News, Wine, Canadian Wine Awards, John Szabo, WineAccess