Feeling PECish ─ Part 4

(Read Part 1 here)

(Read Part 2 here)

(Read Part 3 here)

The Wineries of Marysburgh/Athol  

This newer area is south of Picton.  The winemakers here all sing from the same song-sheet:  they are absolutely convinced that the next 10-20 years will show that this area is better suited for vineyards than is Hillier.  (Every winery expressed this opinion, accompanied by a small, smug smile, without me having asked the question.)  And based on our tastings, they’re right.  The people were knowledgeable and friendly.  But yikes, the wines are expensive!

Long Dog:  We tried both the 2007 and 2008 Bella Riserva Chardonnay.  An interesting contrast in styles:  2007 showed more rich tropical aromas and flavours while the 2008 offered citrus-y flavours with crisp acidity.  It all comes down to personal preference and we brought home the 2008 ($30).  Long Dog also makes Pinot Noir.  The 2008 Top Dog ($36) is fruit forward with aromas and flavours of red cherry and raspberry and a bit of sweet spice.  Light-bodied with fresh acidity.  The 2007 Otto Riserva Pinot Noir ($50) is a better and more complex effort but, to be blunt, not worth $50, so we brought home the Top Dog.  Long Dog also makes a couple of Pinot Gris. 

Exultet:  Very small production and oh so expensive.  The 2009 Chardonnay ($50) has pear, butterscotch, and spicy nutmeg on the nose.  Aged in half French and half in Hungarian oak.  Medium acidity.  No question, it’s delicious.  I broke down and bought a bottle.  I passed on the 2009 Pinot Noir at $50.

Lighthall:  Another small producer.  The 2009 Chardonnay Reserve ($25) had citrus and peach aromas and flavours.  Crisp acidity with minerality.  Bought it.  We tasted the 2010 Chardonnay Reserve from the tank.  It has a similar profile to the 2009 but better balanced, soft and smooth in the mid-palate but refreshing acidity at the end.  The 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve ($25) was quite earthy, with sour red fruit on the palate.  Light-bodied.  The 2009 Pinot Noir Particulaire ($50) is more New World in style, bigger, riper red cherry aromas and flavours and a more balanced structure with medium acidity and a hint of tannin.

Cheese Producers

Waupoos:  We rode our bicycles out to Fifth Town Cheese, which is towards the east end of the County.  On the way back, we stopped at Waupoos for lunch.  As with the Grange, it’s a beautiful setting and touristy.  Although it’s one of the oldest PEC wineries, it had not a single VQA PEC wine.  Shame.

Marysburgh wineries worth a visit:  Long Dog, Exultet, Lighthall

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Feeling PECish ─ Part 3

(Read Part 1 here)

(Read Part 2 here)

The Wineries of Hillier 

Many of the “older” wineries in Prince Edward County are located in the western end of the County, north and west of Wellington, around Hillier and Rosehall.  The wineries have modern tasting rooms with mostly knowledgeable, but often jaded, staff.

Norman Hardie:  One of the best-known wineries, it produces just a couple of VQA PEC wines.  Both the County Pinot Noir 2009 ($35) and the Cabernet Franc 2009 ($25) show tart red fruit and high acidity.  The Cab Franc was very herbaceous.  Nothing purchased.

The Old Third:  They only make Pinot Noir here but that focus is rewarded.  We bought the 2009 ($35), which offers cherry aromas with a touch of floral.  Interesting minerality on the palate.  Contrasts nicely with other County Pinot Noir with its medium acidity.

Closson Chase:  This is probably the best-known PEC winery and one of the first.  Upscale tasting room in an old barn but the tasting staff is unfriendly with a haughty attitude, which is always a turnoff.  You’re in PEC, folks, not Bordeaux…lose the attitude.  The good news is that Closson Chase offered 2 Chardonnays (their specialty) and a Pinot Noir from the County.  The CCV Chardonnay 2009 ($25) showed red apple and peach on the palate with refreshing acidity that transitions to a buttery finish.  The 2009 South Clos Chardonnay ($40) had red apple and lemon flavours, softer acidity with that same butter finish.  The 2009 Pinot Noir ($40) reminded me of an Oregon-style Pinot Noir, featuring bright red cherry on the palate.  It’s high in acidity, somewhat bitter and green, suggesting some under ripe fruit.  The best value was the CCV Chardonnay, but I couldn’t get past the attitude and left empty-handed.

Rosehall Run:  Here’s a winery that focuses on VQA PEC wines and keeps the prices down.  So it can be done!  We tried several wines but, somewhat bizarrely, they had recently painted the tasting room and the fumes made wine appreciation a test.  There were 2 people working in the tasting room, a friendly and knowledgeable guy and a woman who was auditioning for a job at Closson Chase.  We started with – and bought – the 2008 Cuvée County Chardonnay ($30), which showed citrus and white peach on the palate, with vanilla on the finish.  Of the reds that we tried (Gamay, Cabernet Franc, and Pinot Noir), we liked the 2008 Cuvée County Pinot Noir ($20) with its red fruit, floral note, and medium acidity.  Definitely one of my favourites for a return visit.

Huff Estates:  Huff has the most strikingly modern tasting room in PEC.  The 2008 South Bay Chardonnay ($30) offers more on the nose than it delivers in taste:  rich citrus, peach, and pear aromas but thin flavours with too sharp acidity on the back palate.  The 2010 Pinot Gris ($20) was a revelation with citrus and white flower aromas, lemon-lime flavours, and fresh acidity and minerality.  Maybe it was after tasting so much Chardonnay (yawn) but with this wine, I began to think that PEC wineries should focus their attention on Pinot Gris.  We bought a bottle of this wine to bring home but drank it at the B&B that night!  The 2009 Pinot Noir ($25) showed sour red cherry on the nose but was thin and acidic on the palate.

The Grange of Prince Edward:  A winery that’s in a beautiful setting and it’s obviously popular with tourists.  Too bad that the staff lacks knowledge about the product.  The wines that we tasted were uniformly disappointing and, at least in the ones that we tasted, the wines were already so far over the hill that they shouldn’t still be on the shelves.

Hillier wineries worth a visit:  The Old Third, Rosehall Run, Huff Estates – for the Pinot Gris – and (next time for me) Hinterland.


Next up...the wines of Marysburgh.


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Feeling PECish ─ Part 2

(Read Part 1 here)

PEC wineries devote their efforts primarily to two varieties:  the notoriously difficult Pinot Noir and the wine world’s workhorse, Chardonnay.  Some of the Pinot Noirs that I tasted in PEC (especially around Hillier) were thin, tart, overly acidic, and occasionally under-ripe, all of which are risks in a cool climate.  The weather in 2010 was warmer, allowing for fuller ripening, and the expectations for that vintage (not yet available) are high.  Who knows, perhaps global warming will be a boon to PEC.    

As for the Chardonnays, they often saw too much new oak, although that’s more of a personal preference than a flaw. 

We tasted some good Pinot Gris and, based on those samples, the region shows great promise for that grape variety.  More PEC vintners should try it.  But everybody buys Chardonnay…

Another winery – Hinterland – devotes all its efforts to sparkling wines and I think that they’re on to something.  With PEC’s cool climate and limestone foundation, the region may be ideal for sparkling wine.  And most vintners are already growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, 2 of the 3 varieties that also can go into making Champagne, where tart and acidic wine is a boon.

I only have eyes for ewe

Compared to the slicker Niagara region, PEC has a bucolic charm.  Translation:  they roll up the sidewalks at night (and don't necessarily unroll them in the morning) and cell service is very spotty.  The region seems torn between wanting tourism dollars but not the tourists who come with it.  There are relatively few hotels, so a last-minute getaway in the summer is nearly impossible.  

Hot Diggity!

Ommm

Although the selection of restaurants is good, many are closed more than one night a week in high season. Restaurants are well spread out among the many little towns, making walking to them impossible; a designated driver is a necessity.  We had dinner at Angeline’s in Bloomfield and Blumen Bistro in Picton.  Both are good but we give the edge to Blumen for its good food, moderate prices, great service, and ambience.  And getting down for lunch at Buddha Dog in Picton, with its locally sourced products, is good fun but it’s very small and busy. 

Sweet Cheeses!

It’s out of the way but if you love excellent cheese made from goat, sheep, or cows’ milk, make the time to visit Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, which is at the east end of the County.  Great selection!       

We visited 10 wineries over 2 days.  You can find the better wineries concentrated in 2 districts.  In my next 2 posts, I’ll give you my impression of the wineries around Hiller and Marysburgh.

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Feeling PECish ─ Part 1

What to make of Prince Edward County?

As wine regions go, it’s a toddler.  Almost all wineries in Prince Edward County (known as PEC or the County) have been producing wine for about a decade or less.  In winemaking, understanding terroir, discovering what works and what doesn’t, is measured in generations, not years.  A decade is just a blink of an eye.  

The newness shows in the quantities produced as well, as the entire region produces significantly less than many individual Niagara vintners.      

So, it’s probably unfair to evaluate PEC’s wines in comparison to many others.  It would be fairer to measure where PEC is in 2012 to where the Niagara region was in 1985.  Fairer…but impossible.

Back in late August, Michèle and I went on our first trip to PEC with a couple of friends, Steve and Carolyn.  We visited 10 wineries, focussing on those that make wines that are designated VQA Prince Edward County.  That designation means that at least 85% of the grapes used to make the wine have to come from Prince Edward County.      

I don’t envy the economic realities faced by PEC vintners.  Producing wine takes a lot of money, not only the up front capital costs (think millions of dollars) but the yearly operating costs are daunting.  In the early years, as you’re feeling your way, production is small, which means your return on investment is small…even negative.       

Be warned:  just because you buy a wine from a PEC winery doesn’t mean you’re buying wine from Prince Edward County (or from grapes grown in Prince Edward County).  In PEC, the need for positive cashflow leads many winemakers to supplement local grapes by bringing in Niagara grapes to make wines that qualify as “VQA Ontario”.    

I view this practice as, at best, a short-term evil that may be necessary to survive the tough early years.  It’s somewhat akin to the practice of “Cellared in Canada”, where Canadian wineries import cheap grape juice from outside Canada, make wine, and stick their label on it.  (Importing grapes or grapejuice from another region or country is barely a step up from me making wine in my basement.)  It’s a way to turn a profit, and stay in business, while the local production matures.  But just as I think that the practice of “Cellared in Canada” should disappear within 10-15 years at the very latest, I would expect PEC wineries eventually to cease using grapes from Niagara.  The toddler has to grow up.

Making wine from “imported” grapes is one way to generate cashflow.  Another way is to charge a lot of money for the VQA PEC wines that you do make.  It’s unusual to find a VQA PEC wine for less than $30 (Rosehall Run is a notable exception) and many wines will run you a lot more than that.  Are they worth it?  Unfortunately, my answer is no.  The quality just isn’t there yet to justify paying $40, $50, $60 for a bottle of VQA PEC wine. 

But I did anyway.  Why?  Curiosity to see how these wines will mature and work with food.  And an altruistic, patriotic desire to support wineries in a new and struggling region close to home.

More on PEC in Part 2 here....

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