Truffle Pig Wine

Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to visit all the wineries we wanted to (we would have loved to hit Lailey, Coyote's Run and Cave Springs), but we managed to get four in:

Status Winery

A beautiful winery on HW 55 on the way into Niagara-on-the-Lake: the architecture of the Estate is boldly modern from the road, while sophisticated, warm and elegant on the inside.

• 2002 Select Late-Harvest Riesling, $25: delicious pineapple (tropical fruit) flavours and a little caramel too. We bought one. 9.0
• 2000 Riesling Icewine, $37: While still tasty, this is almost a little too sweet when compared with the Late-Harvest. The taste of honey takes over.. 8.5

Konzelmann Estate

The whites and reds here didn't particularly appeal to my palate, however the icewines were pretty tasty:

• 2002 Vidal Icewine, $44.45: Strong lychee and a little strawberry. At 21 brix of residual sure, it's perhaps a bit too sweet. 8.0
• 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine, $36.95: Strawberry&mango take over in this one though lychee is still hiding in there. And it's not as sweet as the Vidal (18 brix residual sugar), which is nice, though there's a little tartness that's a bit distracting. We bought a bottle. 8.5

Palatine Winery

At 120 acres or so, these guys process a LOT of fruit. And I was happy to learn that might sell to home winemakers now that their contract with Vincor has been completed and won't be renewed. The whites are good, and even the Cab Franc is tasty for an Ontario Red, but the icewines are the crown jewel:

• Gewurztraminer Icewine, $30/200ml: well-balanced blend of strawberry and lychee, with a crisp finish. We loved it and bought a bottle. 9.5
• Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine, $100/375ml: I had no idea icewine could be this good, this stands as my icewine light bulb wine: delicate red hue with flavours of strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb with enough acid to cleanse the palate. Unfortunately, the price is pretty steep, so we passed on buying a bottle. 10

Fielding Estate

I recently read good things about Fielding in a Toronto Star article about both the architecture of the Estate and about their winemaker Andrzej Lipinski, so I thought this would be a great place to cap the day. It was. This is the first Ontario winery to product Reds that I've found to be not just drinkable, but quite good too. We ended up buying 5 wines.

• 2004 Fireside White, 100% Vidal, $10: A lovely nose of pineapple and tropical fruit, and for the price you can't go wrong. We bought two. 9.0
• 2004 Pinot Noir, $20: this is the first Ontario Pinot Noir I've had that stands up to scrutiny. With full flavours of Cherry and spice, this wine is easy to drink and a perfect everyday wine that's ready to drink now. 9.0
• 2004 Pinot Noir reserve, $34: This wine is still very young and quite tight. While it holds promise and I there's some interesting cherry flavours hidden down deep, it's hard for me to judge so I won't rate it. If I hadn't of wanted to buy 5 other wines, I would have bought a couple and cellared 'em.
• 2002 Cabernet Merlot reserve, $35: While definitely still a little young, this wine is starting to show well. Our delightful host Kellie gave us a large pour in a big-bowled Riedel stem-less glass and told us to walk around with it for about 10 minutes before tasting -- so we did and it opened up into a delightfully rich wine with a full mouthfeel and lots of ripe fruit. We bought two and we'll probably cellar them for a couple more years. 9.5