2022 Riesling

 

2022 “Jean’s Block” Riesling

There is just something all around comfortable about Riesling.  From its reliability in the vineyard to its versatility in the winery, I can’t help but get the warm and fuzzies when I think of this varietal.

Sure, there are the inevitable yearly Botrytis issues, but after facing those conditions so often it starts to become part of the routine and a subtle component of the wine.

The 2022 vintage marked the earliest harvest date we’ve ever had for this varietal – September 16th.  This was mainly due to the light crop in Jean’s Block, approximately 25% of our normal yield.  It is generally preferable for Riesling vines to carry a slightly higher crop load than our other aromatic white varietals, in an effort to maintain acidity through ripening.  Therein lied the challenge in 2022, and we opted to harvest earlier than normal to preserve the delicate flavours and acidity (18.0 degrees Brix, 10.4 g/L TA).

I employed the usual regimen of two separate fermentation tanks, each inoculated with a different yeast strain (W15 and X5).  I love the dynamic complexity that using these two yeasts provides.  The X5 tank shows beautiful, intense tropical and floral aromas, while the W15 tends to have more of a traditional Riesling profile of green apple, pear and peach.  Together they are fermenting bliss!

Fermentations were carried out cool (10C) for about a month until the wines tasted balanced at a specific gravity of 1.005.  The tanks were then blended and allowed to bulk age until bottling on April 6th 2023.  Total production was 126 cases and final alcohol was 10.5%.

The knockout aromatics of this Riesling are the real standout of this vintage.  I tend to lose myself a bit while nosing this wine before the crisp natural acidity snaps me back to.  This Riesling has become my go to wine for settling in to watch a Leafs playoff game after putting the kids to bed.  I can’t think of anything more comfortable than that…

2020 Syrah

 

2020 Five Rows Syrah

“Could this be right?”

I was astonished when I looked into the eyepiece of my refractometer and saw a line between 25 and 26 degrees Brix.  In an instant,  I had officially vacated my Syrah comfort zone and entered some kind of wild outback of unknown possibilities.

Having just collected and prepared my first berry sample of 2020 Syrah, I had hopes of 22-23 degrees Brix based on the way the berries tasted.  The staggering results of the test meant the grapes had accumulated much higher sugar than we had ever seen before and were likely ready to harvest anytime, pending TA and pH analysis.

In the lead up to harvest, the sugar content of berries, measured in degrees Brix, is just one of several variables we monitor to give us an idea of overall ripeness.  Depending on the varietal, I generally use degrees Brix as a gauge of when to start paying attention to more important parameters like acidity, seed ripeness, skin consistency and flavour development.  Syrah has an interesting way of showing intense pepper flavour early in development that resolves into a combination of dark fruit and less intense pepper at peak ripeness.  In 2020, we were deep into the dark fruit zone by the time I started sampling.

One culprit for the high sugar result was the noticeable onset of berry shrivel.  In vintages where the hot and dry conditions persist into the fall, berries can start to shed water and “raisin” a bit.  This is particularly common in our Syrah vineyards and usually a good indicator of when they should be picked.

It was thus decided to hand harvest 850kg of fruit from our Clone 7 block and 850kg from our Clone 100 block on October 14th.  The sample proved accurate as the Syrah came in testing 25.8 degree Brix.  Only after consulting literature on fermenting must with high sugar content, did I feel confident that I could handle these conditions.  The increase in alcohol produced by the excess sugar can cause havoc with yeast struggling to finish a fermentation, so selecting proper yeast strains and nutrients, and managing fermentation temperature became even more critical than usual.

Following a five day cold soak, the two bins were allowed to start fermenting naturally for the first third of sugar depletion.  The Clone 100 bin was then inoculated with RX60 and the Clone 7 with FX10, to aid in achieving dryness.  As expected, the fermentations were long (10 days) and ran pretty hot (34C), but did finish nicely.  It was apparent in tasting at the press tray that this new wine was something different and potentially very special.  Malolactic fermentation took place in four French oak barrels (25% new oak) where the wine was allowed to age for 24 months, before blending and bottling on April 6th, 2023.

One thing I love about making Syrah in a climate like Niagara is the vast array of wine styles possible based on vintage variation.  The core terroir elements (pepper, floral notes, smoked meat, dark chocolate) are always present, but there appears to be an endless continuum of fruit components and savoury textural elements based on the vintage.  As a youthful winemaker, I used to worry that this meant inconsistent wines, but now I fully embrace the differences.  Enjoying a 2019 and 2020 Syrah side by side can illustrate this wonderful contrast in styles.

The 2020 Five Rows Syrah is a bold, ripe wine; exhibiting flavours, textures and colour that probably make it a bit of a one-off based on previous vintages.  For those who prefer a more mellow Syrah, you may want to give it some time in bottle (3+ years).

2020 Cabernet Sauvignon

The story of Cabernet Sauvignon on our farm dates back to the mid 1990s, when my parents were looking for potential vinifera varietals to plant that would best suit our vineyard site.  They had had success with Pinot Noir, but were looking for something perhaps a little less mercurial that could optimize the warmer conditions they enjoyed on the St. David’s Bench.

I think it’s safe to say that the benchmark for Niagara Cab Sauv at the time was John Marynissen, who happened to be a good friend of my grandfather, Howard Sr.  I’m sure my parents were influenced by the success of John’s wines in some way, if only to give them the confidence that this late ripening grape could make a great wine in the right hands.

Our oldest Cab Sauv block was planted in 1998, and began to produce a decent crop by the turn of the millennium.  The block has its share of eccentricities, including varying row widths and lengths, as well as a mixture of clones.  It also represents the last block my grandfather helped us plant, a treasured memory that I will always carry with me.  Shortly before we harvested the first crop, he expressed to my Dad in his uniquely humble, understated way, “Howie, you’ve really got something here.”  It is a sentiment that still rings true to this day.

The 2020 Cab Sauv is a wine that validates the legacy of that fateful decision to take a chance on this varietal.  The vintage conditions in 2020 were the perfect recipe to unlock the potential ripeness of Cab Sauv in Niagara.  Having said that, there is still an underlying elegance to this wine that belies its bold exterior.  The aromas are intense, invoking notes of black currant, cherry, violets and vanilla.  Given the requisite time to fully mature, this could be a wine that we look back on as a benchmark among those made from our fruit.

2022 Sauvignon Blanc

 

2022 Five Rows Sauvignon Blanc

If I learned one thing from the light crop year of 2022, it was to appreciate what you have and never take a full crop for granted.

In the Southern Ontario climate, it seems like just enough time passes between severe winterkill events to lull you into the false sense that a vineyard is invulnerable, and vines producing fruit is a given.  Sometimes I even catch myself complaining about having to endure the laborious task of removing excess clusters – oh the humanity!

Suffice it to say, there was no such complaining in 2022.  A myriad of events led to a depressing amount of trunk damage and vine death heading into the growing season.  The main culprits, in my opinion, were the late season disease incidence in 2021 and the severely up and down nature of the subsequent winter.

What we were left with was 25% of a normal crop, much like the yields harvested in 2005 and 2015.  The challenges of a light crop are many, with the most obvious being no room for error!  Finding balance within a block, in terms of nutritional requirements, can prove very difficult when vines are bearing variable amounts of fruit or are dead altogether.  A lighter crop will tend to ripen quicker as well, often times leading to issues with diminished acidity and overripe characters.  Some vines even budded out promisingly, only to wither up later in the summer along with our false hopes.

With all that in mind, and given the popularity of Sauvignon Blanc within our winery portfolio, you can probably infer my feelings on the precious bit of fruit I was tending to in the summer of 2022.  Thankfully, the growing season was excellent overall and very conducive to our needs.  We were spared the usual blast of heat and humidity in the days leading to harvest, allowing the few hanging clusters a chance to ripen gracefully.

One odd phenomenon that came about was the noticeable increase in bird damage in our Sauvignon Blanc vineyard.  The birds normally ignore the Sauv Blanc in favour of the adjacent Pinot Noir block, but they sure seemed to take a liking to those tasty golden berries in 2022.  It marked the first time we had to apply netting as a means of protection.  Upon reflection, it is surely the scarcity of fruit throughout the region that altered their feeding habits.

Our entire crop, 2478 kg, was harvested on September 13th.  What it lacked in quantity, it certainly made up for in quality, as the fruit came in at 19.0 degrees Brix and 8.25 g/L TA.

84% of the juice was fermented in French oak (mainly neutral) and 16% in tank using Zymaflore X5 yeast.  All vessels were fermented cool (9C)  and stopped at an average specific gravity of 0.998, just slightly off dry.  The finished wines were aged for another six months before blending.  177 cases were bottled on April 6th, 2023.

A noticeably riper and rounder version than previous vintages, there is also a crisp core to this wine that I find irresistible.  Aromas include peach, lychee and pineapple with flavours of peach candy most prominent at this stage of its evolution.  To that end, I am far more bullish on the notion of aging Sauv Blanc these days.  We recently cracked a 2013 SB that blew me away, shattering my notion that aromatic Sauv Blanc is best enjoyed within a year or two of release.  The fact that this wine could transform in such an interesting way after ten years in bottle, whilst maintaining its hallmark tropical fruit aromatics, was truly eye-opening.  Who knew?

A Walk With Thomas

The 2019 Five Rows Pinot Noir is still in its infancy, but it has the potential to become one of the most exciting expressions of our terroir that we’ve released to date.  The journey to attaining this precocious potential was harrowing at times, but ultimately very rewarding.

Every year, there comes a time when I am at my wits’ end with Pinot Noir.  To those around me it’s a predictable and annoying phase that I’m convinced they refer to as “his rotten Pinot days”, behind my back.

It usually falls somewhere near the end of veraison, at the first sign of a rotting cluster.  Inevitably, I manage to convince myself that all the work leading up to that exact moment had been in vain, and continuing the efforts would surely be a waste of time.  The daunting nature of the situation lies in the amount of time still required to properly ripen the fruit before harvest.  Successfully navigating those remaining weeks is always challenging – even in the years when the weather does co-operate!

The reliable voice of reason is always my father.  His steadying emotional keel is usually enough to steer me back to the grind of thinning out undesirable clusters from the vineyard.  This time, however, when he innocently reminds me not to worry, that this happens every year – he is met with a snappy retort of, “exactly why, then, do we still do this?”

In 2019, I had reached that boiling point during the second week of September after four straight days of rain.  The Pinot were starting to go downhill, but not quite ripe enough to consider harvesting.  Little did I know that my rejuvenation would come in the form of a tall Pinot soothsayer who had stopped by for our annual tasting walk through the Old Block.

My relationship with Thomas Bachelder goes back to when he was starting out with Le Clos Jordanne and I was finishing my Master’s Degree in Viticulture at Brock University.  From the first time we met, I was struck by his knowledge of all things Pinot and how much he already knew about my family vineyard.  Our shared passion for Pinot has been a connection ever since, eventually leading to Thomas making his own wine from our vineyard starting in 2011.

There are many benefits to having Thomas make wine from your grapes, but I treasure our pre-harvest walk and chats the most.  In September of 2019, it may have indeed saved the vintage – or at least restored my sanity.  He arrives in a whirlwind of phone calls and consulting-related tasks (he somehow navigates vintages in multiple countries at once) and is usually out of the car and tasting berries before I am able to catch up with him.

I eventually get swept into his gravitational pull and he manages to reinvigorate, educate and praise me all in one tasting swoop of a few rows.  We compare notes on the current growing season, previous vintages, Pinot Noir clones, Karl Kaiser, harvest logistics, the effect of rain on Pinot, expressing terroir vs chasing overripe characters, the potential evils of chaptalization, berry skin thickness and, finally, how I should stop referring to our 2007 planting as the “Young Block”.  This all takes place in about 15 minutes – the full Thomas experience.

Ultimately, it reminds me not to look at things under a pessimistic microscope, but rather to embrace the macro, bigger picture.  He looks at the entire block in relation to its terroir expression, while I tend to focus on the effect of a few teetering, less than perfect clusters that will probably get sorted out anyways.

I’m not sure that Thomas has any “rotten Pinot days”, but he certainly helped me escape mine on that September day in 2019.

The fruit for this wine was harvested on October 1st, and sourced predominantly (90%) from our original five rows.  It was a pleasure to watch this wine evolve over its long 24 months in barrel;  from its fruity and tight origins through opening up to become an intriguing combination of red fruit (cherry, cranberry), floral nuances and noticeable, terroir-driven minerality.

In its current state, this Pinot starts smooth on the palate with late grip and a lingering finish.  Flavours include strawberry, raspberry, mocha and vanilla.  It is always difficult for me to advise not drinking a wine now, but I feel this one could be particularly ageworthy – perhaps to 2030 and beyond.

$60/bottle

 

2019 Syrah

 

2019 Five Rows Syrah

One of the true joys of being both a farmer and a winemaker, is that one transitional day when the two jobs collide.  Tasting the fruit and making the decision when to harvest can simultaneously prove to be both nerve-racking and a relief.  The farmer mindset is nearly always “get them off ASAP”, while the winemaker is more obliged to “let them hang”.

I get to wear both hats at Five Rows, so vetoing the decision either way tends to be a little less contentious.  It does not, however, preclude me from massive bouts of second guessing and remorse.  To that end, there are a couple of coping methods I’ve employed in recent years to aid in arriving at harvest timing decisions a little more confidently.

The first is to seek the advice of as many of my farmer and winemaker colleagues as possible.  How are things looking to them?  Have they harvested any of that particular varietal yet?  Do the crop level or conditions in this vintage remind them of any others?  If so, how did the wines turn out?  What are some techniques for dealing with fruit harvested a little early or hung a little too late?

The second method is splitting picking dates – i.e., harvesting a portion of the crop early and hanging the rest until after the troubling weather forecast.  My tendency has been to err on the side of good fruit condition over the years, but I’ve become a little more willing to roll the dice with split picks in the last few vintages.  This could involve flagging individual vines or entire rows depending on the varietal and block.  Perhaps the most interesting case study in this respect was the 2019 Syrah.

We grow two different Syrah clones on our farm (7 and 100), each inhabiting a unique plot of soil.  The Clone 7 is planted a little further north, in heavier clay, while the more vigorous Clone 100 vines can be seen lining the driveway in to our barn.  The decision to split the picking dates in late October 2019 was based on the rapid onset of Botrytis and looming rain.

The fruit for the first bin was harvested from a combination of the cleanest rows in both blocks.  After some rain and a week of drying out and bonus ripening time, the second “later harvest” bin was filled predominantly with fruit from Clone 7, which tends to stave off Botrytis a little longer than Clone 100 on our site, due to slightly less vigour and increased distance from the headlands.

The early bin (cleaner, higher TA) was given a little longer cold-soak and allowed to start fermenting wild, while the later picked bin (riper, softer skins) was inoculated with RX60 yeast after a four day soak.  The bins were pressed to separate barrels (100% French, 20% new oak) after 15 total days on the skins.

There were some jitters about the split pick decision early on, as the higher acidity in the “early pick” barrels (pre-malolactic fermentation, mind you) was evident, but it was so clean and varietally pure (red fruit, spice, pepper) that I held out hope.

When it came time to blend, the two picks came together harmoniously, complementing one another and zigging where the other zagged.  It proved to me that there is more than one way to make a complex wine.

Aromas include blackberry, cherry and pepper.  This drinkable Syrah comes across smooth and ripe on the palate with flavours of dark chocolate and sweet peppercorn.  It will continue to soften and open up in bottle – best enjoyed 2023 to 2028.

$60/bottle

 

 

2019 Cabernet Sauvignon

 

2019 Five Rows Cabernet Sauvignon

It takes guts to grow a late-ripening varietal like Cabernet Sauvignon in a place like Canada.

At least that’s what I tell myself every year around the first week of September, in an internal pep talk of sorts, when there are still a few green berries in my Cabernet clusters and every other varietal is fully through veraison.

A real-world analogy to this situation would be being confident in your seemingly independent 4-year-old’s maturity level, until one day they come home from school with a craft-scissor hairstyle and you realize that they weren’t quite as mature as you gave yourself credit for.  There is a gut-wrenching moment of reckoning, followed by the realization that there is a lot more work to do than you initially thought.  The irony here, of course, is that both situations require a lot more cutting to remedy the problem.

When I look back at my notes for the 2019 vintage, the first thing I have written is “very wet year – 50% meant 100% PoP”.  There aren’t many other entries in those notes that are fit for print, so let’s focus on the positives!

Some of my favourite Cabernet Sauvignon wines, over the years, have come from “cooler” vintages.  Providing that the vines were properly thinned and allowed to hang to the bitter end of the season, they show remarkable ability to ripen fruit.  It is in those cooler vintages where the St. David’s Bench really demonstrates its versatility in regard to Terroir.  The SDB can give you the heavy hitter Cabs of 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016; while managing to offer a somewhat more elegant version in years like 2019.

Call me a sucker for the underdog, but I tend to gravitate to some elements of the cooler vintage Cabs – especially when aged to perfection.  The combination of slightly higher acidity and brighter red fruit components is right up my alley.

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon was hand-harvested on November 5th, with 48 picking boxes sourced from our Clone 169 Block and 110 boxes from our Old Block (mixed clones).  The fruit was allowed to cold-soak for five days before warming for fermentation.  The bins were dry within five days and achieved peak fermentation temperature of 32C.  Four French Oak barrels (one new) were filled after pressing and the wine was allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation in barrel.  After spending 24 months in oak and 6 months bulk aging in tank, 108 cases were bottled on April 25th, 2022.

Far from reaching its peak, this young wine is loaded with aromas of red licorice, wild blueberry and cassis.  There is a familiar, oak-related spice which I usually associate with Radoux medium toast barrels, that is carried harmoniously through the aromatics to the palate.  This wine has the potential to age well for 7-10 years (2029-2032).

$60/bottle

2021 Sauvignon Blanc

2021 Five Rows Sauvignon Blanc

Time flies when you’re having fun.

It’s difficult for me to fathom that I’ve been making wine from Sauvignon Blanc grapes for 15 years.  Never once in my formative years on the farm had I ever thought, “Sauvignon Blanc, that’s the ticket!”

I give all the credit to the brain trust at Creekside Estate Winery, circa 1998.  Whether it was Peter, Marcus, Rob or Craig (or likely a combo of the four) who convinced my parents to plant this notoriously winter sensitive and vigorously growing varietal, I am the ultimate beneficiary.

It has been a pleasure to see those vines flourish and mature over the years, despite the odd re-trunking winter disaster (2004, 2014).  Tending to two distinct blocks of Sauvignon Blanc (heavy clay vs. sand/loam/clay) has illustrated to me just how sensitive these vines can be to specific vineyard conditions.  As the vines have aged, I’ve noticed that they tend to handle extreme stress situations better than they used to.  The varied nutritional and canopy management needs of the two blocks took a while to ascertain, but I feel like we’ve gotten enough reps now to be confident in our practices.

Consequently, making the wine from this fruit is no longer as stressful as it used to be.  The consistency of the vineyard has a lot to do with that.  I have developed trust that my fermentations will produce those familiar aromatics that fill the barn with tropical delights, and that time spent in my treasured French oak barrels will enhance the structure and flavour profile.

The real decision is when to integrate new barrels into the portfolio.  I’ve always opted to ferment and age about 80% of our Sauv Blanc in very neutral, 10-12-year-old barrels.  Eventually those barrels need to be replaced, so I try to do so with something gentle that will complement the overall blend.  In 2021, that newbie was a DAMY barrel with a special “Light-Long ++ Toast” that aims to “soften the initial presence of the oak and elevate the integration and harmony between the fruit, oak and toast.”  Coopers have a way of making these things sound romantic that I will always be a sucker for.

The 2021 Sauvignon Blanc was harvested on September 13th.  The fruit was pressed and racked to nine barrels and one tank.  Fermentations were carried out with X5 yeast at about 8-9 degrees C.  After 30 days, the vessels had reached my desired specific gravity level of 0.998.  The barrel potion went through partial malolactic fermentation prior to bentonite fining and filtration.  248 cases were bottled on April 25th, 2022.

Collectors of Five Rows SB will likely note that this vintage falls somewhere between 2019 and 2020, stylistically speaking.  In a way, you get the best of both worlds – the tropical ripeness of 2020 and the lively vein of natural acidity found in the 2019.  Aromas and flavours include lemon, lime, gooseberry, melon and vanilla.

$45/bottle

2021 Pinot Gris

2021 Pinot Gris

The 2021 Vintage was…well…hard to describe.  I will do my best to shed some light on it from the unique perspective of my Pinot Gris.  The following is their firsthand account, and yes, grapes can talk if you are willing to listen.

Coming off a growing season like 2020, that even the crotchetiest of farmers and winemakers would agree was a spectacular one off, we were surely bound for a letdown in 2021…or were we?

The spring and summer of 2021 was splendid, as our buds came out early and thrived in the warm and dry conditions.  The crop did appear to be a little heavy, but nothing that we couldn’t handle ripening given the “2020” rose-coloured glasses of recent memory.

At first, we welcomed the abundance of precipitation in July, but suddenly that little bit of extra fruit became a quickly swelling burden that needed to be addressed with substantial cluster thinning.  Veraison came early, near the end of July, when the first signs of what would come to haunt us later in the vintage, rode in on the choking humidity.

August was a hazy memory of 30+ degree heat and welcome sun, with a brief respite from the rain and humidity.  All ripening parameters were progressing nicely as the calendar flipped to September.  Idyllic warm days and cool nights lulled us into a false sense of security.

Scribbled in the caring vineyard manager’s notes for September 8th: “an obscene amount of rain overnight and through the next day, approx. 100 mm!”

Cue visions of exploding Pinot berries set to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Miraculously, however, our berries did not explode.  Within a week they had shed the excess water weight and were ready to harvest on September 13th.  No one is quite sure just how this unprecedented rain event didn’t have more effect on the fruit condition, but there is some thought that much of the water ran off before absorption, and that perhaps it came at a time when things had started to shut down from the extreme heat.  Whatever the case, we were extremely lucky to end up with fruit rivalling that harvested in 2020.  Enjoy!

Winemaker’s Description

There is something uniquely tropical about this Pinot Gris compared to previous vintages.  I get notes of baked banana, sweet coconut and lemon drop candy.  It was left ever so slightly off-dry and has the familiar Pinot Gris weight and texture that I’ve grown to love.

One behind the curtain note is that this wine was the showstopper on filtration day.  My Dad helps me with filtration every year, and it is often his first exposure to the wines.  I try not to get overly emotional about his reactions, but I must confess to an inkling of pride that day when he complemented me on this Pinot Gris.

$40/bottle

2021 Riesling

2021 “Jean’s Block” Riesling

Spending time within our 14-row block of Riesling can be a sublime experience.  It is the easternmost planting on our farm and sits a stone’s throw away from the Four Mile Creek.

It is the place I escape to when I want to get furthest away from the winery, both physically and emotionally.  There is something very soothing about the uniformly trained VSP trellis and vibrant green foliage and clusters.

I’m transported back to my early days on the farm, when the creek was our playground and pear and plum orchards surrounded this very spot.  If I close my eyes, I can picture crews of local youth and family friends pitching in to scale rickety ladders, braving bees and poison ivy, to reach that last beautiful pear or plum atop the tree.  The little ones were usually tasked with picking lower hanging fruit, something I grew to resent when I was deemed old enough to ascend that rickety ladder.  Ahh yes…I can still feel that heavy 11-quart basket dangling from an annoyingly uncomfortable harness around my shoulders.

The “glamour” of modern-day grape farming is suddenly more apparent.  I get to do this job in an era of grape harvesters that actually destem and sort grapes, GPS and GIS maps of soil composition, protecting windmills, air-conditioned tractors, podcasts and earbuds.  There are still bees and poison ivy, but, thankfully, no ladders are involved.

The 2021 “Jean’s Block” Riesling was harvested on September 29th.  The fruit composition numbers were just to my liking – 17.8 degrees Brix, TA 8.9 g/L, pH 3.09 – and most importantly, the fruit was relatively clean (for Riesling!).

The juice was fermented in tanks using two different yeasts, W15 and X5.  After three weeks of cool fermenting, the tanks had reached the desired specific gravity of 1.004, just slightly off-dry.  94 cases were bottled on April 25th, 2022.

Somewhere along the line this wine morphed into all things peach; with notes of fresh peaches, peach blossoms, fuzzy peach candy and homemade peach pie.  There are some other subtle floral and citrus aromatics hiding between the peach trees that make this Riesling as fun to nose as it is to drink.

$40/bottle