Imagine a really fine local red selling for about $7 a bottle, grown right here in Ontario. It doesn't really seem to exist at the moment... but is there any reason why that should be?
Hybrid grapes like Baco, Foch and Dechaunac could easily fit the bill.
About ten years ago, it was still possible to buy varietal Foch of tremendous quality for about $8-9 a bottle. These reds were oaked, and had a lot of personality. They were amazing wines to serve with pizza and ribs, and in good years, had enough body to stand alone as sipping wines.
And then, as if in near unison, most of those wines disappeared.
Dechaunac is a one case in point. Lakeview cellars made an amazing, straightforward varietal Dechaunac up until about 1999 that sold for under nine bucks a bottle. It was the perfect Ontarian vin de table. It went superbly with pizza, or wings. It was versatile and flavourful.
Such wines should still be available.
Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Monday, August 2, 2010
Put More Faith in Foch
Varietal Foch, when well made, and especially when inky-dark and given some oak aging, is in my opinion one of the best red wines that Ontario's wine regions ever produced. Unfortunately, it has become an extremely rare sort of wine in our times, with only a tiny handful of wineries continuing varietal Foch in their product lines. I think what probably happened is that with consolidations and takeovers of certain wineries, and perhaps the departure of winemakers sympathetic to the variety, decisions were made to go all-vinifera. I wouldn't be surprised if some consultants and accountants had a big say in it too!
I am going to say something that many laugh at, but I stick by it nevertheless: Foch, when grown with an eye to producing ripe, not-overcropped fruit, makes a better wine at a better price point in southern Ontario than does the much vaunted Cabernet Franc, and certainly Cabernet Sauvignon, which never truly shed its greenness. It seems that to get an Ontario Cabernet of competitive quality to one from an area with a longer ripening season, you have to pay well over $25. I don't know about most folks, but that isn't exactly "table wine" territory. Yet, I recall how barely ten years ago, you could get glass-staining, massively flavourful Foch for under ten bucks a bottle.
What happened? Why has a good thing been made to disappear?
It has been said that Foch and other hybrids present more work in the vineyard during the growing season: their vegetative growth has less orderly habits than most viniferas. But isn't that burden lessened by the reduced need for sprays, and certainly by the total lack of need of expensive machinery to keep cold at bay during those famous cold snaps that our part of the world tends to get during some winters? Foch is naturally winter hardy, and very disease resistant. If I were a wine farmer, those qualities would more than make up for the need to walk the rows and do some summer pruning.
It seems that everything rests upon image nowadays. The name, Foch, doesn't sell as well as Cabernet and Shiraz. But that's just hype working, not facts. Start with grape varieties that naturally take better to the climate, and work from that point up. Don't start with what marketing gurus tell you, because in so doing, while you may end up putting the desired name on the label, what's in the bottle won't necessarily be a better wine than what you can make from grape varieties that are so much more in tune with the rhythm of the local ripening season.
I am going to say something that many laugh at, but I stick by it nevertheless: Foch, when grown with an eye to producing ripe, not-overcropped fruit, makes a better wine at a better price point in southern Ontario than does the much vaunted Cabernet Franc, and certainly Cabernet Sauvignon, which never truly shed its greenness. It seems that to get an Ontario Cabernet of competitive quality to one from an area with a longer ripening season, you have to pay well over $25. I don't know about most folks, but that isn't exactly "table wine" territory. Yet, I recall how barely ten years ago, you could get glass-staining, massively flavourful Foch for under ten bucks a bottle.
What happened? Why has a good thing been made to disappear?
It has been said that Foch and other hybrids present more work in the vineyard during the growing season: their vegetative growth has less orderly habits than most viniferas. But isn't that burden lessened by the reduced need for sprays, and certainly by the total lack of need of expensive machinery to keep cold at bay during those famous cold snaps that our part of the world tends to get during some winters? Foch is naturally winter hardy, and very disease resistant. If I were a wine farmer, those qualities would more than make up for the need to walk the rows and do some summer pruning.
It seems that everything rests upon image nowadays. The name, Foch, doesn't sell as well as Cabernet and Shiraz. But that's just hype working, not facts. Start with grape varieties that naturally take better to the climate, and work from that point up. Don't start with what marketing gurus tell you, because in so doing, while you may end up putting the desired name on the label, what's in the bottle won't necessarily be a better wine than what you can make from grape varieties that are so much more in tune with the rhythm of the local ripening season.
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