2019 Henry of Pelham Old Vines Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

Henry of Pelham has been called the "King of Baco", and rightly so: they planted their first Baco vines in 1984 and have been putting out quality iterations of this varietal wine for decades. Henry of Pelham isn't just another producer of Baco Noir in Ontario: they're really dedicated to this grape variety.

I enjoy the regular bottling, finding it to be well made, well balanced, and stylistically elegant. The Old Vines version is sold in a tall, heavier bottle, and is closed with a natural (albeit particle) cork enclosure. The regular bottling, by contrast, has been closed with a screw cap for the past few years—a sensible, functional choice.

The 2019 Old Vines Baco is 13.5% alc./vol. and sells for about $20 at the LCBO. It pours with a gorgeous, saturated, deep-beet-red/purple colour that turns into a neon magenta at the meniscus—a common feature of the V. riparia hybrid reds. The nose is very oaky right off the bat, showing plummy/blackcurrant fruit and juicy acidity that is eager to carry that same fruit along the palate. On the palate, it is invigoratingly tart, zingy, and refreshing—with good mid-palate heft coming from both the tart berries and the oak overlay. Excellent quality. Following this fruit-and-oak crescendo, the aft-palate character of the wine accentuates the oak, which leaves a pleasant spicy finish.

2016 Magnotta Dry Vidal, Equus Series (Ontario VQA)

Magnotta's Dry Vidal is a consistently good example of what the Vidal grape can do when vinified in a dry table-wine style. I've been following this wine for the past 20 years!

12.5% alc./vol. Medium-straw yellow in the glass. Some fine carbonation along the bottom of the glass. Expansive aromas of citrus (lemon skin, mainly), pine/fir buds, a whiff of petroleum (similar to Riesling), and a hint of floral tropical fruit...most often, I get guava on the nose of these Vidal table wines. The empty glass releases a mild but persistent, sweet piney aroma reminiscent of freshly cut pine.

Electrifyingly crisp acidity; clean, lean and cleansing. Excellent zip. Warming and cleansing on the mid-palate, simultaneously.

A great wine for seafood, but certainly good in any situation that calls for a crisp and dry white wine.

2018 Sandbanks Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

This wine can be picked up for $15.95 in the Ontario VQA section of the LCBO.

Sandbanks is a winery in Prince Edward County, along the northeastern shore of Lake Ontario. I seldom buy the varietal Baco from Sandbanks—the last time I did, it tasted far too sweet for my taste. That said, I made an exception earlier today and it was a good decision.

Medium-dark, clear garnet in the glass. The wine initially pours with some very fine effervescence along the meniscus; this dissipates with time in the open bottle. Strong aromas of brackish wild black cherry; a typical hint of leafiness and plums, so very characteristic of Ontario Baco. Zippy, clean and lean acidity on the entry, balanced by appropriate residual sugar. Warm and fruity on the mid-palate. A clean and cleansing finish, as one is wont to expect from this varietal wine. Just a hint of smoky, toasted buckwheat and oak on the finish. Thumbs up.

2016 Inniskillin Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

This wine initially caught my eye last summer when I spotted it at a Wine Rack store. Baco from Inniskillin? That's a new one. Up to the turn of the millennium, Inniskillin had produced an Old Vines Foch (the very wine that turned me onto red hybrid wines twenty years ago); sadly, production of that wine was discontinued in the early 2000s—a mistake!

This Baco pours with a dense black-cherry colour that fades to medium-deep magenta at the meniscus. The initial aromas are of blue plums with a slight overlay of peppercorns—classic Baco. The entry is very supple with balanced acidity (the mildest of any Baco I've tasted) and a broad warmth from the 13% alc./vol. On the palate, the acidity remains mild but cleansing, as it works its way to the back of the palate. The finish is short and clean.

It's a good Baco that retails on general list at the LCBO now as well (limited availability), for $15.95 CAD.

I still would like to see Inniskillin bring back their Foch!

2015 Henry of Pelham Speck Family Reserve Baco Noir

Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery is Niagara's Baco Noir specialist. Not only are they a consistent producer of quality varietal Baco in the region—they actually produce three distinct releases of the varietal wine, all with slightly different oak aging regimens and fruit sourced from vines of different ages.

In reserve for today's New Year tasting is the Speck Family Reserve. It's the only one that I hadn't tasted up to now. It retails for $25 at Vintages and is available at select stores only.

This wine hails from the winery's original planting of Baco, dating back to 1984. That's interesting, because it means that the vines predate the whole VQA system under which the wine bears a "VQA Ontario" designation. Even though the wine technically hails from the Short Hills Bench appellation, VQA does not deem hybrids worthy of appellation-specific nomenclature—an absurdity, as wine writer David Lawrason rightly pointed out in his write-up on the wine.

The bottle is closed with an elegant, solid, top quality natural cork. The cork showed deep purple-black staining once pulled out, though only where it had been in contact with the wine, indicating a good seal.

The wine poured with a gorgeous, saturated black, cherry-mahogany hue which, in the glass, morphs into a weathered-sumac hue at the meniscus. At 13.5% alc./vol., good tear development can be seen along the inside of the glass (and is even visible in the picture at right).

The nose is deeply oaky, with big, bold, black-cherry fruit and prominent wood vanillins from the American oak. There is lengthy integration of bold oak and fruit. On the palate, lithe, bright acidity leads the way; the texture is dry and cleansing along the mid-palate and energetically lively into the finish. The flavours finish out with beets, red currants, a hint of dried tomatoes and just a tap of oak at the end.

Very well done, but bold and oaky in style. If you prefer less oak, try the winery's Old Vines release.

Happy New Year!

2012 Leelanau Cellars Baco Noir (Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan)

While in Michigan I picked up this varietal Baco Noir which hails from the Leelanau Peninsula. On the label it says, "A Taste of Northern Michigan"—very nice.

I had previously never tried Baco from such a northerly location, being instead more accustomed to those produced in Southern Ontario.

The wine is of a medium-ruby hue; quite translucent in the bottle. In the glass, it shows typical Baco saturation, and seems a darker shade of garnet.

Aromatically, it is unlike most Ontario Bacos, showing a bright red-berry fruitiness that reminds me of a few Bardolinos that I've tried over the years. On the entry, the wine is tart and lively in a rounded way (a Baco trait for sure), and has good warmth as well, clocking in at 12.55% alc./vol. The finish is fresh and palate-invigorating.

A good wine. I got it for USD $15 and would buy it again.

Vieni Estates 2012 Foch Vintage Reserve (Ontario VQA)

Vieni 2012 Foch Vintage Reserve (Ontario VQA)

I was impressed to find this fine Ontario Foch at Vintages recently. Truth be told, it sort of flew over my radar, having been released this past summer.

The wine pours with a beautiful, and typical, saturated deep-garnet colour that fades to a "weathered sumac" black-mahogany hue at the meniscus. It opens up in the glass with wonderful, big, quality aromatic oak aromas. Mingling with that, there are tart black currant and blue plum aromas. Aromatically, this reminds me of the many reserve Fochs that graced the Ontario wine scene right up to Y2K.

On the palate, there is tart, lithe acidity and a clean, dry, palate-cleansing texture that carries the fruit and oak aromas right across it — with power, lightness, and elegance, all at the same time. This is classic Ontario Foch.

The finish is dry and elegant, with replays of the same aromatic compounds.

It is a shame that so many excellent examples of varietal Maréchal Foch have disappeared from the Ontario wine scene over the past decade. For this reason, it is a joy to find a winery producing a treat like this, from a grape that deserves much more respect in this part of the world for climatic suitability and innate quality characteristics.

The wine retails for less than $20 and is 14% alc./vol.

2014 Peller Estates Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

This is one of the best Bacos in Ontario: it is always fairly priced and done well.

Deep ruby-black with a ruby-magenta meniscus. Aromas of sweet plummy fruit and wild V. riparia grapiness. Mouth-filling, with bright, tense acidity and great structure. 2014 wasn't a great vintage for reds in Ontario, but Baco and its other V. riparia-derived brethren typically manage to shine, despite such obstacles.

Invigorating, palate-enlivening mouth feel, coupled with a dash of balancing residual sweetness and typical diminutive tannins.

The finish is clean and lean, and it leaves your palate refreshed.

12% alc./vol. Screw cap closure. $11.95 on general list at the LCBO.

2014 No. 99 Wayne Gretzky Estates Baco Noir (VQA Ontario)

The Great One knows a great grape.

12.5% alc./vol. The wine pours with a deep scarlet-ruby hue and dense but translucent saturation. Superb, briny, plummy / V. riparia varietal Baco nose, with lively, tart red currant fruit.

Bright, refreshing tartness on the entry. Zingy, tight entry, with good focus and a firm backbone. The wine is, much like Barbera, a great palate cleanser. It would go superbly well with ribs, steak, pizza and any pasta-and-tomato-sauce combination. A natural match with any of these.

$15.95. Limited distribution at the LCBO.

2013 St. Julian Reserve Traminette (Lake Michigan Shore)

A wonderful white wine from Michigan. It pours with a clear, pale straw colour. 12% alc./vol. The nose has the typical spicy/rosewater nose of Gewürztraminer, with a hint of the aromas typical of Riesling and Vidal—though this is varietal Traminette.

A bright, lemony acidity sweeps the palate, fanning out to reveal lemony, floral fruit and a balancing residual sweetness. There's lots of floral flavour in this wonderful Michigan wine. Crisp and off-dry, it works both as a standalone sipper and with food.

It went well with herbed, grilled chicken breast. A good buy, and a good representation of the Traminette grape.

2013 Peller Estates Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

The 2013 Peller Estates Baco Noir pours with a deep, dark garnet core that turns bright ruby at the meniscus.

The bouquet shows fantastic aromas of plums, prunes and brackish, wild, Vitis riparia. The texture has a bright, clean, crisp, invigorating and tart entry with tart blue plum flavours that fan across the palate. There's excellent fruitiness.

The texture is warm, balanced, clean and cleansing, with acidity leading and tannin playing back-up.

The finish is crisp all the way across the palate, with a clean and bright personality. There's prune jam and tartness on the finish.

This Baco has 12.5% alc./vol. It costs $10.95 and can be found on regular list at the LCBO. It's bottled with a screwcap closure.

An excellent, clean Baco...at an exemplary price!!

2010 Frogpond Farm Organic W‌inery Chambourcin (Ontario VQA)

Varietal Chambourcin is rare in Ontario - so when this wine caught my eye recently, I knew that I just had to give it a try. Not only is it one of the few examples of this variety in Ontario, but the wine is also organic - always a good thing.

The wine pours with a beautiful, clear dark ruby colour; it is translucent yet has a dark tone all the same. The nose is very light; just some red currant and possibly some light cherry fruit. I pick up no oak on the nose at all; a pity, as I think that this wine would have benefited immensely from some oak aging.

On the entry, the Chambourcin is light and tart with brisk yet well-apportioned acidity. It's quite palate-cleansing, much like its other hybrid cousins (e.g. Baco and Foch - though Baco tends to be quite a bit more tart). The mid-palate is mildly warm (12.4% alc./vol.), acid-driven and cleansing. The finish is light and short.

If you were to compare this to a vinifera wine, Barbera or Chianti would be fair benchmarks.

I do think that this wine would have benefited from 8-10 months of oak contact - even if it meant using oak chips instead of barrels. The oak vanillins would add a welcome extra dimension to the whole package.

Even so, I am delighted to have discovered this wine. It will be on my "watch for" list from now on.

It retails for $14 at the LCBO.

New-Generation Cold-Climate Wines at Hoity Toity Cellars

In the autumn of 2013, I visited Hoity Toity Cellars, located near Mildmay, in Ontario's Bruce County. I had been interested in the winery for some time because they are growing some newer-generation hybrid grapes, such as: Louise Swenson, Frontenac, Frontenac Gris and Marquette.

The last time I had tried any of these wines was years ago - and in fact I had never tried Frontenac Gris before at all - so I was quite interested in learning more about the winery and these thoroughly modern wines. The new-generation hybrids are particularly interesting to study as they are enabling viticulture in parts of Canada where it had been limited or not practiced at all.

The 2011 Community Harvest (Frontenac) is the first straight Ontario Frontenac that I have ever tasted. Previously, I had only tasted one other Frontenac - grown in Minnesota - at a wine tasting in Michigan, in 2004.

The wine pours with a deep and dark ruby colour, with dense black-cherry highlights near the edge of the glass. It's a dark red wine, but is not inky in the way that the more common hybrids Baco and Foch can be.

Swirling brings out a very distinct candied-cherry nose - something that immediately reminds me of the aforementioned Minnesota-grown Frontenac. There are some minor rootsy hints in the nose as well. The acidity is much like that of Baco Noir: light, lithe and tart. On the entry, the acidity is immediately balanced by a touch of residual sweetness, but remains zingy and lively across the mid-palate. More candied cherry emerges there and is met by a fine-grained, light, tannic overlay. The mouthfeel is invigorating, tart and cleansing. At 12.1% alc./vol., there is just a slight warming aspect to the finish. The aftertaste is fruity and tangy.

This sort of lively, light, fruity texture seems to characterize varietal Frontenac. 

$16; purchased at the winery.

The 2011 Kicked Out of the Country Club (Marquette) is the first straight Ontario-grown Marquette that I have ever tasted. Marquette is a new-generation red hybrid out of Minnesota.

The wine pours with a deep scarlet-garnet colour that lightens to a beautiful deep ruby at the edges of the glass. Aromas of pin cherries and spicy oak on the nose, with a hint of raspberry. Crisp texture, with mouthwatering acidity and spicy oak replays that carry through to the mid-palate. At this point, there is a very pleasant overlay of grainy tannin, adding a most pleasant structural element to the wine. The bright cherry flavours re-emerge on the finish, and are wrapped up in another subtle wave of spicy French oak. 10.8% alc./vol.

$20; purchased at the winery. 

The 2012 Kicked Out of the Country Club (Marquette) pours with a black-magenta hue with deep-ruby highlights. Initially, some effervescence clings to the inside of the glass.

Aromas of candied cherry and some woodsy notes emerge from the bouquet, with hints of oak spice - an appealing bouquet. Good texture on the entry, with brisk, bright acidity, an overlay of firm tannin, and good warmth wrapping up the finish. More cherry flavours come in on the finish, and linger nicely as the finish fades.

This wine should be opened and decanted for a few hours to integrate. A very good, and promising, example of what Marquette can do in Ontario.

Disclaimer: I was given this bottle at the winery to review.

The 2012 Dusty White Glove (Frontenac Gris) was a new experience. I had never tried a wine made from Frontenac Gris before, due to its relative scarcity in Ontario. Frontenac Gris is a light-skinned mutation of the regular Frontenac grape. It may help to think of the relationship between the two varieties as akin to that between Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir.

The wine pours with a light, pale cantaloupe hue. Aromas of sweet pineapple, honeydew melon and peach emerge with swirling. There is a nice amount of effervescence on the inside of the glass as well.

This Frontenac Gris is great as an aperitif, but I am already thinking that it would go well with game bird (quail, pheasant) as it seems to have a certain heft despite its colour.

Pineapple flavours fan out across the palate, and the slight effervescence together with a balancing touch of residual sweetness, add a fine textural appeal. Clean, fruity and brisk on the finish. Very good.

$16; purchased at the winery.

Finally, a couple of cider notes. Although I dedicate this blog exclusively to hybrid grapes and their wines, I was also interested in the Hoity Toity ciders during my visit. They, too, are an interesting part of the winery's product line.

The Hoity Toity Cellars "Rusty Bling" Hard Cider, aptly named, has a rusty-copper colour with an orange-pink glint. It has a fine effervescence when poured and looks pretty and distinctive in the glass.

Although a fine aroma of Dolgo crab apples opens up on the nose, the acidity is not like that of Dolgo crabs but is actually tame and gentle on the palate. There is a welcome touch of crab apple tannin on the mid-palate, adding a lovely texture. The taste includes a bit of marmalade-like, orange-skin astringency on the mid-palate. That said, the cider isn't particularly sweet. At 7.2% alc./vol., there is a gentle warmth to the finish, which is clean and subtle.

Rusty Bling shows how tannic apples (in this case, crab apples) can help to create a cider with considerable structure. Rusty Bling works well with food: poultry or game birds would be a fine match.

$14; purchased at the winery.

The Hoity Toity Cellars "66 Pickup" Hard Cider is clearly made from different apples than the Rusty Bling. It has a pale, clear straw hue and looks bright and refreshing already in the bottle.

Clean, bright apple aromas emerge from the nose, and the cider is crisp and dry. It is very much a "champagne-style" cider, and there is not the sort of discernible tannic grip that is very evident in the intriguing Rusty Bling, with its crab apple influence.

You could drink this cider in place of a sparkling wine, or even a white wine - though I think cider is its own thing and as such, can easily guide a food choice, just as wine can be used to select an appropriate meal type.

Disclaimer: I was given this bottle at the winery to review.

I enjoyed my visit to Hoity Toity Cellars. Congratulations to the owner and staff for putting new-generation hybrid wines on Ontario's viticultural map.

2011 Coffin Ridge "Back From the Dead Red" (Ontario VQA)

According to the back label, this Foch-based blend consists of 78.5% Foch, 12.3% Merlot and 9.2% Cabernet (type not specified). The bottle is closed with a high-quality natural cork. 

This Foch-based wine pours with a beautiful, inky beet-purple colour that is so typical of the grape. The nose of the wine is representative of Foch, with intense, spicy black-cherry, pinpoint blackcurrant and intriguing brackish aromas that speak to the V. riparia heritage of Foch.

There's zippy acidity on the entry, with expansive cherry and classic herbaceous flavours across the palate. On the mid-palate, a nice streak of tannin is noted, and this is likely provided by the Merlot and Cabernet component. The finish is zippy, but nicely balanced (12.5% alc./vol.). The wine has a superb blackcurrant bouquet, is quite dry, and is both flavourful and cleansing.

The blackcurrant aromas remind me of the Old Vines Foch that Inniskillin used to make in the 1990s: the very wine that turned me on to Ontario red hybrid wines.

A recommended, characterful red wine from Grey County.

The wine is available at Vintages at the time of writing (search for local availability via the LCBO Product ID: 260463). The wine sells for $17.

2012 Konzelmann Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

Konzelmann's 2012 Baco Noir pours with a black-garnet colour that fades to magenta near the rim of the glass. There's great colour in this Baco, as in virtually all Bacos. As with most reds, this wine needs some decanting to come into its own - and it actually integrated really well within a day of being opened.

On the nose are aromas of plum, and a briny, bacon-like note that makes me think of Syrah; there are also hints of fine brackish scents from the grape's Vitis riparia lineage.

On the entry there is light acidity that is quite mellow for a Baco. It's a good thing, as the wine shows exemplary balance. A nice overlay of fine-grained tannin covers the palate and is followed by moderate warmth (12% alc./vol.), leading to a pleasant finish.

The wine is said to be slightly oaked, but I think that more overt oak would do the wine very well. Baco handles oak very well, and the oak adds not only wood tannins but additional olfactory and gustatory layers.

Konzelmann's Baco is bottled in a one-litre size and is available at the winery only, for $11.95.

2011 20 Bees Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

The wine pours with a beautiful dark garnet core and a magenta meniscus. The aromas are very Baco - but more in a fruity rather than funky way: bright raspberries cloaked in cherries; crispy bacon aromas round it all out. Tart, juicy, invigoratingly brisk entry; mouth-filling, cleansing acidity dominates the texture. Light bodied and tartish, but balanced. Diminutive tannins carry through on the mid-palate, and are followed by a wave of warmth across the aft-palate. The flavours all but peter out at this point; there is no strong or dominant flavour on the finish. I cannot pick up any oak in this wine.

This light Baco was purchased for less than ten bucks on general list at the LCBO. It is 12.5% alc./vol. and has been bottled with a screwcap closure. This would make a very decent pizza wine. As with all Bacos, it has that palate-cleansing quality that is particularly good if you're having cuts of meat that have some fat on them.

2010 Pelee Island Baco Noir (Ontario VQA)

$10.95 on general list at the LCBO. 12.5% alc./vol. Compressed-particle, natural-cork closure (I think a screw cap would be better).

This opens with a very typical leafy / peppercorn / brackish / raisiny Baco aroma. With a couple of hours of aeration, the raisiny quality becomes more pronounced and the wine now shows some bright raspberry character. Suprisingly tart on the entry (2010 was a hot vintage in Ontario). Sour redcurrant fruit, with a rounded sourness to the mid-palate and a soft core. A bit odd, and not in line with what I expected from the vintage.

Given this, I tried an old trick that worked really well in the past: I refrigerated the rest of the wine overnight. On the following day I poured a glass cold, and let it slowly warm up. Now, some torrefied character came through on the nose. The palate, however, was much improved from the previous day: although the wine was still zingy, there was a certain density to it when sipped cold, that seemed to round it out a bit more. Some diminutive fuzzy tannin and a bit of warmth rounded out the finish.

I always used to say that Foch was more funky than Baco, but that Foch had better acid / tannin balance.

I still believe this to be true.

Baco can surprise you with acidity that's aggressive and unbalanced. What's really strange about it is that more often than not, you'll find this to be the case in hot, rather than cool, vintages...

2010 Pelee Island Late Harvest Vidal (Ontario VQA)

Screwcap closure; 12.5% alc./vol.; on sale for $10.95 (at time of writing) on regular list at the LCBO.

Light straw colour with a slightly viscous appearance. Green apple, pineapple, citrus pith and a whiff of something that reminds me of varietal Diamond. Zippy acidity on the entry, immediately balanced by a rounded residual sweetness; tangy and zesty on the mid-palate. Warm zesty replays last long into the finish.

One of my favourite Vidals, year in and year out, the Late Harvest edition of Pelee Island's Vidal (there are two - a near-dry one called Monarch and this sweeter one, Late Harvest) is a reliable go-to wine if you happen to want something a few notches sweeter than your average table wine. Unlike many late-harvest wines in Ontario, this one is always bottled in a 750 ml format.

2010 Magnotta Harvest Moon Vidal (Ontario VQA)

A medium-sweet Vidal, attractively packaged in a deep blue 750 ml bottle. Synthetic cork closure. $9.95 at the Magnotta retail outlet; 12.6% alc./vol.

The Vidal pours with a pretty, semi-unctuous straw hue and brilliant clarity. A beautiful mix of ripe tropical fruits rises out of the glass: pineapple, tangerine, fresh orange juice, Granny Smith apple, and that note of spicy passionfruit that is so typical in sweeter versions of Vidal.  Laser-crisp acidity on the entry, well wrapped in a blanket of residual sweetness (7 g/l). Crisp/sweet texture, but the acidity never lets up bringing on the tang - so this wine still works decidedly well at the dinner table. Lots of citrusy tangerine / pink-grapefruit zest in the finish, which again is fleshed out nicely by another dose of residual... A very pleasing wine indeed.

Even though I am partial to dry wine across the entire vinous spectrum, I still find the occasion now and then to enjoy a late-harvest Vidal - one of Ontario's true gems, and with a close heritage to another regional highlight: icewine.

2005 Domaine Berrien Cellars Wolf's Prairie Red (Lake Michigan Shore AVA)

What an interesting find on my most recent visit to Michigan. This wine is a blend of Dechaunac and Chelois (proportions for this vintage undisclosed, though the 2009 notes indicate 80% Dechaunac and 20% Chelois), produced by Domaine Berrien Cellars in the Lake Michigan Shore AVA. ABV is not disclosed on the wine label - but again, notes for the 2009 release indicate 12.5% (which may be meaningless considering that we're dealing across four distinct vintages!).

The wine undergoes a year of complex oak aging: portions are aged in barrels of varying age, including neutral oak.

Purchased for $13.99 USD (it's cheaper at the winery). The solid, high-quality natural cork closure was nicely tinted as I pulled it out of the bottle.

The WPR pours with a beautiful, black-garnet colour and a very deep hue that is reminiscent of dried red roses, but with the saturation cranked way up. The nose, at first swish, is strongly medicinal and reminiscent of dried elderberries... However, given just 15 minutes in the open bottle, the bouquet opens up to reveal a very complex mix of roasted, toasty aromas (elderberries now in the background), black olives (reminiscent of many SW French reds), juicy black cherries, and plenty of earthiness. This is very similar to Norton/Cynthiana, both for the colour and the aromas. Tart yet gentle acidity, followed by an elegant, dry texture, with plenty of spicy / pencil-shavings-type oak on the fore-palate. Exceptional balance. Incredible spiciness and persistence all across the palate, with gentle warmth chiming in toward the aft-palate, and leading the finish along its entire trajectory. The spicy oak regimen works really well here: it's an elegant, wood-driven style of oak, rather than perfumey (i.e. no vanilla or coconut aromas). A whiff of torrefied coffee beans (dark roast) comes in on the finish.

Truly one of the best hybrid reds I've had in years; there's nothing like this that I've tried in Ontario for a long time. Most of what we have left here is Baco Noir, which is typically far more acidic, and without the aromatic Norton-like complexity that I find in this Lake Michigan Shore red.

Considering that the wine is now 6 years old, I would say that ageability is quite good. A decade should not be any problem at all.

A note about the grape varieties: Dechaunac used to be made into single varietal wines in Niagara up until about a decade ago. Now, it can be found at some wineries in the newer, younger, Prince Edward County wine region. Chelois, on the other hand, used to be present in Ontario, but many decades ago: if I recall correctly, Inniskillin grew it and made wine from it in the very early days (would have been in the 1970s). Chelois is said to have more tannin than many of the old-line red hybrid varieties, but the trade off is that it is less winter hardy than Baco or Foch (and probably even Dechaunac), and is somewhat more susceptible to the usual diseases affecting grapevines.

Personally, I'm extremely happy to see Domaine Berrien using these two historically significant hybrids in such a quality blend.