Niagara College Teaching Winery,

(Photograph taken by Tracy Carreau)

The Niagara College Teaching Winery is Canada’s first commercial teaching winery. Niagara College students do every single step of the winemaking process from viticulture and fermentation to manipulating barrels. To be completely honest, I walked into the Niagara College Teaching Winery with low expectations knowing well in fact that students where making the wine I was going to taste. However, I was shocked because the quality of wine surpassed my expectations and their Chardonnays stand among the best in the region.

I tasted and judged the 2007 Unoaked Chardonnay, the 2001 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, 2008 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay and the 2007 Deans List Chardonnay.

2007 Unoaked Chardonnay – $14.95

Visual: Straw colour.

Aroma: Faint aroma of tropical fruit, lime and pear.

Flavour: Lots of acidity, tangerines and tropical fruit with a little bitterness.

My opinion: This wine had a faint aroma of tropical fruit and lime, which was quite nice. There was also a faint tangerine flavour with a lot of bitterness that I did not particularly enjoy. However the acidity did make it quite refreshing. For an Unoaked Chardonnay, this wine was nothing special. I would not go out of my way to purchase a bottle.

My rating: 68/100 - Meh, this wine needs work.

2007 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay – $18.95

Visual: Straw colour.

Aroma: Faint aroma of peach, pear and cream.

Flavour: Nice acidity, nice body with nice mellow creamy textures.

My opinion: This wine is on the mellow side in terms of pronounced flavours. However there is a wonderful balance between acidity, citrus flavours and oak. It also has a wonderful nose (aroma) of peach, pear and cream that drove my senses wild when I first humoured my glass. (Humouring your wine is to swirl your wine around in your glass. This releases the esters and permits the bouquet of the wine to flourish and rise out of the glass making the aromas more pronounced. This enables you to really appreciate the aroma of the wine.)

My rating: 75/100 - This is a great wine.

2008 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay – $18.95

Visual: Honey Golden.

Aroma: Buttery popcorn and Butterscotch.

Flavour: Heavy body with a velvet texture. There are bold cream flavours of butter and butterscotch that pare very well with buttery popcorn, fettuccini alfredo or crab and lobster with butter. There is also a nice acidity that sits in the background; the massive body with its creamy flavours and textures is the pronounced flavour and characteristic of this wine.

My opinion: This is a great wine if you like big bold butter, butterscotch and oak flavours. I love a wine with nice oaky flavours thats well integrated within the wine. Having a bold wine such as this to pear with buttery popcorn or fettuccini alfredo is a special treat.

My rating: 78/100 – This is a great wine.

2007 Deans List Chardonnay – $27.95

Visual: Extremely clear and crisp.

Aroma: Creamy butter and butterscotch with nice aromas of peach and lime.

Flavour: Nice integration between oak flavours and citrus. Very well balanced. Nice crisp acidity. The body and complexity of this wine is incredible and can be aged for 9 to 10 years without a problem.

My judgment: 80/100 – this is a wonderful wine.

My opinion: This is a wonderful wine. There is a wonderful balance of flavour. The oak is well integrated among the other flavours. It is also extremely crisp, clear and very refreshing. This wine can compete with any of the top Chardonnays that I have tasted from Southbrook and Inniskillin.

Pilliteri Estates Winery

(Photograph taken by Tracy Carreau)

Pilliteri Estates is a family run winery that opened its doors in 1993. The winery is Canada's largest estate producer of Icewine. What makes Pilliteri an Estate Winery is the fact that they have over 12 acres of vineyards on same property of the winemaking facility.

I tasted and judged their 2005 Unoaked Chardonnay and their 2007 Sur Lie Chardonnay.

2007 Unoaked Chardonnay - $10.00

Visual: Light straw, crisp and very clear

Aroma: Lime, peach and pear.

Flavour: Very fresh with hints of lime, pear and tropical fruit with nice acidity.

My opinion: This wine was descent for an Unoaked Chardonnay. I didn’t find that there was very much flavour to it. However, because there was nice acidity it was very refreshing. For $10 a bottle you can’t go wrong.

My rating: 70/100

2007 Sur Lie Chardonnay - $15.00

Visual: Light straw.

Aroma: Nice nose, creamy, nutty with a hint of caramel and hazelnut.

Flavour: Very smooth, very nice and vibrant acidity, light cream with a hint of tropical fruit.

My opinion: Very nice acidity and a wicked nose (aroma). This wine promises to become better with a couple years under its belt. However, it’s a well-priced Chardonnay for the quality.

My rating: 75/100

Coyote's Run
(Photograph taken by Kevin Brochu)

The one unique aspect of Coyotes Run that sets them apart of every other winery in the Niagara Peninsula is their use of soil. Whereas most wineries don’t touch their soil to display the flavour of the “terroir”, Coyotes Run has engineered their soil to make two different distinct wines. They drew a line that divides their vineyard separating the two different soils that they use. The first half is composed of dark black clay that is common to the Niagara Peninsula and gives rich and earthy flavours and aromas. The other side of the vineyard is composed of red soil that is not common to the area, and gives flavours and aromas like fruit and sweet perfumes. Their soil-segregated vineyard can be used in two different ways. The first way is to produce separate wines that come from different soils in order to emphasize the impact that soil has on the wine. The second way to utilize having two distinct soils is by blending varietals (type of grape) that come from different soils in order to produce a wine with more depth and complexity.

I tasted and judged the 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay and the 2008 Black Paw Vineyard Chardonnay.

2008 Unoaked Chardonnay - $14.95

Visual: Light Straw.

Aroma: Faint aroma of pear and citrus with some floral notes.

Flavour: Citrus fruit, pear, tangerine, well-rounded with a great acidity balance.

My Opinion: I had extremely high expectations walking into Coyotes Run because I have always heard wonderful things, especially surrounding the use of their two different soils. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with what I found. I have a feeling that people held this winery in high regards for their reds and not their Chardonnays. In my opinion, although their Chardonnays were descent, they did not stand out in a region that specializes in Chardonnay. The 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay was still very young. As a result, the aroma was very faint and the flavour was not as pronounced as it will be in a year or so. However, there were some nice fruit flavours with a nice acidity balance. To be honest, the 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay wasn’t anything special.

My Rating: 65/100 - I do not recommend this wine.

2008 Black Paw Vineyard Chardonnay - $21.99

Visual: Light Straw.

Aroma: Faint aroma of cream, hazelnut and butterscotch.

Flavour: Well layered and velvety, little bitter, nice acidity, citrus, nice hazelnut with a long lingering finish.

My opinion: This wine is very young but has lots of potential. I really enjoyed the aroma. Although it was faint, the aroma of cream, hazelnut and butterscotch gave me a very warm and comforting feeling. The flavour was very surprising because there was a mix of good and bad attributes. Starting with the negative, the flavour was very faint and it was a little bitter. However, the bitterness could indicate that the wine is going through a state of bottle shock. Essentially, bottle shock is a state of unsettled shock that the wine goes through when recently bottled. This gives the wine a very bitter and acidic flavour. The positive aspects regarding flavour are that it is very well layered and displays a velvety texture with a nice hazelnut and citrus flavour with a long lingering finish. The long lingering finish tells me that this wine is of very high quality. Rule of thumb, the longer the flavour lingers and stays with you, the better the wine is. Sharp abrupt finishes is a sign of a lower quality wine.

My Rating: 70/100 – Give this wine a year or so to age and my rating of 70 might become a 75 or 80.