Featherstone Estate Winery is a madhouse of activity on a blustery fall day during one of the weirdest harvests Niagara has seen in quite a while.
Inside the winery itself, cellar workers are cleaning tanks, fixing hoses, checking ferments and patiently waiting for the next load of grapes to arrive on the crushpad. Whether they get a load on a day when rain threatens in every direction is entirely up to Mother Nature. It’s simple now in Niagara with the deluge experienced here: No rain, pick. But at the first sign of dry weather, it’s grab what you can. It’s a race against time now.
I’ve come to Featherstone to check in on Kevin Panagapka, a virutual winery owner who helps out at Featherstone in return for use of the winemaking facility to craft his wines.
Panagapka’s single-vineyard 2027 Cellars Rieslings — Falls Vineyard, Foxcroft Vineyard and Featherstone Vineyard — created quite a stir in Niagara when released. He followed up his Rieslings with a gorgeous Queenston Road Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009 and is getting ready to release his first Chardonnay, from a 15-year-old vineyard in Jordan he’s calling 19th Street.
Panagapka takes great pride in sourcing fruit for his wines. It’s one of the benefits of being a virtual winery. You can scour the entire region for the best of the best fruit and, because you don’t have much overhead, you don’t have to support your top wines with larger production entry-level wines. And you also don’t have to limit yourself to one appellation or worry about “estate” wines.
“My whole life’s goal is to make expressive single-vineyard wines,” he tells me. For Panagapka, that means the best vineyard fruit for Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot — the three varieties he feels do best in Niagara.
He has kept it small while the brand builds on its reputation. He started in 2007 with 100 cases, moved to 500 cases in 2008, 600 in 2009, dropped to 400 cases in 2010 (he made no Reisling in 2010) and expects to get back up to 600 cases in 2011.
Lucky for Panagapka, all of his fruit for the 2011 vintage is safely in tanks and happily fermenting away.
We’re tasting the base wine for his first sparkling wine, a 30% Pinot Noir and 70% Chardonnay. It’s undergoing a primary fermentation and doesn’t taste like much at the moment. He plans on three years of age before it’s released in 2014.
On deck for 2012 will be a 2011 Fox Croft Vineyard Riesling (his 2009 was the Wines In Niagara white wine of the year in 2010) and 2011 Falls Vineyard Riesling, which will be a Vintages only bottling at a $20 price point. He couldn’t source any 2011 Featherstone Vineyard Riesling so will be content with two Rieslings in the current vintage 2011.
But he will have a 2010 Queenston Road Pinot Noir out in the spring to go with the 19th Street Chardonnay from 2010. From 2011, he’s making a Fox Croft Chardonnay, and both a Queenston Road and 19th Street Pinot Noir to go along with Rieslings.
His 2010 Pinot moves into a different style than the stellar 09 version, which I gave 93 points (review below).
He employed a longer maceration to create a more concentrated and “muscular” style of Pinot Noir. From barrel, it’s much more complex and earthy with tannic structure and grip. It will be interesting to compare the 2009 and 2010 Pinots.
The future continues to look bright for Panagapka. He has some nice wines coming out (and a very cool remake on his labels) and Vintages has taken note, buying up the entire Falls Vineyard 2011 Riesling production. It’s hard not to root for hard-working independent winemakers who make it their goal to produce high-quality, terroir driven wines from what nature throws at them every vintage.
Here’s an unrated review of the Chardonnay and the previously reviewed Pinot that is still for sale on the 2027 Cellars website.
2027 Cellars 19th Street Chardonnay 2010 ($30, not released until next spring, not rated) – This Chardonnay has not yet finished its development in bottle and therefore is unfair to rate at this point. But I did enjoy a bottle, the first one that Kevin Panagapka has opened for critics, so can offer some initial notes. It has a gorgeous nose of soft oak and generous notes of pear and tropical fruit with underlying minerality. It’s supple on the palate with flinty minerality, quince, smoky vanilla and deft oak stylings. It has lovely depth of fruit and leaning toward a balanced approach. Can’t wait for to see this in six months or so.
2027 Cellars Queenston Road Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009 ($35, online only, 93 points) — All fruit is hand harvested, hand sorted and de-stemmed whole berry. It is wild fermented over 19 days and bottled unfined and unfltered. The youthful nose shows lightly spiced cherry fruit, truffle, cedar, floral, beetroot and vanilla. It’s amazing in the mouth with penetrating, persistent red fruits, vanilla, sweet oak and spice. It’s a graceful, elegant wine that shows its range of flavours and silky tannins through the finish.
And some other Niagara wines now available:
Kacaba Barrel Fermented Chardonay 2009 ($23, winery now, Vintages in 2012, 88 points) – This Chard was fermented and aged in 50% new, 50% used French oak for 12 months. The nose shows buttery, creamy, French vanilla notes with apple-pear fruits and clove spice. It has vibrancy on the palate with apple, caramel and vanilla notes and just a hint of citrus on the finish. Very oaky style. Could cellar for a couple of years to soften out the oak.
Inniskillin Winemaker’s Series P3 2010 ($18, Winery, Wine Rack, 88 points) — This is a brand new product from Inniskillin and you’ll have to drive out to the winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake or find it at a Wine Rack store as it’s not in the LCBO yet. This is a fun wine for Thanksgiving that combines three varieties — Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. The nose shows apple and tropical fruits with just a touch of vanilla and subtle oak. It has great tropical-mango fruit and melon notes in the mouth with a nice citrus zest finish. Goes great with all that harvest goodness you can squeeze onto your plate.
Calamus Vinemount Ridge Riesling 2010 ($16, just released at the winery, 90 points) — It’s hard to resist the Rieslings grown in the Vinemount Ridge appellation. Calamus is one of two wineries actually sitting on the appellation and makes this wonderful Riesling vintage to vintage. The 2010 version has a gorgeously rich nose of peach, lime, grapefruit and emerging wet stone minerality. I love the tug of tangy and tart citrus-grapefruit and ripe, opulent peach and key lime flavours that coat the mouth. There’s even a touch of ginger on the finish. Pretty good acid, as well.
Enjoy!
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