Len Crispino has no interest in people simply walking through the door of his winery and buying a bottle of his wine. And chances are pretty good that won’t be possible anyway.
The Foreign Affair proprietor (seen in the top photo with his wife Marisa) wants you to understand what you are about to buy, to know how the wines were made and why they were crafted that way. It’s an experience, not just a bottle of wine, he’ll tell you.
It’s all part of Foreign Affair’s “slow” approach to making wine, from the growing and drying of the grapes through the entire process in the winery to consumers ultimately buying it in the retail store.
Foreign Affair, located just north of the QEW off Victoria Ave. in Vineland, is the most unique winery in Niagara and the first to devote the majority of its wines made in a true Amarone (drying of grapes) style.
Walking through the winery with Crispino and winemaker Ilya Senchuk, you get a sense of the love the former head of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, who only retired this year, has put into Foreign Affair and the respect he has for the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre where he has been blessed to locate his winery.
Crispino and his wife Marisa have captured old world charm at every step throughout the winery, which has been transformed from its original use as a research lab.
Much of the decorations, a collection of various winery implements, antiques and art, have been simply donated to the couple by wine lovers who have fallen in love with the Foreign Affair winery. The winery’s exterior emerges down a stone path as a charming, red brick school house and, inside the tasting room, elegant harvest tables, a stone fireplace and granite tasting bar is a mix of styles but there’s definitely a Mediterranean feel to it.
An old wooden Champagne rack looks oddly out of place in a winery that specializes in big, structured reds and substantial whites but somehow it fits in with the rest of the eclectic collection. It’s homey, personable, and just feels comfortable.
The seeds for Foreign Affair were sown back in the early 1990s while Crispino was working as a diplomat in Italy for the Ontario government. It is here that he acquired his taste for the Amarone wines made in the Veneto region of Italy. He was particularly impressed with the wines of the legendary Giuseppe Quintarelli, who passed away in January of this year.
In Amarone, harvested grapes are dried on racks for varying lengths of time to further concentrate the juices and add complexity and structure to the wines.
It occurred to Crispino that this method of further ripening grapes would be of benefit in the unpredictable region of Niagara where a cold season can drastically affect the quality of late-ripening grapes.
It took a cancer scare in 1999 for Crispino and his wife to realize that he should follow his heart and start a winery in Niagara.
Equipped with a love for Veneto and a deep attachment to Niagara, Crispino purchased 40 acres of vines in Vineland in the Vinemount Ridge appellation in 2001 and harvested his first vintage three years later.
It was always going to be more of a labour of love then a huge commercial venture. Crispino is quite content to produce only 6,500 cases of wine a year.
“We’re not large and we’re not commercial,” says Crispino. “My wife and I are 50% of the staff. There are no cowboys here.”
The style of wine Crispino wanted to make was predetermined by his love for the Amarone style of wines he grew to love during his time in Italy.
Even the name — Foreign Affair — speaks to that: A Canadian ex-pat falls in love with an Italian temptress, he explains.
It is his hero, Quintarelli, who inspired him most to follow his path in Niagara. He and Marisa flew to Veneto unannounced to see if he could talk to Giuseppe about making Amarone wines in Canada.
Crispino was granted a meeting with the winemaker but arrived a half hour late because the winery is unmarked along a secluded road. Once he found the home and winery of Giuseppe he was made to wait a half hour (the amount of time he was late) before he got a few words.
“He told me to ‘follow my dreams and you’ll get what you want,’ ” laughs Crispino. He left but not before asking for a photo, which Giuseppe insisted must be taken with his wife as well, seen at the left.
Crispino is in the process of making a special 100% dried grape Amarone from three Bordeaux varieties as a tribute to Quintarelli from the 2010 vintage. I was lucky to try the separate parcels in barrel during my visit and this will be a wine that will surely be talked about for years.
The grapes for Foreign Affair come from Vinemount Ridge appellation, all owned by Crispino, as well as a small five-acre vineyard planted to Pinot Noir on the winery property that is leased from Vineland Estate.
To achieve the ripeness needed to make the Amarone style of wines, Crispino crops to two tonnes or less per acre “quite deliberately.” That drops substantially when the grapes are slowly dried on racks in sheds that are kept behind the winery.
Crispino insists on traditional Italian drying techniques for his Amarone-styled wines. “You can’t take shortcuts. We dry in a very slow process,” he says. That means no kiln-dried grapes and no speeding up the process in any way.
The wines also undergo a long maturation process first in oak, a combination of old and new French, American and Hungarian barrels, followed by extened bottle aging. The 2009 reds are just being released now. All wines except the Riesling see some oak aging.
Crispino, along with winemaker Senchuk, have put together an impressive lineup of wines in a style that is uniquely their own in Niagara. The top wines are exquisite examples of the Veneto style with stunning flavours and aging potential. There were many who were skeptical of Foreign Affair’s plans in Niagara.
“Oh, yes, we had doubters,” says Crispino as we taste through his new releases. “But we pursued our dream.”
Here’s what I tasted with Crispino and Senchuk (all available at the winery):
Foreign Affair Riesling 2009 ($25, 88 points) — The Riesling sees 20% of the grapes dried. It shows a nose of sweet tropical fruit, pineapple and pulpy citrus. It’s weighty (for a Riesling) with complex flavours, a mineral edge and balancing acidity. Such beautiful concentration through the finish.
Foreign Affair Sauvignon Blanc 2009 ($28, 90 points) — Made with 30% dried grapes and five months of barrel aging in older oak barrels. It’s surprisingly fresh on the nose with grapefruit, gooseberry, ripe pineapple and subtle oak stylings with an undercurrent of cut grass. It’s beautifully balanced in the mouth with ripe fruits, acidity and some vanilla toast flavours. Very interesting and different style of SB.
Foreign Affair Chardonnay 2009 ($30, 89 points) — Aged for 13 months in French oak with just 10% dried grapes to “add weight to the mid palate.” A lovely nose of citrus, apple, vanilla toast, brioche and minerality. It’s quite round and textured on the palate with apple-pear fruit balanced with juicy citrus and a fine mineral note that carries through the finish.
Foreign Affair Pinot Noir 2009 ($45, 93 points)— There is nothing subtle about this meaty and bold Pinot made with 30% dried grapes and 14 months in French oak. A nose of black cherry, earth, sweet spices, plum and some game notes. It’s mouth-filling and texturally beautiful in the mouth with kirsch, raspberry, vanilla-mocha spice, smooth tannins, good acidity and a long finish. Note: I first reviewed this wine during a retrospective tasting with most of Ontario’s best 09 Pinots. My notes and score have not changed since that tasting over six months ago.
Foreign Affair Merlot 2009 ($42, 89 points) — With Bordeaux reds, Crispino says, “you either go big or you go home.” This Merlot is 40% dried grapes with aging in oak for 19 months. The nose shows beefy red fruits, smoke, roasted herbs, and layered spices. It’s highly concentrated on the palate with plush tannins, sweet spice and ripe fruits through a long finish. Big, bold, juicy.
Foreign Affair Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 ($38, 91 points) — To make this incredible appassimento-style wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were cropped to less than two tonnes per acre with 40% of the grapes dried, resulting in about 30-40% less grapes than originally harvested. It saw 20 months of French oak, a combination of old and new. It is gorgeous. Look for ripe blackcurrants, blackberry, hints of raisin and plum with touches of licorice, cloves and mocha on the nose. It’s plush on the palate with melt-in-your-mouth small black, brambly wild berry fruits, earth and an exhilerating basket of spices. The length is extraordinary.
Foreign Affair Cabernet Franc 2007 ($110, 93 points) — The very first vintage of this CF failed VQA testing because it was such a new and completely different wine for the tasting panel to understand. This flagship wine is most closely associated with the Amarone style with 100% of the fruit dried for 103 days and then aged in oak for 24 months in 100% new French barrels. It’s a knockout from sniff to swallow. The nose delivers concentrated cherry-kirsch, saddle leather, Espresso, raisins, cassis, lavish sweet spices and cocoa. It is thick and powerful on the palate, showing Port-like texture and grip, rich, ripe red fruits, compoted blueberry and black currant-cassis flavours all wrapped in toasty oak and soft tannins. It’s a heady wine at 16% alcohol but doesn’t at all feel hot in the mouth. Just a wonderful treat of a wine.
Note: The 2008 version of the Cab Franc is, in some ways, an even grander wine than the 2007. It’s still bold, big and lavishly spiced, but the acid levels are higher (or feel higher on the palate) and, at this early stage, is more balanced. It’s powerful, yet refined and opulent with wonderful texture and succulent fruit. It’s one to watch for when it’s released later in the year (or you can ask on the retail store and you just might get lucky).
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Tasting later in the barrel room with Senchuk — the young and skilled winemaker, who, by the way, has his own “virtual” label of Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs called Leaning Post — Foreign Affair has some treats in store with the excellent 2010 vintage.
Even though the vintage was hot in Niagara and ripeness was not a problem, Foreign Affair is pushing the limits of what can be done with appassimento style wines in Niagara.
“I’m looking for power and elegance,” explains Senchuk. He says that is achieved through the style of wines being crafted at Foreign Affair.
A new wine will be added to the lineup in 2010 called Conspiracy, a well-priced red blend that is made in the ripassa style, where red grapes are passed over the unpressed but drained must of the Amarone grapes to give the wines a bit more heft and complexity.
And the most anticipated wine to come from 2010 vintages (aside from the Quintarelli tribute wine Crispino is making)? Senchuk has put aside an Amarone style Cabernet Sauvignon from a vineyard cropped to less than a tonne an acre, producing only 8-12 bunches of grapes per vine. Tasting this from barrel was simply breathtaking. Wow, such power and purity of fruit inside a wall of oak just wanting to burst free. Can’t wait to see the finished wine.
Not sure where Crispino will price this, but he already has a red called Unreasonable, a Cabernet Franc that uses 100% grapes that are dried for 163 days (at a price to match at $163). Of that wine, Crispino said: “I wanted to see how far we could push it.” Sadly, I did not get to taste it during my visit.
Sounds like the at team Foreign Affair is going to do a lot more pushing the boundaries. Bravo for that.
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