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#oldniagara, bottle No. 2: A taste of the historic Marynissen Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 31 (A) 1991, a beauty that has aged with grace and poise

main31It just doesn’t get any more historic than the Marynissen Lot 31 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Located at the base of the Niagara Escarpment in the heart of Niagara-on-the-Lake on Concession 1 Road, the Lot 31 vineyard was planted by viticulture pioneer John Marynissen in 1978.

Marynissen had purchased the property in 1953 and was the first grape grower in the region to plant vinifera varieties, when most people said it could not be done. He set out to prove it could.

John-Marynissen-234x300Marynissen, left photo, who passed away in 2009, always pushed the limits of what was perceived to be possible with grape growing and in 1978 he planted Cabernet Sauvignon in the Lot 31 vineyard, which are the oldest commercial Cabernet vines in Canada and the pride of the vineyard.

People who have been enjoying Niagara wines for much longer than I have, swoon at the memory of those Marynissen Cabernets.

All it took for former Marynissen winemaker Jeff Hundertmark to find his destiny was one sip of the legendary 1991 Marynissen Lot 31 Cabernet Sauvignon. “It was an epiphany for me,” he told me a number of years ago during an interview when he was still the winemaker at Marynissen, before the family sold the winery to a group of Chinese investors.

From that first taste, Hundertmark started following the wines made by the legendary Marynissen while also working his way through various wine-related jobs and ventures in Ottawa.

In 2005, Hundertmark decided to follow his true calling and enrolled in Niagara College’s winemaking program. His first job out of college was at Coyote’s Run before taking the job he coveted at Marynissen in Niagara-on-the-Lake as the assistant winemaker.

Hundertmark joined the winery just as John Marynissen’s daughter, Sandra, was taking over the winemaker duties and didn’t spend a lot of time with the founder of Marynissen.

To this day, Hundertmark says that 1991 Lot 31 Cab “was the wine that put me where I am today (he’s now the winemaker for Mike Weir Wine and Stoney Ridge, while Gordon Robert is the winemaker at Marynissen).

“It was the most inspiring wine I had tasted way back at its release in the early 90s, and the first collectible Canadian wine I had in my cellar at the time. It was an honour to work in his vineyards and an honour to toil in his cellar. John Marynissen will always be a hero of mine and is missed every day,” he says.

As part of our on-going series called #oldniagara, we are delving into the vaults for older wines to see how they are holding up. You can read the first post here that gives a more detailed explanation of the series, but essentially we taking a look at a cross-section of older vintage Niagara wines to see how they have stood the test of time.

Our bottle today is the Marynissen Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 Lot 31 (A).

maryThe A on the label stands for American, as in aged in American oak. There is a Lot 31 (F), for French oak, that we will explore in an upcoming post.

The bottle we tried was in pristine condition, no ullage whatsoever. The cork was perfectly sealed and was tight in the bottle. I pulled most of the cork out cleanly but a small portion cracked in the bottle. Because of the tight seal I was able to easily remove the remainder without getting any cork in the bottle.

Like the last old Niagara wine I opened, this, too, was stopped with a “short” cork, a stubby, which just aren’t used in today’s wines that are meant to age.

I suspect a bottle not cellared as well as this one might have more problems because of the short cork, but mine was perfect.

This was an extraordinary example of well-aged Cabernet from Niagara.

The nose was attractive with pretty blackberry, cherry, cigar box cedar, cocoa and sweet oak spices that were perfectly integrated and not one hint of the mustiness that age can bring.

It simply blew me away when I took my first sip. It was soft and mellow but showed bright black cherry fruit, an array of interesting spice notes with a touch of licorice and earth. The tannins were round and smooth and everything had totally integrated into a seamless and thrilling wine.

My wife and I enjoyed this wine on the first night and we saved a bit for the next day to see how it was holding up. On the second day it showed signs of weakness, with a subtle metallic note emerging, that leads me to believe this wine had peaked at some earlier point and is now trending downward.

Still, an amazing wine. Drink it up if you are lucky enough to have any kicking around. There’s history in that bottle.