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Cave Spring Cellars French Oak Vineyard BA Riesling 1990, a golden beauty

closeupWhen you have an old bottle of wine with a smudged and scuffed label with the once-clear and bright colour now a deep, soupy amber, you just never know what you are going to get.

I had low expectations for the half bottle of Cave Spring Cellars French Oak Vineyard Botrytis Affected Riesling 1990 I had put on ice on a whim to see exactly what was left of the wine.

As part of my series for Wines In Niagara, called #OldNiagara, where we have been uncorking old Niagara wine treasures to test their ability to age, the BA wines (botrytis affected) have been performing beautifully. That lovely fungus causes grapes to lose nearly all of their water content. Wines made from botrytis-affected grapes are generally very sweet, depending on the amount of botrytis you allow in the vineyard.

The fungus responds to the humidity and warmth and attacks the grapes. As the mold penetrates the skin its spores begin to germinate, causing the water inside to evaporate and the grape to dehydrate. With the absence of water, the sugar becomes more concentrated and the botrytis begins to alter the acidity within the grape.

glass2It helps the finished wine evolve and act as a preservative. Look no further than the great sweet wines from Sauternes, home to some of the longest-lasting white wines on Earth, which are made from botrytis-affected grapes.

The French Oak Vineyard was a sourced vineyard with a rich history for Cave Spring in 1990.

The French Oak Vineyard traces its past to the Thirty Bench Vineyard and Winery on the Beamsville Bench.

In 1980, the Thirty Bench Vineyard was purchased as a fruit farm by Tom Muckle, Yorgos Papageorgiou, Franz Zeritsch, Jay Forrest, Livio DiNello and Fred Oliphant.

The main vineyard was established in 1980 under the name Heritage Vineyards with the first Riesling vines planted 1983.

thirty bench vineIn that same year, the vineyard name, above as it is today, was changed to French Oak Vineyards. The Riesling can be seen behind the winery (the long rows) that stretch all the way to the forest.

In 1985, Andres Wines purchased approximately five tonnes of Riesling but a new player in Niagara, Cave Spring Cellars, started purchasing French Oak Vineyard Riesling grapes in 1986 (Tom Muckle was one on the founders of Cave Spring Cellars).

In 1993, the vineyard’s name was changed again to what it is presently known as the Thirty Bench Vineyard. A year later Thirty Bench Winery opened its doors to the public and remains one of the region’s premier Riesling producers. It’s now owned by Peller Estates, which purchased the winery and vineyards in 2005.

Here’s my assessment of the wine, Part XVIII (or 18, if you are Roman numeral challenged like me):

#OldNiagara Part XVIII

bottle and wineCave Spring Cellars French Oak Vineyard Botrytis Affected Riesling 1990 (price N/A, 12.5% alcohol) — The colour is a rich, deep amber, slightly cloudy, but vibrant. The nose is exotic and hedonistic with marmalade, dried apricot, peach puree, wild honey, tangerine skin and caramel notes. There is more freshness on the palate than I would expect for a 25-year-old white from Niagara, with lovely mature, mulled and compoted fruit, citrus zest and wild honeycomb. It is unctuous and silky in the mouth and not particularly sweet, but rather luxurious and ripe. An enthralling experience.

NOTE: If you are keeping score, which, I admit, you likely aren’t, I wrote into a previous post three other #OldNiagara wines I opened with Paul Bosc (senior), founder of Chateau des Charmes, recently.

The Chateau des Charmes Equuleus 2002 (#OldNiagara Part XIX) was extraordinary and finally fully integrated with less aggressive tannins. The fruit was substantial, bold and alive, with lovely mingling spices and still some freshness and finesse on the finish.

The Chateau des Charmes 1994 Paul Bosc Vineyard Cabernet (#OldNiagare Part XX) was gorgeous with mature red fruits, fully integrated spices and soft and smooth through the finish. It has aged much as many of the older Bordeaux vintages I have consumed.

The Chateau des Charmes1985 Cabernet (#OldNiagara Part XXI) showed a bit of life, but had faded well beyond its peak and showed a faint corky-musty note, likely a bad bottle.