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Things are getting a little ‘wild’ at Thirty Bench on the Beamsville Bench

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Thirty Bench winemaker Emma Garner is a perfectionist, and if things aren’t perfect, or at least heading in that direction, she changes gears and re-invents what has has already been traditionally established.

The 2013 vintage of the cornerstone trio of Small Lot Rieslings from the Beamsville Bench producer will have a new makeup — the Wood Post will be sitting out the vintage and a new Riesling will complete the triumvirate.

emma“It just didn’t make the cut,” says Garner of the Wood Post Riesling 2013. “It didn’t have the personality I wanted.”

Wood Post has always been the most enigmatic of the three single-vineyard Rieslings at the estate. Named rather simply after the posts, this nine-acre vineyard is the youngest of the estate’s Riesling vines, planted in 1984 and produces citrus-driven, mineral-laden wines.

Triangle Vineyard, the most popular of the three Rieslings, is riper, moving into orange-tropical fruit notes with more subtle minerality,  with Steel Post being the tightest of the three, restrained, longer aged, and shows its unique minerality with time.

Wood Post takes time to appreciate and shows its beauty with age. It is the wild child of the three single-block wines, “you just never know where it’s going to go,” Garner says.

In 2013, she didn’t like where it was heading, and the winemaker declassified it into the estate cuvee, which was released a year ago.

Garner took the opportunity to experiment with a one-off bottling of a little something she calls the 30 Bench “Wild Cask” Riesling 2013 and it will be part of the Small Lot trilogy that will be released in June.

Thirty Bench winemaker Emma Garner from Rick VanSickle on Vimeo.

Wild Cask (see video above)  is an idea Garner got from a visit to the Mosel in Germany. She sourced the grapes from a small block in the Triangle Vineyard. The grapes, from younger vines, were picked separately and earlier to aim for a wine with lower alcohol, higher acidity and leaving the high (21.5 grams/litre) residual sugar.

Some of the  juice was dispatched to two (neutral) 500-litre oak puncheons and left to ferment naturally (wild). The rest was went into a 600-litre tank and was inoculated with W15 yeast.

“We’ve always been focused on the vineyard for these wines,” says Garner. “But this is a wine of interest for me.”

The top Small Lot Rieslings 2013 from Thirty Bench will be released in June. I tasted through the wines, including some Small Lot reds, with Garner recently. This is what I liked and can highly recommend.

the whites

Thirty Bench Small Lot “Wild Cask” Riesling 2013 ($30, 90 points) — The Wild Cask is sitting in for the Wood Post this vintage and does a nice job bringing something a little something off-beat to this classic trilogy of Small Lot Rieslings from the estate. It’s different than anything winemaker Emma Garner has don and gets her inspiration from the great estates of the Mosel. The nose is expressive with citrus, honey, quince, ginger and fresh-squeezed lime. It’s round and succulent on the palate and shows nice texture to go with mouth-filling fruit tempered by decent acidity. The succulent fruit shows length through the finish.

Thirty Bench Small Lot Triangle Vineyard Riesling 2013 ($30, 92 points) — The Triangle Vineyard was planted in 1980-81 and is finished with nearly 17 g/l of residual sugar. The nose shows bright grapefruit, green apple, ginger, lanolin and a lick of tangerine. Garner calls this a “show-boater” for its immediate appeal. It shows velvety texture on the palate with an array of showy citrus fruit, honey, a subtle vein of slate minerality and touch of ginger spice all balanced by firm acidity.

Thirty Bench Small Lot Steel Post Riesling 2013 ($30, 90 points) — The most austere wine of the three Rieslings and quite reserved on the nose, showing light floral notes to go with grapefruit and minerality. It opens up on the palate with bright, zippy citrus intermingling with profound earthy minerality and the perception of being quite dry through the finish. I have a feeling this will morph over time into a much different wine. One to watch.

the reds

Thirty Bench Small Lot Merlot 2012 ($45, 91 points) — A bold nose of sweet cassis, dark cherry, plums and integrated spices. This has incredible depth of fruit on the palate with plums, cassis and currants that work well with earth, anise and oak spices through a fairly long finish.

Thirty Bench Small Lot Cabernet Franc 2012 ($45, 92 points) — Another brilliant Cab Franc from Niagara’s near-perfect 2012 vintage. This has it all — rich red fruits, well-integrated herbs, earth, spice and touches of darker fruits such as cassis and wild black currants. It is lush and thick on the palate with lavish and bold fruit that meld with subtle notes of bay leaves, herbs and licorice. The tannins are grippy through a fairly long finish.

benchmakr

Thirty Bench Benchmark Red 2012 ($60, 93 points) — Benchmark is the best of the best from the red wine program at Thirty Bench, comprised of 39% Merlot, 10% Cab Franc and 51% Cabernet Sauvignon. Winemaker Emma Garner selects the best fruit from the best barrels for this wine that spends 24 months in oak. It is tight on the nose and will need time to open up completely but shows rich black cherry, plums, blackberries and lovely barrel spices. This has it all on the palate, a meaty, bold blend that shows layers of red fruits, currants, spice and firm, grippy tannins. It has lovely texture and length through the finish. Age 10-15 years.