Niagara Wine Reviews

Five Rows Craft Wine a family’s labour of love

What: Five Rows Craft Wine.
Where: 361 Tanbark Rd., St. Davids.
Tastings: By appointment only until April.
Proprietor: The Lowrey family.
Winemaker: Wes Lowrey.
Specialty: The Five Rows in the name of this new winery refers to the original five rows of Pinot Noir that were planted following a pullout of orchard fruit and juice grapes. The family still harvests old-vine Pinot from those five rows.
Must try: There are only three wines currently available at the winery and all three are well worth getting your hands on — the Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc.
Availability: Only at the winery.
Website: www.fiverows.com

By Rick VanSickle

Wilma and Howie Lowrey and their son Wes, fifth-generation fruit and grape farmers on a 64-acre parcel of land in St. Davids, run the small craft winery that, at its peak, will only produce 500 cases of wine. And not only do mom, dad and son run the winery, they do all the work from tending the vines, to nurturing, harvesting, making, bottling and selling the wines. The only help they enlist is in the vineyards with casual labour a couple months of the year.

The Lowreys are part of a recent trend in Niagara — small batch winemakers striving for quality, not quantity, and making wine from the grapes that grow best on the land they farm.

In the case of the Lowreys, a family who has been farming their St. Davids property for five generations and planting some of the region’s first grapes in 1869, they plan on making only single-varietal wines, including Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon icewine as well as their signature wine, Pinot Noir. They will all be made in very small batches, with each bottle hand-labelled and numbered. Consumers can track each bottle they purchase by registering the number of the bottle on the website.

“We’re a mom and pop and son operation,” Wilma Lowrey says as we taste through wines in the family tasting room/barn. “We are who we are.”

The family has grown and sold vinifera grapes to Niagara wineries since being convinced to rip up their tender fruit and juice grapes in 1984 by one of the region’s most important wine pioneers, Karl Kaiser, who saw the potential of the clay and loam soil of St. Davids. The family started with five rows of Pinot Noir — now the winery’s namesake — and has since planted 35 acres of several varietals.

It was a gamble that has paid off for the Lowreys with contracts to sell their quality fruit to some of Niagara’s top wineries including Inniskillin until 1998 and, currently, Creekside Estate Winery.

The family decided to take some of the grapes, about 15% of the total production, and make their own wine under the Five Rows label after experimenting with the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon vintage. Wes Lowrey, the winemaker in the family, made a couple more barrels of wine in 2005, but really started production with the amazing 2007 vintage.

The ’07 reds won’t be released until the coming summer, but the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is selling now at the winery along with the 2008 whites.

Here’s what you can purchase from the winery now either through the website or by appointment.

Five Rows Craft Wine Pinot Gris 2008 ($25, bottle #133, 4 stars) — Only 57 cases of this white were made. Wes Lowrey likes to barrel ferment a portion of the grapes to give his wines complexity and added mouthfeel. There’s plenty of spicy apple and melon notes on the nose. In the mouth this is a gorgeous and vibrant wine with fresh apple-citrus fruits, subtle spice and a clean finish.

Five Rows Craft Wine Sauvignon Blanc 2008 ($25, bottle #2, 4.5 stars) — It’s easy to see why Creekside, with its classy Sauvignon Blanc program, sources some of its grapes from the Lowreys. This is one beautiful wine. Gooseberry, lime, herbs, tropical fruit and just a hint of spice from a touch of oak. The fruit is lively and fresh on the palate with focused tropical-pineapple flavours and a long, echoing finish.

Five Rows Craft Wine Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($50, bottle #197, 4.5 stars) — The Lowrey family is committed to making a 100% Cabernet each and every vintage even if it’s as little as one barrel, which is the case with the tough 2009 vintage. The current 2005 vintage is a remarkable example of how good this grape can be in the right winemaker’s hands. It starts with aromas of blackberries, currants, elegant oak and spice. It’s bursting with jammy red fruits, currants, firm tannins and developing structure that will integrate and mellow with time in the cellar. Drink this baby now with a cut of fine beef or save for 10 years in the cellar. A beauty.

Enjoy!