What: Rosewood Estates Winery and Meadery
Where: 4352 Mountainview Road, Beamsville
Tastings: Wednesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Winemaker: Natalie Spytkowsky
Owners: Eugene and Renata Roman
Availability: Winery, limited LCBO/Vintages.
Website: Rosewood
What: Southbrook Vineyards Whimsey!
Where: 581Niagara Stone Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Availability: Only at the winery.
Winemaker: Ann Sperling.
Proprietors: Bill and Marilyn Redelmeier
Website: Southbrook
By Rick VanSickle
Natalie Spytkowsky is hitting her stride, especially in terms of the red wine program at Rosewood Estates.
She’s already made her mark with Riesling and Gewurztraminer, along with a unique honey wine (mead) portfolio, but the forthcoming lineup from the cool 2008 vintage shows the skill of the winemaker.
As the story goes, anyone can make a good wine from a great vintage like 2007, but it takes patience, artistry and knowledge to produce a good wine in a lesser vintage.
Spytkowsky shows restraint in her reds from 2008, from the Pinot Noir through the Merlots and Cabernet Francs, mixing oak, vineyards and fermentations to craft a sensational portfolio that shows elegance and poise from top to bottom.
Spytkowsky has been shaping the wine program at Rosewood since 2006 after being lured away from Angels Gate, a neighbour on Mountainview Road on the Beamsville Bench. She racked up an impressive number of awards while at Angels Gate but made the leap to join Eugene Roman, from a family with a long history in bee keeping, to craft mead and small batch, quality driven grape and honey wines.
She has been a quick learner on the mead front, having never made wine from honey before but applying well-researched techniques to what she already knew about wine production.
Rosewood farms 15 acres of vines on their 40-acre property while two acres is set aside for the apiary. The rest of the land is part of the beautiful forested area of the Niagara Escarpment.
I tasted through the exciting red wine portfolio with marketing manager Krystina Roman recently. This is what I liked (all wines available at the winery or at Vintages where noted):
Rosewood Pinot Noir 2008 ($20, Vintages Sept. 4, 4 stars) — Sweet cherry, bramble and raspberry-vanilla notes on the nose. Fresh and vibrant on the palate with red fruit flavours, fine tannins, a touch of earth and charred oak notes. A nice match for cedar-plank salmon or other oily fish such as trout.
Rosewood Renaceau Vineyard Merlot 2008 ($20, winery, 4 stars) — This is the first single-vineyard Merlot from the estate winery and it’s a beauty. So much going on here including spicy red fruits, wild blueberries and vanilla on the nose. The palate reveals rich fruits on a tightly structured frame that suggests a little cellaring will help integrate the various parts. But you can drink now with some decanting or save for best results. Impressive price point.
Rosewood Merlot Reserve 2008 ($36, Vintages in Nov., 4.5 stars) — This is a naturally fermented wine and made in limited supply (only 77 cases) from estate fruit. A gorgeous Merlot with a nose of black cherry, wild berry, Espresso, vanilla and a nice touch of eucalypt. It’s all about the wow factor in the mouth with generous cassis, mature cherry and plums playing in harmony with the oak, spice and fine tannins. A structured and firm Merlot built for aging.
Rosewood Cabernet Franc Barrel 59 2008 ($30, Vintages mid-Nov., 4.5 stars) — Though closed and tight on the nose, even after hours of decanting, notes of violets, cassis, soft red fruits, floral and spice aromas shine through. It’s on the palate that the future is revealed with wonderfully rich and layered fruits, balancing spice and oak. A real beauty, again, from estate grapes and naturally fermented.
•••
Next time you’re at Southbrook Vineyard on Niagara Stone Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake, make sure to stop in and ask to taste the Whimsey! wines made at that organic winery.
These limited production wines showcase some of the best of what Southbrook winemaker Ann Sperling can produce from the vintage. But you’ll have to ask for it because of its limited supply. You’ll be glad you did. Here are a couple that I tried and loved recently:
Southbrook Whimsey! Chardonnay 2008 ($30, winery only, 4 stars) — A nose of apple, toasty oak and citrus. The fruit emerges from the vanilla-oak-butterscotch flavours on the palate to reveal tropical fruits, some peach and a bit of apple. All carried by juicy acidity.
Southbrook Whimsey! Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 19 2007 ($35, winery only, 4 stars) — More forward than its twin sister, the sold-out Lot 20, but appealing on the nose with cassis, blackberry, tobacco, oak and spice. The fruits emerge big time in the mouth, adding a touch of red fruits and cocoa to the mix.
Enjoy!
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