The original plan for the Malivoire Wine Company was very simple. Make some great quality juice in small amounts, open up the cellar doors for a couple of weekends a year and sell what you’ve got. Then repeat year after year.
It was a business model owner Martin Malivoire borrowed from the Burgundians where winery gates are mostly locked and inaccessible to consumers. If you wanted to buy a bottle of wine there was usually a domaine store in the village where you could shop and taste.
Malivoire was only interested in selling a few wines in early years, four different choices to start with a goal of six as the winery grew.
The two weekends a year idea didn’t last long and soon the winery was throwing open the doors for six weeks in the summer as the portfolio continued to grow and success followed.
The portfolio now consists of anywhere from 15 to 20 wines, depending on the vintage, and you can pretty much buy wine in the retail store any day of the week all year long. Not to mention the great success Malivoire has had with the various programs at Vintages.
Sitting in the new inner “cellar door” tasting room, you see that the very functional winery was never designed with consumers in mind.
The retail store and tasting bar, as you walk through the front doors, is comfortable enough, but it had to be carved out of the manufacturing area of the winery. In fact, in those early years back to 1998, tanks were still in the same room where the wines were tasted and sold.
The new tasting room is reserved for more formal tastings, away from the bustling retail area, where guests can sit and enjoy new releases from the winery in a quieter setting.
I’m sitting with winemaker Shiraz Mottiar (top photo) and managing director Stephen Gash (right) as we sip new and upcoming releases.
Gash says the winery is in the midst of refocusing and trimming down the portfolio and getting back to the core grape varieties that have come to define Malivoire.
“It’s about what makes us tick,” he says. “It’s about picking those things we do well.”
Things such as the Lady Bug Rose (the No. 1 selling rose at Vintages), and the various Gamays and Chardonnays (also a crucial part of the Vintages essential program) form the backbone of the wine program while Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling, which Malivoire has produced, are not part of the core program. The winery has also had success with Pinot Gris and Cabernet Franc (only in good vintages).
There are some quirky bottlings that will continue to be produced, including the oyster-friendly Melon and a lovely Musque Spritz. Then there’s the Guilty Men Cabernet Merlot, a popular red blend created with the LCBO in mind as an easy-drinking blend at an attractive price of $20.
Another aspect of Malivoire that has changed is its certified-organic vineyards. It lost its certification a couple of vintages ago due to a breakout of black rot, a devastating fungal disease that can cause complete crop loss. Mottiar said there was no way to control the outbreak with organic remedies and he elected to risk certification rather than lose the vineyards affected.
Since then, Malivoire has farmed within the frameworks of organic farming, hand harvesting of grapes (to minimize the use of heavy machinery in the vineyards), and utilizing a gravity flow method of treating the grapes from the vineyards to the barrel room.
But they not going through the long, arduous, five-year process of re-certifying its vineyards because the winery has decided that losing a crop is just not worth it. Instead it is looking for a clear definition of “sustainable” farming that it can adhere to. It’s a project that Mottiar is helping to spearhead with many other Niagara wineries interested in a sustainable farming practice that is practical without threatening their crops in case of black rot, or other crop-destroying diseases, that are hard to control under an organic regime.
Malivoire was the first winery in Niagara to build a gravity winery, which produces finished wine with a minimum of agitation and oxidation, optimizing flavour and complexity.
The Beamsville winery currently farms four vineyards within the Niagara Peninsula, in two sub-appellations: the Moira, Estate and Eastman vineyards on Beamsville Bench, and the Epp vineyard on Twenty Mile Bench. Malivoire owns the Moira and Estate vineyards and farms the Epp and Eastman vineyards under lease. As well, Mottiar farms his own vineyard, with the grapes all going into a single-vineyard Chardonnay at Malivoire.
Here’s a taste of what has just been released or will soon hit stores shelves.
Malivoire Musque Spritz 2011 ($12 for 375 Ml, winery only, 88 points) – No one else in Niagara is making this delightful style of spritz-ed up Chardonnay Musque that’s finished with a very light 8% alcohol. A refreshing nose of apple, pear and lemon-lime. A nice zesty spritz on the palate adds a little tickle on the palate to go with notes of citrus, peach, melon and apple. Delicious.
Malivoire Pinot Gris 2011 ($20, winery and Vintages in July, 87 points) — A ripe and bold nose of perfumed melon, blood orange, peach, ripe summer apples and an interesting note of fennel. It’s very friendly on the palate with ripe orchard fruits balanced out by zesty citrus notes. The 2010, in the store and vintages now (89 points) is broader on the palate with a richer fruit profile that is the perfect on a hot summer’s day.
Malivoire Lady Bug Rose 2011 ($16, winery and Vintages, 89 points) — In many ways, this is the signature wine for Malivoire and one of the most easily recognizable labels in Vintages stores with that distinctive lady bug crawling along the label. Mottiar is quick to point out that the grapes that go into this rose (Cab Franc, Pinot Noir and Gamay) are grown for that purpose and not as an after thought or as a place to put red wine in off-vintages. The style, he says, is “to be fresh and forward on the palate and crisp. It has some weight which gives it the potential to match well with many foods. It’s a wonderful rose with cherry-cranberry fruit and a bit of earthiness and fresh herbs on the nose. The palate reveals meaty red fruit flavours, good acidity, touches of fine herbs and small dark berries and just a hint of sweetness. Nicely balanced bistro-style rose.
Malivoire Mottiar Chardonnay 2010 ($30, released later this summer, 92 points) — The 3.2 hectare Mottiar vineyard is situated just above the town of Beamsville on the upper slope of the Niagara Escarpment on Quarry Road. Only 100 cases of this exquisite wine will be available when released. The nose shows restrained poached pear, apple, apricot, vanilla, spice and a defining core of minerality. It displays beautiful elegance and layers of subtle fruit that swirl and change with each sip. This wine offers wonderful balance, racy and refreshing acidity and a pure expression of Bench minerality.
Malivoire Moira Chardonnay 2009 ($40, later this summer, 91 points) — A nice comparative wine to the Mottiar above with richer aromas and flavours. The nose is ripe and creamy with layers of apple pie, peach cobbler, honeycomb and a burst of citrus. The 09 vintage combines rich fruits, oak-inspired spices, lovely texture and an energetic core of verve and tension from the racy acids provided by the vintage. This vintage will be released following the end of the 2008 vintage which is just being sold through at the winery.
Maliviore Forgotten Row Chardonnay 2010 (between $25-$30, released at winery next month, 89 points) — What happens when the grape pickers sweep through a vineyard in a hot year and completely forget to pick an entire row on Vinemount Ridge? This is what happens, the Forgotten Row one-off offering from Mottiar. Only 50 cases were made of this wine which was picked at 24 brix and aged in American oak (Malivoire usually uses French oak exclusively for its Chardonnay program). “This was something fun to experiment with,” Mottiar says. The result is a highly-juiced, full blown nose of big ripe pear, apple, caramel, toffee and lavishly spices. It’s a rush on the palate of ripe, persistent fruits that are matched with toasted wood and vanilla spices, caramel and a lush feel through the finish. Something totally different from Malivoire to try, in a style that is anything but subtle.
Malivoire Gamay M2 Small Lot Gamay 2011 ($20, winery, 88 points) — Mottiar has great affinity for Gamay, a grape that seems to be gaining favour with lovers of Ontario wine. The M2 is a complex Gamay with strawberry, raspberry, smoke, pepper and wide range of spices on the nose. It is wonderful and expressive in the mouth with juicy layers of rich red fruits all backed up with savoury spices that pop on the palate.
Malivoire Courtney Gamay 2010 ($30, available this weekend, 92 points) — This top red from Malivoire, in a year such as 2010, is a blockbuster that I predict will fly off the shelves this weekend as it is released at the winery. Courtney has a cult following and many feel this is the best Gamay gets in Niagara. Mottiar puts this single-vineyard Gamay into all-French, tight-grained oak for 14 months and it shows on the nose with a riot of spices, including mocha, clove and cinnamon, emerging from the thick array of concentrated kirsch, raspberry, plum and cassis fruits. This is textured and showy on the palate with full-on creamy red fruits all bolstered up by lavish and wonderful spices that light up the mouth all the way through the long finish. Just a beautiful and expressive red.
Malivoire Guilty Men Cabernet Merlot 2010 ($20, Vintages this Saturday, 88 points) — Very interesting nose of ripe, succulent blackberry, cherry, cedar, loam and cocoa. It’s a full-bodied red with meaty-earthy fruits, evident tannins and pretty good length through the finish. To enjoy now or cellar for three years.
Malivoire Wismer Cabernet Franc 2010 ($25, winery now, 88 points) — This was just released and already has only 50 cases remaining. It’s classic Niagara Cab Franc, even with the hot 2010 vintage, combining black currants, blackberry, raspberry, fine herbs, bell pepper, licorice and spices. In the mouth it’s a balanced approach of layered fruits, spices, herbs and a bed of fine tannins. It’s advised to cellar a couple of bottles to let all those fine herbs integrate a bit. A thought-provoking Cab Franc that shows restraint, considering the vintage.
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