By Rick VanSickle
It’s a hot, muggy day in a summer with no shortages of them in Niagara, and the kind of day that will define the wines to come from the plump, juicy grapes now being harvested across the region.
While the grapes show promise across the board, it’s not all good news as I walk through one of the region’s most sought-after vineyards to craft premium and organic wines with Grimsby Hillside Vineyard co-owner Paul Franciosa and vineyard manager Josh Mitchell. “We haven’t had an unsold grape on this farm … until now,” says Franciosa. “In the past two years we’ve had more demand than supply.”
The historic vineyard here in Grimsby has roots going back 150 years, originally planted by the Cline family, who grew Delaware and Concord grapes, among other crops. What followed were many iterations at the farm over the years but none so impactful than when the 185-acre property was purchased by Lou Franciosa in 2002.
Lou Franciosa was a partner in the Willow Heights Estate Winery, located in Vineland and purchased in 1998 under the winemaking direction of Ron Speranzini. Willow Heights was eventually sold to Creekside Estate Winery owner Laura McCain, who ended up selling Gretzky to Peller Estates. GreenLane Estate Winery now owns the former Willow Heights property and winery (which in now for sale) after Gretzky skated on over to Niagara-on-the-Lake under the Peller banner.
Lou Franciosa was already a keen amateur winemaker and had his eyes on the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard as a “retirement” project. Sadly, Franciosa died of pancreatic cancer in 2006 at age 59, only four years after it was purchased and much of the planting already underway.
His two sons — Paul and Frank — were enjoying their own law and finance careers at the time and had little or nothing to do with grapes or the wines their dad made but decided to continue to honour their father’s legacy with the farm and dream he started.
Under Paul and Frank, a major replanting took place and a methodical plan to convert the vineyard to certified organic was initiated. The site has quickly grabbed the full attention of some of Ontario’s top winemakers, including Ilya Senchuk (Leaning Post), Thomas Bachelder (Bachelder wines), Kevin Panagapka (2027 Cellars), Kelly Mason (Mason Vineyard), Mackenzie Brisbois (Trail Estate), Rosewood, Fogolar, Divergence, Pearl Morissette … and the list goes on. The Grimsby Hillside brand (and specific blocks) appears prominently on the labels of many of the bottlings from these top wineries sought after by winemakers and consumers.
The entire vineyard, which is transitioning to organic, itself is a complex array of aspect, clones, new plantings, trellising systems, and soil compositions, which start with red clay in the east with more sandy loam on top of burgundy red clay as you move west. It’s a fascinating and complex mosaic of terroir.
There are 85 acres under vine with 70 acres in production. A total of 17 acres of Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay (Red Clay Barn Block), Riesling and Viognier will be certified organic for the first time this year with another 15-20 acres transitioning to organic.
The move to organic and subsequent demand for Grimsby Hillside grapes from top wineries was the reason the Franciosas made the decision to fast-track the re-planting program. Then 2024 came along and turned everything upside down.
Of the 140 to 160 tonnes of grapes now starting to come off the vines at Grimsby Hillside, 50 to 60 tonnes are currently unsold. As we walk through the vineyard Paul Franciosa points to this block and that block of gorgeous fruit with no buyers after two previous years of turning away winemakers who wanted the grapes. Demand no longer outweighs supply. And where it’s hurting most is on the organic, and more premium side of the Grimsby Hillside business.
“There’s very little interest in organic grapes this year,” says Franciosa. “No one seems to care.” He says that estate wineries had looked to Grimsby Hillside “to fill a gap” in their own production. But this year, “their home vineyards are back in full production” after some lean years. “They just don’t want to make any more wine given the economy.”
Grimsby Hillside is hardly alone in this vinous quagmire. The Grape Growers of Ontario association has already sounded the alarm about a grape over-supply in 2024, predicting the largest since 2009, and has sought help from the provincial government. Franciosa knows of other organic farmers who have lost contracts in 2024 and have had to sell their premium organic grapes at GGO pricing or be cut to the ground.
A quick count of grapes for sale on the GGO website a couple of weeks ago showed over 3,500 tonnes unsold, with most of the over-supply with the more expensive Bordeaux reds, particularly Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Not all wines for sale are posted on the GGO site and not all grapes listed for sale go unsold. A new list of grapes for sale from Wine Country Ontario (which could duplicate some of the GGO grapes) showed 4,000 tonnes of grapes for sale, the bulk of which is Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, and Vidal that ranges in tonnage from 2 tonnes to 450 tonnes for sale across a wide spectrum of growers across the peninsula.
Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario, doesn’t know yet what the surplus will end up being, but it’s shaping up to be “really bad,” she told Wines in Niagara recently. “Growers are under the gun and we’re trying to fix the surplus.”
Franciosa says he believes many factors are contributing to the grape surplus, including:
• Decreasing wine sales (especially at the LCBO) resulting in reduced grape demand;
• Lots of unsold 2021 wines from that big yield vintage;
• Most vineyards across the region fully bounced back from 2021/22 winter damage;
• High interest rates making it more costly to finance working capital for wineries and making grape purchases more risky;
• General economic malaise causing perception of risk of investing in new wine production to be heightened.
“We had two important customers who we were counting on to want some organic fruit pull out at start of year because they are focusing on their home vineyards, which have bounced back after 2021/22,” says Franciosa. “Others are pulling back a lot because our fruit is expensive and not a good match to their customer base. Even with us offering to sell some grapes to folks at reduced prices (which is not a viable long-term strategy for us), several folks have just said ‘it’s not about price — we just can’t do it.’ ”
Franciosa, like his late father, is building a library of “garagiste” wines he makes with his brother and friends sourced from key blocks within the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard. They still have no plan to make these wines commercially (though I urge him to do so), but they do love to taste them alongside some of the bottlings made by some of Ontario’s superstar winemakers.
I’ve enjoyed many of the more recent “garagiste” wines from the Franciosa brothers (and a few from their father) in the past and have been suitably impressed by their amateur winemaking skills. Here’s what we tasted of their own wines and that of many of winemakers who purchase the fruit, as we sat at a picnic table following our vineyard walk. We start with a horizontal of Chardonnays from the Frontier Block and nearby Red Clay Barn Block.
The white wines
Bachelder Grimsby Hillside Frontier Block Chardonnay 2020 (($49, 95 points) — Thomas Bachelder was one of the first winemakers to jump on the Grimsby Hillside bandwagon. He made two expressions in 2020 from blocks only 500 meters apart. The Frontier, with updated notes here but leaving the original score, is such a gorgeous wine with lovely flint, pear, salinity, and lemon curd. On the palate it’s richly concentrated and textured showing ripe apple and pear fruits, a touch of zesty lemon, gunflint, salinity, and elegant oak spices, toasted almonds, and a long and finessed finish.
Bachelder Grimsby Hillside Red Clay Barn Block Chardonnay 2020 ($49, 94 points) — Fascinating to taste this beside the other Frontier Block Chardos. That short distance from each other but both so different. This shows a more delicate style, but still with that density and concentration. The nose shows ripe pear, pure and fresh salinity and subtle flinty notes, apple skin, bergamot and lightly toasted fine oak nuances. It’s nicely integrated on the palate with a creamy texture followed by an enticing melange of stone fruits, lemon zest, saline/flinty minerality and an extremely long and finessed finish.
2027 Cellars Grimsby Hillside Frontier Block Chardonnay 2020 ($40, 94 points) — Veteran winemaker Kevin Panagapka said when I originally tasted this wine with him: “I think it’s got some amazing potential.” How prophetic that statement turned out to be. The fruit for the 2027 version was hand harvested, whole cluster pressed, wild fermented (but no malo) and aged for 18 months in 20% new Burgundian oak. When first tasted, it was tightly wound on the palate but now it has fully opened up with lovely floral notes, ripe pear, saline/flinty minerality, apple skin, bergamot, and elegant spice accents. It shows some weight on the palate with richer pear, yellow apple, toasted almonds, vanilla bean and spice, flinty/stony notes and pure elegance and finesse on the lifted and long finish.
Leaning Post Grimsby Hillside Frontier Block Chardonnay 2020 — Leaning Post is just across the road from Grimsby Hillside and Ilya Senchuk makes his own estate Senchuk Vineyard Chardonnay alongside the Frontier Block. This is a generous, opulent and rich rendition with profound stony minerality, lemon and ripe orchard fruits with integrated oak spices. There’s a savoury edge on the palate, with concentrated pear, quince and citrus zest, salinity, flint and a long, lifted finish.
Mason Vineyard Grimsby Hillside Frontier Block Chardonnay 2020 ($48, 95 points) — This was a collaboration wine between Kelly Mason and Thomas Bachelder with portions of Bachelder’s grapes from Frontier and Mason’s portion from the same block. “Thomas and I played around with different blends to create a lean wine with tension and focus,” said Mason.
When Mason and Bachelder met by chance in the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard, they realized that both were sourcing fruit from the same block … and so the thought of a collaboration popped to mind. They tasted and tested, talked, and tasted, and that seed of an idea came together in a duet, “not just of two winemakers, but of two wines from different parts of the same Grimsby Hillside Vineyard, in an unjustly unknown part of Niagara. Collaboration is hopefully about bringing out the best in everyone, we hope that, when you pour that first crucial glass, you will agree that this is one of Niagara’s great undiscovered terroirs.”
For me, this is a beautiful rendition of the Frontier Block and reflects both the beauty of the fruit there and a melding of the two winemakers’ styles. It has such a saline/sea breeze nose with ripe pear, white peach, apple skin, flinty minerality, lemon tart and elegant spice notes. It is textured, rich and elegant on the palate with a “salty, briny, flinty” profile, as Mason defined it, with rich stone fruits, pristine salinity, lemon zest, density and seamless spice notes, complexity, and verve on a long, lifted finish.
Grimsby Hillside Gravel Creek North Block Riesling 2023 — The Riesling from the North Block of the Grimsby Hillside is planted to Clone 21b grown on a mix of red and silty clay shallow topsoils over Queenston Formation dense red clay subsoils with greenish grey shale banding. The block is a few hundred metres away from the Niagara Escarpment, so it gets fewer cooling breezes than the Escarpment-side blocks, and tends to develop richer, more honeyed flavours. The soils are dry, hard and make the vines work hard to grow. “The resulting wines can possess great intensity and concentration, while retaining a distinct mineral character,” says Franciosa. This year, being grown for the Okanagan winery Tantalus Vineyards, and it will be the first certified organic harvest off this block. “We’re pumped to see what becomes of these grapes following their transformation. I’m curious to see what the folks at Tantalus will make with that.” Franciosa and “friends” made their own version of this wine that was aged in neutral oak barrels for seven months. It has lovely floral note on the nose with gushing lime, grapefruit, green apple and flinty/stony notes. It’s fresh and lively on the palate with citrus, apple, pear, flint and mouth-watering acidity on the finish.
The red wines
Grimsby Hillside Red 2004 — After the sudden death of their father Lou Franciosa, the brothers found a treasure trove of older vintage, mostly red wines in the basement of the farmhouse, some bottled and some still in barrels. I have tasted a few of these bottles with Paul Franciosa and have been suitably impressed with the quality, especially as they age. The 2004 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc that, yes, shows its age, but is still interesting with earthy dark berries, anise, and spice. It’s perfectly integrated and tannins have smoothed out with a melange of dark berries, earthy/savoury notes and a lifted finish.
Grimsby Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 — The 2005 Cab Sauv is still chugging along with a nose of integrated cassis, blackberries and anise with some maraschino cherries and oak spices. It’s rich, balanced and loaded with dark berries and spice on the palate with some of the tannins still hanging on.
Grimsby Hillside Red 2005 — The Red 2005 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. It has a lovely, perfumed nose with concentrated red berries, forest floor, some herbaceous notes and integrated spices. I loved this wine, so nicely balanced, elegant, rich, layered and finessed through the bright finish.
Grimsby Hillside Cabernet Franc 2016 — Now, this shocked me when I tried it the first time. This was the leftover “top up” Cab Franc that was racked right out of the tank into the bottle with no filtering, fining or anything done at all aside from some sulphur at bottling. That we are drinking and enjoying it, speaks for itself. It’s a touch green and herbaceous but still with ripe tannins, red berries and vibrant.
Grimsby Hillside Cabernet Franc 2020 — This is my second time tasting this “old vines” CF made by the next generation of garagiste winemakers from young vines. It really is a beautiful wine with a pure nose of brambly red berries, concentrated cassis, forest berries and elegant spice. The tannins on the palate offer structure and texture with a finessed finish. When I first tasted this with Paul Franciosa, he said, “we don’t really know what we are doing, we’ve lost plenty of barrels over the years, but our 2020s are pretty special.” His “old vines” version of the Cabernet Franc is simply stunning, among the tastiest I have tried from 2020 in Niagara, with depth, complexity, rich flavours, and elegant spice due to a deft approach to the oak aging. A beautiful expression of CF. This is holding steady and should enjoy a long life in the cellar.
Leaning Post Grimsby Hillside Cabernet Franc 2020 — The full range of plump red berries, anise and fine oak spices show nicely on the nose. The cherry/raspberry and anise fruits are pure and concentrated on the palate with fine-grained tannins, a touch of herbs, leather and spice and a vibrant finish. Lots of life left in this classy Cab Franc.
Grimsby Hillside Old Vine Cabernet Franc 2021 — The Franciosas and “friends” made two old vine (meaning, from the original 2002 planting) Cab Francs. This shows good colour, lovely aromatics, earthy/savoury notes, black raspberries, dark cherries, cassis, and structure with plenty of zip on the finish when first tasted. A couple of years later, all those moving parts have integrated nicely with more floral/pretty notes, soft tannins and rousing acidity on the finish.
Therianthropy The Negotiant Cabernet Franc 2021 ($30) — This Grimsby Hillside sourced Cab Franc was 85% whole cluster pressed, aged for 7 months in concrete egg and bottled unfiltered and unfined. It has a nose of plums, black olives, savoury/brambly raspberries, herbs, floral notes and subtle spice. It’s bright and lifted on the palate with juicy dark and red berries, herbs, savoury notes and plenty of verve on the finish.
We finished this incredible tasting with barrel samples of upcoming Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Francs from 2021 and 2022. We’ll be back to taste these wines when they are complete.
Keeping in mind that I love Niagara wine, and believe that all the wine makers in this article are fantastic.
A reason I have stopped buying Niagara wine is it’s just become too expensive. Before the pandemic, wine tasting was something I could go do if I was bored and wanted to fill an afternoon. It was 10$ for a flight, and the tasting got waved if you bought a bottle. If they found out you were industry yourself, the fee was waved no matter what. I would go so often that I could speak about vintage variation of different wines. My girlfriend and I paid 50$ for two flights at a single winery this summer. We had to choose between a flight, or a single bottle we havent tasted, and couldnt go to more than two wineries (if we felt like spending money that day). It’s a hobby that is simply not accessible to many people anymore. Myself included.
I understand these are premium wines, but if I’m going to spend the money listed in this article, I’m going to get a bottle of Borolo, or Chablis, and have something that teaches me about a region I’m not so familiar with. Niagara wine is becoming financially inaccessible to people, so why are we all that surprised the sales aren’t where they used to be?
We don’t have surplus of domestic grapes. Rather, we have a surplus in the availability/sales of imported bottled and imported bulk for blended wine. Initially a temporary measure in reaction to the Free Trade agreement of the late ‘80s, the allowance of imports was meant to be a back-fill measure as we converted from a labrusca-hybrid industry to a vinifera (premium) industry. Now nearly 40 years later imports have been allowed to soar and become the mainstay, comprising a lion’s share 90-95% of sales vs. domestic sales which rarely if ever reach over 10%. The domestic industry, instead of being supported for growth and success, has essentially been relegated to back-fill for the imports. We have long reached premium quality status with our 100% Ontario wines but the illusion is that we don’t make enough to form the foundation of a burgeoning domestic industry. Obviously if we have what is perceived as a “surplus” then there is more than enough supply. The tap on the faucet of imports needs to be turned down sufficiently to give more room for the growth and sustainability of our domestic industry.
And to help address Mr. Shear’s concern about affordability to local consumers, maybe the Ontario & Canadian governments should heavily subsidize our local grape/wine industry just like Italy and France do for theirs.
Like everything there are good years and down years..prep for down years.. pretty simple.
It seems to me that BC had a terrible loss of crop due to frost. It will take years to replace this production. Would it not be prudent to investigate the possibility of selling this surplus to them. They should try to get Doug Fords office involved with the premier of BC.