By Rick VanSickle
After 15 years of meticulous plotting and planting the vineyard and seven vintages under its belt, Niagara’s On Seven Estate Winery is about to unveil its finest expression of Chardonnay yet.
A top tier wine beyond the already lofty Pursuit and Devotion levels “has been in the works since day one of the project,” but until now it has been kept under wraps by brand owner Vittorio De Stefano and consulting winemaker Peter Gamble (below).
“The aptly named On Seven tier is “our attempt to create a wine that reflects the purest and most complete expression of our vineyard,” said De Stefano and Gamble in an email exchange with Wines in Niagara. “It is the wine that defines On Seven at its best, in its finest vintage. It is the wine, that when compared to others, is compared against international paradigms at the top of their respective tiers. It is a wine that has the greatest age worthiness – and ages with grace. In essence, it is our attempt to push the quality of Niagara Chardonnay to that ‘final’ level. And because of that, we decided to call it simply On Seven.”
The first “On Seven” ultimate tier Chardonnay is from the 2021 vintage and will be released Sept. 7 along with a re-release of other 2019, 2020, and 2021 Chardonnays from the Pursuit and Devotion tiers in several different packages (full details below). Prices for the Pursuit and Devotion levels remain as they were on release ($48 and $68 respectively) while the new top On Seven Chardonnay 2021 is on offer for $108.
That price may come as a shock to some consumers, and while I understand that $100+ for any white wine in Niagara might be met with a raised eyebrow or two but read what goes into a wine at this level before judging.
This is how to create a super premium portfolio of Chardonnays, according to De Stefano and Gamble:
• All On Seven wines are made from organic estate grapes (from the estate vineyard’s calcareous soils).
• The whole vineyard is treated with the same level of care and meticulousness throughout the growing season.
• Come early August, the first round of decisions on “potential” wine quality are made. The team assesses each vineyard block and decides whether they will be making still wine or sparkling wine (for the Chardonnay grapes) and still wine or rosé (for the Pinot Noir grapes). Appropriately detailed changes to each remaining viticultural step are then taken, optimizing the quality of those decisions in the vineyard.
• Then, the grapes are hand-harvested block-by-block, with meticulous selection in the vineyard and on the crush pad, barrel-fermented, and aged in French oak barrels.
• Throughout the fermentations and for the next 20 to 24 months, all barrels are tasted regularly. During this entire period, subsequent rounds of decisions regarding each wine’s potential quality are made. If any barrel does not meet the minimum requirement to make a Pursuit Chardonnay (or On Seven labelled wine), then the barrel is removed (declassified) and sold off to other vintners.
• From the initial Pursuit portfolio of wines, the winemaking team identifies barrels that are achieving a higher level of quality. At this point, another round of decisions on “potential” wine quality is made. If they can isolate outstanding barrels from among these barrels, without negatively impacting the Pursuit series – a task often requiring months of detailed blending trials – then they create the Devotion series.
• Finally, from the Devotion portfolio of wines, they identify whether there might be, however miniscule a volume (event as little as a barrel’s worth), wine that would stand distinctly above all others at the pinnacle of our wine quality tiers. At this point, by way of some further rounds of blending and blind tasting sessions, the final decisions on their wines for release are made. If an elite On Seven series wine can be created without in any way diminishing the Devotion series wine, then they make the “final” leap.
• As directional guidance, the On Seven series will be released only when the proprietors and the winemaking team feel that all elements of production — the specific vines, the selected grapes, the vintage, the chosen barrel components — have culminated in a wine that stands at the pinnacle of what the On Seven site can create. All aspects of overall quality and, importantly, age worthiness, are taken into careful consideration.
• It should also be noted that “our vineyard management and winemaking practices use minimal interventions. We use only organic practices in the vineyard, crop at very low yields (historically, it has been between 1 to 2 tons an acre), and ferment wine using only wild yeast.”
How to get your hands on these wines
On Seven is releasing the wines on Sunday Sept. 7 to private members first, those on the email list. The release will offer two broad releases: “The Look-Back Series,” and “The 2021 Vintage.” To get on the mailing list, go here.
De Stefano says that “the exciting element of this wine release is that everyone gets the opportunity to experience what aging has done to the wines.” It should be noted that there was no wine made from the 2022 harvest.
The Look-Back Series
The Look-Back Series will be offered only in 6-bottle cases There are three options to The Look-Back Series offerings.
All Look-Back Series will include the following 5-bottles, i.e., one bottle of each:
2019 Pursuit Chardonnay (at $48 per bottle)
2020 Pursuit Chardonnay (at $48 per bottle)
2020 Devotion Chardonnay (at $68 per bottle)
2021 Pursuit Chardonnay (at $48 per bottle)
2021 Devotion Chardonnay (at $68 per bottle)
For the 6th bottle, we will be offering three choices:
Option #1: 2021 Pursuit Chardonnay (at $48 per bottle)
Option #2: 2021 Devotion Chardonnay (at $68 per bottle)
Option #3: 2021 On Seven Chardonnay (at $108 per bottle)
Therefore, the prices for a 6-bottle case are:
Option #1: $328
Option #2: $348
Option #3: $388
The 2021 Vintage
We will be releasing the 2021 vintage once again.
These wines can also be purchased by the bottle, with a 3-bottle minimum:
2021 Pursuit Chardonnay (at $48 per bottle)
2021 Devotion Chardonnay (at $68 per bottle)
2021 On Seven Chardonnay (at $108 per bottle)
The wines on offer
I tasted and retasted the wines on offer with De Stefano, Gamble and wine writer Tony Aspler at the On Seven estate and vineyard recently. Here’s what I liked:
On Seven Pursuit Chardonnay 2023 (sneak peek, not a finished wine when tasted) — This is just a glimpse of the Pursuit Chardonnay 2023 that was aged in French oak (20% new) for 22 months and not ready to be bottled quite yet. It should be noted that there will be no 2022 wines due a terrible winter for the vines that winter. It has a bright and persistent nose of lifted orchard fruits, bergamot, fresh saline and crushed stones, and subtle spice notes. It’s mouth-filling and generous on the palate with pear, quince, golden apples, lemon zest, savoury notes, spice, tension and verve with mouth-watering acidity on the lifted finish. This should be rocking by the time it’s released a year from now.
On Seven Pursuit Chardonnay 2021 ($48, retasted, 93 points) — The Pursuit is made in the same way as the top Devotion (below) expression with aging in French oak (25% new oak), for 20 months, all wild fermented, hand harvested, and hand sorted. It shows a light golden colour in the glass with a rich and savoury nose of succulent ripe pear, yellow apples, lemon curd, peach skin, fresh salinity, white flowers and integrated oak spice notes. It’s richly extracted on the palate with layers of orchard fruits, zesty lemon, flinty accents (less reductive notes than previously tasted), spice and defined by its rush of racy acidity on the back end, giving it poise, balance and finesse through the long finish. Can cellar to 2030.
On Seven Devotion Chardonnay 2021 ($68, retasted, 94 points) — This used to be the top tier Chardonnay from On Seven until De Stefano and Gamble decided to create a third, and ultimate, expression simply called On Seven. Devotion is a blend of Chardonnay from the finest barrels, the finest blocks, and made only in what De Stefano and Gamble believe are the finest years. It has blossomed since tasting a year ago when it was a touch tight on the nose. It’s focused and flinty with notes of white flowers, perfumed pears, golden apples, apricot, bergamot, sea breeze salinity, elegant spices, and never-ending persistence. It’s expressive on the palate with ripe pear, lemon tart, quince, a creamy texture, saline freshness, toasted hazelnuts and spice in a layered, complex style highlighted by freshness and finesse on a long, luxurious and lingering finish. A soulful Chardonnay that will reward with cellaring through 2032.
On Seven Chardonnay 2021 ($108, 97 points) — The hand-inscribed bottle, the signatures from De Stefano and his wife Sula and the wax topper hints at elegance and that something special awaits. And, yes, at $108 a bottle, it will also test consumers as one of the most expensive Chardonnays ever offered for sale in Niagara, likely the first of many from across the region as those winemakers who are committed to further exploration of terroir and dig deeper into the soul of their vineyards. This is one barrel (30 cases) of precious Chardonnay, a “classic expression of the terroir,” says Gamble and the epitome of elegance, purity and finesse coaxed from the tiny On Seven Vineyard that’s cropped to a stingy 1.3 tonnes per acre. From the first sniff, it oozes elegance and nuance, from the purity of river rock and saline to the golden apples, lemongrass, verbena, white peach and ever so perfectly balanced vanilla bean and spice. It’s hauntingly persistent on the palate, with perhaps a wisp of flint, but zero reduction, with a buttery smooth texture, pure orchard fruits, hazelnuts, stony/saline minerality notes and spice all working in harmony as it wends its way to a beautifully long, echoing and lifted finish that I can still taste as I write this. This Chardonnay walks on hallowed ground, a new frontier from a master of terroir, Peter Gamble. I sense this will go through many evolutions between now and 2034 and to watch it will be fascinating. Bravo!
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