By Rick VanSickle
Nadia Senchuk, one-half of the couple that owns and operates Niagara’s Leaning Post Wines, will do pretty much anything to get those wines into the hands of consumers.
And that includes loading up the family car with wine and travelling to 170 of the 669 LCBO stores in Ontario to cold call product consultants to get Leaning Post wines on each store’s shelves.
Senchuk began her more recent odyssey in March of this year, around the beginning of the “Elbows Up” movement and the changing attitudes of wine consumers in Ontario after all U.S. alcohol brands were pulled from LCBO shelves due to a trade dispute with President Donald Trump. What she discovered was truly shocking.
Senchuk, above with husband Ilya, simply walked into each of those 170 LCBO stores armed with bottles of Leaning Post wine for consultants to taste. More often than not, she found a appreciative audience looking to fill the void left by the banned California wine, and consultants ended up buying cases via the LCBO’s Direct Delivery program that enables wineries to sell direct to each LCBO store. Sales went from 380 cases in all of 2024 to over 3,000 cases since March in 2025.
The stores were most interested in purchasing the winery’s regional Niagara Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs (reviewed below) in the $35+ premium level for Ontario VQA wines. “Finally, people are seeing better Niagara wines in the LCBO,” Nadia’s husband and winemaker Ilya Senchuk tells Wines in Niagara as we tasted through the new and upcoming Leaning Post wines recently.
As for Nadia Senchuk, she was surprised at how welcoming the product consultants were wherever she visited. “I want to be the change that I want to see in the LCBO,” Senchuk said.
The Senchuks are a good team, working in tandem to build an exciting portfolio of terroir-driven wines while balancing a growing family. It has been a wild ride from a virtual winery to full-fledged estate winery since acquiring their farmhouse and 11 acres of fallow land in 2011 before they even knew it would yield the kind of grapes they wanted for their premium mostly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.
The vineyard and resulting wines have proven to be an exciting surprise, garnering high praise from wine critics and establishing Leaning Post as a top winery in Ontario with a deep and varied portfolio of estate site-specific wines and carefully sourced grapes from trusted growers.
For this report, I sat down to talk with the Senchuks and to taste new and upcoming single-vineyard Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays along with a sparkling wine and the bigger red varieties and blends. And was there another surprise from this winery that is always full of them — Ontario’s first single-variety Dolcetto.
“Part of the fun of owning your own winery is experimenting,” Ilya told me in 2020 when he planted Dolcetto grapes in the Senchuk Vineyard. He spent months researching varieties that would do well in Niagara — cold hardy grapes that aren’t well known. He had several to choose from, but “I narrowed it down and had to choose what I liked … Dolcetto is interesting and not like Pinot Noir or Gamay and will work on our farm.”
I was at Leaning Post as the second harvest of Dolcetto grapes was picked and processed a year ago this fall at the winery (photo above) and was given my first barrel tasting of the nearly finished first vintage of Dolcetto that is being released soon to wine club members. It was a fresh and lively unfinished wine with juicy dark berries and “weight wise, along the lines of Gamay,” said Ilya at the time.
Dolcetto is a black Italian wine grape variety widely grown in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy and rarely outside of there. Only one other planting of it is known to exist in Ontario — a tiny bit at Hubbs Creek in Prince Edward County that goes into a field multi-variety blend. The only sad part of the new Dolcetto wine is that very little was produced for the first vintage. Wine club members will be offered the bulk of it and staff will get first dibs on the rest. There might not be any left to sell after that.
Here’s what I liked from my tasting with Ilya Senchuk:
The bubbles
Leaning Post Traditional Method Blanc de Blanc 2020 ($57, wine club soon, spring release for everyone else, 94 points) — The Chardonnay grapes were sourced from 40-year-old vines in the Hemeris Vineyard on the Beamsville Bench. The wine spent 42 months on its lees and another year resting in bottle before disgorging. It’s an elegant and poised traditionally made sparkling wine with a steady bead in the glass followed by brioche/biscuity notes, lemon drop, pear skin, and fresh green apples with saline and crème-fraiche accents. The bubbles are persistent on the palate with a creamy texture, lemon zest, toasty brioche, pear/apple notes and a lifted, finessed finish. Lovely bubbles in a purely elegant style.
The Chardonnays
Leaning Post Chardonnay 2024 ($34, Vintages, winery, 92 points) — This Chardonnay is a blend of all four of the vineyards that Leaning Post uses for its portfolio, including the estate’s Senchuk Vineyard. The wine spends 10 months in mostly used French barriques. This, along with the Niagara Pinot Noir reviewed below, are the two biggest sellers for Leaning Post at the LCBO. It has an inviting nose of white peach, lemon preserves, ripe pear, saline and seashells, golden apples, a touch of flint and gentle spice notes. It’s rounded on the palate with a creamy texture to go with dense orchard fruits, citrus zest, stony minerality, and elegant spices on a lifted, finessed finish. Can cellar through 2032.
Leaning Post Grimsby Hillside Chardonnay 2022 ($55, wine club in the new year, 93 points) — One of four vineyards that Senchuk loves to work with, especially from the Frontier Block. It’s aged for 14 months in mostly older French oak barriques, and like all the estate wines, it’s wild fermented. Quite expressive for a young wine with a savoury/creamy opening note followed by ripe pear, saline/wet stones, white flowers, golden apples and elegant spice accents. It’s robust and generous on the palate with ripe orchard fruits, bergamot, lemon zest, reductive/flinty notes, fresh saline and integrated spice on a long, echoing, finessed finish. Can cellar through 2032.
Leaning Post Senchuk Vineyard Chardonnay 2022 ($68, Dec. release, 94 points) — When Ilya and Nadia Senchuk took a chance at creating a wine business in an unproven location in Winona, I don’t believe they could ever dream that their vineyard would produce such beautiful wines at this level. The Senchuk Vineyard Chardonnay is always a showstopper with a terroir all its own. The 2022 vintage shows a bit more restraint than the Grimsby Hillside expression with a pretty, elegant nose of white flowers, pear, nectarine, yellow apples, white peach, reductive notes, lemon tart and spice accents. It opens on the palate to riper orchard fruits, flinty/reductive notes, savoury accents and citrus zest in a layered and textured style that all leads to a fresh, lifted and long, long finish. This beautiful Chardonnay is all about precision, elegance and personality. Can cellar through 2034.
The Pinot Noirs
Leaning Post Pinot Noir 2023 ($36, Vintages only, 92 points) — The Leaning Post Pinot Noir is a blend of the Senchuk, Hemeris, Lowery and Grimsby Hillside vineyards. It’s aged for 13 months in mostly older French oak barrels. It has a highly perfumed nose of violets, dark cherries, wild raspberries, herbaceous notes, a touch of anise, savoury/earthy accents and integrated spice. It has gorgeous texture on the palate followed by an expressive medley of red berries, aniseed, floral notes, chalky tannins and spice with a lifted, fresh finish. Can cellar through 2034.
Leaning Post Hemeris Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022 ($68, 93 points) — An enticing nose of lifted dark cherries, pure black raspberries, a touch of violets, herbs and spice in a clean and elegant style. It has a plush and silky texture on the palate and shows a melange of red berries, anise, floral notes, earthy-savoury-spice accents, polished tannins and something Senchuk calls a “strawberries and gravel” thing going on. The finish is bright and finessed. Can cellar through 2034.
Leaning Post Senchuk Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022 ($85, spring release, 94 points) — The 2022 home vineyard expression is the eighth vintage of its flagship Pinot Noir. It’s unlike any other Pinot being made in Niagara, representing a terroir all its own. The enticing nose shows pure elegance with persistent black raspberries, summer cherries, violets, beetroot, red currants, brambly/earthy notes and perfumed spice notes. That elegance carries to the palate with just a bit more grit and structure that highlight the ripe red berries, underbrush, umami/savoury notes, anise, polished tannins, subtle herbaceous notes and fine oak spices on a long, echoing and lifted finish. Really beautiful, unique Pinot Noir. Can cellar to 2035.
The other red wines (including
Ontario’s first Dolcetto)
Leaning Post Dolcetto 2023 ($45, wine club only, 92 points) — How exciting to taste Ontario’s first single-variety Dolcetto, a grape which means “little sweet one” and is mostly grown in the Italian region of Piedmont. But don’t judge a wine by its name or the translation, Dolcetto is seldom sweet, and the Leaning Post version is made in a completely dry style. The grapes were planted in the Senchuk Vineyard in 2020 and only yielded enough fruit to make two barrels of wine in 2023. It was aged for 15 months in a single one-year-old French oak barrel and the other in an older barrel. It starts with a note of violets on the nose followed by black cherries, purple plums, blackberries, brambly/savoury raspberries, some interesting herbaceous accents and cocoa and spice. It’s full-bodied and rich on the palate with assertive tannins providing structure for the ripe plums, dark cherries, floral notes, herbs and peppery spices on a long, lifted and layered finish. It would be fun to watch this age in the cellar as the tannins soften and fruits integrate further. Can cellar through 2034.
Leaning Post Grimsby Hillside Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2021 ($57, spring release, 92 points) — Senchuk sources his Cabernet Franc from the older vines in the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard. It’s aged for 20 months in a combination of new and older French and American oak barrels. It has an elevated, expressive nose of brambly wild raspberries, anise, mulled herbs, cassis, dark cherries, blackcurrants, cigar-box, savoury herbs, pepper and toasted spices. It’s highly structured on the palate with grippy tannins and ripe red and dark berries, currants, minty herbs, anise/black licorice, cedar notes, cocoa and rich spices on a long finish with mouth-watering acidity. Can cellar through 2036.
Leaning Post Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 ($68, winery now, 93 points) — The fruit for this surprising Cab Sauv from the tricky 2021 vintage in Niagara is sourced from the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard’s older vines. It’s aged for 22 months in 75% French and 25% American oak barrels with 50% of the barrels new. It shows a dark shade of red in the glass and has a big, expressive nose of black currants, blackberries, juicy dark cherries, leather, graphite, mocha and toasty spices. It’s highly structured on the palate with a medley of ripe dark berries and kirsch, earthy/savoury notes, supple tannins, meaty accents, toasted vanilla and spice on a long, luxurious finish. Really fine Cabernet Sauvignon that will reward with cellaring through 2035.
Leaning Post Cuvée Heritage 2021 ($79, spring release, 94 points) — The top red proprietary blend from Leaning Post is a combination of 46% Cabernet Franc, 34% Merlot, 12% Syrah and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon that’s aged in French and U.S. oak barrels, 40% new, for 22 months. It has an inviting nose of meaty, ripe blackberries, dark cherries and wild raspberries, strawberry tart, figs, lifted spice notes and black peppercorns. It’s highly structured with grippy tannins on the palate and loaded with ripe dark and red berries, anise/licorice, meaty/leather accents, and baking spices on a long, lifted and bright finish. This will continue to evolve in the cellar through 2038.
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