Wine Advice by GPCi - Where Passion Meets Reason...

The Cost-Benfit Wine Index. You like fine wines, want to have your own wine cellar, but feel lost with so much variety and expensive brands... GPCi (pronounce gypsy) will try to guide you to choose wines that are both high in quality and have a great cellaring potential relatively to their price. In addition, GPCi will look for some high quality wines for a good price regadless of cellaring potential

Thursday, September 29, 2005

GPCI - Niagara Peninsula - wineries tasting notes

Dear GPCI fans,
After more than a year, I'm trying to take my newsletter to "the next level" and provide you with my personal opinion on wines and share with you some of my tasting notes...

To join the Ontario wine celebrations that are ending this month, I traveled south to the Niagara Peninsula region and tried some wines from the less known (to me..) yet with good reputation wineries (at least in the books I've recently read).

In the list below, you'll find short (who has time to read too much these days...) tasting notes about 18 wines from 8 different wineries.
the rating is a scale of 5 where:
1 / 5 - poor - not my type
2 / 5 - poor to average (ok) - not exciting enough
3 / 5 - average to good
4 / 5 - good to very-good
5 / 5 - excellent / WOW

I feel the need to clarify that sometimes what I find as an "OK" wine can be considered by others as poor or very good wine - I'm just using my personal taste and the expectations I have from the wines I'm tasting...
Please feel free to think differently - there are no rights or wrongs when it comes to wine. YOU are the only ones who really know what's good for you!

Enjoy, Gaby.

* * *

Willow Heights Estate Winery - GPCI - 2.5 out of 5

Tasted "THE" wines of the winery;

• 2003 Chardonnay Reserve VQA $19.95
  Medium body, layers of lemon. Not enough oak and complexity. expected a bit more.
• 2002 Tresette Reserve VQA $29.95
  A left bank type of Meritage (i.e. more Cab Sauv than Merlot or Cab Frank). Medium body, fruity, simple, lacks complexity and strength one may expect from such a blend
  

Malivoire(Gravity flow winery. Organic) - GPCI - 4 out of 5
High quality - small yields approach.

• 2004 Gewurztraminer Estate Bottled VQA $26
  a nice combination of sweet and spice. Lots of layers. Great Gewrts!
• 2003 Cabernet Franc Estate Bottled VQA $28
  Medium-full body. Round. Meeting the expectations for cab frnak. Only 85 cases made. Drink now -2010. a great match to a juicy steak. Good value for the quality
• 2003 Old Vines Foch VQA $22
  I fell in love with this unique taste the first time in a restaurant - not knowing anything about the Marechal Foch. I found it different from all other wines I know. A medium-full body wine combining plums, vanilla and pepper. Drink now to 2008. great value for the quality.
  

Kacaba Vineyards
Tasted the top 3 red wines from the great 2002 red wine vintage; good quality but relatively expensive. GPCI - 3.5 out of 5

• 2002 CABERNET SAUVIGNON RESERVE $35
  meduim-full body. Good Cab. Round. Long finish. Tannis for mid term cellaring.
• 2002 CABERNET FRANC RESERVE $35
  meduim-full body. Good conscentration and dense. smokie. good finish. suggested cellaring by winery: 2006-2015.
• 2002 MERITAGE $40
  Good wine, but a bit disappointing after the 2 Cabs. I expected more from Meritage (Okanagan have excellent Canadian Meritage examples). It may have tasted more impressive if it would be the first wine to taste. It lack the power of the 2 cabs. Suggested cellaring by winery: 2006-2020 (!)
  

Cave Spring
Tasted 2 top CHARDONNAY and one Syrah: GPCI - 3.5 out of 5 (almost 4 if it wasn't for the Syrah)

• 2002 CHARDONNAY reserve VQA $19.95
  Great value for a very good Chardonnay.Full, 14%, buttery, okie (not too much), round, great finish. suggested cellaring by winery- Drink now - 2012
• 2002 CHARDONNAY CSV VQA $30
  Excellent Chardonnay. Full, 14.5%, long finish, has additional layers to his Reserve brother. suggested cellaring by winery - Drink now to 2017 (!)
• 2002 SYRAH VQA $24.85
  dissapointing - this is not what you're looking for in Syrah - it's a problem when you know what the French and American are producing from this grape - these heavy-itense wines. This Syrah was way too light.
  

Creekside Estate Winery
Great value for quality. The fact that the winemaker is from Australia is felt in the wines. GPCI - 3.5 out of 5 (the Chardonnay was a bit "too simple").

• 2001 Chardonnay $11.95
  good value for an OK Chardonnay. Nothing special.
• 2003 Shiraz $15.95
  Surprising for a Shiraz growing in Canada. Good value. Can be cellared for 2-3 years.
• 2001 Cab Sauv Reserve $29.95
  Really good, complex, full Cab. Can be cellared for additional 3-5 years.
• 2000 Cab Sauv Resreve $19.95
  Less complex than the 2001, but really good.
  

Coyote's Run : GPCI - 3 out of 5

• 2004 Charddonay Reserve $24
  Good medium/full-body-round-balanced Chardonnay. Presence of Oak, but not enough for my palate (too bad…).

Lailey : GPCI - 1.5 out of 5
Cab Sauv, Cab Frank and Foch - Unfortunately, all wines tasted were not meeting the expectations, too simple, "flat", "watery" type of wines. Maybe the samples that were provided were opened too long...

Jackson-Triggs ; GPCI - 4.5 out of 5

• 'PROPRIETORS'GRAND RESERVE' MERITAGE 2002 $ 19.95
  EXCELLENT Meritage ! A bordeaux right-bank blend (Merlot-dominant over the Cab Sauv and Franc). Full. Round. Complex. Will easily compete with "New World" wines. It could be cellared for at least 3-5 years. For this price buy at least 5 bottles!

# posted by Wine - Gaby's Potential Cellaring index (GPCi) @ 2:44 PM

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