Creekside wins big at Ontario Wine Awards
Founding winemaker, an Australian, gambled on the grape that’s the most grown in his homeland
Rob Power might just be the person who writers of quotes about worrying had in mind when penning their words of wisdom.
The winemaker at Creekside Estate Winery in Jordan Station is a self-professed worrywart.
But on Thursday during the 24th annual Ontario Wine Awards, he confirmed Walt Disney’s famous mantra — “Why worry?” — when he and Creekside swept the Quench Magazine Syrah/Shiraz Award, nabbing gold, silver and bronze in the category.
“It’s an internal pat on the back,” Power said after the awards ceremony at Niagara College. “And by an internal pat on the back I mean with all winemaking you very rarely get that internal gratification. For me, I spend my whole life worrying that I got it right.”
The Creekside Syrahs netting hardware at the awards — considered the industry’s Oscars honouring Ontario’s VQA vintages — were its 2015 Broken Press Syrah Reserve (Gold); 2015 Iconoclast Syrah (Silver); and the 2016 Syrah (Bronze).
Creekside is one of only a handful of Ontario wineries producing Syrah, which isn’t the most cold-hardy or suitable for growing here. It was Creekside’s founding winemaker, an Australian named Marcus Ansems, who gambled on the grape that’s the most-planted in his much warmer homeland.
“I’m not sure he knew exactly what he was getting into when he planted Syrah but it paid off in the end,” Power said. “He may have thought it would be a slam dunk like in Australia with Shiraz.”
Creekside also won gold for its 2016 Iconoclast Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, and
silver for both its 2017 Rosé, made with Syrah, and its 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon.
In total, more than 468 wines from 72 Ontario wineries were submitted for judging.
While it’s not uncommon to see a winery’s name sprinkled throughout the list of winners, hat tricks within a category
are rare, noted awards founder Tony Aspler.
Shiraz Mottiar, winemaker at Malivoire Wine Company, could be in the running for the record for most sweeps at the Ontario Wine Awards, however. For the second time in his career, he cleaned up in the Gamay category, winning gold for Malivoire’s 2016 Courtney Gamay, silver for the 2017 Small Lot Gamay, and bronze for the 2017 Gamay.
Some in the industry would argue Gamay is one of Ontario’s flagship reds, but it wasn’t always revered, especially when early adopters of the variety, like Malivoire, first planted Gamay 20 years ago.
“It was a style of wine we wanted to make and truly believe in. It’s taken a lot of years,” Mottiar said. “We’ve kind of got a few things figured out. I love Gamay and working with the grapes and when you’re there, it’s a real thrill to see all the Gamays you make medal.”
Sweeping a category speaks to how wineries like Malivoire and Creekside are “setting the bar” in the industry for certain varietals, Aspler said.
“They’ve taken a lot of care and thought. They’ve planted the vines in the right spots. They’re obviously very knowledgeable about their vineyards, how to produce the best fruit and how to vinify,” he said. “It gives them a lot of confidence to continue what they’re doing and the professional judges appreciate what they’re doing. And this, one hopes, trickles down to the consumer …. Make it and they will come.”
Other wineries that walked away with handfuls of hardware include The Foreign Affair Winery and Two Sisters Vineyards, both of which won four awards, and Peller Estates, which scored three medals.
Karl Kaiser, the founding winemaker at Inniskillin Wines who died of complications from a stroke last November, was honoured for his work making Canada a world-class icewine producer with the Vidal Icewine Tribute Award.
Prince Edward County vintner Norman Hardie was named Winemaker of the Year.