A sneak peek at Cattail Pinot Gris
One of the nice things about doing this column is getting a sneak peek every once in a while of a new vintage or wine at a particular winery.
Sometimes it’s tasting from the barrel, which gives a direction of where a wine is going to go. Sometimes it’s opening up a bottle waiting in boxes, about to be released.
But it’s not often that we open up a bottle sans label or any other markings.
So, Roselyn Dyck, winery manager at Cattail Creek Estate, explained to me that we’re tasting the new Pinot Gris that the winery is going to be introducing at Cuvee later this month.
While the winery started in 2006, its roots go much further back to the mid-70s when Renate and Ken Dyck planted vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake and started selling grapes for wine.
Fast forward a bunch of vintages, and we have Cattail today, an operation with significant grape sales but also making a name for its own wines.
“The identity of Cattail has changed over the last few years,” said Dyck.
“We focused on being the small hidden gem, that people find, then had that idea we had to go big,” she said.
“We did go into the LCBO and other provinces for a few years and found that it doesn’t fit for us. It took the fun out of it.”
Dyck said demands on production over the past few years cemented the decision to scale things back and go back to the winery’s regional plan.
“We’re making wine that people are going to enjoy drinking, but were not making it based on a cookie cutter that it has to hit that sales target,” she said.
“We’re having more success. Our old vines Riesling, our original style of very dry, very lean, very crisp, is one of our bestselling whites that we sell — small quantities and wines that were really proud of.”
Which leads us to the Pinot Gris in an un-labelled bottle.
Winemaker Steve Byfield, now in his fourth vintage with the winery, expects that Cattail will have about 110 cases of the wine once bottled.
Byfield was excited when the family recently bought a vineyard down the road, which had a small block of Pinot Gris grapes.
While a lot of the grapes were sold to other wineries, he described the vineyard as a workhorse, which contained several different varietals.
“If we can keep some for ourselves that would be great,” he recalled saying.
“It is a pretty popular variety at the LCBO. People would be looking for it. It’s a known variety plus it’s new for the store.
“I walked this block before the fruit was harvested, it was a little slow in getting to the brix that we wanted,” said Byfield of the new release. “Even though it got the irrigation (because of the hot, dry summer) we let it hang a little longer. The quality of the juice was immediate.”
He said there isn’t a lot of Pinot Gris planted because traditionally other grape varieties do better.
“I think it’s a challenge only based upon where the locality may be. If it was sandy soil, it might not be ideal — you get a high yield, and you will lose out on some of the nuances the grape can give you.
“Here the wines are more expressive. Because of the warmer locality they ripen in a much more satisfactory way,” he added. “At the end of the day, you get a true expression of what the grape can give you. “
Byfield explained that the wine was made in an Alsatian style, full in flavour but with a bit more acidity that props up the fruit, the aromatics and structure of the wine.
Fragrant on the nose, the wine hides the pinky hue sometimes attributed to Pinot Gris.
On the palate, the wine is supple, with flavours of pear and a hint of honey. Not sweet mind you, with only two grams of residual sugar.
A balanced wine with nice length, it will sell for $18.95 at the winery after its launch.