Peller’s cab franc a memorable study in cool
Signature series wins InterVin’s best red of the year award
Sitting at my keyboard, I pause for a moment and just close my eyes, and try to recall my last wine tasting.
It’s been a couple of weeks, but I’m still stuck on the experience.
It’s one of those wines that you remember, maybe not all the nuances, but you know you really liked it, that it gave you an experience, it doesn’t happen often but that’s what wine can do for you.
I can think back this past year, and there have been about four wines that stay with me and the one today is the Peller signature series Cabernet Franc 2015.
The fact that it won red wine of the year in the InterVin International Wine Awards is just icing on the cake.
And it’s no surprise that the winery, helmed by Katie Dickieson as winemaker, also won Ontario winery of the year.
“One of the reasons I think InterVin is really cool,” says Dikieson. “Is because they have international wines in the competition.”
“It’s nice to see your wines in that lineup. Especially against some of those big brands that we see, shop and taste all the time.”
The winery itself has previously won best Canadian winery from Winealign another significant competition as well.
“The other part that is really cool is the judging panels,” she said.
“Peers, winemakers, wine writers, sommeliers it’s a total combination. Some who have very local palates and taste our wines all the time and some not as much.”
“The Ontario winery of the year is wonderful, it’s really nice because it’s the sum of the parts. It’s because of the scores of the individual wines and how they do.”
“So it’s awesome but the red wine award I was just over the top with.
“Especially since Cabernet Franc is my passion.”
She hopes this is a continuing trend.
“Our Cabernet Francs are standing up all over the place, lots of wines are doing well internationally.”
It also shows that it doesn’t have to be the blockbuster hot, dry vintage to make really lovely wine, really rich and textured, with lots of length.
“Not big bruising wines but lots of interest, the kind of wine you taste and you pick up your glass and keep tasting it.”
Dikieson recalls being in the Okanagan at the beginning of her career and very few people were making a single vineyard cab franc.
The winemaker she was working for made one that was rich and ripe and that’s what she wanted to create when she returned to Niagara.
“Our Carlton farm, this will be my focus,” said Dikieson. “I started fermenting the blocks simultaneously, being as scientific and geeky as we could. Picked on the same day, plunged the same way. Usually block ‘one’ is the strongest, and it was in 2015.
“When it’s a more classic Niagara vintage so cooler with a nice autumn that’s when block one shines, if it’s a really ripe year can get more stewed and jammy.”
Let me take a break and close my eyes again.
Those aromatics, floral, imagining purple flowers.
At first sip, the wine is still a bit tight, youthful, but it shows great promise. Some time decanting will do it better justice.
“Even a fully phenolicaly ripe red wine should still be refreshing,” says Dikieson. “That rang true with me. So, when you’re tasting, are you tired, do you want to have a nap? Or are you interested in a second glass? It’s that sort of refreshingness that it should have.
“It’s the same reason people drink sparkling or beer, it’s refreshing. Thirst quenching,” she says.
“Obviously you still want the red wine to have the richness, pairing well with protein, but that’s why I think the cool climate banner is one to raise because we have refreshment in spades.”
I asked her a question I hear all the time. What makes some wines more expensive than others?
The explanation was multifaceted according to the winemaker with the emphasis on the cost of production.
“You start with the fruit, yield. You can imagine if your chicken lays two eggs versus one egg, or your crop is 2.5 tonnes an acre versus six tonnes, so the crop is one thing, management of that block.
“How much are we doing by hand and how much is done mechanically while harvesting.
“Is it hand-picked, is it sorted, the fermenting vessels.
“For our top red we ferment four tonnes at a time instead of 20 tonnes at a time. So smaller ferment batches and whether it is fermented in oak.
“Usually for us, it starts with the fruit quality and then you add the human factor, more labour.”
After that, the price might jump directly because of the wine’s exclusivity or reputation.
She hopes that while a price might trigger something for the buyer, even when they try the entry-level wine they should find it to be a good wine whether at $12.95 or $60.
We sip the Iced Cuvee Rose, a newer interpretation using Gamay fruit with a dosage of Vidal Blanc.
The bubbles are soft, the colour of pink towards salmon. Delightful and delicate and a great way to greet guests or before a meal.
We sample the Rose made from the Gamay grape, another pleasure, a glass of wine that is both easy drinking but also will do so well with a variety of dishes.
With Peller Estates as the largest volume producer in the Andrew Peller portfolio of wineries, you might think it would taste like mass produced but it’s the careful attention by Dikieson and her crew to quality that shows in well-made wines across the whole portfolio.
“There is probably one vintage or varietal that brings a consumer to the winery, but what you want is the breadth of your portfolio to keep them there.
“Some time ago I was in France, I took a Bordeaux red from Niagara,” said Dickieson. “We had a blind tasting, and everyone thought it was from Bordeaux I mean everybody, people from all over the world.
“Then I revealed it, and they were surprised that we (Canada) make table wine.
“I think the interest is there it just takes time.”
You’ll pardon me as I close my eyes one more time and savour that wine.