Local vintages stand test of time

Take advantage of the wines produced during the warm, dry summer of 2016

Anyone with a passing interest in the wines made in Ontario has heard the buzz about the bottles produced in 2016. Even before the first grapes were harvested in August, 2016 was being heralded by pundits on social media as a nine or 10 out of 10. Things were pretty much perfect thanks to a warm and dry summer and fall that provided ideal conditions for grape growers in Ontario and exceptional quality raw materials for winemakers.

Of course, great grapes don’t always make for great wines. There’s a lot that can happen as those berries are processed from vine to wine to bottle.

“The vintage is what gets into the bottle,” winemaker Thomas Bachelder is fond of saying. From Montreal, Bachelder trained in Burgundy before landing in Ontario and is a veteran vintner used to dealing with the vagaries of Mother Nature.

Great wine can be made in lessthan-stellar vintages and so-so bottles can come from optimal ones. Tasting the wine is the best way to understand and appreciate

the quality of the finished product. Wine lovers can truly gauge the quality of the 2016 now that the top wines are coming on stream. Winery retail shops and LCBO outlets are starting to roll over inventory from the 2015 vintage to 2016 for top-of-the-line labels in the portfolio. The exciting news is that the hype is more than warranted. These are special wines — whites and reds alike — that show the ripeness and concentration of the warm season without falling victim to being too tannic, oaky or overworked. When given a so-called “California vintage” in the past, excited winemakers have pushed too hard to produce age-worthy and memorable wines. The wines then lost some of their drinkability and polish as a result.

In 2016, winemaking across the board was more reactive. The best wineries harnessed the potential of the fruit as they guided it throughout the process to bottling. So be sure to check out the Ontario selections as you shop for the fast-approaching holiday season; there’s a range of wines that represent some of the best bottles yet.

Christopher Waters is the co-founder and editor of Vines, a national consumer wine magazine.