By Rick VanSickle To fully comprehend what Westcott Vineyards has accomplished in 10 short years of crafting wine in Niagara, you need to taste the portfolio across the full spectrum. They have found their cadence; a comfortable rhythm that brings together vineyards, key grape varieties, a distinct house style, and a clear vision for the future. Owners Carolyn Hurst and husband Grant Westcott (below) gave up successful careers in technology and banking only to “retire” to Niagara and have worked harder than they ever have before to get to this point. And it’s beginning to pay off. As Hurst fr ..read more

By Rick VanSickle In this Niagara Wine Report, we focus on a strong Vintages release on Saturday that features some of the top names in Niagara Pinot Noir as well as stellar Chardonnay and a highly rated Riesling. The Pinots we can recommend are produced by Westcott, Domaine Queylus and Le Clos Jordanne, while the Bachelder Estate Bench Chardonnay, much awarded Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling, and a Cabernet from Sue-Ann Staff are also highlights of the release. But first, in his own words, Jamie Slingerland, the director of viniculture at Pillitteri Estates Winery and a staunch voice for grapes gr ..read more

By Rick VanSickle That’s one small step for wine, one giant leap for winekind, as consumers will soon find out when the first space wine made with zero gravity yeast grown in the absence of the sun’s radiation is released. Even better … it’s from Niagara, specifically Vineland Estates on the Twenty Mile Bench. Our story begins three kilometres underground in the SNOLAB, a world-class science facility located in the operational Vale Creighton nickel mine in Thunder Bay, then to NASA and launched into deep space on a rocket ship, then back to Earth and finally into a 600 L tank wrapped in a spa ..read more

By Rick VanSickle In this Ontario Wine Report, we focus on the return of Corks & Forks to Kingston, a new bubbly from Nyarai Cellars and our picks from two Vintages releases. But first … Kingston wine festival returns in April Corks & Forks – Kingston’s Wine Festival is set to return this spring to showcase great Canadian wines as well as the city’s hospitality and entertainment scene. The weekend festival is taking place April 21-22 and will appeal to anyone who enjoys discovering new wines and meeting winemakers and wine industry personalities. “We are delighted to be one of the hos ..read more

By Rick VanSickle If you want to talk about perseverance in the Ontario wine industry, look no further than Mauro Scarsellone, co-owner of the Ridgepoint Winery on Niagara’s Twenty Mile Bench. How else do you explain growing a grape you love dearly and is rooted in your Italian heritage, but has almost no history in Niagara and fails nearly as often as it succeeds in a climate that’s not at all friendly to persnickety grapes? How in the world can you account for making a wine that spends 70 months in what starts out to be new oak and eventually drains the life out of every barrel it meets? Sc ..read more

By Rick VanSickle The more I taste the 2020 red wines from Niagara the more I am convinced that Cabernet Franc benefited most from those sun-drenched days that defined the vintage. Also in this Ontario Wine Report: Icewine production in decline, nominations of for Canadian Wine Industry Awards, big savings at LCBO stores, and Niagara wine picks at Vintages. Cab Franc is enjoying a moment; one I didn’t see coming for mainstream consumers who tend to shy away from this grape that has been too often misunderstood as the lesser of the three top Bordeaux red varieties and undeserving of top billin ..read more

By Rick VanSickle When three bon vivants get together and attempt to out bon vivant each other on a subject they know all too well, it makes for an enjoyable evening of food, wine, and quick-witted banter. The event, a winemaker dinner hosted by John Nadeau (centre in top photo) and featuring the wines from Donald Ziraldo (left) and 2027 Cellars’ Kevin Panagapka (right), was held at the Twisted Pig Italian Kitchen in Port Dalhousie on a recent Wednesday evening and was reminiscent of those pre-COVID days when such things took place in a crowded room filled with good friends, laughter and a ste ..read more

By Rick VanSickle Sometimes a bottle of wine isn’t just a bottle of wine; it’s born of a discovery, a chance encounter by an inquisitive winemaker who sees diamonds in the rough. Such was the case in the fall of 2020. A gorgeous vintage was unfolding with warm temperatures through the summer and fall resulting in plump ripe fruit on the vines. Peter Gamble, winemaker/consultant for the new Stonebridge Vineyards brand owned by Faik Turkmen (who also owns Lailey), was happily picking Merlot in late October in a Four-Mile Creek vineyard when something caught his eye in an adjacent property. Laile ..read more

By Rick VanSickle The early days of the Ontario wine industry are slowly but surely fading from memory, the paper it was printed on is now turning brittle, and those long forgotten stashed boxes of clippings are being relegated to the annals of history. Those beginning days of the modern wine industry in Ontario, led by Donald Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser (below) with the founding of Inniskillin in 1975, laid the groundwork for a new, exciting wine region that many thought would never yield grapes good enough to rival the best wines in Europe. Inniskillin and the other early wine pioneers faced fie ..read more

By Rick VanSickle Niagara’s Flat Rock Cellars is no stranger to providing some of the geekiest consumer wine experiments in the region. Also is this Canadian Wine Report: A first look at B.C.’s Da Silva Vineyards and Winery, and a highly cellarable red blend from Henry of Pelham. Clonal comparisons, wild vs commercial yeasts in fermentations, barrel selection, single block side-by-side bottlings, experimental plantings, cork vs screwcap … the list goes on and on at Flat Rock, a champion for the Twenty Mile Bench. The good thing about these working experiments, other than satisfying their own ..read more