Wine Region: Ontario

(2023) It's around a decade since I had a big wine touring professional trip to Ontario, but having returned on holiday late in 2023 I discovered just how much the wine industry on the Niagara Peninsula had grown, and how good the wines were. Here's a Niagara Pinot were whole clusters where wild yeast-fermented before 23 months in French oak. And it is a lovely wine: pale and almost translucent, sous-bois and cherry, a gentle smokiness and a sappy touch of something herbal to add interest. In the mouth the coffee character from the barrels gives a really gentle and dark underpinning to the fruit. Tannins are elegant and acidity well-balanced, in a rather lovely Pinot.

(2020) Icewine is a realy Canadian speciality, the grapes harvested in sub-zero night-time temperatures so that much of the water content is dispelled when the fruit is pressed, leaving a super-sweet, thick and unctuous dessert wine. This is a very good example, made from Vidal which always gives a warming, golden, honeyed aroma of ripe apricot, here the engine-oil thickness of the wine on the palate sweet and exotic, like the ripest mango and lychee, a burnished toasty background, then very good lime jelly acidity to balance. A great wine in half-bottles, for very sweet desserts or to sip on its own after dinner.

(2014) Dense, crimson stuff from Ontario with lots of ripe black fruit appeal - cassis and plum with a touch of tobacco. The palate has sweetness and juiciness - this is like a big spoonful of blackcurrant jam, dipped in a pot of espresso, finishing with sweetness and still enough structure.

(2006) Aged in American oak and with 15% Cabernet Franc in the blend, this is a big, spicy, crushed velvet style of wine, with masses of raisiny sweetness and a liquoricy, mouth-filling finish.

(2006) Very delicate colour and an earthy nose with touches of bracken and truffle, and redcurrant fruit. Soft, sweet, raspberry fruit on the palate with good balance and a savoury finish.

(2006) A Bordeaux blend aged in a combination of French and American oak, this has a cedar, black cherry and chocolate nose with a deep, plummy, bittersweet fruitiness and good length.

(2006) Spice, cracked pepper and schisty minerals join with a cherry bubblegum character in an intriguing wine. Finely honed blue/black fruit in the palate is lip-smacking and delicious.

(2006) Lovely tight, bright aromatics, with a fine herbal edge to the nose of citrus and white currants. On the palate there's a blast of pithy grapefruit and lemon and a streak of mineral acidity.

(2006) I loved this white wine, with its smoky, juicy, highly aromatic nose of tropical fruits, lime zest and nutty, toffeed oak. The palate is chewy and filled with fruit, yet with crisp, taut minerality.

(2006) Displaying pure, scintillating lemon zest and green apple fruit on the nose, the palate goes on to display a waxy texture and toasty notes of sesame seed with plenty of zing and zest.