Buying bottles and tasting whites
Kim and I drove down to Niagara-on-the-Lake today to buy bottles for all my icewine and whites. We decided on 12 cases of the dark brown tall-shouldered (Bordeaux-style) Icewine bottles, and five cases of green hock bottles for the Riesling and Gewurztraminer.
While we were down there, we hit a few wineries to try and find a nice white to go with the lobster we were going to have with dinner:
Lailey: I really like their Pinot, so I was looking forward to going there for the first time. Unfortunately, none of their whites really worked for either Kim or I -- they're all quite dry (which was nice) but too acidic for our tastes. I know Riesling is supposed to be acidic, but these were a bit much.
13th Street: Hmmmm, the 2006 Funk Vineyard Riesling was our pick of the day -- perfectly balanced, not too acidic, and delightfully fresh with great citrus fruit and minerality.
Malivoire: Unfortunately, they were out of the wine we were specifically looking for -- a delightful spritzy Chardonnay Musque, that's only 8%, $18 and is one of our favourite summer wines. We tasted through a few other whites, but nothing really grabbed us beneath our $25 ceiling (the Moira Chardonnay is great, it's also pricey at $36).
Fielding: Damn their Viognier turned out great. New for 2006, this was much anticipated and did not disappoint -- full mouthfeel, but not as thick as Viognier found in California; and great Viognier fruit: lemon, pear & apricot. At $30 it's a bit pricey, but it sure is tasty.
We also walked away with one of their last 18 bottles of the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, another of our favourites -- a perfectly balanced, crisp Sauv Blanc with a touch of residual sugar, a grassy nose and a mouth full of peach flavour.