Summer is firmly in our rear view mirror. I realize it’s a little strange to be making comments like this when most of us are starting to think about Christmas – but wasn’t 2018 just an awesome year? The weather was near perfect and I don’t know about you, I made the most of it. Maybe the reason I’m talking about summer has to do with what I refer to as Christmas in July. Ah yes – the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration. Every year I mark my calendar and start pining for those glorious bottles of Chardonnay from around the planet – I think even my podcasting co-host had his heart melted a bit during this years “School of Cool”. (Oh and your 2019 dates are July 19-21 – consider my Calendar marked)
This year I once again attended flight of Chardonnay hosted at the Niagara airport. It’s a walk around tasting hosted in one of the hangers at the airport. It’s a challenge to taste all the wines at the event, but it’s not really the point. What’s great about this event is the relaxed atmosphere in which these wines are presented. There is nothing pretentious about this event – and even if you’re not a hardened oenophile this is definitely an event worth checking out. It never ceases to amaze me how one grape grown in so many regions has so many interpretations – going from the light and crisp Blanc de Blanc Champagnes of France to the buttery tropical fruit bombs of California.
The thing that keeps me coming back to Flights of Chardonnay every year is the food. The food scene in Niagara and St Catharines has really hit it’s sweet spot over the past few years. Restaurants like Backhouse and Bolete are reasons to visit wine country in their own rights. If you didn’t have a chance to taste Andrew McLeod’s gochujang fried duck wines you missed out. A trio of tacos from Chilero were dynamite. And who doesn’t crave an oyster from Tide and Vine when you’re sipping on some light, crisp Cool Climate Chardonnay.
The wines at flights of Chardonnay offered many hits with few misses. Canada was very well represented again from both sides of the country with Lightfoot and Wolfville pouring and exceptional Brut Natur to Checkmate pouring 2014 Fool’s Mate Chardonnay. Thomas Bachelder – while his local wines are bottles that I covet – was representing Oregon and Chile with great bottles from Oregon and his new RST project. Champagne Collet brought some outstanding bubbles from France – but Niagara also brought the fizz with Chateau des Charmes and Rosehall Run both pouring fantastic local offerings.
Saturday I had an opportunity to do lunch at Strewn. Winemaker Marc Bradshaw has always done some interesting takes on Chardonnay by working with Canadian, French, and American Oak. He was hosting the fine people from Josef Chromy from Tasmania. It was very interesting to see how wines from Australia can still be truly cool climate. It’s moments like these where I realize that Ontario as a wine growing region can stand tall because there is no doubt left that our wines are as good as anywhere on the planet.
