I love Pinots, so food friendly. A perfect compliment to poultry like turkey we so often end up eating at holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving! And Ontario make some excellent ones! This wine is garnet in color with a lovely varietal nose of soft red berries. On the mid palate the wine matches the nose with lovely soft red berries, strawberry and raspberries. There a hint of oak/smokiness as well. On the medium length finish the wine displays some nice vibrant acidity, nice dryness and smooth tannins. This is an elegant well made pinot. I would give it an 88+. Very nice indeed!!!
From the LCBO web site Check stock:
13th Street Essence Pinot Noir 2011 — VINTAGES#: 237222
Essence wines, this is where you find the personality of Colas, this is his playground, a place where he can make the wines that best express the best of the vintage, his take on the vintage. The Pinot shows black cherry, meaty-loamy notes, truffles and swirling spices on the nose. It is built with structure, designed to age, with ripe, assertive tannins, savoury cherry flavours, currants, earthy and spicy but doesn’t seem over the top on the palate. My temptation would be to lay this down for a while to bring it all into harmony. Score – 92. (Rick VanSickle, winesinniagara.com, Nov. 27, 2014) $44.95
PRODUCT DETAILS
Release Date:October 5, 2017
Alcohol/Vol 14.0% Made in:Ontario, Canada By:Thirteenth Street Wine Corp. Sugar Content: 2 g/L Sweetness Descriptor: XD – Extra Dry
From the winery’s web site:
TECHNICAL NOTES
APPELLATION: VQA Niagara Peninsula
VINEYARD(S): Various
GRAPE VARIETY(IES): 100% Pinot Noir
BRIX AT HARVEST: 23.5 average
ALCOHOL CONTENT: 13%
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 3 grams – dry
TASTING NOTES
Attractive medium ruby core. Medium plus intensity with dried cherry, cranberry, currant, plum and warm baking spice. Tea leaves, damp earth and cherry pit round out this complex nose. Dry with medium body and medium plus acidity. High toned red fruits are surrounded by youthful fruit tannin and the medium finish brings flavours of cacao powder and stone fruit.
This wine will certainly benefit from 12 to 18 months ageing before it has mellowed enough to show its best. When ready, serve cool at 18oC in fine Pinot Noir designed stemware alongside all manner of poultry, semi-soft alpine cheeses and flavourful beef or veal dishes.
WINEMAKING NOTES
The fruit for this wine was sourced primarily from our own old estate vines as well as the best barrels from our younger vines and purchased fruit from select growers. All fruit was hand-picked between mid-October and mid-November and each batch was handled separately. After early morning picking into small bins the grapes were transported to the winery where further manual sorting took place. After de-stemming and crushing, the grapes and must were moved into open-top stainless steel tanks where fermentation took place at an average of 24oC. Punching down was utilized during primary fermentation and post fermentation maceration on the skins lasted for 20 days. 80% of the wine, along with the fine lees, was moved to 10% new and 90% seasoned French oak barrels where malo ensued. The remaining 20% remained in tank. The wines were aged for 12 months in wood and after final blending were fined and lightly filtered before bottling in August 2013.
