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Lake Erie North Shore

With Gary Killops

Smith & Wilson Vista del Lago 2009 Gary gives it Four Stars

Viewpointe Syrah 2006 Gary gives them 3.7 on the five star system

Gary helps with Cooper’s Hawk Vineyards harvest

Harvest season arrived early at the Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island wineries. The long hot summer with heat wave after heat wave had the region facing one of the earliest harvests on record. Grapes such as Chardonnay, (that normally are picked in middle to late September) were picked as early as the last weekend of August.

As of the middle of September most white wine grapes have been picked. Merlot and all other red varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon will be ready very soon, weeks ahead of traditional harvest dates. All indications are that this will be an outstanding year for quality. In fact many winemakers believe that this just may be the best year yet.

Cooper’s Hawk Vineyards celebrated their first harvest this year. After four years of prepping, planting, and maintaining their new vines on their 90+ acre farm winery owner Tom O’Brien and his family finally saw the fruits of their labour. Perhaps by coincident, on Labour Day they invited family and friends to the vineyard to help hand pick Chardonnay grapes.

That afternoon, approximately two tonnes of grapes were handpicked and taken to the press. Tom O’Brien was all smiles. He is a really nice, easy going guy with a glowing personality. Tom is the type of guy that will be successful at whatever he does, and Cooper’s Hawk Vineyard will be no exception.

Tom O'Brien sampling some of the first Chardonnay juice from his vineyard

The first vineyard harvest was a day that I am sure Tom and his family will remember for the rest of their lives. Witnessing Tom take that first sip of the first free run juice was a moment I will never forget. Construction of the retail store and wine making facilities will begin shortly. Cooper’s hawk is located a mile or so from Lake Erie on land that was an old apple orchard. It’s a beautiful location on what appears to be the highest elevation on Iler Road. The vineyard currently has nine acres of Chardonnay, Riesling, Cab Franc along with some Pinot Noir and the experimental Harrow graft vines.

Lake Erie North Shore’s Future Growth

Currently the region has 14 wineries open for business making and selling VQA wines or fruit wines. Over the next year three more wineries plan to open their doors to the public.

North 42

Owned and operated by Martin Gorski and Suzanne Dajczuk. (Martin is brother to Bernie Gorski, owner of CREW – Colchester Ridge Estate Winery). North 42 celebrated their first harvest this year as well, and are in the process of building a new winery structure on the property.

Paglione Estate Winery

Located at 726 County Road 50 East, Harrow, ON will open soon. This winery is owned by Sam Paglione, who also
owns Paglione Sam Masonry in Kingsville.

Oxley Estate Winery

Oxley Estate Winery, located on the south side of County Rd 50 in Harrow recently planted 5 acres of vines
and plans to be open in 2012 or 2013.

Shores of Erie International Wine Festival

While some may disagree with me that the 6th annual Shores of Erie International Wine festival was a success let’s have a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The region’s premier wine event attracted approximately 20,000 visitors over the four days. Wine appreciation seminars were an important part of the festival. Tony Aspler, Canada’s leading wine expert and wine writer hosted a well attended seminar where he discussed sensory evaluations of wines and cellaring of wines. He also had on hand a limited supply of his recently published and autographed, “Cellar Book” for purchase. I say limited supply because a few people who wanted to buy a signed copy left disappointed when Tony Aspler ran out of books.

Later that evening all of the wineries at the festival were invited to present one or two of their wines to Tony Aspler for a tasting review. A day or so after the event he posted on Facebook, “Best wine I had at the Shores of Erie Wine Festival” - Viewpointe Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2006”, was his favourite but he was also impressed by the Syrahs being made in Lake Erie North Shore.”

The festival handed out plastic “govino” glasses this year. Apparently the wine glasses used in the past would easily break causing a cleanup nightmare for organizers. While they may not be great for those wanting to drink chilled white wine, they seemed to be a good overall solution.

The only real grumble I heard about over the weekend was about the new rules which festival organizers placed on the selling of wine at the event. They limited the number of admission tickets available for each day of the event. Saturday has always been the most popular day to attend and this year was no exception. Saturday only tickets sold out about a month before the event. I did a search on Kijiji a day or so before the event and noticed quite a few people where trying to hawk tickets for double the price. I wonder how many people bought a bunch of tickets on speculation with the plan on making a quick buck.

The organizers also limited bottle sales, stopping them two hours before the evening’s last call. Good or bad, the organizers really had no choice. Originally the AGCO was not even going to allow bottle sales, and this was a fair compromise. Anyone living in the area long enough will recall the old “Grape Fest”, which was held at the Caboto and Teutonia Clubs. The “Grape Fest” would have been better labelled the “Drunk Fest” as young twenty something’s gulped wine as though it was a pitcher of beer, not seeing or feeling what was about to hit them. Unfortunately, Saturday evenings at the Shores of Erie International Wine Festival was starting to look like the old grape festival so the AGCO stepped in to take control.

Yes, limiting ticket sales and bottle sales is going to hurt the bottom line for wineries. Wineries in the past have seen this weekend as a good opportunity to make money. Perhaps the time has come to change the focus of the event from wine consumption to wine promotion. Perhaps festival organizers will have to adjust booth cost for wineries too. My suggestion to organizers and wineries is to have more wine seminars (it is a wine festival after all) and wineries, instead of focusing on selling wine at this event, need to offer some sort of promotion to get people to visit their winery to buy wine there.

About Gary Killops

Gary writes and reviews wines from Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island wine regions on his blog at http://www.EssexWineReview.com Growing up in Essex County he wasn't aware that there were so many local wineries producing excellent wines. A visit to a local winery one Saturday afternoon changed that. Now most weekends are spent visiting wineries, talking with wine makers and enjoying wine from the area.

Gary's report Summer 10 Nov 09, Dec 09

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