Wines of Canada in London

The High Commission (Embassy) of Canada  in London hosted a tasting of Canadian wines organized by Westbury Communications.

Peter McCombie held a masterclass together with Janet Dorozynski and here below are my main takeaways.

Most wine lovers (including myself) assume that Canada is a cold wine region. It is way up there in the northernmost part of America after all right? Well, yes and no. The climate can cold, but Canada's wine making region share their latitude with some of the mainstream classic areas in Europe we do not always associate with the work "cold". Ontario is on par with Tuscany when it comes to latitude.

There are 700 wineries in Canada which get their grapes from 1770 growers. Some 14,000 hectares of land are dedicated to vines in 4 main regions:

Here are my tasting notes.

1 Blomidon nv

Fresh wine with a zesty tone

40mos on  lees

Score 86

2 Lightfoot 2016

100% chardonnay 

Also quite fresh but 48 months lees allow a more fragrant impression

Balanced more complex

Score 89

3 Norman Hardie 2020

100% chardonnay

Complex smooth long 

Score 90

4 Le Clos Jordanne 2021

100 chardonnay

Very light canary yellow 

Smooth soft sensation prevail 

Score 86

5 Spear Head 2022

chardonnay clone 95 100%

Balanced, complex. Vanilla.

Score 91

6 Big Head chenin blanc 2022 RAW

Low intervention 

Concrete , unfiltered, light botrytis

Balance, Slight bitter end

Score 91

7 Bachelder 2022

gamay 100%

Fresh, said, good structure, raspberry 

Score 90

8 Leaning Post 2020

pinot noir 2020 

Structure complexity length a high quality wine which ever way you look at it.

Score 92

9 Pelham 2022

Baco Noir, hybrid vine (vinifera/riparia) produced by Francis Baco in Nova Scotia. Old vines 

Ripe cherries, sweet end, an easy wine that is very popular in Canada 

Score 85

10 stratus 2020

Cab franc 100%

Fruity fresh, powerful structure needs time 

Score 92

11 poplar Grove 2020

Syrah blend 

Fruit and structure, good length and complexity 

Score 93

The final two wines of the day were icewines. My spell checker tries to correct me every time but icewine in Canada is spelled in one word! I have written about Canadian icewine before on this blog.

12 icewine reif estate 2019

Riesling

Very complex long 

Score 95

13 icewine Lakeview 2019

Vidal

Veeery sweet, lacks that bit of freshness that makes for a perfect icewine.

Score 86