Essex Wine Review

2008 Pinot Gris Vendange Tardive

Winemaker’s Notes:
Pinot Gris at it’s best produces wines that are soft, perfumed with more color than most other white wines.

Food Recommendations:
With a rich pear flavor and a touch of sweetness this wine makes an ideal aperitif. It is best with old age cheese, blue cheese, nuts (walnuts) and Peking duck.

Grape Composition: 100% Pinot Gris
Alcohol: 13%
Sugar Code: (0)

VQA Pelee Island
Price: 750 mL $15.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Pinot Gris 2008

Winemaker’s Notes:
One of our fullest reds, with the warmhearted character that Merlot fans enjoy. A good balance of richness, mellow sweet flavours and the essential bite for food. Delicious now but could be aged a year or two.

These grapes were left on the vine until early October.

This wine would be excellent slightly chilled and served with a beef or lamb dish. A superb choice for the summer BBQ or dinner table.

GRAPES: 85% Merlot - 15% Zweigelt
ALCOHOL: 13.5%
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 3.0 g/L
Sugar Code: (0)

VQA Ontario

Price: 750 mL $12.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Merlot Reserve 2008

Winemaker’s Notes:
Not quite a dry wine, Gewurztraminer is a pleasant afternoon glass by itself, and has enough weight and length to match well with spicy dishes, seared scallops or veal scallopini.

GRAPES: 100% Gewurztraminer
Alcohol: 12.5 %
Sugar Code: (1)

VQA Ontario

Price: 750 mL $14.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Gewurztraminer Reserve 2006

Winemaker’s Notes:
Ripe smooth and polished, this full-bodied Pinot Noir has elegant black cherry, currant and toasted oak flvours. This wine is best enjoyed with red meats, roast pork and ham.

The harvest for these grapes was in late September when they had reached 22.8 brix. The grapes were crushed but not pressed, then placed in a temperature-controlled rotary fermenter (18-20 degrees Celsius) for 5 to 7 days to draw out the colour from the skins. They were then pressed and the juice was placed in European-style French Oak barrels to finish fermenting. After about two weeks the wine was racked into an aging-barrel.

During maturation, the wine spent about eight to twelve months in European-style French Oak barrels with about 25 to 30% of the wine experiencing a malolactic fermentation.

This wine is best when enjoyed with grilled or roasted red meats, roasted pork, ham and Atlantic Salmon.

GRAPES: 100% Pinot Noir
ALCOHOL: 13.5%
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 2.9 g/L
Sugar Code: (0)

VQA Pelee Island

Price: 750 mL $14.95

Awards: 2009 Ontario Wine Awards BRONZE

Rate and review Pelee Island Pinot Noir Reserve 2007

Wine for people who enjoy a robust, rustic wine. The feeling of a cottage in the woods and a campfire.

Winemaker’s Notes:
The grapes were harvested in September when they had reached 19.6 degrees brix. They were then fermented for eight days in a temperature controlled stainless steel tank.

Due to this wine’s full body, it is ideally suited with game meats, roast beef or steak. Some specific dishes that we would recommend with this wine would be pastas with tomato meat sauces, pizzas and backyard barbecues.

GRAPES: 100% Baco Noir
ALCOHOL: 12.5%
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 4.9 g/L
Sugar Code: (0)

VQA Ontario

Price: 750 mL $10.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Baco Noir 2008

Winemaker’s Notes:
The Cabernet Sauvignon is the world’s most renowned grape variety for producing fine, long-lived red wines. The combination of tannins, pigments and flavour compounds produce big wines that evolve over the years into wines with a distinct and subtle bouquet.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon is VQA Pelee Island, meaning that it is 100% Pelee Island and certainly does justice to the unique growing conditions on the Island.

Long, hot and dry summers have augmented this small berries’ characteristics, with hand-picked care and 15 months of oak aging in French and Hungarian oak barrels to produce a wine that will only improve over the next decade….and beyond.

These grapes were harvested in mid-October when they had reached 21 degrees brix. Following the harvest they spent 7 days in a rotor fermenter.

This wine has the ability to stand up to red meat in sauce or grilled game and even sausages. Its hearty staying power makes it a great winter warm-up!

GRAPES: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc
BRIX: 21°
ALCOHOL: 13%
ACID: 5.1 g/L
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 2.8 g/L

VQA Pelee Island
Price: 750 mL $24.95

AWARDS:
Intervin International Wine Awards 2009 - Silver
Canadian Wine Awards 2008 - Bronze
Challenge International Du Vin France 2008 - Bronze
Ontario Wine Awards 2008 - Silver

Rate and review Pelee Island Cabernet Sauvignon 2005.

Winemaker’s Notes:

The grapes were harvested during the last week of September and the first week of October when they had reached 20 degrees brix. They were then fermented in stainless steel tanks for the next four weeks.

This wine is a perfect compliment to appetizers, seafood, cheeses and light meats. A great pair would be a nice scallop dish with a wonderful light creamy white sauce and some crisp, fresh vegetables straight from the garden. Sounds delicious!

Distinctive dry Riesling zest and uplifting character. A WOW for sure! The tease of peach flavour adds fun to the vitality

GRAPES: 100% Riesling

VQA Ontario
12.5% alc./vol.

Price: 750 mL $10.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Riesling Dry 2008.

Winemaker’s Notes:
This wine is an ideal partner for light chicken dishes, seafood, vegetables, fresh cheeses and appetizers. Imagine a light lunch with friends consisting of a shitake mushroom and havarti cheese quiche with a mixed green salad drizzled with a light vinaigrette dressing and a glass of our Pinot Gris chilled to perfection. Or maybe just sipping a glass of this wine under the stars with your sweetheart. Either way, this is a deliciously delicate wine that you are sure to enjoy.

Pinot Grigio has a hint of bronze colour with a subtle bouquet of soft peach and almond. With its balanced acidity and apple-like finish, this wine makes an ideal partner for light chicken dishes or seafood. Yes, Pinot Gris is the same as Pinot Grigio.

GRAPES: 89% Pinot Gris, 11% Riesling

AWARDS: Gold - Ontario Wine Awards 2009 (Vines Magazine Pinot Gris Award)

VQA Ontario
12.5% alc./vol.

Price: 750 mL $11.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Pinot Grigio 2008.

Winemaker’s Notes:

These are picked early in the day in mid-October when they have reached 20.2 brix, and arrive at the winery within hours of picking. The grapes are destemmed, crushed and fed into a rotor fermenting tank. Maturation temperature for this wine is controlled at 26 degrees Celsius. The key to the intense flavours and spicy aromas are the mature grapes and modern technology. This modern piece of technology allows for strict temperature control during fermentation; its gentle agitation of the wine extracts more colour and tannin from the skins; and the partial pressure this vessel is under during the time of fermentation allows higher concentration of fruit flavors to remain in the wine. Finally, this wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in the barrel room, which stabilizes its red colour and enhances its firm tannic finish.

This Cabernet Franc is best served with pasta or red sauce, barbecued foods, roast beef or lamb.

You will find very ripe, plummy-sweet flavours and richness in this wine. There is also a rustic character. The French would call it a bistro, elbows on the table wine.

VQA Ontario
13% alc./vol.

Price: 750 mL $10.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Cabernet Franc 2008.

Winemaker’s Notes:
Best served well chilled, this wine is an agreeable companion to spicy or barbecued foods. It is also a beautiful wine to drink on its own on a hot summer day.

Our Pelee Pink is a popular choice during those warm summer months. This wine has been cool fermented (18 degrees celsius) to maximize its fruit flavours.

GRAPES: 85% Chambourcin, 15% Geisenheim

VQA Ontario
12.2% alc./vol.

Price: 750 mL $10.95

Rate and review Pelee Island Pelee Pink 2008