Wine Tour 1: Angels Gate

Just a brief summary of yesterday's tour. According to the news this morning, I had a narrow escape on my way down to wine country: someone scattered sharp metal shards along highway 407 in the westbound lanes about an hour before I got to that stretch of road. Dozens of cars had to pull off the road with slashed tires as a result. We saw no sign of it by the time we passed through that section — kudos to the maintenance crews on the ETR.

The weather looked briefly promising, as the sun came out just as we turned around the west end of Lake Ontario, but it was a promise unfulfilled: the rain started up about an hour later and continued pretty much the entire day from that point onwards.

Bren's choice for our first stop was Angels Gate. We've always enjoyed our visits here, but today was particularly good: aside from a couple of gentlemen trying to meet with the winemaker, we were uninterrupted for over an hour of visiting time. Between the two of us, we sampled a broad selection of very nice wines, without being jostled by other visitors, or (much, much worse) shoehorned out of the way by arriving bus tourists.

We started off looking at some chardonnays: the 2002 and 2003 (only available as futures right now) and the 2003 and 2004 Old Vines. While each of them was worth some attention, it was the 2003 Old Vines which captured my full attention. The initial aroma rising from the glass was buttered asparagus . . . not something I've encountered with many chardonnays before. The body was very fresh (the winemaker doesn't believe in over-oaking chardonnay), with only a bit of vanilla. A very nice wine for the price ($23.95).

The 2004 Pinot Noir was fruity and bright . . . pleasant, refreshing even, but not yet a challenge to the great Burgundy wines. At a tiny fraction of their prices, that's not a problem. I'm no expert (as reading my past reviews would tell you), but this doesn't seem to be a wine that will benefit from a lot of cellaring: a year or two would probably be fine, but it's not a 10- or 20-year cellar prospect.

The bargain of the visit was the 2003 Cabernet-Merlot. At $15.95, this was a very good (not overly fruity) Bordeaux-style wine. I was amazed at how much aroma developed after the wine had been put through a decanting funnel (something that until yesterday I'd considered pretty much just a showy toy for tasting bars). This wine has plenty of tannins, so it could be aged for a while, but it's drinking well right now. Decant this one for an hour or so, and then pair it with some steak . . . wonderful stuff.

The 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon had some serious tannins . . . aging would be a good thing . . . but they're pretty much sold out now. The 2003 Cabernet Franc also benefitted from decanting/aerating. It showed violet flowers and saddle leather on the nose, with a good, mouth-filling body. Not quite as good a bargain as the Cabernet-Merlot blend, but still a good buy at $18.95.