One of Ontario’s and Canada’s historic wineries, Cave Spring, established in 1986 by Len Pennachetti and his childhood friend Angelo Pavan, was one of the first wineries to go all in on Vitis vinifera varieties at a time when not many in Canada believed such wine grapes could really survive the Ontario winter. Cave Spring, a true Riesling specialist that makes a slew of different and outstanding Riesling wines from different vineyards, has proven everybody wrong and then some. Over the years, the winery has experimented with many other varieties too (for example, for example with Chenin, but it really does have trouble with the winter cold) and today makes a number of outstanding wines from the likes of not just Riesling but Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay Musqué, Chardonnay, and more, including an appassimento-styled red called La Penna. The winery produces about 600,000 bottles a year and a new generation is now at the helm with Len’s brother Tom and a new viticulturist and winemaker, Gabriel (Gabe) Demarco, who apprenticed for years under Pavan (who finally stopped coming into work every day, his life’s work so you can understand him, beginning 2021). NV Rosé Brut Beamsville Bench Niagara Peninsula – 92 From fruit culled in the 2020 vintage, this is an absolutely drop-dead, gorgeous Rosé sparkler, brimming with nuances of cranberry, plum and sweet spices, complicated by a hint of pine needles. Closes long, classically dry (2 g/L residual sugar) lifted and vibrant (9 g/L total acidity). They liked Gamay at the winery and wanted to try making a sparkler with it as it has in Niagara good acidity and light phenols. First such bottling ever made by Cave Spring, this lovely pink wine spent 27 months on the lees. It is 93% Gamay and 7% Chardonnay picked from the Cave Spring Vineyard. Not unreasonably, they felt at the winery that given the ripe, hot year the added freshness provided by the Chardonnay would help. A very nicely sophisticated wine and offers lots of bang for your buck. Drinking window: 2026-2029. NV Blanc de Blancs Beamsville Bench – 93 Cave Spring didn’t start out as a sparkling wine specialist but has turned itself into one with each passing year. Really, this Blanc de Blancs is always spot on and really gives any generic Champagne brand’s normal cuvées a run for their money, and then some. Very fresh on the nose and in the mouth,with nicely saline nuances to the almond, lemon curd and orchard fruit aromas and flavours. Very long on the back end, this 100% Chardonnay is based on the 2022 vintage and spent about three years on lees in bottle. Seems just a touch sweeter than normal (7-8 g/L rather than the normal 6-7 g/L but I actually like the extra touch of sweetness because it helps make the wine even more balanced than usual. I like this! Drinking window: 2026-2030. 2023 Riesling Dry Niagara Peninsula – 90 Luminous straw-green. Very pretty, floral nose gives way to yellow apple, tangerine, talc, and minty flavours that linger impressively on the rising, long, clean, and fresh aftertaste. Very easy going and nicely approachable with just a touch of chewiness in the fresh mouthfeel, thanks to the must spending two to four hours on the skins. 100% Riesling picked from various vineyard sources (55% Beamsville Bench, 22% Lincoln Lakeshore, 18% Creek Shores, 5% Niagara River). Drinking window: 2026-2030. 2023 Estate Riesling Beamsville Bench – 92 Lively straw-green. Pungently perfumed and intense notes of lime, cinnamon, yellow plum and a hint of honeycomb on the nose. Then round and mellow, but with good juicy cut to the flavours that echo the aromas. Finishes classically dry with some very strong notes of Key lime pie and aromatic herbs. 100% Riesling picked in four parcels and various micro-parcels that are normally used to make the upper-end CSV wines. Skin contact in part (12-16 hours) and about 50% barrel fermented in 25-30% neutral oak casks and old oak barriques. 50% malo done. Lots of wine for the money. Drinking window: 2026-2032. 2022 Estate Riesling Beamsville Bench – 94 This is very pretty. White peach, lemony minerals, jasmine and lemon verbena on the refined nose. The very refined and even dainty in the mouth, with a very Mosel-like element. Closes long, vibrant and juicy, with some sweet almondy bitterness. Really lovely stuff that boasts impeccable balance (6 g/L residual sugar and 7.8 g/L total acidity). Lots of flavour and yet less than 12% alcohol! You can tell this is the product of a low yield (because of the spring frost that year that hit hard. The grapes were picked in the Cave Spring Vineyard and fermented over eight weeks (80% in stainless steel and 20% in a 3,500L cask); all lots fermented at unregulated temperatures using exclusively indigenous yeast and aged 8 months sur lie. Drinking window: 2026-2032. 2022 Riesling CSV Beamsville Bench – 94+ Vivid straw-green colour. Intensely perfumed, lifted aromas of white flowers, lime, candied orange peel, pineapple and honeycomb. Then it offers bold flavours of licorice, beeswax, pine resin, mint and a nicely saline lemony bitterness on the long, multifaceted close. A benchmark Ontario Riesling wine, this 100% Riesling was made by picking grapes from 30+ years old vines of the Cave Spring Vineyard. Vinification involved an 18-hour, whole-cluster skin soak and barrel-fermentation (50% in a 3,800L oak cask, and 25% each in neutral 225L and 500L oak barrels at unregulated temperatures using exclusively indigenous yeast); 60% malolactic fermentation; barrel ageing for twelve months sur lie; and bottled with minimal sulphur additions. Drinking window: 2027-2035. 2020 Riesling CSV Beamsville Bench – 95 Bright medium-deep straw yellow with some gold. Licorice and fennel with some lime greet the nose and even more so the mouth. Long, very precise and fresh, this has a bit more sweetness but also better balance than the 2022 (the extra sweetness because of the heat of the 2020 growing season, a very great and dry vintage). This also has a more viscous mouthfeel than usual, thanks to a little bit more alcohol, again a consequence of the warm growing season. This is a really knockout Riesling wine, if made in a slightly bigger, riper style than usual for this winery, but I am betting it will have legions of fans. Drinking window: 2026-2033. 2023 Chardonnay Estate Beamsville Bench – 93 Very pretty. Bright straw yellow. Cool, musky aromas of under-ripe pineapple, clove, menthol and oak char, plus complicating nuances of quince and Asian pear. Nicely creamy and rich, with intense apple, banana and nutmeg flavours. A very pliant style of Chardonnay, not at all hard and very long and lifted. This is a paragon of balance and boasts sneaky complexity and concentration, thanks to old vines (35 years old). Drinking window: 2026-2031. 2022 Chardonnay CSV Beamsville Bench – 92 Bright pale golden straw yellow. Captivating aromas and flavours of apple juice, apple crumble, Asian pear, quince, banana, and hazelnut. The rising finish is long and fresh. Whole-berry pressed, fermented eight weeks in a mix of barrels, including 35% in a 3rd fill 3,500L cask, 20% in neutral 500L barrels, 15% each in new and 2nd–4th fill 225L French oak barrels, and 15% in tank; all lots were fermented at unregulated temperatures using exclusively indigenous yeast and aged ten months sur lie; 85%malolactic fermentation; minimal sulphur additions prior to bottling. This lovely Chardonnay is still very young. Made from old vines (35 years old). Drinking window: 2026-2030. 2022 Chardonnay Musqué Estate Beamsville Bench – 93 Another very pretty wine from Cave Spring, arguably the biggest experts in Ontario on this rare variety. Golden yellow. Lemon curd, quinine, lime and white pepper on the captivating nose. The rich, dense and viscous, with luscious flavours of orange marmalade, grilled kumquats, marzipan and cinnamon. The aftertaste is dense and long, lifted by a bright acid punch (6 g/L total; acidity and 2 g/L residual sugar, so this is a classically dry wine). 100% Chardonnay Musqué, two clones planted: 77 and 80 (77 is less aromatic). Cave Spring’s is mostly the former, all planted in the Cave Spring Vineyard, and the vines are now almost 30 years old. De-stemmed fruit was skin-soaked for 16 hours before pressing and fermented in neutral 225L barrels using exclusively indigenous yeast; matured in barrel for ten months sur lie in neutral 225L barrels; 100% malolactic fermentation; minimal sulphur addition prior to bottling. Drinking window: 2026-2030. 2022 Pinot Gris Estate Beamsville Bench – 94 Maybe Cave Spring’s most underrated wine, this is great! Bright, good, full, straw yellow. Knockout nose of yellow apple, pear, rose water, beeswax, strawberry and honeycomb. Then long, rich and ripe, boasting lovely orchard fruit flavours, complicated by sweet spices; nicely mellow but well-balanced. Extremely serious, flavourful Pinot Gris that closes long and complex. Much better than the average of usually non-descript New World Pinot Gris wines that rarely impress outside of Oregon and occasional New Zealand examples, Cave Spring has a real winner here. Cask-fermented (95% in 2,500 litres and 5% in neutral 225-litre barriques), this spent one year on the lees. It’s always made with grapes picked from the same five rows every year, planted right beside the CSV Chardonnay rows on the far edge of the farm. Made with the classic 53 clone grafted onto 3309 and 101-14 rootstocks, this wine was born by chance one day. Winemaker Angelo Pavan was admiring another colleague's beautiful Pinot Gris vines one day in 2013, and it was so much better looking than their Sauvignon Blanc that was getting hammered every year by the Ontario weather that he said, “… you know, that’s what we should be growing too”. And the rest, as they say, is history. Drinking window: 2026-2030. 2023 Gewurztraminer Estate Beamsville Bench – 94 Gewürztraminer isn’t the easiest grape to grow in Niagara, but Cave Spring has a long history of excellence with this variety, and the 2023 is just dandy, a real gem. Luminous pale golden yellow. Explosive, complex aromas and flavours of grapefruit, rose, lychee, tangerine jelly, cinnamon, poached pear, vanilla and mango. Fresh and lifted in the mouth, with a perfect balance between acidity (5.6 g/L) and sweetness (4 g/L residual sugar), this finishes long and lifted. This is a very typical Gewurz wine on the nose, then rounder and creamier on the palate and classically dry. Just lovely. From roughly 30 years old vines planted in the Cave Spring Vineyard, 5% of the fruit underwent 12 hours of skin contact prior to pressing, and fermented in neutral oak barrels, 80% 225L and 20% 500L; the remaining 15% was whole-berry fruit, crushed by foot, and skin fermented; all lots were fermented using exclusively indigenous yeast and aged sur lie for eleven months; minimal sulphur additions prior to bottling. Try this with pork and chicken dishes, any Thai, Indian, and Chinese dishes you can think of, and fruit cocktails. Delicious. Drinking window: Gamay Beamsville Bench – 92 Neither too pungent nor peppery, this boasts clean, fresh, and juicy red-fruit and peppery aromas and flavours. Has just a smidge of sweetness lingering on the flinty-smoky and citrus-accented, long finish. Very nicely balanced, easygoing and approachable. Drinking window: 2026-2028. 2023 Pinot Noir Beamsville Bench – 90 Currently more subdued than the 2021 Pinot Noir, this easygoing Pinot Noir offers juicy red fruit aromas and flavours that boast noteworthy salinity and savouriness. Drinking window: 2026-2029. Read Less

The relative affordability of its fine wines, could see Canadian wine producers getting more of a foothold in the UK market, argues wine buyer and consultant Finbar Cahill. Travelling across the country at harvest time with particular focus on the wines of Ontario and Okanagan in British Columbia, Cahill visits some of the more exciting upcoming wineries as well some old favourites – who may be well known in their home market but little known abroad. Lots of buying tips in this excellent firsthand account. Canada is a much-overlooked wine producer, despite the often exceptional quality of its winemakers and wines. Aside from the UK’s always enjoyable annual Wines of Canada tasting, at the Trafalgar Square embassy, there are little, or no, trade events specifically for the country, although importers such as Liberty, Bibendum, Flint and Yorkshire Vintners do stock Canadian wines. I had the good fortune to visit the country in early to mid-October, which, in many cases, was harvest time. The focus was on wines of Ontario and Okanagan, without overlooking the very good, particularly sparkling, wines from Nova Scotia. Highlights of Ontario… Riesling Pioneers The final stop in Ontario was Cave Spring Vineyard, situated on the Beamsville Bench. Tom Pennachetti and his brother, Len, have retained their father, John’s, dedication to this terroir, making sustainable wines with the protection of the site's singular environment a high priority. The winery is widely regarded in the Niagara Peninsula for the excellence of its Rieslings, and this was confirmed at the tasting, with the 2020 CSV Riesling particularly crisp, showing a great balance of well-integrated acidity and textural richness from maturation in neutral oak. The Gewürztraminer 2023 was great value with typical floral, rose petal and lychee notes. Of the reds, the Cabernet Franc 2023, on the vines and in the glass, was showing very well indeed. Pennachetti was a very personable host, and it is clear he, the family and winemaker Gabriel Demarco retain an indefatigable commitment to producing only wines that are authentically representative of the quality of their terroir, one of the finest extant in the Niagara Escarpment. Read Less

Ontario’s Top 20 Wineries of 2025 Cave Spring Vineyard Sustainably focused with a consistent quality track record, their Rieslings are some of the best you’ll come across in the country, but that’s not all they’re known for. You’ll find that they also craft some excellent Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In addition to their winery tasting room in Jordan Village, their vineyard tasting room is a must-experience, putting you right in the heart of the vines with the Niagara Escarpment as its backdrop. The 50 Standout Canadian Wines of 2025 2023 Riesling Adam Steps, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown A wine that instantly transports me back to that unforgettable i4C weekend hike along the Niagara Escarpment (check reference here), the 2023 ‘Adam Steps’ Riesling is as pure and expressive as the site itself. Lime zest, green apple and stony minerality drive a taut, electric palate, lifted by shimmering acidity. It’s vibrant, precise, and unquestionably one of Canada’s standout Rieslings of the year. Read Less

Every year, our reviewers blind-taste 25,000 wines from around the world in search of those rare bottles that stop us in our tracks. The result is The Enthusiast 100 list — an annual showcase of wines that truly define the year for us. Think of it as an all-star roster of bottles that overdeliver, surprise, and remind us why we fell in love with wine. The wine’s golden aromas of yellow apples and juniper brush up against the earthy mineral scent of a high-desert rain. This is a thick, viscous texture to revel in before surrendering to flavours like lemon, orange marmalade and brioche slathered with clover honey. What a ripping good Icewine. Read Less

Growers in the cool-climate Canadian region have changed focus and are now producing a raft of good wines from the variety. Sarah Marsh MW meets the growers and tastes the wines responsible for the burgeoning reputation of fine Ontario Cabernet Franc. On Beamsville Bench, Cave Spring… produce benchmark Ontario Cabernet Franc. Here, where the bench is closest to the lake and the escarpment highest, the air circulation is arguably most turbulent and the season longest. That allows Cave Spring to hang Cabernet Franc into November which delivers luscious velvet tannins, concentration, and rather heady 14.5% alcohol in the CSV, a selection of the best rows matured in older barrels and foudres. But CSV is undercut with freshness. The 2014 remains vibrant. Floral, suave Prova 2019, an experimental cuvée using whole bunches, is my favourite Cabernet Franc here. Read Less

The aromas of Bing cherry snow cones, violets, blackberries and chamomile are so fresh that it feels like someone opened the window for a breeze to pass by. It is a bit different when you take your first sip. A crispy blackberry turnover flavour is pierced by a black tea note matched by leathery tannins. This is an attractive yin-yang situation. Read Less

Cave Spring was established in 1978 by the Pennachetti family, who decided to plant vinifera grapes on the site of a former apple orchard set against the limestone of the Niagara Escarpment. Chardonnay and Riesling were later followed by Cabernet Franc, Gamay and Pinot Noir. Wines were first produced from the 1986 vintage. Estate plantings now total 72.5 ha, augmented by a small proportion of purchased fruit. 2023 Riesling Icewine, Niagara Peninsula, Estate Grown – 94 Fermented to 12% alcohol, the 2023 Riesling Icewine Estate Grown still contains a whopping 220 grams per litre of residual sugar. Picked in mid-January 2024, it boasts penetrating, intense aromas of honey, dried apricot and candied pear, with hints of orange blossom and bergamot. Medium to full-bodied, it’s a potent sticky yet one that’s mostly balanced by bright acids on the sweet, lingering finish. The estimated price is for a 375 ml bottle, but even so, it’s a terrific value in high-quality sweet wine, with an impressive 1,945 cases produced. 2020 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown – 91 From the winery’s namesake vineyard, the 2020 Riesling CSV is virtually dry (four grams per litre of residual sugar). Fermented and matured in a mix of older barrels and stainless steel, with varying degrees of skin contact, it’s a complex expression of the variety, boasting hints of lemon and lime, walnut oil, beeswax and stone fruit. Medium-bodied and fairly powerful for a Riesling (it’s labelled at 13.5% alcohol), it has the structurally broad shoulders to age, but the fruit seems just a bit muted; I’d suggest drinking it on the early side – over the next several years. 2023 Riesling Select Late Harvest, Niagara Peninsula – 90 Cave Spring’s 2023 Riesling Select Late Harvest weighs in at 90 grams per litre of residual sugar and 12% alcohol. Picked in mid-January 2024 and made entirely in stainless steel, it comes across as rather petrol-laden on the nose, adding notes of beeswax and paraffin to honeyed, vaguely stone fruit-like nuances, all underscored by lime-like acidity. It’s medium to full-bodied, not a sugary, lithe little wine, but one that packs considerable power and muscle. 2021 Riesling, Niagara Peninsula – 89 Cave Spring’s bargain-priced 2021 Riesling is a pretty, barely off-dry number, with 15 grams per litre of residual sugar balanced by close to 10 grams per litre of acid and a pH close to three. The finished alcohol content is 11%. Made exclusively in stainless steel, it’s pristine, with engaging scents of green apple, lime, spring blossoms and crushed stone on the nose. Precise and linear on the palate, it starts off crisp, then broadens and softens slightly on the finish. – Joe Czerwinski (4/25) Read Less

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After a thorough review of the more than 23,000 wines we blind tasted in the past year, Wine Enthusiast editors have identified a remarkable array of exceptional wines priced at $20 or less. Our annual Best Buys report is a compilation of the greatest hits – 100 stunning wines that are incredible values. A sweet and tangy blood-orange aroma fills the air as wisps of petrol and coconut water stake their claim on the fringes. The wine’s elevated acidity and lean, crisp mouthfeel are complemented by flavours of barely ripe pineapple and green tea sweetened with honey. Read Less

2022 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown – 94 The prized Cave Spring Vineyard (CSV) is nestled near the top of the Beamsville Bench and consistently produces top Riesling from vines that are now over 30 years old. The 2022 CSV is intensely complex, with notes of apricot, honeysuckle and beeswax. The palate is weighty, with layers of texture from time on lees and several hours of skin contact at pressing. The textural components are dancing in harmony with the dazzling acidity. Almost fully dry, this wine is pushing boundaries and expressing the greatness of Niagara's Riesling terroir. 2020 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown – 92 The 2020 expression of Cave Spring Vineyard's CSV Riesling has delicate aromas of nutmeg and petrol. Restrained fruit with supple flavours and aromas of Meyer lemon, yellow plums and savoury herbs. This is another top example from a producer with a deep Riesling portfolio. Concentrated and complex with a focus on texture. For me, this is excellent, but the 2022 takes things to the next level for the CSV. 2023 Riesling Adam Steps, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown – 90 The Adam's Step Riesling from Cave Spring Vineyard is a delightful medium-sweet expression of Riesling. Aromas of lemon curd and rosemary are consistent on the palate. Textural with chalky notes, this wine is pretty with bright acidity that supports a good concentration of fruit and balances the natural sweetness. Good length and structure from vines over 46 years of age. Read Less