2019 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench | 90 Pts | Savvy Shopper Selection This white reveals generous peach, pear, lemon and stone flavours backed by vivid acidity. Linear in profile and long, with a bracing, mouthwatering feel on the finish. From Canada. Drink now through 2030. Read Less

2021 Cave Spring Vineyard Rosé Estate, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | 90 Pts Originating from the estate’s Cave Spring Vineyard, nestled on a hillside of the Niagara Escarpment overlooking Lake Ontario, this 100% Cabernet Franc sees eight months of sur lie ageing in French oak barrels. Considerable richness on the nose, with strawberry and white peach alongside notes of mint and creamy lees. The mouthfeel is silky, offering similar flavours. A slight tug of war between sweetness and acidity, with the former winning out by a hair through the lengthy finish. Read Less

2019 Cave Spring Vineyard Riesling Icewine, Lincoln Lakeshore, Estate Grown | Pts Sip this brilliant Icewine to know how Winnie the Pooh feels when he discovers a new pot of honey. Imagine raw honeycomb, apricots, ginger marmalade, Meyer lemons and crisp yellow apples rolled into a pleasing ball. This Icewine's puckering acidity makes this something special. 2021 Cave Spring Vineyard Gamay, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | 90 Pts This wine aged for 11 months in neutral oak, with minimal sulphur additions. Its distinctly herbal nose features thyme and lavender, along with macerated strawberries and white pepper. Tangy cranberry meets That basil, cumin and dark chocolate on the palate. The wine's soft texture matches plush tannins and moderate acidity. Read Less

... This differs from the Bench where the hard dolomitic limestone and heavier clays deliver more structure and tension... This was keenly illustrated in a tasting of Riesling at Cave Spring Vineyard. Cave Spring, which was established in 1975, is among the pioneering estates in Ontario, renowned for its benchmark Riesling. It produces forward, open-textured, and accessible Riesling from the friable clay, sandy loam, lighter shales, and sandstones of Lincoln Lakeshore. While above this, on Beamsville Bench, the Dolomitic limestone and heavier clay deliver tight knit and intense Rieslings that require longer maturation. Winemaker Gabriel Demarco matures the Rieslings in concrete tanks. In a bid for greater sustainability these stackable cubes are manufactured using a local company and materials.  ... But there is a trend for dry Riesling which is spearheaded by Demarco. Demarco is one of the most innovative young winemakers working in Niagara. Among his exciting range of wine is the 2019 Riesling CSV, which is savoury, richly textured, and dry. Beamsville’s extended season allows Demarco to wait for full ripeness. It is initially treated oxidatively with up to 16 hours of skin contact before fermentation with a touch, just 5%, of skin fermentation. It’s matured on lees in concrete and barrels for ten months. “Skin contact and lees ageing are much more important than varietal character,” Demarco says. Read Less

The trio of dry or dry-ish Rieslings are the heart of the submissions here (although the sweet wines stole the show in the end). I liked them all about as well in terms of scoring, but for different reasons. The CSV, of course, is the outlier with a bit of oak. You either accept that or you don't, but it is quite impressive. The regular Riesling is a fine bargain. It shows beautiful balance between the sugar and acidity. It is a little less stern than the Estate Riesling. In many ways, it was my favorite of the table wines, but that depends. The brooding Estate Riesling has ample acidity, but also a hint of petrol. They have pros and cons, depending on your likes and tastes. How they develop may be the final answer. None are really easy wines that force you to drink them now, although the regular Riesling comes closest to that profile in theory. These are Certified Sustainable (Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario). 2020 Riesling Niagara Peninsula | 90 Pts The 2020 Riesling comes in with 16 grams of residual sugar, 8.7 of total acidity, 10.7% alcohol and a pH of 2.8. The acidity mostly gobbles up the sugar here, or perhaps it might be equally accurate to say the sugar nicely counters the acidity. This seems mostly dry or dry-ish, even with that little burst of sugar on the end. It is closer to medium dry than medium sweet, easy to use as a table wine. It also shows good concentration, a nice finish and a classic demeanour. The sugar means that this doesn't have quite the purity of expression as the Estate Riesling also reviewed in this report, but it does have purer aromatics and a balanced demeanor. As the submission closest to a bargain price (by all of $3), this is an overachiever that has grip and tension on the finish, plus some chance of aging well. How it develops and holds may be the final answer to how much of an overachiever it is. Let's be a little conservative just now. It will be better next spring, but it is a perfect food wine right now. It should hold throughout the decade, probably longer. 2020 Riesling Estate, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | 90 Pts The 2020 Riesling Estate comes in at six grams of residual sugar, 7.8 of total acidity and 12.4% alcohol. Dry but perfectly balanced, this is a little sterner than the regular Riesling, but it never becomes shrill, even if it is always fairly intense. Elegant and classic in aromas, it also adds a bit of petrol on the nose. Then, it follows with considerable grip and tension and a respectably long finish. This is young and unevolved. It seems to have ample potential. The petrol is under control today. I liked how it developed as it aired and warmed in the glass. Needless to say, this dry and somewhat stern Riesling is strictly a food wine. It should age and become more clearly a winner, but it could use a year or two more in the cellar. 2019 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | 91 Pts The 2019 Riesling CSV was partly aged in neutral French oak (about 45%, with another 5% also with skin contact) for 10 months, with the rest in stainless steel. It comes in with four grams of residual sugar, 9.2 of total acidity and 12.3% alcohol. Wood changes all wines, including Riesling, so this is a little different. However, the old wood on only some of the juice means that this will have no vanilla or flavor alterations as such. Wood mutes the grape a little, to be sure, so that's a given if you object. It still has Riesling character, though, and the flip side is that this becomes an interesting food wine on many levels. (It will really need food.) There is plenty of grip on the finish, the acidity easily asserting itself over the wood and supporting the fruit. The mid-palate also shows good concentration. Overall, it is a wine with both power and focus. It has a chance to age very well, for another decade at least, and probably develop more too. This is nicely done. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Give it another year or two if you can, but it is approachable now. Other Cave Spring Vineyard wines reviewed: 2017 Riesling Select Late Harvest, Lincoln Lakeshore, Estate Grown | 90 Pts The 2017 Riesling Select Late Harvest is unoaked and sourced from partly frozen grapes on the vine. It comes in with 100 grams of residual sugar, 7.8 of total acidity and 13.1% alcohol. This has a touch of petrol, controlled sugar and beautiful focus. It lingers nicely on the finish and shows off good fruit as well as some acidity. The sugar fades a bit with air; this doesn't seem nearly as sweet as that 100 grams might suggest. It is mostly refreshing and not at all cloying. This should age pretty well, but it drinks great today too. It is a far more restrained dessert wine than the Icewine also reviewed this report, but it does well for its very different style. The price references a half bottle. 2019 Riesling Icewine, Lincoln Lakeshore, Estate Grown | 95 Pts The 2019 Riesling Icewine was harvested frozen on the vine. It is unoaked and comes in with 245 grams of residual sugar, 14.9 of total acidity, 9% alcohol and a pH of 2.73, if you're interested in those details. The Select Late Harvest also reviewed in this report is lovely, but when you get to the high-end Icewine here, you're in another ballpark. This has plenty of body and a fair bit of sugar, but the acidity cuts both and shreds the sugar. I loved the racy demeanor. That makes this lively and a little tense. The aromatics are classic Riesling and the flavors are pure and fresh. It always seems transparent. This is a beauty that should age very well. They do tend to change notably in style as they age, so keep that in mind. In the meanwhile, it is drinkable now, likely better in a year or two. The price references a half bottle. Read Less

Pinot Noir in Canada: A Patchwork of Styles and Successes Despite a reputation for being difficult to grow, Pinot Noir has proved remarkably versatile in Canada, with good quality examples emerging from contrasting conditions in each of the country's regions. 2020 Pinot Noir Dolomite, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | 93 Pts Lying somewhere between resolutely dry and mildly astringent, this is a lovely wine that shows a spectrum of cherry flavours accented with spices. The clean seam of acidity sharpens the tone of the fruit and adds juiciness to the texture, while the tannins are fine-grained and drying. Read Less

Savvy Shopper... Around the World A trio of cru Beaujolais, a Spanish red, a Portuguese white and a pair of New World whites (one from Canada, the other from South Africa) caught our attention in the tasting room recently. All are $25 or less. 2019 Riesling Dry, Niagara Peninsula | 89 Pts A fresh, peach and apple-inflected white, accented by lemon and mineral. The rich fruit is matched to a steely structure. Drink now through 2030. Read Less

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. A newly opened tasting centre with a stunning vineyard view is a must-visit. Read Less

One of Niagara’s most important producers is Cave Spring. They are probably most famous for their Rieslings, but everything they make is worth attention. The home site is a 64-hectare vineyard on the Beamsville Bench, but they also own 21 hectares across three sites on the Lincoln Lakeshore. They would be entirely working with estate fruit save for the fact that one of these Lincoln Lakeshore vineyards is owned and farmed by their vineyard manager, Christopher Andrewes. 75% of production is white varieties. The history of Cave Spring goes back to 1973 when John Pennachetti first purchased some land on Cave Spring Road in the Beamsville Bench. This was at a time when there were very few vineyards planted to Vitis vinifera varieties in the region. Five years later, with his son Len, he planted a 5-hectare vineyard with Chardonnay and Riesling. The latter was the famous clone 21 Riesling that was brought into Canada by the Weis family of St. Urbans-hof... Herman Weis also planted vineyards in Niagara, and Len’s brother Tom (in charge of sales and marketing) ended up marrying Herman’s daughter Anne. The first wines released under the Cave Spring label were made in 1986 with winemaker Angelo Pavan. Angelo still makes the wines, but has now been joined by Gabe Demarco. The Beamsville Bench site has glacial till soils derived mainly from the sedimentary rocks of the Niagara Escarpment, including limestone, shale, and sandstone. These soils are relatively low in organic matter, which helps to control vigour. Lake Ontario is found 3.5 km north and contributes temperate breezes during the summer. These meet the cliff of the escarpment behind the vineyards and then circulate, with this airflow reducing disease pressure and also helping counter frosts. All the wines are wild ferment except the base wines for the sparkling wine. Where oak is used, it is old, and there’s quite a bit of larger-format oak in the cellar. Read Less

Canada’s Ontario wine regions have quite a talent for sparkling wine, and this is becoming quite an important category. Here I tried 29 different wines, and I’ve ranked them in order of scores. Cave Spring Vineyard 2015 Blanc de Blancs CSV | 94 Pts | #1 Rated Wine Cave Spring Vineyard NV Blanc de Blancs | 93 Pts | #2 Rated Wine Read Less