There were a whole load of other wines that I was hoping to review before this last newsletter, but due to the inclement weather coupled with my rural location, many of them haven’t actually arrived yet! I’ll get around to posting a few more reviews in 2025.
Now, to the business at hand…
I’ve reviewed so many wines over the last decade and a half, but it’s nice to go out on a high note reviewing two absolute stunners from Ontario.
To say that winemaker Jonas Newman had dramatically transformed and elevated the wines of the Grange of Prince Edward would be quite an understatement. An estate once in the serious doldrums wine-wise has found a whole new lease of life under the guidance of Newman, and I believe these two wines to be the absolute pinnacle of that transmogrification in both the vineyards and the cellar. The way he manages to make the unique limestone soils of the region sing in the glass is a testament to his methodically honed winemaking craft. I think it would be fair to say the Newman has found magnificence where once there was moribundity.
He has mastered a very particular eloquence when expressing the specific terroir of the County in these wines, and these are, hands down, the best wines he has ever made.
2023 Grange of Prince Edward “Aurelia” Chardonnay, Prince Edward County VQA, Ontario (Alcohol 14.3%, Residual Sugar 1.1 g/l) Winery and website $65 (750ml glass bottle)
The first of Grange’s super-premium Aurelia range is their Chardonnay, with only 139 cases of this vintage being produced. Fruit is sourced from specific blocks before being whole cluster pressed and wild fermented in French oak, of which 33% was new, 33% 2nd year, and the rest neutral cooperage, with some occasionally lees stirring happening throughout the long primary and shorter secondary ferment. Careful barrel selection ensures that only the superlative juice makes it’s way into this bottling. I recall tasting some of these barrels (and the Pinots) with Newman when I visited many many months ago, and despite the fact I was managing a hangover of industrial proportions after staying the night at Casa Szabo, the potential star quality of the wines blew away all the cobwebs.
What struck me both then and today is both the purity and the power of the fruit here. The grapes must have been absolutely pristine to give such a vibrant, life-affirming expression of County fruit. I kid you not, without stepping into too much hyperbole, this stuff is dynamite.
Be sure not to serve too chilled, as this wine only becomes truly aromatically active as it gets a little warmer. The complex bouquet gives ripe Golden Delicious apple, orchard fresh peach, accompanied by a seductive honey note, apple blossom florality, petrichor-like minerality, and pitch-perfect wood spice integration.
In the mouth, this elegantly structured Chardonnay shows a beauteously ripe attack and that very specific PEC limestone acid profile. There’s a lovely expansive mid-palate, giving the wine a fine creamy texture before leading into an extremely persistent saline-like finish.
While this is drinking so bloody well right now, I’d like to try it again in six months to a year.
(Five out of a possible five apples)
2023 Grange of Prince Edward “Aurelia” Pinot Noir, Prince Edward County VQA, Ontario (Alcohol 12%, Residual Sugar 0.2 g/l) Winery and website $65 (750ml glass bottle)
I was trying to work out if I could pick a favourite between the two Aurelia wines, and I really couldn’t. While they are both very different wines, there’s undeniably a commonality here, and not only in the quality of the fruit and calibre of the winecraft.
Again, it’s a very limited run, this time of only 98 cases. It’s a whole cluster ferment with five days of carbonic maceration before being ever-so-gently gently foot-crushed. After 10 days of pump-overs, the wine is blended before finishing its fermentation in tank. It then sees 10 months of ageing in French oak barrels, with 33% of that being new and the rest second or third use.
This Pinot pours darker than I first expected, but then this wine is altogether denser than one would imagine. It’s highly perfumed, with bags of red and black cherries, some gorgeous subtle cedary oak influence, and an exquisite violet florality that somehow extends from the nose, throughout the palate, and into the extended finish. This is a first for me, as I don’t think I have experienced a wine with that violet aromatic thread running the length and breadth of the wine. There’s also an utterly enchanting moist forest floor fragrance at play here, adding to the complexity of this ambrosial treat.
On the palate, there’s that unexpected concentration, but this is a wine of subtle power with more of a focus on finesse and delicacy. Again, one experiences that PEC signature friable limestone acid, fitting like a glove with the ripe fleshy Pinot fruit. the dark cherries are back, but this time with nuanced beetroot in a supporting role. The fine tannins are chalky and sillky smooth, gifting just the right amount of structure to what is a surprisingly generous Pinot Noir.
While this is eminently drinkable today, I feel this wine would only improve with time in bottle.
(Five out of a possible five apples)
