2015 Adamo Estate Winery “Wismer-Foxcroft Vineyard Wild Ferment – Growers Series” Chardonnay, Twenty Mile Bench VQA, Ontario (Alcohol 13.2%) $96 from Winery
In tasting this bottling last week I was reminded just how fantastically great Ontario Chardonnay can be. Crisp, lively, and simply bursting with ripe apple and peach aromatics, this wild ferment from Adamo Estate Winery seriously impresses with both its drinkability and its complexity and depth.
At the heart of this wine is a core of some quite frankly stunning (and I’m assuming pretty much immaculate) Wismer vineyard fruit, drawn from 15 -20 year old vines. It’s also great to see the separate parcels of the sizeable Wismer vineyard being mentioned on labels these days. The palate is ripe, generous, and undeniably mouth-filling, but never tiring, each sip giving you more of that lip-smackingly crisp and vibrant acidity.
It’s barrel fermented in 50% new French cooperage, but this integrates perfectly with the aforementioned stellar Chardonnay fruit, adding a lovely toasty, vanilla element both on the nose and the back of palate.
It’s nice to see that this wine is getting some international recognition too, with it winning a bronze at the recent Decanter World Wine Awards.
Now I’m not going to argue the point that at this price one could get one’s hands on some pretty serious white Burgundy, as this would be true, but I would point you towards this wine if you can find any… as there were only two barrels of the stuff produced.
After enjoying this bottle I was cursing myself for having polished it off so damn quickly, as I was longing to taste so many of my friends with it blind. Whilst I was aware that Winemaker Shauna White was doing some great things up there in Mono, I was simply blown away by the quality of this particular wine.
(Four and a half apples out of a possible five)
Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And that was some damn fine Chardonnay.
