Thank you to all that sent us cellar questions!

The two overarching topics that emerged from this round were Cabernet Franc, specifically different vintages of L’Oublié, and old vintages of our Pinot Noir. It’s quite fitting, really, considering that the splendor of age is the front-and-center of our holiday release with the 2012 Black Ball shining in full force.

The promise of Spring has been at the tip of our noses for a while now, playing hide-and-seek with our beleaguered, over-wintered souls. Its jack-in-a-box explosions of sunshine and birdsong, however, have not fully coaxed us out of the wraps of grey trance the end of Winter brings. Not just yet. But it is here. All around us. Keeping quiet, mounting its forces, waiting for the right moment to explode from a dreamlike certainty into a pneumatic life power. We await - it and all the promises it’ll bring. This time – the time of promises - may be the sweetest time of the year. Unsullied by the anguishes of an unfolding growing season, ignorant of the doomsday scenarios we’ll be grappling with in the months ahead, we brim with childlike earnestness, eager to experience our world anew. Wide eyes, open hearts. Lyrical and rambunctious all at once.

I recently wrote that our craft, in its essence, demands an undying curiosity towards the ‘familiar’ turn of the seasons and openness towards unforeseen results, and that when working with Nature - especially in Niagara - one really has no other choice apart from living on the edge and trusting forces bigger than us. At the time, the topic in question was a showcase of two new vintages of cuvées that are relatively new to us.

Ovid’s laconic phrase -“Everything changes, Nothing is truly lost.” – has resonated through the centuries on many levels. At first glance, it appears to be an obvious statement, but it has kept on reverberating from one generation to another with tremendous depth and breadth of meaning.

There are some wines that exist on horizons. Or maybe, they themselves are the horizon.

The horizon between the devil-may-care attitude of youth and the wisdom of old-age.

The line separating, yet connecting the erudition of tradition and the wildness of spirit.

A lot of you often ask what we do in the middle of winter and before the growing season has begun. From the outside it must look like quite the sleepy part of the year, but we're here to assure you in reality it's not at all.

Yes, the chaos and 3 month non-stop adrenaline rush of harvest is behind us; and yes - for the most part, the fermentations are complete and so is their incessant need for our focused attention and for making the right decisions at the right moments, fingers crossed. 

There’s an old quote from Charlie Parker: “First you learn the instrument, then you learn the music, then you forget all that s**t and just play.”

There’s always a beginning, a start, a path chosen – and then, there’s another beginning – the one of Truth. The moment when all you’ve learned so far, all you’ve observed and absorbed through your senses – whether consciously or subconsciously - starts forming patterns and making sense. The beginning of knowledge lived and experienced; the emergence of Order out of the tormenting beauty of Chaos.

2019 Furie and Wines of Fiery Longing

2018 Oxyde and Wines of Fluid Release

The structure of vintage across grape varieties through the top guns of 2017