Charles Baker Picone Vineyard Riesling 2017

Tasting notes

A weighted and intriguing nose of lemon and fresh lime, yellow apple and Anjou pear, spring spruce tips and dusty limestone. Vivid, but still just a snapshot of a complex young Riesling on its way somewhere else! The palate’s dry attack has real zest and power, led by lemon and green apple but behind the requisite veil of limestone, the apricot and white peach stone fruit is starting to develop. Delicious especially with food right now but without doubt a Riesling that will reward some cellaring. This wine feels like it could easily last into its third decade!

Pairing

One of the most versatile grape varieties to enjoy with food - from roasted pork, to pinapple chicken to spicy Thai dishes.  Enjoy!

Cellaring

Enjoy thorugh 2030 and beyond

"Canada's 100 Best Magazine" - No.2 Riesling

2020 Ontario Wine Awards ''White Wine of the Year"

95 Points - Michael Godel, WineAlign
The concept behind Baker’s single-vineyard riesling is for the top tier one to be possessive in the matters of majestic and dignified, which quite honestly it is. Funny vintage that ’17 was and yet in riesling there can be this slow melt, tide and release of intricacy and intimacy, which this Picone does. Like taking a picture with the slowest shutter speed, allowing the sensor a full allotment of time in its exposure to light. This is the dramatic and hyper-effect and how Baker captured the highest riesling resolution imaginable. The succulence in the acids over top juicy, juicy fruit and this great entanglement is majestic and dignified. My goodness Charles, I think you’ve done it. Drink 2021-2032.  Tasted April and October 2020

Appellation

VQA Vinemount Ridge

Vintage Notes

High hopes for 2017 as the vineyards woke from a relatively mild winter were quickly tempered by monsoon-like rains in the spring that led to unprecedented water levels in lakes and rivers big and small across Ontario. Bud break was right on schedule though vines had to cope with a cool summer with higher levels of precipitation than necessary. We like to say we grow in a cool climate and for the most part this is accurate. What we don't always recall is that our seasons can be easily divided in two. The first cool and cloudy, the second brilliant and warm which is the case in 2017. September arrived and with it heat and brilliant sunshine for weeks of end. Also contributing to complexity and depth was a very pronounced diurnal shift from August onwards. Daytime highs in the upper 20s followed by nighttime lows in the low single digits. All in all a superb Riesling vintage - ripping acidity, adequate sugars, good concentration. 2017 will live forever and a day.

Vinification

Since 2005, I have been working with the Picone Vineyard on Vinemount Ridge. The wine has been consistent in depth and character. If you have followed this wine, you will have come to love it's generous mouth-filling texture that is balanced by finely streamed acidity. It is a fragrant wine, a floral wine, a Niagara Riesling.

The Niagara Escarpment is a special and rare base on which to grow wine. The bedrock dates back millions of years and is constantly shifting and evolving. Lake Ontario, close by, enables the vineyards to survive extreme conditions. The nature of our climate guarantees wines of finesse, ageability and enjoyability.

The Picone Vineyard is a postage stamp sized vineyard that hugs the escarpment just below the crest, a short mile west of Vineland. The five acres of Riesling (Clone Weis 21B) are planted in two blocks - the older finding itself on the slopes of the property. Each of the eight vintages I have bottled is from the older block in the early years and now from the complete vineyard. The wine is hand-picked late in the season for optimum maturity and delivered to Stratus where it is intensely sorted prior to winemaking. Once past the crusher, the ‘free-run’ juice which is considered the cream in the milk bucket, is separated and eventually bottled as my wine.