Tawse Sketches of Niagara Riesling 2019

Producer Description

Situated on the lower slopes of the Niagara Escarpment, Tawse is a family-owned organic winery. A life-long lover of wine, Burgundy in particular, founder Moray Tawse purchased the Cherry Avenue property in 2001 after realizing the great potential of the Niagara Escarpment as a word-class cool-climate wine region. In 2005, he opened his state-of-the-art winery in Vineland, complete with a six-level, gravity-flow design, geo-thermal system and a wetland bio-filter.

The inspiration for Moray’s eponymous Niagara property came from his love of Burgundian Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Uniting traditional winemaking techniques with state-of-the-art technology, Tawse and the award-winning winemaking team of Paul Pender and Rene Van Ede, is dedicated to producing terroir-driven wines of exceptional elegance, depth and character.

At Tawse, winemaking begins in the vineyards. We proudly apply rigorous organic methods to every aspect of our production from grape-growing to winemaking and Ecocert seals appear on all wines made from our estate fruit.

Today, having acquired over 200 acres (5 vineyards) and being named Canadian Winery of the year in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2016, Tawse Winery now produces 30,000 cases of wine and has one of the largest portfolios of organic wines in the Niagara region.

Viticulture

At Tawse, winemaking begins in the vineyards. Healthy vines yield quality fruit which allows us to craft terroir-driven wines of great elegance, depth and character. Promoting the health of our vines and vineyards requires a labour-intensive and hands-on approach. We tuck and thin the shoots by hand to increase sun exposure and air flow. We keep the yields low by cluster-thinning to ensure that all the energy of the vine is focused to ripen fewer higher-quality grape clusters. Our grapes are harvested at optimal ripeness and sorted to select the very best fruit. We also proudly practice organic farming.

Organic Farming

Organic farming feeds the vines and controls diseases without the use of synthetic insecticides, fungicides and fertilizers. We strive to create a diversified balanced ecosystem that generates health and fertility from the vineyard itself. Healthy vines mean less need for outside substances to control diseases and promote growth. By being present in the vineyard, we are able to anticipate and prevent issues. We also get help from our friends from the animal realm, chickens feed on bugs, our sheep eat the lower vine leaves to expose the grapes to the ripening sun.

Winemaking

Our grapes are harvested at optimal ripeness and sorted. Our reds are de-stemmed before pressing and our whites are gently whole cluster pressed to avoid the bitter characteristics from the stems, skins and seeds. Aromatic whites are fermented in stainless steel.  We barrel-ferment our Chardonnay in French oak using wild yeast. All our reds are fermented in oak fermenters and then aged in French oak from 12 to 18 months depending on the varietal

Environmental Responsibility

The architecture of our winery was carefully conceived to be environmentally-friendly. Our 6-level design allows us to use gravity as much as possible to gently move the wine as is processed, from pressing to cellaring. Our Chardonnay and our reds are aged in underground barrel cellars covered by 6 to 8 feet of earth, which keeps the ambient temperature between 10 and 16 degrees Celsius, with a natural humidity of approximately 85%. This relatively stable temperature and high humidity allows our wines to age gracefully with a minimum amount of evaporation. Our modern geo-thermal energy system has reduced our use of traditional forms of energy by 80%. We also have a wetland bio-filter which allows us to re-use of all our sanitary and winery process water.