Black Bank Hills 2023 Viognier

Pale lemon colour. Aromas of pear, grapefruit, chamomile, white peach and orange liqueur.  The palate continues with apricot, orange marmalade, lime, dried ginger and marzipan.   Medium-plus in weight with balanced acidity, the wine shows a rounded and creamy mouthfeel framed by a light toastiness showing potential for the fruit and weight to continue to flesh out with age in bottle.

This wine’s ripe stone fruit, citrus, ginger and creamy texture make it a great match for roast chicken or pork, seared scallops, lobster, or richer white-fish dishes. It should also pair especially well with mildly spiced Thai or Moroccan cuisine, roasted squash or root vegetables, where the fruit and ginger notes can echo the seasoning. For cheese, try Brie, Camembert, or a mild washed-rind cheese.

Enjoy through 2036

The grapes for this wine were de-stemmed and lightly crushed prior to pressing and being racked into third-plus use French oak barrels and fermented using wild/ambient yeasts. Élevage was 19-months on lees in same French oak. The wine was blended and estate-bottled unfiltered and unfined on 25 July 2025.

The grapes for this wine were de-stemmed and lightly crushed prior to pressing and being racked into third-plus use French oak barrels and fermented using wild/ambient yeasts. Élevage was 19-months on lees in same French oak. The wine was blended and estate-bottled unfiltered and unfined on 25 July 2025.

About Black Bank Hill

Founded in 2017 by vintner Taylor Emerson, Black Bank Hill is a small, estate-focused winery in Beamsville, on Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment. The winery concentrates on limited-production, single-vineyard wines that express the character of its site, with an emphasis on careful farming, hand harvesting and restrained winemaking.

In the cellar, many wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts, matured primarily in French oak, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. The range spans classic Niagara varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, alongside Viognier, Syrah and the Rhône-inspired Liberté, a blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. Production is often tiny, with some cuvées measured in only a few dozen cases.

Black Bank Hill has quickly established itself among Canada’s most exciting small wineries. At the 2026 National Wine Awards of Canada, it was named Best Performing Small Winery, with its 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon receiving Platinum and its Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc all earning Gold medals.

What makes the wines particularly compelling is their combination of concentration and freshness: distinctly Niagara in their acidity and structure, yet with an elegance and restraint that will be familiar to lovers of fine European wines.