Leaning Post 2024 Pinot Noir

Classic “P(inot)-funk” flavours of cherry, mulberry, and raspberry meet candy-cane beets, earth, leaves, and stone.

Palate: Good fullness, density, and silkiness — kirsch married to sugar beet, wrapped in fresh basil and smashed over limestone.

Finish: Traces of spice lift the back end of a wonderfully long finish.

The best pairings for this Pinot Noir include grilled salmon, roasted chicken, mushroom risotto, and dark chocolate.

The 2024 needs a bit of air, so give it a good decant before enjoying. This wine will age gracefully for 5-7 years.

Senchuk Vineyard (Clone 777) – 62%; Grimsby Hillside Vineyard – 17%; Bock Vineyard – 17%; Hemeris Vineyard – 4%

2024 was a warm growing season, with a dry, temperate, and long fall that produced grapes of elegance and power, fully ripe with excellent retained acidity.

The 2024 growing season was warm, with a dry, temperate, and long fall resulting in grapes of elegance and power, fully ripe in flavour with excellent acidity. The fruit was hand-picked and hand-sorted on September 19 (Bock), September 21 (Hemeris), and September 22 (Senchuk and Grimsby Hillside), with the majority coming from Clone 777 at Senchuk Vineyard.

Each vineyard was fermented separately, with 15% whole-cluster fruit and 85% de-stemmed. The wine was cold-soaked for 2-3 days before a spontaneous ferment started, followed by hand punch-downs twice a day for 3 weeks. After fermentation the wine remained on skins for 3-5 days before being gently pressed, then transferred to French oak barrels (20% new, 20% one-year-old, 60% older) for 14 months of aging. Bottled in February 2026.

Founded by Ilya and Nadia Senchuk in 2011 on 11 acres in Winona, at the far western edge of the Niagara Peninsula, Leaning Post Wines built its reputation on single-vineyard, sub-appellation-driven Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Winemaker Ilya Senchuk sources fruit from a small circle of sites he knows intimately — the estate's own Senchuk Vineyard along with Grimsby Hillside, Keczan, Hemeris and Bock — farmed and vinified with minimal intervention so each site's character comes through clearly in the glass. Leaning Post was an early champion of the Lincoln Lakeshore sub-appellation designation and is Certified Sustainable by Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario. The wines have consistently ranked among Ontario's top producers and are poured in leading restaurants in Toronto, Montreal, London and Copenhagen.