by Zoltan Szabo
2010 Charles Baker ‘Ivan’ Vineyard Riesling – Twenty Mile Bench – Niagara Peninsula
Grapes come from Bob Nedelco’s Ivan Vineyard (Ivan is Bob’s father after which it is named). The Riesling portion of the 12 acre vineyard, planted in 1999 is all of 1.1 acres. The 2010 vintage was warm, producing fairly ripe fruit, that was late picked and by hand, low yield of 1.3 TO / acre and sorting down to even less. Drier fermentation took place and alcohol levels ended up at 12% by volume. This is another great Riesling by Mr. Baker, with aromas of ripe lime pulp, orange rind, orchard blossoms and minerality. Clean, pure and succulent, fruit – driven, with slight oily texture, drier and with softer acidity, compared to Baker’s Picone Vineyard Riesling, yet with great intensity of flavour and long – lingering finish. Very pretty, indeed. Retails for $27 and 90 cases of it were produced only. Try it with cured and lightly smoked kingfish ceviche ala Cava. ($27 – order directly from winery at stratuswines.com)
All scores are out of five apples.
Read more of sommelier Zoltan Szabo at zoltanszabo.org and follow him at twitter.com/zoltanszabo.
It’s so cool to see Charles’ vision for the Riesling Project come together… and it sounds like its even better to taste it. – Malcolm