Niagara "Amarone" - good wine today, maybe great tomorrow

[fixednwinter]

I love Amarone. It's my all-time favourite red. I've spent a couple of weeks in the Veneto region sampling the different vintners while waiting for the Giro D'Italia to come to Verona for its last stage (2010).

In the last few years, the Niagara region in Ontario, Canada has been making Appassimento style wines as well. They're not made from the holy trinity of grapes found in the Veneto though. Here, other varietals are used instead (Syrah, Pinot Noir, etc). Two vintners have produced nice wine in this style - Colaneri and Cave Spring.

I took a weekend to really try them out, visited the wineries, ate it with appropriate foods, etc. At this stage, they're not quite a match for a quality Amarone from the Veneto. But they're still superb wines.

Cave Spring's La Penna sells at the winery for almost $40. That makes it more expensive than a Masi or Cesari from an Ontario LCBO store. It's an excellent wine, but difficult to justify the higher price than an Amarone.

Colaneri makes several Appassimento styles, and their Syrah combined with dried fruit is bold and powerful. Again, not quite an Amarone, but for the price, at $27.95, it's a great deal.

[fixednwinter]

Interesting experiment this weekend - I had a glass of the Niagara Appassimento along with a glass of a Masi Amarone with dinner on both evenings. I was surprised at how well the Niagara wine stood up to the Veneto Amarone. The difference is much closer than I originally thought, when I was drinking the Niagara wines by themselves during my tour.

[WadePatton]

Niagara is a cultivar often grown down this way. I'm thinking on starting some vines again.