2007 Riesling 'Picone Vineyard' Charles Baker (Niagara)

Charles Baker is a local icon long associated with both Cave Spring Cellars and Stratus Vineyards in Niagara and one of our burgeoning region's greatest ambassadors. With his move to Stratus, Charles was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of making his own expression of Niagara Riesling, his favourite type of wine.

The Baker version is built along classic German lines, trading higher alcohol for a complex, lightly off-dry delicacy. The grapes came from Mark Picone's low-yielding Riesling block and in 2007, Charles cropped the vineyard back below one and a half tons per acre, almost unheard of in Ontario where six tons can be the norm for Riesling. Not the economic model a bank manager wants to hear but great for quality wine.

Try this wonderful local wine with freshwater or delicate fish, pork dishes and anything smoked. Nice!

Organic and Biodynamic Wines at Scaramouche

The organic movement in viticulture is growing and the wines of France continue to lead the way. For a long time, wines labelled organic seemed to be perennial under-achievers - a nice idea not fully realized or, worse, mishandled clumsily. That is increasingly a thing of the past as young winemakers and grape growers are sharing information and forging new possibilities in the pursuit of pure, unadulterated wines of quality.

At Scaramouche, we've always tried to have a few organic specialties on the winelist but thankfully it is getting less difficult finding decent wines made without pesticides, fungicides and other scary things. Look for the listings with parentheses containing the words [Organic] and [Biodynamic] and support their efforts.