Tasting Thursday lets us in on the kind of stories you don't get from a tasting note. Many of these wines come from the same vineyards, but you'll find they've produced wildly different wines.
The timestamp shows you how to jump straight to each one in the recording above.
Click the wine brand name to learn more and see my tasting notes and scores.
FOGOLAR
with Marc Pistor [00:01:58]
The whole Collab concept started with a 2008 dinner conversation about a winemaker co-op model in Oregon that didn't exist anywhere in Ontario. So, Marc built it himself, starting Fogolar in 2015 and turning a barn renovation into a full collective by 2020. Bonus insider info: his Grimsby Hillside Cab Franc 2023 is down to its last 4 or 5 cases.
DIVERGENCE
with Jeff Moote [00:14:16]
Jeff's Frontier Block Chardonnay comes from some of the oldest vines (~25 years) on the legendary Grimsby Hillside property. It's good enough that we packed it in a suitcase of 60+ Canadian bottles for a trip to Burgundy, and it was one of the wines that most impressed and members and the French wine lovers we tasted it with.
SEMPRE MIO
with Corey Mio [00:19:38]
Corey and his wife planted their vineyard as total outsiders to the industry, with zero connections, and ended up becoming the hub of the whole group. This year's reserve Marsanne, "Primo Mio," is named for his grandfather, who emigrated from Friuli and passed away just six weeks before this call.
HORSESHOE CELLARS
with John-Daniel Steele [00:55:03]
Two childhood friends from BC made their first "unofficial" vintage in a backyard shed in 2019, and got an actual angry email from the VQA for labeling wines with a vineyard name they weren't cleared to use yet. Their brand new 2024 single-block Grimsby Hillside Riesling just scored 93+ points: a super promising start to a super exciting project to map Canada's terroir through Riesling.
MAENAD WINE CO
with Yvonne Irvine [01:04:55]
Nineteen years as a working winemaker at Creekside, and Maenad is her pandemic-born passion project. Her take on Viognier: "it's a sexy white wine... voluptuous and silky and oily." Coming next: a rosé made saignée-style, pulled straight off the juice of Marc's own red wine tank.
LIEBLING WINES
with Jess & Ali Oppenlaender [01:16:42]
Jess and Ali's dad came to Canada from Germany in 1984 planning to stay one year (but he never left). The winery's name is German for "darling," an homage to their grandmother's nickname for him. Their prices stay shockingly low because as wine growers, they absorb many of the vineyard costs themselves. Next up for Liebling: Ali is finally letting the group talk her into making a Chardonnay, after years of insisting she doesn't like it.
BATTERSEA
with Julie Enns [01:42:14]
Julie is the person quietly running the day-to-day of the entire Collab group, and she also makes her own wines. Her sparkling Vivo got a 91 points from Carl, who has been saying ever since he under-scored it. Fantastic wines all around.
We hope you enjoy these amazing discoveries! Order yours asap before this feature ends and before these super limited releases sell out completely.
Cheers,
Carl (& Mira)
