The trio of dry or dry-ish Rieslings are the heart of the submissions here (although the sweet wines stole the show in the end). I liked them all about as well in terms of scoring, but for different reasons. The CSV, of course, is the outlier with a bit of oak. You either accept that or you don't, but it is quite impressive. The regular Riesling is a fine bargain. It shows beautiful balance between the sugar and acidity. It is a little less stern than the Estate Riesling. In many ways, it was my favorite of the table wines, but that depends. The brooding Estate Riesling has ample acidity, but also a hint of petrol. They have pros and cons, depending on your likes and tastes. How they develop may be the final answer. None are really easy wines that force you to drink them now, although the regular Riesling comes closest to that profile in theory. These are Certified Sustainable (Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario).

2020 Riesling Niagara Peninsula | Rating 90

The 2020 Riesling comes in with 16 grams of residual sugar, 8.7 of total acidity, 10.7% alcohol and a pH of 2.8. The acidity mostly gobbles up the sugar here, or perhaps it might be equally accurate to say the sugar nicely counters the acidity. This seems mostly dry or dry-ish, even with that little burst of sugar on the end. It is closer to medium dry than medium sweet, easy to use as a table wine. It also shows good concentration, a nice finish and a classic demeanour. The sugar means that this doesn't have quite the purity of expression as the Estate Riesling also reviewed in this report, but it does have purer aromatics and a balanced demeanor. As the submission closest to a bargain price (by all of $3), this is an overachiever that has grip and tension on the finish, plus some chance of aging well. How it develops and holds may be the final answer to how much of an overachiever it is. Let's be a little conservative just now. It will be better next spring, but it is a perfect food wine right now. It should hold throughout the decade, probably longer.

2020 Riesling Estate, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | Rating 90

The 2020 Riesling Estate comes in at six grams of residual sugar, 7.8 of total acidity and 12.4% alcohol. Dry but perfectly balanced, this is a little sterner than the regular Riesling, but it never becomes shrill, even if it is always fairly intense. Elegant and classic in aromas, it also adds a bit of petrol on the nose. Then, it follows with considerable grip and tension and a respectably long finish. This is young and unevolved. It seems to have ample potential. The petrol is under control today. I liked how it developed as it aired and warmed in the glass. Needless to say, this dry and somewhat stern Riesling is strictly a food wine. It should age and become more clearly a winner, but it could use a year or two more in the cellar.

2019 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | Rating 91

The 2019 Riesling CSV was partly aged in neutral French oak (about 45%, with another 5% also with skin contact) for 10 months, with the rest in stainless steel. It comes in with four grams of residual sugar, 9.2 of total acidity and 12.3% alcohol. Wood changes all wines, including Riesling, so this is a little different. However, the old wood on only some of the juice means that this will have no vanilla or flavor alterations as such. Wood mutes the grape a little, to be sure, so that's a given if you object. It still has Riesling character, though, and the flip side is that this becomes an interesting food wine on many levels. (It will really need food.) There is plenty of grip on the finish, the acidity easily asserting itself over the wood and supporting the fruit. The mid-palate also shows good concentration. Overall, it is a wine with both power and focus. It has a chance to age very well, for another decade at least, and probably develop more too. This is nicely done. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Give it another year or two if you can, but it is approachable now.

Other Cave Spring Vineyard wines reviewed:

2017 Riesling Select Late Harvest, Lincoln Lakeshore, Estate Grown | Rating 90

The 2017 Riesling Select Late Harvest is unoaked and sourced from partly frozen grapes on the vine. It comes in with 100 grams of residual sugar, 7.8 of total acidity and 13.1% alcohol. This has a touch of petrol, controlled sugar and beautiful focus. It lingers nicely on the finish and shows off good fruit as well as some acidity. The sugar fades a bit with air; this doesn't seem nearly as sweet as that 100 grams might suggest. It is mostly refreshing and not at all cloying. This should age pretty well, but it drinks great today too. It is a far more restrained dessert wine than the Icewine also reviewed this report, but it does well for its very different style. The price references a half bottle.

2019 Riesling Icewine, Lincoln Lakeshore, Estate Grown | Rating 95

The 2019 Riesling Icewine was harvested frozen on the vine. It is unoaked and comes in with 245 grams of residual sugar, 14.9 of total acidity, 9% alcohol and a pH of 2.73, if you're interested in those details. The Select Late Harvest also reviewed in this report is lovely, but when you get to the high-end Icewine here, you're in another ballpark. This has plenty of body and a fair bit of sugar, but the acidity cuts both and shreds the sugar. I loved the racy demeanor. That makes this lively and a little tense. The aromatics are classic Riesling and the flavors are pure and fresh. It always seems transparent. This is a beauty that should age very well. They do tend to change notably in style as they age, so keep that in mind. In the meanwhile, it is drinkable now, likely better in a year or two. The price references a half bottle.

Read Less

Savvy Shopper... Around the World A trio of cru Beaujolais, a Spanish red, a Portuguese white and a pair of New World whites (one from Canada, the other from South Africa) caught our attention in the tasting room recently. All are $25 or less. 2019 Riesling Dry, Niagara Peninsula | 89 Pts A fresh, peach and apple-inflected white, accented by lemon and mineral. The rich fruit is matched to a steely structure. Drink now through 2030. Read Less

Sustainably focused with a consistent quality track record, their Rieslings are some of the best you’ll come across in the country, but that’s not all they’re known for. You’ll find that they also craft some excellent Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. A newly opened tasting centre with a stunning vineyard view is a must-visit. Read Less

One of Niagara’s most important producers is Cave Spring. They are probably most famous for their Rieslings, but everything they make is worth attention. The home site is a 64-hectare vineyard on the Beamsville Bench, but they also own 21 hectares across three sites on the Lincoln Lakeshore. They would be entirely working with estate fruit save for the fact that one of these Lincoln Lakeshore vineyards is owned and farmed by their vineyard manager, Christopher Andrewes. 75% of production is white varieties. The history of Cave Spring goes back to 1973 when John Pennachetti first purchased some land on Cave Spring Road in the Beamsville Bench. This was at a time when there were very few vineyards planted to Vitis vinifera varieties in the region. Five years later, with his son Len, he planted a 5-hectare vineyard with Chardonnay and Riesling. The latter was the famous clone 21 Riesling that was brought into Canada by the Weis family of St. Urbans-hof... Herman Weis also planted vineyards in Niagara, and Len’s brother Tom (in charge of sales and marketing) ended up marrying Herman’s daughter Anne. The first wines released under the Cave Spring label were made in 1986 with winemaker Angelo Pavan. Angelo still makes the wines, but has now been joined by Gabe Demarco. The Beamsville Bench site has glacial till soils derived mainly from the sedimentary rocks of the Niagara Escarpment, including limestone, shale, and sandstone. These soils are relatively low in organic matter, which helps to control vigour. Lake Ontario is found 3.5 km north and contributes temperate breezes during the summer. These meet the cliff of the escarpment behind the vineyards and then circulate, with this airflow reducing disease pressure and also helping counter frosts. All the wines are wild ferment except the base wines for the sparkling wine. Where oak is used, it is old, and there’s quite a bit of larger-format oak in the cellar. Read Less

Canada’s Ontario wine regions have quite a talent for sparkling wine, and this is becoming quite an important category. Here I tried 29 different wines, and I’ve ranked them in order of scores. Cave Spring Vineyard 2015 Blanc de Blancs CSV • 94 Pts | #1 Rated Wine Cave Spring Vineyard NV Blanc de Blancs • 93 Pts | #2 Rated Wine Read Less

Drier Rieslings can be tart and austere, but the examples from Cave Spring have a pleasingly soft texture. 2018 was a warm year that produced small, intensely flavoured berries. Fermented in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts, the palelemon-coloured Cave Springs Riesling has delicate aromas of citrus fruits, wet stones, and petrol. Although the wine contains 14 grams per liter of sugar, it seems nearly dry due to vibrant acidity and a mineral finish. You can draw comparisons with Riesling made in its ancestral home in Germany. Len’s brother Tom Pennachetti, a partner who oversees sales, thinks Cave Spring wines are “comparable to the best dry Rieslings of the Mosel and perhaps the Nahe and Rheingau.” Since Ontario is also northern, there are stylistic similarities, but the wines have their own character. “Our Rieslings also tend to be perhaps more earthy and a bit less aromatic,” he explains. Tom is certainly familiar with top German wines, since he is married to the sister of Nik Weis, one of the Mosel’s great winemakers. Read Less

Regional pioneer with impressive old-vine vineyards. Elegant CSV wines age effortlessly. Read Less

Cave Spring is one of Canada’s best wineries and has a very long track record (at least in terms of Canadian wine history, but Cave Spring was one of the first in the country to plant vinifera varieties and stick with them at a time when most people thought hybrids were the only way to go) to prove it. The estate makes a bunch of different wines at many different levels of concentration and cost and from many different grape varieties (and many others have been tried over the years: I often find myself thinking that long-time winemaker Angelo Pavan must have some Alsatian blood in him!). However, the best of a very fine lot of wines is, and always has been, the estate’s Riesling CSV, 100% Riesling grown in the Cave Spring Vineyard (CSV) in the Beamsville Bench Designated Viticultural Area. The vineyard is where some of the winery’s best and oldest plots of vines are found (vines that are now close to 50 years old, so we’re talking real vieilles vignes or VV wine here). It’s a vineyard I have walked many times over the years, and besides being one of the most beautiful in Ontario, it is also one where terroir speaks loudly: closed off to the outside elements not by a wall (as in a clos) but by a forest, its complex soil geology of limestone and dolostone mixed with shale, sandstone, granite and gneiss overlying a shale/sandstone bedrock, the gentle 3-6% slope and moderate elevation (125-155 meters above sea level) combine to give a very expressive, light on its feet yet dense wine that ages gracefully and easily for ten years and more. Read Less

2017 Rieslng CSV Top Rated Canadian Riesling | 94 Pts From the estate’s oldest blocks, between 40 and 44 years old. The quirky 2017 vintage – cool and cloudy throughout the summer then warm and sunny in the autumn – made for an extremely protracted harvest. Mouthfilling and textured with tremendous fruit depth, flavours of ripe peach and melon meet petrol and honey are underscored by aracy spine of acidity and minerality. Lengthy finish: orange blossom, ginger. Drink 2021–2033. Read Less

NV Blanc de Blancs Brut, Beamsville Bench, Estate Grown | 93 Pts It's bubbling in Canada! The wine world is changing. Global warming means that new areas are emerging. Is Canada the next big thing? Maybe. The quality promises well... Canada as a wine country has excelled in the past. The challenge has been the limited amount of wine. A strong domestic market, small crops and high demand have meant that little comes to Norway. So that this has a permanent shelf space is a big step forward. I can personally recommend these bubbles: scents of nuts and fresh coconut. Creamy mouthfeel, with a delicate core bitterness at the end. Read Less