13th Street Grande Cuvée Blanc de Noirs Sparkling 2013

The Grande Cuvée is only produced in exceptional vintages. It is 100% Pinot Noir sourced from the estate’s Whitty Vineyard in the Creek Shores sub-appellation. After careful manual harvest, the whole bunches of Pinot Noir are put into the press where the free run juice is separated out and blended with the first gentle press to extract juice but not colour or phenolics. The wine was aged on its lees for seven years and no sugar was added, only the base wine was used for the dosage. What a masterpiece! Such a personable sparkling wine with an intriguing nose of mature apple, pear, smoky/flinty notes, lemon curd and brioche/autolytic accents. The colour is golden in the glass with a soft, persistent, and elegant bead. On the palate look for baked pear, stony/saline minerality, ripe apple, lifted lemon-centric citrus notes with rousing acidity keeping it fresh and lifted through a luxurious and long finish. Wow! Wines in Niagara’s Most Thrilling Sparkling Wine of the Year. Score – 94. (Rick VanSickle, winesinniagara.com, Dec. 26, 2022)