Rosewood Winery Afternoon Niagara Peninsula 2021 750mL

CANADA : ONTARIO : NIAGARA PENINSULA

SUSTAINABLE : Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon

MED-BODIED, GREEN APPLE, LEMONGRASS, LANOLIN, RIVER STONE, BAKING SPICE, NEUTRAL OAK

A Bordeaux-blanc blend from the Beamsville Bench — a sentence almost nobody else in Ontario gets to write. Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon are the Niagara Escarpment’s minority report, and Rosewood is one of the only addresses treating them the way Pessac does.

The two halves are made as separate wines and only meet at the end. The Semillon is whole-cluster pressed, fermented with native yeast, and raised 18 months in neutral French oak, which is where the waxy lanolin weight comes from. The Sauvignon Blanc spends the same 18 months in tank, holding onto the lemongrass and green-herb top end that barrel would flatten. Blended 66/34, then bottled unfined and unfiltered on its own lees.

It finishes at 11.2% alcohol, which is a Loire number, not a New World one — picked early on purpose, with the acid left intact. Winemaker Ryan Corrigan came over from Pearl Morissette in 2016 and reset the house style; Jamie Goode called the result some of the most interesting wine in the region. 665 cases made.

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