Summery wines to enjoy now

This week’s selections include two family-operated boutique wineries in Niagara that have embraced splashy events and online sales

In the 1990s, wine lovers looking for some of Niagara’s best bottles needed to attend open houses held at 13th Street Winery, Lailey Vineyards, Malivoire, Marynissen and Thirty Bench. Anyone with designs on getting some of Gunther Funk’s pinot from 13th Street or Derek Barnett’s syrah from Lailey planned to get to the winery early. With only 600 bottles produced in some instances, there wasn’t much to go around.

Production levels – and consistency – of quality wines from across the region has increased since then. There are terrific wines of every colour and style to satisfy demand. But a new wave of familyoperated boutique wineries in the region have embraced events as well as online sales to market their fine wines without having to run a conventional retail shop or tasting room.

The Farm in western St. Catharines, Ont., organizes an annual house party to sell the critically acclaimed pinot noirs produced from its organic vineyard (as well as sites in Niagara). Registered guests taste and shop for the latest releases and, possibly, even take a dip in the pool while enjoying the Neudorf family’s hospitality.

The once-a-year event was the best sales option – given that Peter and Dora Neudorf live on the 10-acre property, which was planted with pinot noir vines in 2000. “A tasting room is not a reality,” says Erika Neudorf, who drew inspiration from a similar event she attended at the familyoperated boutique Noon Winery in South Australia’s McLaren Vale.

This is the fifth year that the Neudorfs will welcome guests, and the 400 spots filled up in less than an hour. Online sales of a chardonnay and three pinot noirs will open to the winery mailing list Aug. 1, with inventory set aside for the Aug. 15 event and restaurant accounts. More details are available at farmwines.ca, including an updated list of restaurants and bottle shops in Ontario that stock products.

Online orders are the only option for consumers to secure some of On Seven’s tiny production of top-flight chardonnay from its Niagara-on-the-Lake vineyard.

Owners Vittorio and Sula De Stefano purchased the seven-acre site on Line 3 in 2009 and methodically planned their organically farmed vineyard with consultant Peter Gamble. The couple waited two years to get the specific type of chardonnay vines they wanted, putting them into the ground in 2014. It took eight years before they were able to produce their first vintage: 107 cases of 12 bottles of a wine called the Pursuit. Such perseverance has been rewarded with some of Canada’s most exciting wines.

This year, 82 cases of the Pursuit and 31 cases of the flagship chardonnay, the Devotion, also from the 2018 vintage, will be distributed on Aug. 22.

Wine lovers are asked to contact the winery to get on the allocation list through onsevenwinery.com.

Some favourite selections from the Farm and On Seven’s forthcoming releases are featured in this week’s reviews. There are also some summery whites and rosé to enjoy in the days ahead.