David Lawrason’s Weekly Wine Pick: a Niagara red from the region’s best vintage to celebrate Canada Day
Trius 2010 Red
$21.95 | Niagara Peninsula | 89 points
If you want to celebrate Canada Day with a homegrown wine, this Ontario red is the ticket. It’s from the best red vintage to date in Niagara. Trius winemaker Craig MacDonald has figured out how to best express the lighter side of merlot- and cabernet-based Ontario reds—an arena where many winemakers still try to extract brute force from grapes that just don’t have it in them.
The taste: The bouquet exudes classic, complex aromas of blackberry inlaid with cedar, herbs and chocolate. It’s medium-bodied with some initial silkiness before fresh acidity and gritty tannins on the finish. The moderate alcohol is synched with the fruit density. Excellent length.
How to drink it: You could open a bottle now, decant it in a cool place for an hour, then serve it with a rack of lamb. But at this price I would buy a few more for the cellar. The flavour will grow in complexity over the next three to five years.
