LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2015

Lunch at Inn on the Twenty, in Jordan, tasting all nine Cave Spring Rieslings against Chef Frank Romano’s cooking… What a revelation! The Riesling ( LCBO 234583, $14.95) was brilliant with the house charcuterie (including tricky pick- les and mustards) and with a tuna tar- tare dressed with fish roes. The Estate Riesling took things to another level, de- licious with miso-glazed lamb tataki and Asian slaw. The top-of-the-line CSV Ries- ling was a splendid match for grilled beef striploin with espresso and foie gras jus, and for wild boar wrapped in beef bacon with chocolate balsamic jus. The acidity and hint of sweetness in the wines build so many bridges into so many kinds of food!    And don’t forget dessert. Chef Romano made chocolate cake with powdered Nutella and tempura of unopened maple buds. Indian Summer Select Late Harvest Riesling had the intensity and fruit to take it all in stride. Want an awesome cheese match? Ripe Grey Owl goat cheese and Riesling icewine. See you in heaven. www.innonthetwenty.com. RIESLING &MEAT Charcuterie, lamb, beef? Call for Riesling

CAVE SPRING ESTATE A NIAGARA RIESLING PIONEER, CAVE SPRING IS STILL ITS GREAT CHAMPION L en Pennachetti planted his first vineyard in 1978, boldly choosing vinifera not hybrid varieties for his site on the bench, and betting the farmon the newly arrived Weis 21b Riesling. Eight years later, he and winemaker Angelo Pavan created Cave Spring Cellars, based in the charming village of Jordan, Ont. Riesling still accounts for more than half the company’s production and I can’t think of anyone in Canada who does a better job with the variety. After 35 vintages, they understand the grape and the very many things it can do but they continue to experiment, most recently with “wild” fermentation, letting ambient yeasts in the winery do their own thing. The result is called Adam’s Steps—fruit-forward, with a degree less alcohol but a good solid structure, it is, says Pavan, still a work in progress.     From time to time, VINTAGES carries Cave Spring’s CSV Riesling, made from the two oldest plantings in that first vineyard up on the bench. It’s something every wine lover needs to taste, especially in its maturity—look for it in VINTAGES Spring 2016. Age changes the balancing trace of sweetness in the wine into something textural—a smoothness and weight that holds mature flavours of honey, lemon oil, lanolin and spice. Anyone starting a wine cellar should begin with a case of this extraordinary wine. It will outlive any NewWorld Chardonnay and grow more fasci- nating with the passing years.

CAVE SPRING IMAGE COURTESY OF CAVE SPRING; PHOTO OPPOSITE SHOT ON LOCATION AT MIDFIELD WINE BAR & TAVERN, TORONTO

104  FOOD & DRI NK AUTUMN 2015