LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2022

SPICY ONTARIO WINES

Ontario’s cool growing climate for grapes suits wine

styles that have been coveted in

France, Germany and Austria for centuries.

For winemakers of Gewürztraminer and Riesling, it’s a tightrope balance between achieving lush apple, pear and tropical fruit ripeness, against the higher alcohol that results from fermenting riper grapes into wine. Often made in slightly off-dry styles, with a little natural residual sugar, these wines are wonderful with foods that have warm, slightly spicy notes, like the ginger in our duck recipe. They have their own signature pepper and spice, but growing in cooler climates means they retain bright, citrus flavours (echoed in the recipe’s lime flavour). Ontario also excels with thicker-skinned red grapes that, when crushed and pressed, lend not only tannins but spice to the resulting wine. Barrel-aging enhances that quality, with oak often lending notes of clove, allspice and pepper to red wines. Spicy wine with spicy food can be an incendiary combination on the palate, so the balm of a creamy or fatty element (like the decadent crispy duck skin here) harmonizes the pairing.

HONEYED DUCK WITH LIME ANDGINGER

A gooey honey and soy glaze offsets the piquant lime and ginger cavity-stuffing, matching and balancing the spice in these white and red Ontario wines. Recipe at lcbo.com/fdautumn22

Post–Labour Day Whites Bold Ontario white wines are delightful paired with zesty fall recipes.

› Angels Gate Gewürztraminer VQA LCBO 58594, $15.95

› Open Riesling Gewürztraminer VQA LCBO 134965, $13.45

› Thirty Bench Winemaker’s Blend Riesling VQA VINTAGES 24133, $22.95

VALUE PICK

Its light golden colour belies a bold bouquet of rose-petal, blossom and peach aromas. Fans of crisp whites will savour the pear and citrus flavours, but this wine also has robust body for a white, with off-dry weight that carries herbal and white-pepper notes.

Fans of Gewürztraminer often savour its lychee note, evident in this wine’s tropical-fruity and honeysuckle aromas. It tastes of peach and grapefruit, and turns savoury with fig and a whiff of spice on the dry finish.

Niagara’s Beamsville Bench is a renowned hotspot for Rieslings, like this complex, off-dry version. Balancing fresh blossoms and dried fruits on the nose, it is nutty and lightly peppery on the palate, with some citrus-zingy acidity.

96 FOOD & DRINK AUTUMN 2022