MRV 2023
BOCK VINEYARD
After waiting for the inclusion of Roussanne In the list of VQA approved varieties, we can now release this blend of Rhône white varieties: Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier, in almost equal parts.
The grapes are from the Bock Vineyard, a warm site tucked in St. David’s. This is a beautifully textural and tropical wine, with a long mineral finish and just a touch of herbs and spices.
GAMAY Rosé 2023
BOCK VINEYARD
After waiting for the inclusion of Roussanne In the list of VQA approved varieties, we can now release this blend of Rhône white varieties: Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier, in almost equal parts.
The grapes are from the Bock Vineyard, a warm site tucked in St. David’s. This is a beautifully textural and tropical wine, with a long mineral finish and just a touch of herbs and spices.
SENSORY PROFILE
Medium gold in colour, this wine has aromas of tropical fruits including apricot and guava, as well as citrus both meyer lemon and orange zest. In addition to the fruit there is beeswax, herbs, and spices, with white pepper and ginger as well as a soft vanilla note.
The palate follows with similar flavours and a broad and viscous texture. The full body leads to a long finish, both saline and mineral and with great freshness from the acidity we maintain in Ontario even in these very ripe late season varieties.
FOOD PAIRINGS
This wine will pair wonderfully with creamy shellfish dishes, or try it with South Asian dishes where the fruit and spices are complimentary.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
There is not a lot of precedent for aging wines made from these varieties in Ontario, but it is drinking well on release in 2024 and should continue to evolve gracefully for at least 10 years.
VINTAGE
The 2023 growing season started with an early budbreak and a frost risk in May. June and July followed with a lot of wet and warm weather that resulted in higher than average disease pressure. July and August presented a new challenge to us in
Niagara, with wildfire smoke filling the skies reducing our sunlight hours and keeping daytime temperatures down.
The light crop load in 2022 and sunny spring of 2023 gave a high cluster count on the vines, but cluster weights were average to smaller due to the poor weather at flowering.
September and October brought perfect harvest conditions during the critical months and winemakers were able to make harvest decisions according to the vineyard and desired wine styles. The fruit and resulting wines from the 2023 vintage show very ripe characters, excellent balance, and ability to express site and terroir.
WINE DATA
Variety: 39% Marsanne, 32% Roussanne, 29% Viognier
Alcohol.: 13.5%
Residual Sugar: 2.2 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 6.1 g/L
pH: 3.73
Bottling Date: 2024-08-28
Production: 85 cases
VINEYARD AND HARVEST DATA
Appellation: St. David’s Bench
Site: Bock Vineyard
Soil: Oneida loam over clay till parent material
Marsanne Clones: 574 and 01 on 101-14 rootstock
Roussanne Clones: 467 and 522 on 101-14 and 3309 rootstocks
Viognier Clones: 642 and 1042 on 101-14 and riparia rootstocks
Vine Age: 2012-2015 planting
Harvest Date: 2023-10-27
Yield: 4.9 T/ac
VINIFICATION
The grapes for this wine were hand harvested and whole cluster pressed, with the Viognier being treated separately and the Marsanne and Roussanne being pressed together.
The juice was settled before racking to French oak barrels of various ages. Fermentation was initiated with a non-saccharomyces yeast followed by inoculation of each barrel with selected saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts.
Following fermentation, the wines were aged for 10 months in barrel before selecting the final blend resulting in the balanced proportion of the three varieties.
The wine was gently fined and clarified using only bentonite (no allergens/non-vegan fining agents were used), followed by filtration prior to bottling.
REVIEWS
“While Divergence brand owner and winemaker Jeff Moote waits for the provincial government to basically rubber stamp Roussanne as a VQA-eligible grape, which makes up 32% of this Rhone variety blend, this wine will just keep getting better in the bottle. There are exciting times ahead for fans of this style of wine that also includes 39% Marsanne and 29% Viognier from the Bock Vineyard on the St. David’s Bench. Black Bank Hill is also waiting on approval for Roussanne, which somehow wasn’t approved along with Marsanne years ago, and is part of a blend now waiting to be bottled. “It will be cool to be one of the first with a Roussanne containing wine in VQA, along with Black Bank Hill as likely the other that will have one ready to go as soon as we get the green light,” said Moote. The Viognier was pressed separately, while Marsanne and Roussanne were pressed together on top of the Viognier skins. It was all whole cluster pressed, juice was settled and racked to barrel for fermentation and aging for 10 months (no new oak) before blending and bottling. The Rhone Rangers in Niagara, small in number, but big on flavour, are sneaking up on us. This a more traditional three-variety Rhone blend that is just gorgeous, exciting even, with a generous, rich nose of apricots, guava, orange zest, saline minerality in spades, wild herbs, marzipan, lemon curd, and a touch of vanilla spice. It has a creamy texture on the palate with succulent tropical fruits, apricot tart, lemon squares, orange peel, cantaloupe, wild honey, saline freshness and a rounded, luxurious finish with mouth-watering acidity. These Rhone varieties are going to shake up the industry if this is an indication. Lovely wine.” 94 points – Rick Vansickle, Wines in Niagara