Tasting Note – This is the first pinot noir from On Seven, an almost ten-year wait from the first vision and planting of this small seven-acre property. And it is a gem, making a pure and elegant statement. It pours pale garnet, showing evolution. It has a beautiful, authentic, even nose of red cherry, red rose, fine cinnamon spice, toast and dried leaves/forest floor. So nicely woven and detailed. It is light bodied, nicely smooth, supple but not soft and almost creamy with less acidity than expected, but enough to carry. Very fine sandy tannin, with a touch of shrub and earth on the finish. The balance is impeccable.  Excellent to outstanding length. There is a tweak of volatile acidity so prevalent in cool clime Ontario pinot, but it is perfectly managed thanks to ‘heavy sorting of healthy fruit’ says Peter Gamble.  Some will dismiss this on pale colour and light texture. But there is such purity that you can almost taste of the grape at the time it was picked.

Backgrounder – On Seven is a tiny, seven-acre vineyard on the Third Line in Niagara-on-the-Lake, focused on chardonnay and pinot noir. It is owned by Vittorio and Sula de Steffano with Peter Gamble as consulting winemaker. Planning began in the mid-2010s. The early research and planning was all about rootstock and clonal selection, three of which are employed in this pinot – 777, 808 and 115.  The vines were planted in the calcareous loam and clay soil in 2017, with no vintages commercially made until this 2023. The wet summer reduced intended yields but a warm, dry September saved the day, allowing enough to make a whopping 71 cases.  The fruit was hand-harvested then wild yeast fermented, with a percentage as whole clusters. It was aged in French oak barrels (25% new, 75% neutral) for 20 months in barrel, coarsely filtered and bottled.