Tasting Note There is terrific tension and poise here, with immediate fruit. No wonder it earned a gold at the Nationals. Very lifted aromas of slightly baked apple fruit is joined by fine shortbread lees and dried flowers. It is light bodied, yet deeply flavoured, crisp and even, but not hard. Very complete, with excellent length. Great value! This was released at LCBO Vintages on March 21 and is also available at the winery.

Backgrounder Blomindon Estate was founded in the late 1980s, first growing and selling grapes and then, for the past 20 years, making wine. Owner Tim Ramey made a smart choice in hiring winemaker Simon Rafuse in 2009, a Nova Scotian trained at the University of Montpellier. The wines kept getting better and better. It’s a small winery with estate vineyards — including the Old Block Chardonnay planted in the 1980s and used for this sparkling wine — that seem to stretch right into the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Basin. This cuvee, however, is 100% L’Acadie Blanc, a high-acid hybrid grape developed in Ontario but finding its terroir home in Nova Scotia. This was aged 16 months en tirage in bottle. It was bottled with a dosage of 7.6 grams per litre.