Tasting Note This wine packs more complexity and structure than many Niagara gamays, made very intentionally in an age-worthy style with ageing predominantly in older and neutral French oak barrels (10% new). The 2024 was not yet bottled at this writing due to the extended winemaking regime at Hidden Bench. The nose is very generous with classic red cherry and red rose, but also meaty and quite herbal and botanical. It is medium weight, with some textural elegance on the mid-palate, but overall firm with moderate heat (13%) and fine tannin. The herbals lend some bitterness to the finish. The length is excellent. It would be easy to mistake this as pinot noir in a blind tasting. Could age easily through the early 2030s. On publication this wine was available at LCBO Vintages stores.
Backgrounder From his first vintage in 2005 vigneron Harald Thiel designed this well-situated Beamsville Bench winery as a producer of solid, organically grown, wild-yeast fermented age-worthy wines. I have always thought of Hidden Bench as one of the Euro-classic wineries in Ontario. It is a mid-slope site now spanning 110 acres over four plots in limestone rich, glacial till soils, plus leased land in Lincoln Lakeshore. It was originally conceived as chardonnay, pinot noir and riesling house, but the range also includes splendid red and white Bordeaux blends and sparkling wines. Gamay is a blend of Lincoln Lakeshore and Beamsville fruit, thus bearing the new West Niagara appellation. It was wild yeast fermented in large concrete vessels, aged nine months in mostly older French barrels, and bottled unfined and unfiltered.
