Tasting Note I have scored every vintage of Carly’s Block Riesling that I have tasted since 2009 in the low to mid 90s, and it has consistently taken gold or silver medals at the National Wine Awards. With vines now approaching 50 years of age, it is one of the great rieslings of Canada — monumental, complex and richly textured, yet so poised. The nose billows very ripe pear/green apricot, petrol and linden, and that certain spice I get from old-vine riesling. It is medium bodied but feels bigger thanks to the flavour intensity, firmness, minerality, and touch of sweetness. The length is outstanding. I tasted the 2017 alongside and got the same sense of volume, structure and grace, with mature tertiary notes of petrol, white mushroom and honey emerging. It, too, has outstanding length and will live another 10 years. The other single vineyard riesling of considerable note is the Quarry Road 2023, a sleek, powerful, structured and mineral expression from a cooler site atop the Escarpment in Vinemount Ridge. The third single site riesling is Limestone Ridge 2024 in Twenty Mile Bench, a spry, energized, high-acid edition packed with citrus.

Backgrounder Carly’s Block, named for one of owner Moray Tawse’s daughters, is one of the oldest riesling vineyards in Niagara, thought to have planted in 1977ish, although listed in the Old Vines Registry as 1985. It was converted to organic and biodynamic viticulture when Moray Tawse bought the vineyard in 2001 and built the winery next to the vineyard. The biodynamic treatment was suspended a few years ago but the vineyard remains organically certified. The winemaking is straightforward and non-interventionist, using a specific commercial yeast said to help define Carly’s character. It was aged in stainless steel and bottle for over a year.