Wine Tidings
October, 1999
Tony Aspler Editorial
The future of the Canadian wine industry
rests on the selection of vines that growers plant. It's not
only a question of what variety they choose for a particular
soil and micro-climate but what clone will work best in our
cool climate growing season and harsh winters.
Château des Charmes in the Niagara
Peninsula is at the forefront of research into finding the
best clones of the preferred varieties. For two years that
winery's viticulturalist Dr. John Paroschy has been conducting
experiments to cultivate virus-free vines that are winter
hardy and will produce the best sugar levels and the finest
wines.
With funding from CanAdapt, the Agricultural
Adapation Council, Paroschy and Charmes' owner Paul Bosc Sr.
have concentrated on growing 50 different clones of ten vinifera
varieties.
Recently a group of wine professionals
blind-tasted a range of wines made from many of these clonal
selections. Bosc wanted independent corroboration of his own
evaluation of how the different clones of a given variety
performed. The wines, from the 1997 and 1998 vintages, were
all made in the same way, without oak. The three flights of
Chardonnay were grown in three different vineyards, one of
sandy soil, one on clay soil (from the original Château des
Charmes estate) and one on the York Road property where the
elegant château now stands.
It was amazing the range of flavours
that different clones of the same variety can produce. The
most dramatic expression was in the Gamay trial. One clone
of the four stood out because of the power and intensity of
the wine made from it. Paul Bosc explained that it was from
a Gamay Droit vine from an old vineyard that grew almost three
times as tall as the vines around it. He had propagated cuttings
from it and was now selling them to the growers. The other
noteworthy information to come out of this tasting was that
the noble red with the best potential to make wines consistently
with depth of flavour and colour in Ontario is Cabernet Franc.
The four Cab Franc clones I tasted from the two vintages were
marked higher across the board than Merlot, with Cabernet
Sauvignon trailing a poor third. What this tells me is that
the best Canadian reds will-- in the Bordeaux tradition--
be blends of these three grapes. Hillebrand's Trius Red and
Reif's Tesoro have already proved that point.
The good news is that the results
of Château des Charmes' clonal study, which can only help
to improve the quality of wines produced in Ontario vineyards,
will be made available to all Canadian winemakers.
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