On our visit to Niagara earlier this year, one of our most interesting stops was at Daniel Lenko. In addition to some current release wines, we picked up a sample pack from 1999 to get a sense for how his wine ages. One of the selections is a Pinot Noir. I was very curious about this one because I can't imagine that it is easy to produce consistently good Pinot in this extreme climate.
I was pretty impressed.
Here's the two day tasting note:
1999 Daniel Lenko Pinot Noir - Canada, Ontario, Niagara Peninsula (5/6/2006)
I had reasonably low expectations for this because I've never had an enjoyable Pinot from Ontario (admittedly a very small sample size) .
This bottle came from a 1999 sample pack bought from Daniel and was very enjoyable. The colour looked a little older than its 7 years should imply showing orange hue at the rim and penetrating into the deeper recesses. The nose is fantastic - flowers, spices and cherry jump out of the glass. The palate is on the light side of medium bodied (matching the lighter look) and is very elegant and slightly demure. The wine finishes decently too with some spicy, high-toned red fruits.
The nose is a knock out. The palate is very refined and elegant. I tend to prefer bigger Pinots but this came very close to break the 90 point threshold for me. Another Ontario winner!
Day Two:
Upgrade time. I'm adding another two points for how well this is expanding over the last 3 hours. Now, the nose is as impressive as ever, but the palate is fuller in body and the finish is exceptionally perfumed now with great flowers, lavender and spice. I expected this to fade. It's great to be surprised.
It's too bad that the Pinot is no longer being made.
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