Taste Canada is now an annual event put on by the Canadian High Commission in London to showcase, in 2019, two-hundred wines from British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Forty producers were present, so the seven profiled here provide a mere snapshot of the event. But I hope that this short article does manage to convey some of the excitement being generated by Canada’s various wine regions and styles.

I began my coverage of this event with a profile of the producer I personally find the most exciting and innovative in the country, Okanagan Crush Pad. You can read about them here. Although my coverage of Taste Canada may be shorter than last year (fifteen producers in 2018 with some overlap, but take a look here if you are interested), there’s plenty to enjoy.

NORMAN HARDIE WINERY (WELLINGTON, ONTARIO)

These are some of the most renowned vineyards and wines in Southern Ontario. Norman Hardie is based in Wellington, with vines in both Prince Edward County and Niagara. The terroir here is principally limestone, which is especially good for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Hardie specialises in these varieties, but he also makes damned good Cabernet Franc as well. Canadian Cabernet Franc first came to my attention from the Okanagan Valley (BC), but Ontario seems to be able to make something special out of the variety, at least if this and the next producer are anything to go by.

The climate in Southern Ontario is usually described as “cool”. Come on folks, -30 Degrees Centigrade in winter in Prince Edward County isn’t cool, it’s remarkably cold. After all, in Vermont to the east they are using hybrids (see La Garagista in my recent coverage of Real Wine Fair 2019 on this site). The reason that vitis vinifera vines can thrive in Southern Ontario is in part down to climate change, but also because they often utilise the technique of burying the vines in winter in Prince Edward.

Niagara is by far the most important region for vines in Ontario, with more than 80% of that province’s vineyards. Niagara is cooler in spring and warmer at the end of the growing season, due to the effect of the Great Lakes, especially Lake Ontario. Budbreak is later and ripening can take longer. The water does help to modify winter temperatures too, and cooling breezes off the lake help stop temperatures rising too much in summer. Without this great body of water there would be no wine. With it, a lot is possible, as the ever improving wines show.

Chardonnay 2016, Niagara Peninsula VQA The vines here grow on dolomitic limestone . Ageing is just ten months in oak and only a little sulphur is added at bottling, without filtration. Norman is no young hipster, but his methods are based on minimal intervention. The nose is fresh, and suggests a lighter wine than that which creeps up on the palate (it has just 12.6% abv though). It’s perfectly balanced, and a genuinely lovely Chardonnay to start with.

County Chardonnay 2016, Prince Edward County VQA This is a different wine to the Niagara, and I think they key is the cooler Prince Edward climate discussed above. The palate has a slightly leaner edge, although the alcohol here is up a touch at 12.8%. Both of these wines are nice but different expressions of individual limestone terroirs.

Cuvée Des Amis 2015, Prince Edward County VQA This Chardonnay comes off five Prince Edward County sites all within a kilometre or two of the winery. In 2015 devastating frosts meant that the crop was tiny and so the sites were blended. The grapes were pressed gently into horizontal stainless steel fermenters, and then the juice was moved into 500-litre oak (25% new then an equal split of 2nd, 3rd and 4th-year fills) to complete fermentation. It was then aged on lees in oak for 12 months, then stainless steel, still on lees, for ten more. Bottling saw a minimal dose of sulphur. It’s nicely rounded out in the glass with a bouquet of citrus and bready notes, the palate being saline and a little savoury, with citrus peel acidity. The bottle says 11.9%.

Pinot Noir 2016, Niagara Peninsula VQA This is off four Niagara sites, the grapes being given a cold soak for a week with two daily punchdowns. They use a small basket press for the Pinot, after which the fermented juice goes into traditional 228-litre French oak for nine months. The result is bright and pale. You get red fruits and cherry, plus dusty tannins and a crunchy acidity which makes it crisp and savoury, but the ripe cherry fruit gives it just a bit of beefiness. There’s a mere 11.4% abv.

County Pinot Noir 2016, Prince Edward County VQA It seems that 2016 was a hot and dry year in Ontario, but the alcohol levels of these wines are low. Despite that, they all have a real presence, and this is no more so than with this wine. It saw 25 days on skins, the first seven as a pre-fermentation cold soak. It went through the small basket press and then into the same oak regime for, in this case, ten months. The rocky limestone soils create a wine of elegance, but the nose seems a little deeper than the Niagara Pinot. It has a little more weight in the mouth too, more of the ripe cherry notes. It’s also a bit more velvety too. Suave, in a good way.

County Cabernet Franc 2016, Prince Edward County VQA I suppose, to the degree that I knew Norman’s wines, I’d kind of seen him as a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay specialist, but that’s not all he makes by any means. In fact I’d love to try his Zweigelt. But he also makes several Cabernet Francs (including a cuvée with no added sulphur). This County Cabernet Franc comes from a good year, thankfully, following a difficult one, as late frost killed off 85% of the crop in 2015 (see Cuvée Des Amis, above).

Ageing is in oak again, 25% new after a reasonably long time on skins (22 days). The overall impression, a very positive one, is of a wine with freshness and bite. The bouquet gives nice red fruits and a little pepper, with a palate at this stage showing grainy tannins, bright acidity and balanced, rich, red fruits. It’s a very impressive wine, one of my top four on the Cabernet Franc Focus Table, and one that will age in the medium term, despite its obvious approachability. It wouldn’t be a disaster if you opened this for Sunday lunch next week, but I’m sure holding off will bring rewards.

PEARL MORISSETTE (NIAGARA, ONTARIO)

François Morissette studied at Dijon and worked with Frédéric Mugnier, Christian Gouges and Jean-Marc Roulot, but this is as far removed from a copycat Burgundy operation as you could imagine. These are very much Niagara terroir wines, in terms of varietal selections. They are also wines of low intervention and very low sulphur. Production is small, with each wine being made in quantities between 500 to 2,000 cases. Their base is around Jordan on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, and close to Twenty Mile Creek, which hits Lake Ontario at Jordan Harbour.

Irrévérence 2017, Niagara Peninsula VQA Riesling (64%), with Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer. The Gewurz was fermented on skins in qvevri (6 months),  the Riesling in innox, and the Chardonnay in concrete and then into foudre for six months. The result is a very aromatic but textured wine with a very beautiful bouquet (I’m tempted to use that word “shimmering” again), fruity and floral. The palate is a mirage of different elements which seem to interweave into a fairly complex yet gastronomic whole.

Metis Blanc 2017, Niagara Peninsula 100% Chardonnay from young vines of which some of the fruit goes into concrete and the rest into old Alsace foudres. After fermentation the two elements are blended for ageing. On top of the profile you find white flowers and on the bottom, a little buttery mouthfeel. It’s a fresh wine, but with a degree of depth.

Metis Rouge 2017, Niagara Peninsula is a blend of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Gamay. This is a lovely, pure tasting, blend, quite zippy on the acidity front, yet with plush fruit filling it out. It also has a smidgeon of that Niagara crunch. Very nice.

Cuvée Dix-Neuvième 2013, Twenty Mile Bench VQA This increasingly well regarded viticultural zone, one of twelve now designated in Niagara, runs west to east, parallel to the lake and just south of Jordan, and in the middle of the Niagara Escarpment. The soils are a mix of sand and glacial deposits, and the area is cut by streams. So whilst the escarpment protects the vines from cold south-westerly winds, there are multiple different hillside exposures for the vines.

This cuvée is the estate’s Chardonnay, from older vines. It is a nice pale gold with green glints, round and smooth, with depth of fruit but also citrus acidity. The back palate shows a little bit of texture, and that helps the flavours linger in the mouth. The alcohol here is 13.5%, half a percent more than the young vine Chardonnay.

Cuvée Black Ball 2013, Twenty Mile Bench This wine did pass the “VQA exam” in 2013, but not in 2014, I believe, the problem being the usual shortsighted, or petty minded, “lack of typicity”. It’s a skin contact Riesling which is both fermented in 60-year-old foudres from Alsace, and then aged on lees in the same vessels. It has zesty high notes of lime and white flowers and a mere hint of petrol on the nose. It’s clean and dry, with a sour note on the very finish, and it’s bottled without the addition of any sulphur, but as protection it is bottled under a little pressure, creating some dissolved CO2. I can just imagine the VQA judges…”ooh err missus”!

Cuvée Madeline 2013, Twenty Mile Bench A Varietal Cabernet Franc from a coolish, classic, vintage on the Bench. Despite the conditions in 2013 it has no greenness at all, though it does seem to have what I’d like to call a glorious restraint. Cuvée Madeline 2012 is a little darker, has just over one percent more alcohol (13.6%) and a bigger nose, more violet than 2012’s red fruits. It’s super plush, but still grippy and tannic. This vintage was warmer, of course. Both of these wines were among my favourites of the Canadian Cabernet Francs on show. The 2013 has a restrained intensity, whilst the 2012 seems to have an effortless elegance. I think I’d choose the 2012 if pushed, but there’s a £10 price difference (it appears), and not in my favour.

LIGHTFOOT & WOLFVILLE (ANNAPOLIS VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA)

Peter Gamble poured the wines last year, a well know viticultural consultant and one of the key players behind Nova Scotia wine. This year the wines were poured by Rachel Lightfoot. We first explored three of their several sparkling wines, and then three still wines (two Chardonnay and one Pinot Noir) from the Ancienne label. Lightfoot is the family and Wolfville is the town near which (along with Avonport) the family’s 35 acres of vines are situated. The viticultural climate here is assisted by the Minas Basin, which ameliorates the temperatures. The vines are all grown biodynamically on glacial till and sandy loam, in places over water retaining clay.

The sparkling wines come as a Brut Nature with zero dosage, a late disgorged Blanc de Blancs, and a straight Brut. Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature 2012 is 100% Chardonnay fermented in wood, where it underwent partial malolactic before resting on lees for five years before disgorging in January 2018. You get mouthfilling frothy freshness with notable lees development and a filigree spine of acidity. Of course, it finishes nice and dry, with salinity. Sadly they only made 130 cases.

Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut Late Disgorged 2013 had only four years on lees with, again, the base wine (Chardonnay) initially kept in oak. This was dosed at a low 3.5g, so it has a little bit more plumpness and gras, but not too much. It does, however, retain the refreshing quality of the first wine.

Blanc de Blancs Brut 2014 also saw four years on lees, and again is 100% Chardonnay, although they now have some Pinot Noir and Meunier planted for sparkling wines which came on-stream in 2014. It’s pale and quite restrained. It tastes more youthful and the acidity is fresh here. There’s less bottle development, but at this stage the cuvée is amazingly bright. There’s definitely some salinity, again. I would suggest this needs a year or four in bottle to develop.

Nova Scotia, and Annapolis Valley in particular, is tipped as an exciting new source for sparkling wines. Lightfoot & Wolfville is definitely proving that to be true. They don’t currently have UK distribution, and the wines are not going to reel customers in by price, but these are nevertheless lovely sparkling wines which deserve a wider audience. Benjamin Bridge is another Nova Scotia producer who, although not featured here, makes very good Méthode Classique sparkling wines (often claimed to be the best in the province) in the Gaspereau Valley, south of Annapolis. A region to seek out.

Ancienne Chardonnay 2015 and 2016 show another potential winner for the Province. The Chardonnay here comes from the Home Vineyard at Wolfville, off well drained soils with the temperature ameliorated by on-shore breezes. The 2015 was barrel fermented in French oak (20% new) and underwent full malolactic. There is good concentration from low yielding vines, and although the oak is only 20% new (80% “neutral”), there is a bit of vanilla in there. There’s also what I call nice line and length.

2016 was also aged in French barriques (same proportion new). It is less developed and more chewy now, with a recommended drinking window of 2020 to 2023. We are probably looking at £26-to-£30 retail for these, if someone takes the plunge to bring them in. A fair price I think for the quality.

Ancienne Pinot Noir 2016 This is the product of low yielding vines in a good, dry, vintage, the dryest that the Lightfoot family has known at Avonport, where their Oak Island Vineyard, from which this cuvée is sourced, is located. The style is lighter, with the wine a pale and vibrant cherry red. The fruit smells like high-toned cherry bonbon with a floral note wafting through on one of those offshore breezes (it really soars). There is the kind of acidity which is well balanced with the fruit, making for a lovely Pinot in the lighter style. Very nice.

OSOYOOS LAROSE (OKANAGAN VALLEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA)

This project goes right back to 1988, when Bordeaux (Groupe Taillan) and Canada (Constellation) formed a joint project to make a brave new red wine at Osoyoos, in the South of the Okanagan Valley. They were pioneers in quality viticulture at the time. The vines make use of the flat mountain benches again. The rainfall here is low, and freezing winter temperatures are offset by the warmth generated by Lake Osoyoos.

The first release of a Bordeaux blend, using all five classic Bordeaux varieties, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, was in 2001. The wine won immediate acclaim and fourteen vintages later the Grand Vin has established itself as, perhaps, a Canadian icon. The winemaker is Catherine Schaller, who has previously worked in Southwest France with a spell in Chile, before arriving in 2017. The previous winemaker, Matthieu Mercier, who of course made the wines on show, still works for the company in Europe, and he was the man pouring the wines to taste.

Pétales 2015 is a Merlot-dominant Bordeaux blend with high toned, stylish, smoky fruit with a bit of grip. It’s a nice approachable wine, which is exactly what is intended. Recommended drinking is within three years of vintage. If anything, I think consumers would only note that it is fairly expensive, at perhaps £25.

Osoyoos Larose 2015 This was a warm vintage here and the Merlot-dominant blend (71% with both Cabernets forming 20% between them and Petit Verdot and Malbec making up the last 9% of the blend) is pretty ripe. The aromatics are nice, and indeed classic for the varieties. You get dark fruits and a fresh graphite note on the nose. The wine was aged in French oak, a significant 60% new and 40% second fill. Alcohol levels seem high, and 2015 reaches 14%. But with Okanagan freshness, in this case it doesn’t show. The tannin is to the fore, but that’s expected.

Osoyoos Larose 2008 Here we were given an opportunity to try a more mature wine. In fact, with a recommendation to cellar these for 8-to-10 years, this should be peaking. The varietal proportions in the blend were a little different in 2008, Merlot only comprising 60%. Cabernet Franc jumps to 25% on its own, whilst the remaining three varieties split the remainder in proportions too small to worry about the detail. There’s still plenty of fruit left in this vintage, but there are certainly more tertiary elements, which for me comprised hints of leather and coffee. It’s certainly getting more complex.

The Grand Vin is very much in the Bordeaux mould. Some might say that the resemblance is too close to make this something different to that French region. But the famous Okanagan freshness does make it stand apart. If my sheet is right, the 2008 contains 14.9% alcohol. That’s quite a lot, and I wouldn’t want to consume a bottle all to myself. But sipping a small sample, you would not say that the alcohol truly dominates, probably because of that fruit and freshness combination. The Grand Vin is indeed a Canadian classic.

INNISKILLIN ESTATE WINES (NIAGARA, ONTARIO)

Inniskillin actually has an estate in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, but here we will just look at some of the Icewines made in Niagara. Based off the main highway between St-Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, in the sub-region of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Inniskillin claims to be Canada’s “first estate winery”. They have certainly been making wine here for 35 years. It is fair to say that this may be the Canadian wine estate best known in the UK, and it is via their Icewines, which have garnered top medals almost continuously in international competitions since the 1990s. It is also probably arguable that no single wine producer has done more to put Canada on the map. That wine map is changing, as we have seen already in this article. But Icewine is still a very important flagship for the country. It’s a completely different kettle of fish to German Eiswein, but the WSET lecture ends here…

All four wines below are VQA Niagara Peninsula.

Sparkling Vidal Icewine 2017 Vidal is a hybrid variety, a cross between the vinifera Ugni Blanc and another hybrid called Rayon d’Or, more commonly in Europe called Seibel 4986. It is a thick skinned, winter hardy, variety, so suitable for the Niagara climate, especially forty years ago. It was the original Icewine variety to find favour on export markets.

Sparkling Icewine, like the sparkling sake I drank a couple of nights ago, is the kind of drink you might rarely buy, but when you try it you like it and wonder why maybe you don’t own a bottle at least.

This is made by the Charmat method, about which we can be quite rude here in Europe, effectively fermentation in a closed tank rather than on lees in bottle. The wine is quite golden in colour, richly sweet (tropical fruits, honey) but the sweetness is diminished on the palate by the acidity. The bubbles accentuate this perception. So it’s sweet and refreshing with a little intensity. It’s not really meant for laying down, and it would be quite a versatile wild card with food: appetizers, Asian-style fish and seafood, cheeses and desserts. It might come as a bit of a shock if you wheel it out in the aperitif slot.

Riesling Icewine 2017 I can give you an idea of how Icewine is made by noting that the harvest of frozen berries for this wine took place on 5 January 2018, when temperatures in the vineyard had dropped to -10C. Pressing takes place swiftly, fermentation lasting 18 days. You obtain a wine in this case with 246 g/l of residual sugar balanced by 12.74 g/l of total acidity and 9.5% alcohol. Without the acidity the wine would undoubtedly taste cloying, but it retains freshness. Fruit flavours cover several spectra, as in tropical, stone fruits and rich honeyed elements. The acidity comes across as fresh lime and lime zest.

Gold Vidal Icewine 2017 The Vidal Icewines don’t have quite the class of the Riesling (for me), which does suggest that varietal character is not at all subsumed by the style. But Vidal is successful in some ways because of the relative simplicity it can bring to the table. This wine has 250 g/l of residual sugar, yet it tastes really quite refreshing, and actually might appeal more to anyone who doesn’t know the style.

Cabernet Franc Icewine 2017 So this is my favourite, obviously because I like the obscure, and I’m difficult. But to be fair, it will cost $100 Canadian for a half-bottle (though it also comes as 200ml and 50ml), so it is priced as the best. I’d be more than tempted to grab the small size for $15-or-so if I saw one in a wine store.

The colour is bright bronze-pink, it has lovely thick legs, and smells like a sweet red should. I get cherry brandy/kirsch and sweet strawberry fruit, but it is still only 9.5% abv. The profile is little different to the other wines, with 245 g/l residual sugar and just over 10 g/l of total acidity. Traditionally we are told to pair this with chocolate desserts, the obvious choice, but I’m sure that red fruit desserts and tarts would go just as well. It is the one Icewine from Inniskillin that I might be inclined to age, were it not likely I’d drink it pretty soon after purchase.

Inniskillin is imported by Liberty Wines.

PELLER ESTATES (NIAGARA, ONTARIO)

Andrew Peller came from Hungary in the 1920s, establishing his first winery in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. The company, now run since 1989 by third generation grandson, John Peller (with the fourth generation in place to succeed him), has vineyards all over the country. The Niagara operation is becoming one of the foremost names for signature Canadian Icewines, not just in Canada, but now on international markets.

John Peller’s wines are rapidly gaining a reputation alongside Inniskillin, as evidenced by the large number of awards his wines won at the International Wine Challenge 2019. The winery, with its attached restaurant, large tasting and events programmes, all make a big contribution to Niagara wine tourism, education being very much part and parcel of the Peller philosophy, as well as promoting Icewine as a treasure of Ontario. They are based at Niagara-on-the-Lake, right opposite Youngstown and the US Border.

Once more, all the wines are labelled VQA Niagara Peninsula.

Ice Cuvée Sparkling Wine NV is a blend of Chardonnay (70%) and Pinot Noir (30%) with the dosage for the second fermentation provided by the juice of their Vidal Icewine. If there is any complexity it is perhaps in the shadow of the wine’s intensity with regard to sweetness and acidity, but the key here is to experience the wine young and fresh, I think.

Ice Cuvée Rosé Sparkling Wine NV is remarkably pale and is redolent of fresh orchard fruits and red fruits. As you may have guessed from the description of the white sparkling icewine, Peller uses the traditional “bottle fermentation” method for these icewines. The main ingredient in the blend is Pinot Noir (70%), with Chardonnay (26%) and a little Gamay. You might see that there’s some Cabernet Franc in here as well, depending on who you read.

The wine tastes more “off-dry” than actually sweet, at least initially, because of the very fresh acidity. The fruits, largely strawberry, raspberry and cherry, are lifted and light. You notice the sweetness as the wine lingers in your mouth, with, oddly, definite hints of ripe peach (my notes say emphatically). I reckon it would be quite versatile with food.

Riesling Icewine 2017 is the first of the still wines. There’s less of the overt freshness of the sparkling wines, but perhaps more depth. There’s certainly less acidity than a traditional German Eiswein would give you, and I’d argue less ageability. In truth that probably makes it more appealing to all but the real aficionado of wines made from frozen berries. These wines do give a wide array of flavours, but for me orange and lemon stand out. As well as the usual pairing recommendations (Cheddar and blue cheeses, fruit desserts) Peller recommends using it as a mixer in an Icewine Martini, which I think would be interesting (but for their misguided suggestion of vodka instead of gin, of course).

Vidal Icewine 2017 This has a different fruit profile, of tropical fruits, peach and lemon. It tastes more simple, as was the case at Inniskillin with their Vidal, but there is that concentration. It’s hard to think of anything more user-friendly if you want a sweet wine. The alcohol here is 11% (remember Inniskillin’s had 9.5%), so what you lose in a certain delicacy you gain with just a touch more weight.

Cabernet Franc Icewine 2016 The colour here is more full-on bronze and this is the biggest of all the icewines tasted. In fact it comes in at 11.5%, which may be at least partly why. It’s interesting that this is a 2016 because it does appear to have developed some tertiary notes. I’d describe them as caramel-like, but it’s only a hint which you pick up after the red fruits. It seems to accentuate the sweetness (I don’t have an analysis of the sugar/acidity balance for these wines as the Peller web site doesn’t provide more technical details).

This is a newer name to try in the UK for Canadian Icewine, imported by Enotria & Coe.

REBEL Pi (PENTÂGE WINERY, OKANAGAN VALLEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Rebel Pi is a private label, founded last year by an incredibly successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, Janet Fast, who came to London from Canada as a backpacker in the early 2000s and created a multi-million pound sponsorship company. After selling that company, she was also, incidentally, a contestant on the BBC TV Show, The Apprentice in 2018, where she made it to week nine before being fired by Lord Sugar.

Janet’s Icewine label currently has just a single product, a Roussanne Icewine 2016. It is the only Icewine in the world made from the Roussanne grape variety. That in part was what drew me to taste it, but the marketing is professional and slick (the label is by British graffiti artist Jimi Crayon) so you do take notice…it stands out in a room. Of course all that would mean nothing to readers of this article were it not any good.

Janet is also pushing the recent trend for using Icewine as a cocktail base, as I mentioned in the Peller entry above. There’s no doubt this is a good idea, though a pretty expensive one. Canada exports less than 300,000 litres of Icewine per year, a tiny fraction of that exported by other major sweet wine appellations. Without knowing the production figures for Rebel Pi, I’m guessing its a tiny proportion of that. As you will understand very soon, this wine is not aimed at mass consumption.

Rebel Pi is actually made by Pentâge Winery based in the Okanagan Valley, with vines overlooking the small Skaha Lake, south of Penticton, planted in what was previously an abandoned orchard. The winery is certainly boutique, producing around 5,000 cases per vintage and specialising in Icewine, and in more unusual Icewine varieties. I first discovered Pentâge Icewine when my wife brought back a bottle from a work trip to Vancouver ten years ago, a blend of Viognier, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat and Chardonnay (and no Vidal in sight).

Rebel Pi is indeed quite unique among the Icewines I have tasted. Roussanne is a fairly unique variety anyway. There’s tropical fruit flavours here, with lemon and orange as the luscious primary fruit, then something akin to sweet caramel, which blends into savouriness, a characteristic I’m not sure I’ve really come across in Icewine made from white grapes before. It’s certainly sweet initially, and very long on the palate, its 11% alcohol giving it a similar weight to the Peller Vidal, but with enough acidity to balance it out. It’s unquestionably very attractive. If the retail price of £139 for a half-bottle doesn’t put you off, you should be able to find it in some fairly salubrious retail outlets in London (try Handford Wines in South Kensington).

Rebel Pi won a Silver Medal (92 Points) at the International Wine Challenge 2019. Actually, I think it deserved Gold, but I’m not a judge there. Roger Jones was one of the judges who tasted it, and as a result, presumably, I understand he has it on his list at The Harrow, Little Bedwin. I’d love to tell you what he charges but my computer won’t allow me onto The Harrow’s web site. It must know. I probably won’t stretch to a bottle. I mean, that’s a litre and a half of Stéphane Tissot’s Tour de Curon I’d be foregoing. However, I’m very glad I tasted it, and I hope Janet makes a great success of the wine. Maybe it’s my age, but it does seem a shame to waste it in a cocktail