Vintages Fine Wine and Premium Spirits  
Ontario wines
 Co-owners Len Pennachetti, Angelo Pavan & Tom Pennachetti.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2010, Cave Spring Cellars has been instrumental in defining Ontario’s unique Riesling style. Considered specialists, they bottle no less than seven distinct expressions of the grape.

“In Niagara, we make Riesling like no one else, so I think that’s why the world press have had trouble getting their heads around what we all do here with the grape,” said Tom Pennachetti, co-owner (along with brother Len, the Pennachetti clan and winemaker Angelo Pavan) and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Cave Spring. “However, that is not to say there is uniformity to Niagara Riesling.” On the flatter lands, where lighter loam soil is common, the style of Riesling is softer and a touch more fragrant than the racy and elegant versions found around the steeper Niagara Escarpment where Cave Spring plies its craft.

“The elevation near the Escarpment, the heavier clay/limestone/stony soils, and the proximity to Lake Ontario all help to create a spectacular mineral-, peach/nectarine-scented, food-friendly type of Riesling,” said Pennachetti. It is not all left up to the environment, though. Strict viticultural practices and skilled winemaking are also part of the equation. The cool 2006 vintage was a challenging year and meant longer hang time on the vines was necessary, whereas fruit ripened easily in the warm and dry 2007, allowing for an earlier harvest. It’s a testament to winemaker Pavan’s skill that he managed in both years to create superb wines with the structure and balance so key to quality Riesling.

VINTAGES has selected three wines from Cave Spring’s broad Riesling portfolio that demonstrate the versatility of both the grape and the winery: the mineral-, citrus and peach-scented 2007 Estate; their top-of-the-line crisp 2007 CSV from their 30- to 35-year-old blocks; and the summertime-in-a-glass 2006 Indian Summer Select Late Harvest.