Tasting Note: 2008 Barrel Aged Shiraz, Niagara Peninsula VQA, Konzelmann Estate Winery

I picked up this bottle at the LCBO in Picton, at the end of a trip to check up on a particular barrel of wine. It was nice to find it on the VQA shelves, but not so nice that the VQA shelves were still sandwiched between two blocks of Cellared in Canada wines, pretty much maintaining the confusion that the Ontario government had announced it should get rid of last fall.

I guess a follow-up, to make sure the fight to for actual Canadian wine doesn’t falter in Ontario, could be useful. In BC, at least, the shelving was improved already in November. Why hasn’t the LCBO clarified it already?

Anyhow, I was glad to find the bottle, not because it was that much of an exploit to get to the VQA section (there were separate shelves for local, Prince Edward County bottles, too), but because it was a Konzelmann wine. Konzelmann was one of the first wineries I learned to like when I started writing about Canadian wine, back in 1997. Beyond being intrigued by the “since 1893″ proudly displayed on the labels (it’s where the family vineyards were established in Germany, before Herbert Konzelmann opened the Canadian winery in Niagara in 1984), I genuinely loved the whites – riesling, in particular – and thought some of the reds impressive.

And here I was, now, with a 2008 shiraz. An unexpected find, and a sign of the evolution of the Niagara vineyards over the last decade. Nowadays, shiraz is often a standout in Niagara reds, as I’ve seen at Creekside and Lailey, notably.

The Konzelmann 2008 shiraz, aged for 9 months in French oak, showed lovely red fruit, a touch of cedar, and plenty of white pepper on the nose. It was easy going, smooth and quick to disappear from the glasses. Medium-bodied, not tremendously complex, but a fun, ripe, well-made wine – and a remarkable quality-price ratio, at barely 12.95$ a bottle. In a cold, wet vintage, it seems like the Konzelmann’s location along the lake, benefiting from favorable air flow, proved to be quite an advantage.

At that price, who’d be crazy enough to buy characterless Cellared in Canada wines instead?