* GOLD - ONTARIO WINE AWARDS
* GOLD - CUVEE, WINEMAKER CHOICE
* BRONZE - OTTAWA WINE CHALLENGE
* BRONZE - ALL CANADIAN WINE CHAMPIONSHIPS
* BRONZE - WINE ACCESS CANADIAN WINE AWARDS

TWINEMAKER NOTES:
Cabernet Franc is one of Niagara’s signature grape varieties and this wine is an excellent example of how it can be made into a complex and age worthy wine. The palate and nose follow each other with sweet tobacco, ripe cherry, black plum, black licorice, fresh berry fruit, and spice. The same fruit flavours follow on the palate with the addition of elegant and wonderfully balanced notes of raspberry. Silky tannins brought about through maturation in new French oak and American oak barrels, round out the palate beautifully onto the long finish.

The 2007 vintage was a near perfect growing season for the Niagara Peninsula. Lots of heat, sunshine and just the right amount of rain created ideal conditions for growing all of our Bordeaux varietals. The grapes for this wine were carefully selected from our vineyards to create a mouth-watering, cellar-worthy red wine. The Cabernet Franc grapes were hand harvested late October at an average sugar level of 23.3 Brix. The wine was then fermented in open top stainless tanks with manual punch down 4 times a day over a period of 3 weeks. Following fermentation the wine was pressed off skins, then racked into new French oak barrels and second fill American oak barrels for a full range of flavours. Malolactic fermentation was undertaken in barrels and wine was aged for 22 months before bottling.