I made the 1.5 hour journey to the Niagara region today. I started off the trip with a 7km hike along the Bruce Trail, then after lunch went to the Hillebrand Winery. This is a beautiful winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. There is a very nice restaurant, a large gift shop/tasting center, and a number of different tours/experiences that people can do. Hillebrand makes wine under their own name, as well as the Trius label.
My significant other and I decided to partake in the Trius Red blending experience. However before I get to that, we tried a few wines before the experence started. The first wine was the Trius Brut Rose. As the name suggests, a pink sparkling wine. It had a clean, crisp taste. A dry bubbly that is not overly flavourful, yet goes down nicely and tastes very good. The wine retails for $29.95. JC88
The second wine was the Trius Grand Red 2008. This is a wine that is not sold in LCBO stores and other than the winery, I'm not sure where else you can get it. It is made only in years that have produced grapes up to the standards for this wine. It is still a young wine and could easily age for a number of years. There was an oaky taste and a nice finish. This wine was retailing for $55, with the 2007 retailing for $60. JC90
The third wine was the Trius Red 2006. This is an older vintage than what is available at the LCBO (2009), and each year the wine-maker determines the blend that will be used between Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. A combination of these three wines have been used every year since 1989, except for 2008 when Malbec was used for 3%. JC87
The Trius Red Blending Experience
We were brought into a room with a long table, bottles of the three wines in the Trius Red: Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Cab Franc. There was also paper for recording our findings, and a couple of different measuring cups. I almost felt like I was in a science lab about to do an experiment. In a sense, I was.
We got to try all three types of reds on their own, then got to mix them to determine what combination we wanted for our own personal bottle of Trius Red. We weren't told beforehand what the combination that the wine-maker actually used in the 2009 vintage (45% Merlot, 48% Cab Franc and 7% Cab Sauv), however I knew from talking to a staff member beforehand. Personally, I don't care too much for Cab Franc in general. I probably liked the Merlot the best, with the Cab Sauv coming in a close second. I decided to mix 45% Merlot, 40% Cab Sauv and 15% Cab Franc. I thought it tasted like heaven, and I am ready to quit my day job. If only it were really that easy to make good wine!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Hillebrand. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable. In addition to my partner and my custom Trius Red bottles, we purchased a bottle of Trius Rose Brut and a bottle of Trius Sauvignon Blanc 2010. Everyone is saying that 2010 is expected to be the best year yet for both white and red wine in the Niagara region. I am looking forward to finding out!
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