In September 06, Jen and I went to Onterrible (as she calls it) for a cousin’s wedding. They live in Stoney Creek, just south of Hamilton out towards Niagara Falls.

The Niagara Escarpment is the big wine growing region in Ontario, so we took the opportunity to visit some of the wineries. The one we enjoyed the most and spent the most time chatting with the staff was Thirty Bench. We left with a couple of bottles and this week we cracked one.

Thirty Bench 2002 Benchmark Blend.

From the label: This wine contains 50% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot. The wine was fermented in small bins using various yeasts to gain complexity, was left to macerate for a few weeks to soften its tannins, and was subsequently aged in french and american oak barrels for almost a year. You can enjoy this wine immediately after its release, but it will improve considerably with age.

From the website: Tasting notes of toffee, oak and stewed tomatoes on the nose.

We made the mistake of having it with spicy food, chicken, beans and yam fries. It didn’t stand up very well, not at all. It was fruity for me, exploding in blueberries and plums, and while it was probably fine with roast beef, pork chops, or a flank steak, it just couldn’t handle our spicy food.

Even though we didnt pair it properly, Jen was still disappointed with her palate on the decision. She thinks we should have drank it right away when we got home, or maybe they served us a ‘better bottle’ at the winery. Even still, she says if she tasted tonight what she tasted then, she wouldnt have bought that bottle.

It’s one of those things that happens when you go to a winery, you can get romanced into buying things that just don’t quite taste the same when you get home. We also picked up a Pinot Meunier Rose when we were there that, on site, tasted like Thanksgiving Dinner - cranberries and sweetness and excellence, however at home - it wasnt anything like that.

So we’re 0 for 2 from Thirty Bench so far. Beautiful winery, not so much with the wine.

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