2017 Pinot Noir

This big and ripe Pinot Noir is made 100% from our estate grapes. The grapes were picked so ripe it has an alcohol level of 14.3%.

Being a thin-skinned variety, Pinot Noir had benefited quite significantly from the dry Fall weather. We were able to hang the fruit for excellent ripeness without fear of breakdown.

The 2017 growing season in Niagara started out as what many thought would be a disaster. Persistent rain left vineyards, and even Toronto Island, flooded. Unlike the heat and dryness the region saw in 2016, the rain never seemed to stop. Many growers and wineries were worried it would be an awful vintage. However, as September approached, the faucet was turned off and for the entirety of September and October there wasn’t a raincloud in sight. The weather was warm, not too hot, breezy, and dry. Most didn’t know it at the time, but it became one of the great vintages of recent memory.

In the glass, cinnamon, brown sugar, and vanilla on the nose followed by black cherry, cherry jam, and the classic aromas in Pinot Noir that come with some age; note of mushroom and sud-bois, compote, and warmth. The palate is lush and silky, a perfect marriage of powerful fruit from an excellent year.

‘‘I remember talking with Adnan at the tail end of this vintage and he was thrilled with where his Pinot Noir had ended up, Brix-wise … from what looked like disaster at the end of August turned into beauty by end of September. Eight barrels housed the wine for 12 months in equal parts new / 1-year-old and 2-year-old barrels: cran-cherry, floral, raspberry-strawberry all on a very delicate scale; it’s pretty and more feminine than has been iCellars’ Pinot of the past … there’s also great acidity backing it all up. To date Icellars best Pinot Noir.’’  Michael Pinkus