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More wines available from Cave Spring Cellars
750ml
Bottle:
$19.93
A fresh, peach and apple-inflected white, accented by lemon and mineral. The rich fruit is matched to a steely...
750ml
Bottle:
$25.94
Produced from the estate's oldest vines, this is a worthy reserve. This wine shows impressive depth and intensity,...
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Winery
Cave Spring Cellars
Vintage: 2011
The year 2011 was an interesting year for many northern and central European countries, as the weather was more than unpredictable in the spring and summer. However, in most countries, the climatic conditions thankfully settled down in the late summer and fall. The result of this slightly difficult year of weather in France was a set of surprisingly small yields, but overall, these yields were of a higher quality than those harvested in certain previous years. A fantastic set of wines was also made in Italy and Spain, and the Rioja wines - when released - are set to be very good indeed. Austria also had superb year in 2011, with almost fifty percent more grapes being grown and used for their distinctive Gruner Veltliner wines than in the year before. Possibly the European country which had the finest 2011, though, was Portugal, with wineries in the Douro region claiming this year to be one of the best in decades for the production of Port wine, and the bright, young Vinho Verdes wines.
In the New World, the Pacific Northwest saw some of the best weather of 2011, and Washington State and Oregon reportedly had a highly successful year, especially for the cultivation of high quality red wine grapes. Chile and Argentina had a relatively cool year, which certainly helped retain the character of many of their key grape varietals, and should make for some exciting drinking. South Africa had especially good weather for their white wine grape varietals, particularly Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and many South African wineries are reporting 2011 as one of their best years in recent memory.
Varietal: Chardonnay
Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.
Country: Canada
In Canada, wines are produced in many different parts of the country, and there are major vineyards everywhere from Ontario, British Columbia, southern Quebec and Nova Scotia. Canadian wineries have been producing wine for over two hundred years now, and the Canadian wine industry has seen significant development and expansion over the past couple of decades, when the unique attributes of the country's produce began to find popularity overseas. The most widely admired Canadian wines are ice wines, which are made using grapes which have been allowed to freeze during the early frosts. This process intensifies the flavors and sweetness of the grapes, resulting in highly characterful wines with distinctive properties, and works extremely well with the grape varietals which flourish in the cooler climate of the country.