Personally, I've been interested in Ontario Chardonnays for a decade now. I find that they are nearly always the kind of white wine that fits my palate: dry and steely with lots of verve and very pleasant apple/pineapple flavours (sometimes with a dash of wood spice and, more rarely, with "pina colada"-type aromas). My favourite time to drink an Ontario Chard is during the first barbecue of the season, typically in April. Put some pork kebabs on that grill along with some steamed baby potatoes in their skins onto the skewers, some peppers and mushrooms, add some apple or maple wood chips and get that baby smokin' ... and pop open a well chilled dry Ontario Chard - oh, yeah!
What are some of your favourite Ontario Chards? I find specific producers hard to mention frankly because I find most of the examples to be very reliable. Henry of Pelham is no doubt right up there (they used to have a "sur lie" version years ago but it unfortunately got discontinued, as most good things do; Inniskillin is also decent; and most examples from the Beamsville Bench are fine too.
I might say I simply like the genre, since I like most of them ... About the only oddity I can recall trying some years back was a heavily oaked Chard from Stoney Ridge that virtually tasted like Bourbon. Still, such examples are comparatively rare.
