WTN: 1997 Thirty Bench, Reserve Red, Niagara Peninsula

Gone? Dead as the proverbial doornail? Quite to the contrary. While there is fairly pronounced charry oak, loads of ripe fruit keep this in excellent balance. The fruit is rich, with not a hint of underripeness - made all the more impressive given that '97 was one of the cooler vintages in the 1990's. Amazingly, there is still structure enough to keep this wine for a few more years, though I think it is at its peak now. A lingering finish and overall very impressive. 50% Cabernet Franc, 25% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. $C 45 on release.

A shame that this boutique winery has fallen into corporate hands (I have not been impressed with the 2 post corporate-takeover 30Bench wines that I have tried).

Chers,
Norm

Huh. Interesting note, Norm. I had this fairly soon after release and wondered how long it would keep. Now I wish we'd had more than a couple bottles.

Thirty Bench started out as one of the better wineries in that part of Niagara but I thought it had declined in recent years. Didn't realize they had a corporate takeover - when did that occur?

Joe,
The original owners of Thirty Bench sold the winery and its vineyards to Andres (the same company that owns Hillebrand and Peller) in May 2005 ( http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 40199.html )

I agree with you that Thirty Bench was one of the best wineries in Ontario. I still recall the release of their '95 reds which were offered at over $30 /bottle, then quite a high price for Niagara reds. They were selling so fast that they raised the price to over $40 and still sold out quickly. I thought that they started on the downhill slide in the 2000 vintage. I still have bottles of various '98, '99, '01, and '02 reds from them.

As I live in the area, I will endevour to visit to see what their higher end wines are like now. The '05 Red and '05 did not impress me....ok, but devoid of any character, IMO.

Cheers,
Norm