Thirty Bench, 2016 Small Lot Cabernet Franc, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara, Ontario, Canada
Thirty Bench is one of Ontario's original boutique wineries. With Riesling plantings that go back to the early 1980s, their oldest block planted in 1981, the winery has always been focused on small production wines that are true expressions of place. Today the winery is part of the Andrew Peller Group, one of Canada's largest wine businesses. Thirty Bench winemaker Emma Garner, one of Ontario's great winemaking talenets, has been with the winery since 2005, and head winemaker since the 2010 vintage.
The winery and vineyards is located in the Beamsville Bench VQA sub-appellation. This area is one of four appellations that's topography and borders are defined by the Niagara Escarpment, the others being the Twenty Mile Bench, the Short Hills Bench, and the St- Davids Bench. Now, for those that don't know, the Niagara Escarpment is one of the key geographical features that make viticulture in the Niagara Peninsula possible, that along with Lake Ontario. The escarpment, this ridge, rises to a height of nearly 200m and helps to trap as well as circulate airflow from off the lake into the vineyards. This air flow helps to reduce disease pressure and frost risk, and the added warmth brought by the air helps to increase the overall vineyard temperatures, prolong the growing season and aid ripening.
The escarpment is comprised of layers of sedimentary rocks - predominantly dolostone, dolomitic limestones, shales and sandstones - that date to the Palaeozoic era. How hard these rocks are, or how susceptible or resistant to erosion they are, has shaped the topography of the Niagara Escarpment vineyard area. During the glacial events of the last 2 million years, as the glaciers receded, these sedimentary rocks eroded away to form the terraces, or benches, that now make up the vineyard areas of the Niagara Escarpment.
These wide, north-facing terraces make up the larger Lake Iroquois Bench that sit just above the historical shoreline of the ancient Lake Iroquois. These terraces vary in width, the degree of slope and elevation depending on where you are. This part of the Beamsville Bench is situated on the Bell Terrace, the first or lowest terraces on the escarpment and it stretches the length of the escarpment, but here at the Beamsville Bench it is at its widest point. The bedrock, which is well below the surface, is comprised of layers of Whirlpool sandstone and Power Glen shale and sandstone.
In terms of the microclimate, the Beamsville Bench is the furthest west of these benches, but it is also closest to Lake Ontario. It receives a stronger moderating influence from Lake Ontario, making it cooler overall during the growing season, but it also it extends the growing season slightly. Giving it an advantage in terms of growing degree days, at 1588, which is actually greater than that of Four Mile Creek in Niagara-on-the-Lake, widely regarded as a top source of some of the Niagara Peninsula's Bordeaux grapes.
This wine is coming from a 2.85 acre or a little of 1ha parcel of Cabernet Franc vines planted in 2000. The site is situated at an elevation of around 130m, and Emma mentioned that this block is on a slight south-facing slope, which is rare in the Niagara Peninsula. The vineyard was planted with clone 327, which is the Bordeaux clone. In terms of topsoil, it is characterized as Halton Till, which is a glacially-derived soil, that is essentially eroded materials from the rocks that make up the escarpment, and it is comprised of a high percentage of clay, with smaller amounts of sand and silt. The vineyard is farmed certified organic.
On the winemaking side of things, this was all hand-picked fruit, destemmed and crushed, with fermentation in tank with selected yeast, and spent about 2 and a half weeks on skins, with some punch downs. Aging was in 225L oak barrels 80% French, 20% American, from various cooperage, with about 30% being new.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Thirty Bench
Region: Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada
Appellation: VQA Beamsville Bench
Vineyard: Thirty Bench vineyard
Soil: Halton Till over a bedrock of Whirlpool Sandstone and Power Glen Sandstone/Shales
Alcohol: 14.1%
