By Rick VanSickle
A winemaker’s job can be a lonely one, unless you trade in that life for a new one surrounded by eager students who hang on your every word.
That’s just what Allison Findlay, below, did in 2022 when she became the first female winemaker at the Niagara College Teaching Winery.
The former head winemaker at Flat Rock Cellars on the Twenty Mile Bench was essentially “left alone” all day crafting a portfolio of wines consisting of 18,000 cases of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. “I’m never alone now,” Findlay says. “It’s a whole new ball game. A completely different model and job.”
As the head winemaker at the college, Findlay is responsible for a 3,500-case production that can consist of 36 different wines with many hands helping, watching and learning the winemaking process from harvest to the finished wines. “The students are so excited by what they are doing now,” she says.
Findlay knows all too well the importance of Niagara College’s hands-on, “living laboratory” approach to education, the first of its kind in Canada. After completing her Bachelor of Science degree at Lakehead University, her passion was sparked for Ontario viticulture while visiting the Niagara Region and falling in love with the art, science and beauty that is Ontario wine.
She enrolled and graduated from the Niagara College winery and viticulture technician program in 2014 and hasn’t looked back since. Her passion for wine took her around the world to participate in grape harvests in Australia and Oregon, while also spending some time at a few local wineries before landing a job at Flat Rock Cellars in 2016. Findlay grew into the role of assistant winemaker under the guidance of veteran winemaker David Sheppard, and finally became head winemaker when Sheppard retired.
Findlay is the first female winemaker at the college but not the first NC graduate. Former winemaker Gavin Robertson, who graduated from the winery and viticulture technician program in 2011, has been a fixture of the Teaching Winery for more than a decade – beginning as a student in 2010, then full-time after graduation.
Robertson (above), now the co-ordinator and professor of the college’s winery and viticulture technician program, was only too happy to pass the torch to Findlay, who he knows well from both Niagara College and the industry and praised the natural talent and hard-earned industry experience she brings to the college. “After having a wonderful career so far in the Ontario wine industry, we are ecstatic to welcome her back to our teaching winery, where she continues to produce outstanding wines and become a valuable mentor for the budding industry professionals,” Robertson said when Findlay was named as his replacement.
Findlay is charged with educating wine students who have traditionally populated hundreds of wineries in Ontario and beyond after graduation. If you’ve tasted an Ontario or B.C. wine chances are that a Niagara College student had a hand in making it. While it’s difficult to track all the students and their movements, Robertson estimates that approximately 68 wineries in the province employ Niagara College grads in various roles. “There are likely more that I’m not aware of, and there are many working for vineyard operations,” said Robertson. He also said that during a trip to B.C. this summer another 40 college grads were identified as working at wineries there.
The Niagara College wine program is Canada’s first teaching winery with state-of-the-art facilities including an analysis lab and winemaking pilot systems. The college also farms its own 40-acre vineyard from its St. David’s Bench location. The plantings can be seen from the back windows of the tasting/retail room.
When Findlay first arrived, she was buying 85% of the fruit for the wine program, but the college wants to turn that into 100% sustainably grown estate fruit, spread across all varieties (or most) that are grown in Ontario including both vinifera and “a healthy dose of hybrids,” says Findlay.
A major replanting is taking place after a couple of bad winters for the vines, with 15 acres under vine, another 8-10 acres replanted with the goal to get to 30 acres when it’s all said and done.
New releases from the Niagara College Teaching Winery were among the first in Ontario to bear a special label earned by a commitment to sustainable wine growing from grape to glass. As of the 2022 vintage, the college is now on a select list of Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario (SWO) Certified Wineries and Vineyards. The new SWO Certified program was unveiled by the Ontario Craft Wineries and Grape Growers of Ontario on March 1, 2022, along with a list of wineries and vineyards that have achieved certification.
Also undergoing a revamp under Findlay’s watch is a re-imagining of the wine portfolio, says Steve Gill (above), general manager of the college’s learning enterprises. While the wines made at the college are a learning process for students, it’s also “a working enterprise” that needs to be “sustainable,” Gill says. In other words, “not losing money.”
The plan is to expand the premium tier Dean’s List wines to upwards of 50% of the portfolio with the Balance tier making up the rest.
It’s easy to over-look Niagara College wines as experimental and an exercise for students, but that is not the case. These wines are exceptional under Findlay’s direction and Robertson before her. It is the winemaker’s call on how to make the wines and what to bottle for consumers to purchase and enjoy once they hit the retail store shelves. Students take part in the process from start to finish and can “stop me at any point and ask what I am doing.”
I tasted a wide swath of college wines with Findlay and Gill recently. Here is what I liked (either available now or coming soon, as noted):
The white wines
Niagara Collage Dean’s List Sauvignon Blanc 2022 ($29, not released yet, 91 points) — 2022 is the first vintage that Findlay completed from start to finish. This stylish Savvy was barrel ferment and barrel aged in second- and third-fill French oak. “It’s not a two-by-four,” Findlay said. It’s a more elegant style, along the lines of white Bordeaux as opposed to New Zealand, with an enticing nose of grapefruit, pear, light herbs, white flowers and a touch of spice. The oak provides a rounded texture on the palate with notes of pear, quince, integrated herbs and zingy acidity on the finish.
Niagara College Balance Pinot Gris 2022 ($19, 88 points) — Sourced from Huebel Grapes Estates in the Four Mile Creek sub-appellation, it was fermented in mostly stainless steel, with a bit of oak and some lees contact. It shows yellow apple, peach and pear on the nose. It has lovely texture on the palate with concentrated stone fruits and a bright finish.
Niagara College Dean’s List Viognier 2020 ($29, 92 points) — What a treat to have a nicely aged Viognier available for purchase. Acacia wood barrels were used in the aging process for this wine that has a rich and concentrated exotic nose of apricot, peach tart, honeysuckle and nectarine with subtle nutty spice notes. It has an unctuous texture on the palate with persistent and ripe stone fruits, apricot tart, nutmeg, cloves and a rounded, long finish.
Niagara College Dean’s List Riesling 2022 ($30, 93 points) — This is the college’s fist “Dean’s List” Riesling, a variety Findlay loves to drink. “When I first tasted it, I thought this needs to be a Dean’s List wine.” A good call, and a showcase for the estate’s St. David’s Bench terroir. It’s made in a super dry style with under 2 g/l of residual sugar. It shows gushing lime, saline minerality, Granny Smith apples, ginger and pear skin. It’s rich and concentrated on the palate with fresh-squeezed lime, stony minerality, yellow apples, peach, apricot, that enticing note of ginger and a long, persistent and finessed finish. Will age beautifully through 2034.
The rosés
Niagara College Dean’s List Pinot Gris Rosé 2023 ($25, 90 points) — This Pinot Gris, sourced from Huebel Grapes Estates, was picked and sent direct to press to only allow minimal time on skins giving the rosé a pale salmon colour in the glass. These two rosés offer a glimpse at Findlay’s style, which is dry, dry, dry across nearly all the wines she is making. It’s quite expressive on the nose with fresh strawberries, apples, melon and subtle herbaceous notes. The palate displays ripe but super dry cherry-rhubarb, green apples and a finish highlighted by mouth-watering acidity.
Niagara College Dean’s List Cabernet Franc Rosé 2023 ($25, 91 points) — The estate sourced Cabernet Franc rosé is also made in a dry style with a nose of fresh red berries, some earthy/savoury notes and garden herbs. The melange of red berries on the palate are a little riper with a savoury edge on a fresh, lifted finish.
The Pinot Noir vertical
Gill thought it would a cool idea to offer a special vertical from two different vineyards and two different winemakers and three very different vintages. This package will be available at some point this summer, so consumers can judge for themselves the impact of vintage, terroir and winemaker style shapes a wine. The 2020 vintage is the only Pinot currently available for sale.
Niagara College Dean’s List Pinot Noir 2020 ($33, 90 points) — The 2020 Pinot, made by Robertson, was sourced from the Coyote’s Run Vineyard, which was farmed by the college after that winery was sold. It was aged for 14 months in new and older French and America oak barrels. This is a full, and bold Pinot Noir from the warm 2020 vintage. It’s fruit-laden on the nose with black cherries, cassis, saturated raspberries and toasted vanilla spice. It has firm tannic structure on the palate that’s just now starting to soften with ripe red berries, anise, earthy/savoury notes, caramel/vanilla spices and a fairly long and lifted finish.
Niagara College Dean’s List Pinot Noir 2021 (price N/A, not released yet, 91 points) — The 2021 vintage, Robertson’s last and the last wine sourced from Coyote’s Run, was aged for 14 months in mostly used French oak barrels. Lighter in colour than the 2020, it’s more Pinot like, and more muted with earthy red berries, some toasty oak notes and floral accents. It is elegant on the palate, lighter bodied and has red and dark berries, anise, subtle earthy notes and oak influence with a tangy, lifted finish.
Niagara College Dean’s List Pinot Noir 2022 (price N/A, not released yet, 92 points) — Made by Findlay, her first Pinot from the college, this vintage only produced three barrels from the estate vineyard, all with medium toast oak influence. It’s quite pretty on the nose with violets, brambly red berries, cassis, freshly turned earth and light spice notes. It shows a bit more concentration of red berries, some anise, subtle savoury/earthy accents, perfect balance and finesse on the lifted finish.
The rest of the red wines …
Niagara College Dean’s List Gamay 2022 ($33, released in August, 92 points) — Sourced from Huebel Grapes Estates, this Gamay is aged in all neutral oak barriques. It has an inviting nose of ripe dark cherries, brambly raspberries, red currants, plums and subtle spice notes. It’s juicy and concentrated on the palate with ripe red berries, a supple texture, plums, integrated oak spices and beautiful finesse and lift on the finish.
Niagara College Dean’s List Merlot 2020 ($35, 93 points) — As Findlay says, “Gavin (Robertson) pushed the boundaries on this one,” with 20 months of oak aging, 30% of which was new oak. It, too, like the Cab Sauv below, is sourced from the Coyote’s Run Vineyard. It’s inky in colour, with a big, bold nose of concentrated black currants, cassis, black cherries, dried tobacco, graphite and rich, lavish spice notes. It’s just now starting to come into balance on the palate with grippy tannins, thick cassis, currants, jammy red berries, anise, licorice, and toasty spices all leading to a long, lifted finish. I would definitely put a couple of bottles in the cellar as this can age for a decade or more.
Niagara College Dean’s List Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 ($35, 92 points) — This is aged for 22 months in oak, 35% of which is new oak. Still a bit shy on the nose but as you swirl, the concentrated array of black currants, blackberries, cassis, compoted cherries, Cuban cigar leaf, earthy/savoury notes and rich, toasty spices emerge. It’s big, bold and juicy on the palate with grippy tannins, a melange of ripe dark berries, layers of complexity, toasted vanilla and spice and long, echoing finish. Can cellar this to 2038 or beyond.
A peek into the future …
Gill and Findlay shared a glimpse into the future of the full-bodied red program with a barrel tasting of several wines from 2022, all made by Findlay. All these wines will be made under the Dean’s List label.
The Merlot will spend 18 months in oak, signalling a gentler approach to the oak regime in the future. It’s deep in colour and shows ripe fruits in a less overt style.
The barrel sample of the 2022 Cabernet Franc was a bit richer and bolder, while the Cabernet Sauvignon was dense, fruit laden and had tannic grip.
The final barrel sample was something new — an appassimento Cabernet Sauvignon with the fruit dried for six weeks. It had a rich and enticing nose with dark berries, plums, graphite and the spices just starting to emerge. Only one barrel was made of this special wine. Some treats for the future.
Show your love for Ontario wines
Let’s show the great 100% Ontario grown wines a little love this November, shall we? After a three-year hiatus, #openlocalwine, an international celebration of local wine (wherever local is for you), will return on Nov. 9, 2024. And you are all invited to the party.
For the full story and how you can help celebrate, go here.
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