Review: Palatine Hills 2009 1812 Merlot Cabernet

When chatting with Jeff Innes (winemaker) and Terry Gibson (marketing) of Palatine Hills Estate Winery at the Gourmet Food and Wine show in Toronto in November, They had me try their red blend called 1812 (there is both a red and a white). I told them at the time that I was super-impressed with this blend and that it was likely the best I had tried in a long time in terms of the “lifestyle wines” coming out of Niagara. I couldn’t wait to try a bottle of it at home, with food, as I normally do.

Before the review, a little bit on the history behind the wine. After some artifacts (both British and American) were found when converting the fruit farm to a vineyard, it was clear that the land had been a site for battles in the past. Indeed on their web site they say this about the wine:

“About the time we resolved our little dispute with our neighbours to the south, our forefathers turned their interests and energies to winemaking.

For 200 years, we’ve been using our land for something that produces…Harmony.

The Harmony in this bottle is our salute to resolving differences and a promise of its continuation.”

Yet they still managed to spell “neighbours” with a “u”. 🙂

The wine is a medium weight wine that has been geared to pair with food, and indeed the restaurant industry is one of the target markets for the wine. That, and the new wine drinkers that are just switching from whites to reds. I think there is another target market though – the experienced wine lover who is looking for a value wine for everyday drinking, or for an inexpensive wine to serve at parties etc. This wine is smooth and has all the characteristics that make it appealing to a wide range of people.

On to the wine then. The nose first hits you with a jammy red and dark fruit (think raspberries, cherries, and ripe plums), vanilla and sweet spices, with a light, pleasant herbaceous aroma reminiscent of tobacco leaf in the background.

On the palate, the wine at first appears sweet from all the fruit (I am pretty sure it isn’t though and would guess it is either a “0” [dry] in terms of residual sugar).It has mild oak influences and the vanilla, sweet spice is still there. The tannins have really been tamed though, and this fact combined with the medium acidity makes for a very pleasant, food friendly wine. We had it over the course of the evening (interrupted by Christmas shopping) alone, with bacon-lentil soup, and with artisan cheeses and it paired beautifully with them all.

1812 Cabernet Merlot is available through the winery or about 60 LCBO stores ($13.20 with deposit), sadly none in the Ottawa area.

Update 1: Since posting this, Palatine has managed to get 1812 into several Ottawa area stores.

Update 2: Palatine won two awards at Cuvée 2012 (the “Oscars” of the Ontario wine industry) for their Proprietor’s Reserve Merlot 2007. Winners are picked by the winemakers themselves, so winning at Cuvée is quite a recognition by the peers (who one would presume know a little something about wine)!

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Jeff Innes
Palatine Hills Estate Winery