Celebrating 25 years of star Canadian winery Tawse, with Celebrating 25 years of Tawse with two pairs of wines, one current, one archive
Tawse, one of Canada’s top wineries, is 25. And last night, on my arrival into Niagara in advance of justing the National Wine Awards of Canada, I caught up with Magdalena Kaiser and tried these Tawse wines over dinner.
Moray Tawse founded this winery back in 2001. When I visited, on my first trip here in 2013, he told me how this came about. Moray had been working abroad, and when he came back to Canada, he tried some Ontario wines. ‘I thought they were horrible before, but I had a bottle of the 1997 Chardonnay from Deborah Paksus,’ he recalls. This changed his mind: Ontario clearly could make great wine. ‘So I bought a small piece of land here,’ says Moray. ‘I thought I’d just do a little vineyard, with 400 cases in the first year. I became enamoured with the business, bought more vineyards, built a winery, and 2001 was the first vintage.’
Tawse was helped by French/Canadian Burgundy-based winemaker Pascal Marchand, and in 2006 switched to biodynamics. By 2012 he was certified biodynamic in most of the estate vineyards.
We tried two pairs of wines, with current release and a library selection. These were really good, and I was impressed by how well they showed with almost a decade of age.
Tawse Robyn’s Block Chardonnay 2023 Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara, Canada
13% alcohol. From a vineyard planted in 1984, this is a selection of five of the 12 barrels from this vineyard in 2023, and two of them were new. This is taut and focused with some spicy oak framing the white peach, pear and citrus fruit. There’s a touch of richness and mid palate softness, but there’s also spicy structure and freshness. The wood should integrate in time. 94/100
Tawse Robyn’s Block Chardonnay 2016 Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara, Canada
This is beautiful. It shows a touch of matchstick reduction with focused lemony fruit on the nose. There’s a nice mineral trace on the palate which is still fresh and shows textured citrus fruit, with some white peach richness. 95/100
Tawse Quarry Road Pinot Noir 2023 Vinemount Ridge, Niagara, Canada
The vineyard was planted in 1998 on mixed limestone and clay soils, and it is farmed biodynamically. So fresh and direct with taut redcurrant and cherry fruit showing some sappy green notes. It’s really fresh and lively with a subtle spicy edge to the fresh fruit. Really pure and well defined with a hint of blood and iron on the finish. 94/100
Tawse Quarry Road Pinot Noir 2016 Vinemount Ridge, Niagara, Canada
Supple, fine and elegant with red cherries, redcurrants and fine spicy detail. There’s a real elegance to this wine with lovely purity and precision. Earthy liquorice notes here. So expressive. 95/100
