Balance Brut named Best Sparkling Wine of the Year, 2020 Balance Dry Riesling top of class

It’s the perfect time to pop the cork in celebration of four new winning wines from the Niagara College Teaching Winery.

The Teaching Winery stole the spotlight at the All Canadian Wine Championships (ACWC) with the honour of Best Sparkling Wine of the Year, among its four significant awards across a broad range of styles and categories, including two double golds and two bronze medals.

“Student learning shines at the NC Teaching Winery when our products achieve outstanding national success,” said Steve Gill, general manager of the College’s Learning Enterprises. “This is not only a big win for our winemakers, faculty, staff and students at the Teaching Winery, but for the future of wine industry as we continue to raise the bar for high-quality wine education.”

Balance Brut (NV) bubbled to the top of the list with a prestigious Best Sparkling Wine of the Year title and trophy along with a double gold medal in the Sparkling Wine Traditional Method category.

For head winemaker and instructor Gavin Robertson, the wine is one of his favourites currently on the shelf and he was happy to see that his palate aligned with the judges.

“Traditional method Sparkling wine is a really technical and involved style of wine to produce,” said Robertson. “Because it takes so long to arrive at a final product, several cohorts of our students get to participate in the production of a single wine.”

A graduate of NC’s Winery and Viticulture Technician program (2011) and a Nuffield Canada scholar, Robertson takes pride in the fact that the wine production involved several different groups of students. This year’s winning Balance Brut, for example, is a blend of 2014 and 2015 fruit, handpicked and pressed by students who began the program in September of those years. Different groups of students were involved in subsequent years – from stabilization, filtration and bottling in 2016 to the dosage trials in 2020 and more.

“The wine represents collaboration and hard work from the program as a whole in all its diversity throughout these years,” he said.

While the Teaching Winery earned the same honour at the 2020 ACWC for its 2014 Blanc de Blanc Balance Brut, and has won previous awards for its Sparkling wines, this was an inaugural win for its non-vintage Balance Brut.

It’s also a first for its 2020 Balance Dry Riesling which captured the top of its class, winning the double gold ‘best of category’ (Riesling Dry).

“The double gold for the Dry Riesling is satisfying because it’s such a classic and ubiquitous Ontario grape,” he said. “We make this wine using really simple techniques: gentle pressing, retaining light juice lees and fermenting with cool temperatures, and we’re super careful with oxygen management throughout the process, doing everything we can to carry a pure fruit and mineral expression of the grape from vineyard to bottle.”

2019 Dean’s List Botrytis Affected Chardonnay was another newcomer to the winner’s circle, with a bronze (Late Harvests category). The sweet wine is made from Chardonnay grapes that were exposed to the botrytis fungus, known as “noble rot” in the fall. Instead of developing into a rot known for destroying a harvest, Robertson noted that this form of botrytis slowly desiccates the fruit, elevates sugar levels and produces a unique, honey and fruit compote, and curry spice flavours.

The wine was hand-picked, hand-sorted then de-stemmed and macerated on skins for 24 hours before pressing. It was aged in a single new French oak barrel for two years before bottling.

“It’s a very special small batch wine,” he said. “It’s still quite young with tons of concentration and complexity and will improve in bottle for years to come.”

Adding another bronze to the Teaching Winery’s wins – and another first timer – was the 2019 Deans List Savant Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine (Red Icewines category). The wine comes from the 2019 Icewine harvest, picked by the College’s wine students at a College-operated vineyard on Concession 5 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, then pressed in a student winemaking lab.

“It’s a combination of different student batch treatments conducted in our winemaking courses then blended to achieve a balanced and aromatic profile and palate,” he said.

ACWC director Bev Carnahan noted that 1,233 wines from across Canada were entered into this year’s edition of the competition, which was established in 1981 and holds the distinction of the oldest wine judging dedicated to excellence in Canadian wines.

“With such a broad field, competition is always tight and this only serves to underscore the significance of NC Teaching Winery’s performance as the only teaching winery entered,” said Carnahan. “However, this success comes as no surprise. NC Teaching Winery has annually been a top competitor in the event, and we are excited to see the excellence of the program proved once against the top wines produced in Canada.”

The Teaching Winery was among 194 wineries from across Canada that participated in this year’s ACWC. For details visit allcanadianwinechampionships.com.

Wines from the NC Teaching Winery are available for purchase at the Wine Visitor + Education Centre (Niagara College Daniel J. Patterson Campus, 135 Taylor Rd., Niagara-on-the-Lake), or online at NiagaraCollegewine.ca. Proceeds from sales support student learning.

Niagara College offers more than 130 diploma, bachelor degree and advanced level programs; as well as more than 600 credit, vocational and general interest Part-Time Studies courses. Areas of specialization include food and wine sciences, advanced technology, media, applied health and community safety, supported by unique learning enterprises in food, wine, beer, distilling, horticulture and esthetics. For more information visit niagaracollege.ca.

Photo: Gavin Robertson raises a glass to the NC Teaching Winery’s 2022 All Canadian Wine Championships wins while holding a bottle of the competition’s Best Sparkling Wine of the Year: Balance Brut (NV). More medal-winning wines are displayed on a barrel near the campus vineyard, including 2020 Balance Dry Riesling (Double Gold Best of Category), 2019 Deans List Botrytis Affected Chardonnay (bronze) and 2019 Deans List Savant Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine (bronze).