Grape Guy’s Picks of the Bunch: Canadian Chard
Muscedere Vineyards 2005 Canadian Oaked Chardonnay

Of late I have been talking to winemakers who are having dalliances with a variety of wood – that might sound dirty but what I’m talking about is oak. Hungarian seems to be popular, “Eastern European” is another popular answer and Bulgarian is starting to crop up along with the usual French and American barrels; but very little is ever mentioned about our own homegrown Canadian oak.

So I have to hand it to the boys with the Italian roots for staying close to home for a barrel or two of Chardonnay. Aged only 4 months in new Canadian oak, the wine shows some real finesse, both on the nose and in the mouth – tropical fruit, vanilla, a hint of oak and some surprising coconut, which makes this wine very appealing on the palate. A little pricey, but it’s made “in Canada” (grapes and wood) – ya gotta pay a little more for the home-grown stuff.

http://ontariowinereview.com/joomla/content/view/187/61/