Wine Review - Avondale Sky Winery: A Wine Two'fer

We have recently come to try a couple of wines from Avondale Sky Winery here in Nova Scotia.  It is the newest winery to join the ranks here in what is a burgeoning wine industry.  The story of the winery's tasting room is becoming something of legend.  The owners of the winery were able to salvage a church that was being decommissioned.  The church building was actually floated down the Avon River to its new home at the winery.  The story of the winery is here.

So tonight we are running down the two wines we have tried recently which is their 2010 Tidal Bay white and the 2010 The Landing red.

Tidal Bay is the newly appointed Appellation for Nova Scotia and this version combines L'Acadie and Geisenheim grapes.  The Landing is a red made of Leon Millot grapes which is another cool climate variety.

The Tidal Bay is a really nice white wine with a lot going on.  The wine is a little oily in the glass and has a light overall colour.  It is an ever so slightly effervescent wine with notes of pear and crisp green apples.  It has a nice mouthfeel and would make a great patio wine.  It has a deliciousness to it with a small amount of residual sugar which makes for a very nice tasting experience.  Well made.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Light greenish tinted colour in the glass with effervescence and some oiliness in the glass.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Citrus and sweetness on the nose but it is drier than the nose forecasts.	4.25
Taste (0-10)	Pears and crisp acidity with mineral tropical notes.  Great flavours with only a small amount of residual sugar.	8.5
	Total:	16.75 / 20  (83.75%)

The Landing is one of the nicest red wines we have had from Nova Scotia in a long while.  It has a lot of balance and flavour.  It smells like canned cranberry sauce....a lot.  We are not sure if it has spent any time in oak or not but it certainly has a little cedar or even dare we say, mothballs going on in the nose.  Either way, it certainly is interesting.  The cranberry theme transitions into the visuals where the colour is excellent.  At 12% is doesn’t have a lot of ‘legs’ but it is not thin.  Well, let’s say it starts a touch on the thin side but the taste is still quite powerful.  It does have boldness to it and finishes a little on the tart side but is all cherries and delicious.  It would be perfect with a variety of foods and would work much like a Pinot Noir in that sense.  Really great.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Cranberry juice with slight thinness but nice colour.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Cranberry sauce all over the nose with slight notes of cedar or mothballs floating around.	4.0
Taste (0-10)	Slightly thin start which transitions into nice mouthfeel and a tart cherry finish.  Tasty and very food friendly.	8.5
	Total:	16.5 / 20  (82.5%)

The roster of wines here is really nice and is something that makes us want to try more.  These two are the most widely available versions but we are now very intrigued about the rest.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon