Latest / Spill The Wine / Spill the Wine Episode 8: Wine is Liquid Music. A visit to Black Bank Hill Winery

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Spill the Wine Episode 8: Wine is Liquid Music. A visit to Black Bank Hill Winery · Spill The Wine

• 0:00
  Andrea Morris [00:00:00]: Hello, friends. I'm Andrea Morris, and welcome to another episode of Spill the Wine, the podcast where we make wine fun. That's right, folks. Time for another wine tasting. As you can imagine, we've already talked about this before in the past. But if you're just tuning in now, Spill the Wine is a podcast indeed about wine. But it's also kind of a fun journey through the Niagara Region with wine tastings that are designed to debunk a lot of myths about wine. Like, you have to know tons about it to enjoy it, and wine has to be expensive in order to enjoy it.
• 0:01
  Andrea Morris [00:00:30]: But we're just about having fun and drinking great quality wines from vineyards that I very much enjoy going to. So today, we are lucky enough to be visiting Black Bank Hill, which is a relatively new winery in the area. And, we're sitting with Taylor. Hello, Taylor.
• 0:02
  Taylor [00:00:46]: Hello, Andrea.
• 0:03
  Andrea Morris [00:00:47]: How are you doing today?
• 0:04
  Taylor [00:00:48]: I'm I'm terrific. How are you?
• 0:05
  Andrea Morris [00:00:49]: I am fantastic because I'm here, and I love your winery. So Thank you so much. Yeah. So we'd like to kinda start off the podcast by talking about how did you get started? Like, what made you get into winery as a business and actually pick this area to start a winery?
• 0:06
  Taylor [00:01:07]: It's a good question. I was been asked many times, and, I'm trying to refine my answer, but it all starts with passion about wine. And I guess the way I describe it is I kinda walked into this semi Sometimes you're walking backwards, and sometimes you're walking forwards, and it was like a combination of that. It wasn't totally crystal clear to me. What happened was I finished a job that I'd had for many years, and I treated myself to a two week, semi advanced WSET wine tasting course because that's, as you aptly said in your introduction, fun. And that was fun for me, and it was like a treat to myself. And I did that, and, I got to taste some lovely wines and learn a lot about wines. And, I've been I've been traveling to wine regions and tasting wine for fifteen years at that point.
• 0:07
  Taylor [00:02:03]: But, by the end of that course, I I I discovered a winemaking school. I was in England, and this was in Sussex in the sparkling wine region. And, I went down to visit the person there, and it was like this domino effect of, okay. You've got this passion. I wasn't completely conscious that I was going into the world of wine on a professional basis, but it kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper. And then when I had the opportunity to go to winemaking school, I said to myself, well, it seems like you're getting pretty serious, Taylor, but part of me was, like, not yet even fully committed. Like, maybe I'll do this for a couple of years and really know enough to make the decision. But, of course, by, you know, a quarter or a third way into that, I was started to come back to Niagara and look for look for potential pieces of property and vineyard sites.
• 0:08
  Taylor [00:02:51]: And, and, frankly, it was all just a hell of a lot of fun and, following literally, I know it's a cliche, but following your dream, following your passion, and and going for it and saying, you know, I I got one life to live here, and, I'm not hurting anybody. I might hurt myself in the process, but, that's free territory. So let's go for it and, see see where this takes me.
• 0:09
  Andrea Morris [00:03:13]: So how did you find this property?
• 0:10
  Taylor [00:03:16]: Literally driving around. It had actually been on the market for a while. It was a family fruit farm, since the fifties. And a couple have brought up four children here packing their Chevrolet truck with fresh produce in the morning and taking it down to the food terminal on the Queensway there and, in Toronto. And, the parents had passed on. The kids had it for sale, and I didn't wanna buy a vineyard, and I didn't wanna buy anything established. I wanted I literally wanted to start from the ground up because a lot of my sort of interest in wine and schooling had got me into, you know, different clones and, like, just getting really good plant material and, and then pairing that with the right site. And, and just putting it together, I I wasn't in a terrific rush, and you really shouldn't be if you're thinking about this sort of thing.
• 0:11
  Taylor [00:04:10]: And, it was just it was like that. Yeah.
• 0:12
  Andrea Morris [00:04:13]: What's the time period from when you plant grapes to the time that you can actually start getting a harvest for wine?
• 0:13
  Taylor [00:04:20]: It varies by region and and by producer, but, for us, it was three years. So we harvested some fruit from about about, about 40% of the vineyard we could harvest, a light crop in year three. A whole bunch of the vineyard wasn't ready yet. The vineyard's actually got the soil's pretty consistent, but it's this graduating heavy clay soil on the lake bed. One of the and we might talk about this later or now. One really super exciting part of this of the site is it's on the lake bed of the old glacial Lake Iroquois. A lot of Niagara is known as bench land, which is probably also underwater for a lot of time, but it's a little bit different in that down here, the water's really pushed all the organic matter up, and you're getting really heavy clay. And so part of the vineyard, you could see when we planted, there was this almost subtle and I'm talking, like, three to six inch little if you're walking it, you can notice it, but you wouldn't see it.
• 0:14
  Taylor [00:05:24]: There's a lit and then the plants on the other side of that little ridge you know when you're walking into, like, a shallow lake like Lake Simcoe or something, and then you get that little and you're just now you're past your knees? It was like one of those. And those plants were almost a year behind in development from plants within yards of it. And, and it wasn't the surface soil that you noticed, but below, you know, when you're digging a hole in that stuff, it's hard as rock. And, so that was our so sorry. That's a really long winded answer to your question. So it totally depends on-site, site characteristics. Some people wait till five years. Also depends on where the winery is at from, historic perspective.
• 0:15
  Taylor [00:06:07]: Do they have inventory? Have they is this their first vineyard? Is this their second vineyard? Do they have inventory to sell? Do they have a sales team? In our case, we wanted to fix three three is probably normal, but you're you're picking, fruit from younger vines, which you know what? There's if you guys talked about busting myths, there's, one myth we busted was, you know, you need old vines to make great wine. So one of the wines we harvested that year, our 2020 Cabernet Franc, just won platinum at the Canadian wine awards Congratulations. Which is just, thank you. I mean, it was just not expected at all. Just a huge a huge, kind of support for us in terms of potential of the site. But, the great thing about making wines from the vineyard, the whole process of making wines from the vineyard is kind of experiencing the wines from that site and going, what are the characteristics of this Cab Franc versus other Cab Francs? And that one was pretty interesting right off the bat in in terms of the overall profile of wine. We weren't they were younger vines, so we weren't trying to make it was 2020, so you've got a really beautiful warm vintage for Cabernet style wines. Absolutely.
• 0:16
  Taylor [00:07:14]: People are swinging for the fences, whereas we were not. I still wanted to make a balanced wine. I didn't wanna hang fruit or stress out the vines too much, and the crop was extremely low. But between vines and the soil in the year, we made it absolutely and the Syrah we harvested that year, is fantastic. But the profile of that cap rock, just to finish that story, was, just a beautiful florality to the nose and a prettiness to it. So it it wasn't a wine that excelled in terms of weight or power, but finesse and elegance. And a lot of people in Niagara will talk about that as being our strong suit. We're not a warm climate, and we're not making wines that, you know, I love to enjoy, but I'm making wines in Niagara for a very specific reason because we can make what I would almost call more classically styled wines.
• 0:17
  Taylor [00:08:07]: Wines of, of of of beauty. Wines that can if you you can miss them if you're not paying attention. But if you're paying attention, they can really, really take you places.
• 0:18
  Andrea Morris [00:08:17]: Did that influence your pick of the varietals that you were going to be planting here?
• 0:19
  Taylor [00:08:21]: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, not not in that conscious direct way that you just described, but the varieties that I picked, I picked to make, let's call it for lack of a better term, more old world styled wines than than modern styled wines. But that term is not something I I'm using that merely as kind of a reference point at a broad level because our wines are every wine is unique, so it's better not to categorize the wines. It's better just to try them and experience them for yourself and not put them in a box and think this is this and because Niagara's it's a new world wine region. But it's not like a lot of new world wine. It's just it's its own place. So
• 0:20
  Andrea Morris [00:09:07]: because when you talk about, like, the old world wines as opposed to new world, what for someone that's not familiar with wines, what would what's the difference? What what separates that?
• 0:21
  Taylor [00:09:18]: So I mean, oh, man. What a great question. I'm not even probably the best person to answer it.
• 0:22
  Andrea Morris [00:09:25]: I just Well, just like if you're saying old world, what would be your definition
• 0:23
  Taylor [00:09:28]: of wine? Let me let me let me go and I'll say, you know, when I grew up drinking wines, I'm not old, but it was still wines we could get wines from the nineties or early two two thousands. And there was a lot of change even in in French and Italian wines around the February. Climate was getting warmer. They were making bigger wines. Little secret. I mean, Bordeaux capitalized. They added sugar through their fermentations until about February. Big bags of sugar.
• 0:24
  Taylor [00:09:58]: And this was not according to the rules, but they but those those are beautiful wines. I'm not criticizing the wines. I'm saying, but to get to they were getting making 12 and a half, maybe 13% wines. The climate was just cooler. The season wasn't as hot. Sugar ripening wasn't the way it is today where you're seeing wines. Brunello di Montalcinos are now hard to find them under 14 and a half percent, but, you know, it would have been 13 and a half percent ten years ago, fifteen years ago, whatever. The time's moving quickly.
• 0:25
  Taylor [00:10:26]: And, same thing's happened in Niagara in ten years. So what I'm saying is, an older style world world wine would be more, a little bit more savory, less fruit forward, little more earthy or mineral, would take more time in bottle to really show itself, good quality wines, whereas modern wines are produced to be consumed early and young, and that's fantastic. I'm not it's just a different thing. It's not better there's no better or worse in any of this. It's just different. And modern wines are People don't sell our wines, but those LCBOs, you know, or whoever's made the stat that, you know, 90 some percent of wines are consumed within, like, seventy five minutes of being purchased or something like that. You know what I mean? So it's we're in a different world. In the old world, and let's go back, people got they didn't buy wine buy the bottle.
• 0:26
  Taylor [00:11:18]: They bought it by the case or by the barrel. It was in their home or their farm for, like, a year or two. So it was sitting around. They it aged. They watched it age, and it got better, and they intentionally age it. If they had the means to intentionally age it, they could. And, so we know much more about in winemaking things like tannin management, how to make the wine supple and presentable at a younger age. Whereas before, those wines, old world, quote, unquote, the first Bordeaux that I started drinking when I that was my first wine trip, then they're serving us, like, a a two year old wine.
• 0:27
  Taylor [00:11:54]: These weren't really that enjoyable. They were tough, gritty wines. First of all, you needed a meal with them, and they could balance out a meal. But sitting in your hotel room or wherever you were, having a glass of Young Bordeaux in the early two thousands wasn't wasn't what we were used to. We're like, I paid this one, but if you put it down for twenty years, you would have been on $5.09. But we're try but you're trying to learn about wine, and you're like, this is really confusing because
• 0:28
  Andrea Morris [00:12:24]: anyway. Because you would have that preconception that I'm in Bordeaux, the wines are all gonna be fabulous. Well, yeah.
• 0:29
  Taylor [00:12:32]: And they would be at twenty years down the road. In some in the right context Yeah. Which is with what kind of food, at what age, all those things decanted for how long, whatever.
• 0:30
  Andrea Morris [00:12:45]: So the person that's listening to this podcast for the first time and going like, oh my god. I'm intimidated now. Don't be. Yes.
• 0:31
  Taylor [00:12:53]: Because you
• 0:32
  Andrea Morris [00:12:53]: don't you don't have to. But as as you were just saying, the wines in this area aren't made like that to I mean, now some are. I would
• 0:33
  Taylor [00:13:04]: say I wouldn't mind producing a few wines like that, to be perfectly honest with you. We make a lot of different style of wines, and, and and we love to make wines that are ready to drink. Absolutely. We also like to make wines that have the potential to age and mature and and get better. And we'll even hold wines here for customers, in until we I I hate to try to sell a wine that's not really showing at its best. So I'll try to keep it in bottle here before I put it on the menu. But there's lots of constraints like, you know, the the little problem called cash flow or, you know, even space in the in the barrel room or in the cellar to store these things. And, so you gotta get them out there, and that's and and that's why.
• 0:34
  Taylor [00:13:56]: That's that's why this is this evolution's
• 0:35
  Andrea Morris [00:13:58]: happened. I have a bottle of your wine that I'm selling for, Andy, my Australian client that came here.
• 0:36
  Taylor [00:14:04]: Yes. Yes. Lovely man. That was a good that was a good visit.
• 0:37
  Andrea Morris [00:14:07]: Yeah. And I know it says because it's written all over the bottle. Do not touch Andy's wine. Do not touch mine. Mine. Mine. So yeah. I mean, for If you're listening, Andy, I I do have it.
• 0:38
  Taylor [00:14:17]: It was still there. Like, you brought that word intimidating, and I hate the intimidating or, like, pretentious or, you know, overly stuffy side of wine. But to me, aging a wine, that was fun. That's that's kinda my idea of fun. Not intimidating. It can be confusing, and it can be like, well, how do I know when to open it? And you really don't. You only do but you'll open a bunch at the wrong time to learn. It's a process.
• 0:39
  Taylor [00:14:45]: And kinda making mistakes is part of the fun. But if if that is, like, wine for me is ultimately essential experience, so it just has to you have to enjoy it. And, we don't we I do not wanna go down the path of trying to intimidate anybody. I want wine to be a a welcoming and fun thing, but it's a it's a thing where you're searching for, like, a food, culinary, palate, mouth, sensory experience, and and and getting more out of it than, oh, that's really good. There's another level to wine where it's like, it's kinda special.
• 0:40
  Andrea Morris [00:15:23]: Where it takes that you take that bite of the food and then you have a sip of the wine, and all of a sudden, you're just like It's it's like fireworks. Exactly.
• 0:41
  Taylor [00:15:31]: It's just a greater level of enjoyment, and it doesn't happen all the time or every time, but it's so wonderful when it does. And it's like everything. You know? Music, you can have some favorite albums, put them on, and sometimes they're just good old comfortable sweaters that you're listening to, and they put you in a good place. And sometimes you're like, oh my god. What was that? And you just it arrests you. It stops you. It grabs your attention, and it and it brings you into the present moment. You stop worrying about what happened yesterday or what you have to do tomorrow, And you're just at that moment.
• 0:42
  Taylor [00:16:02]: You're there with it and having a a really pleasant experience, and it's it's nice that, that's why, you know, we follow wines to provide people with something that that gives them a little bit more meaning and pleasure and adds that dimension to life.
• 0:43
  Andrea Morris [00:16:19]: And there's nothing for me that I find more enjoyable than opening a fabulous bottle of wine with someone that I know is gonna appreciate it.
• 0:44
  Taylor [00:16:26]: Right. Yeah.
• 0:45
  Andrea Morris [00:16:27]: And then having the perfect meal with it. And then you just have that experience where you watch them take a sip of a wine that you know is fantastic, and they're just like, oh my god.
• 0:46
  Taylor [00:16:37]: And then Your eyes kinda meet.
• 0:47
  Andrea Morris [00:16:39]: Yeah.
• 0:48
  Taylor [00:16:39]: And you're having this conversation without talking for a few seconds, then you say something. And, no. It's just so so great. And that's I'll go back to music for a second. There's sometimes you can listen to an album with somebody who's into the music that particular artist the same way you are, and it makes it sound better for both of you Yeah. Because you're listening to it together. Yeah.
• 0:49
  Andrea Morris [00:16:56]: And I
• 0:50
  Taylor [00:16:56]: well, you're a great great analogy you made because wine is exactly like that. It gets it gets better.
• 0:51
  Andrea Morris [00:17:02]: It's liquid music. Yeah. Well, why don't we taste some of your liquid music? Sure. We
• 0:52
  Taylor [00:17:08]: we always start with rose here. And what I've been saying about this rose so this was bottled in May of twenty three. It's Cabernet Franc based rose. It's got 6% Merlot, but it's basically Cabernet Franc. And this rose, it's pouring better now than ever. It just it's it's not all roses are gonna improve, but this is okay. Here's back to our us conversation, watching wines mature, age change. They're not always changing for the better.
• 0:53
  Taylor [00:17:38]: They prob a lot of them will change better for a certain amount of time. This rose is I don't know if you've tried this before.
• 0:54
  Andrea Morris [00:17:46]: I don't know if
• 0:55
  Taylor [00:17:47]: Doesn't matter.
• 0:56
  Andrea Morris [00:17:47]: But it'll be I've tried past rose, but I don't know if I've tried this one.
• 0:57
  Taylor [00:17:50]: To stick with our metaphor, this will be a different wine than and how much do you want?
• 0:58
  Andrea Morris [00:17:56]: That's fine.
• 0:59
  Taylor [00:17:57]: This will be a different wine. I mean,
• 1:00
  Andrea Morris [00:17:58]: I could take the whole glass, but
• 1:01
  Taylor [00:18:00]: I've got there's more coming. Yay. It
• 1:02
  Andrea Morris [00:18:04]: reminds me of a French rose in the color.
• 1:03
  Taylor [00:18:06]: It's from a color and people actually as it's there's another interesting thing. If you tried this last year, this is not the same wine that you tried last year. It's the same wine, but it's not the same wine. And that's part of the fun. Like, we're not the same people. I'm sorry if I'm getting a little philosophical here, but this is part of my fun of pouring wine with people. And, actually, people have made making the French slash Provencal style more this year than last year. I'm not quite sure why that is, but that was some of the influence on this style.
• 1:04
  Taylor [00:18:38]: The year before that, our first rose was, and this was again the beauty of Niagara is partially the the vintage variation. We have a different season. The grapes are in different shape, and they express themselves differently, and we embrace that. We love the the difference because it keeps us on our toes. We're not we're not in a we're not following in into a routine here. We're kinda always forced to be on the spot. And, this wine is is so your comment yeah. I've been hearing that recently, though.
• 1:05
  Andrea Morris [00:19:05]: It's like a peachy color.
• 1:06
  Taylor [00:19:06]: It is. There's there's oddly even peachy notes
• 1:07
  Andrea Morris [00:19:09]: There are.
• 1:08
  Taylor [00:19:10]: On the wines without a doubt.
• 1:09
  Andrea Morris [00:19:12]: Peachy and strawberry, I think.
• 1:10
  Taylor [00:19:13]: I think you nailed it. A lot of
• 1:11
  Andrea Morris [00:19:15]: people I find think rose should be a little sweet. Yeah. But there's but that's okay because everyone has a different palate. Yeah. But for me, this is what if I was in France, this is the kind of rose I would be drinking. It's got the more it lingers on my tongue, it becomes fruitier. The initial sip isn't very fruity, but the more it just stays there. But the more it stays there, it's like a second sip out.
• 1:12
  Taylor [00:19:40]: Put on I tell you what. What's happened as it's evolved is put on body. It's put on some weight, and it's got it's become more concentrated. And, also, I'd say the finish is a bit spicier. There's more
• 1:13
  Andrea Morris [00:19:50]: There's a lot going on.
• 1:14
  Taylor [00:19:52]: There's more going on in the finish. It's become a really exciting wine.
• 1:15
  Andrea Morris [00:19:55]: I really enjoy that. It's not the kind of rose that you would chill and just sit around in the backyard. I think this is really would be really appropriate with food because it's just so good.
• 1:16
  Taylor [00:20:05]: This one can do both. You can you can sit and drink it, and and it it'll go with a lot of things. It goes great with charcuterie and some lighter cheeses, obviously, also salads. This is it's quite rose is very flexible from a food pairing. Just general as a category.
• 1:17
  Andrea Morris [00:20:21]: I It's like again, it's such a beautiful color. It matches my shirt nicely. Listen, you can't see that, but I'm wearing an an orange shirt. Yeah. No. It is the I don't often hear people using Merlot as a blend in a in a rose, so I find that really interesting.
• 1:18
  Taylor [00:20:36]: It's not common. I've had pure Merlot roses before, and they're absolutely delicious. It makes Merlot makes a ton of my rose. And this was this was, this was a shop in London, and they it's just funny. It wasn't the most expensive rose in the world. It wasn't it wasn't a fancy, flashy. It came in a bare they were selling it out of a barrel. So it was kind of a bulk rose, Merlot.
• 1:19
  Andrea Morris [00:20:57]: You'll see pictures of these wines on the on the show notes, but, this is really I feel like I'm in France right now. This is the the way you've just captured it so perfectly.
• 1:20
  Taylor [00:21:07]: It's a neat it's a neat comment. I mean, let's be honest. France and the culinary tradition of France has been a absolute massive influence on us. At the same time, we're not trying to make French style wine. We're making, hopefully, our own wines, but we've bought all our varietals are French varietals. And, fundamentally, we're using techniques that the French perfected. So, yeah, you have if you had a French person come in, I don't think they'd say it was French, but for us, yeah, there's a lot of but you know what it is? It's maybe not the wine itself, but it's like the overall how do I say? Kind of like the
• 1:21
  Andrea Morris [00:21:51]: The
• 1:22
  Taylor [00:21:52]: or There's a certain classiness that we're going for that French styles achieve very well consistently. That's kinda what they're good at. They're good they're really good at
• 1:23
  Andrea Morris [00:22:02]: Being consistent.
• 1:24
  Taylor [00:22:02]: The polish of of things. And, they know they know what they're shooting for. Right? They've got a very clear sense of the target when they're when they're making this stuff. This is, sorry if I'm getting a lot of it. I'm just grabbing the next wine into the fridge. That's alright. It's it's a work of progress. It's balanced.
• 1:25
  Taylor [00:22:20]: Right? There is a there is a dash of residual sugar in that wine, and that's because the Cab Franc on its own has some grip, has some astringency, has some skin contact. But, Rose, you don't wanna be tasting that. Neither do we want you to be tasting sweetness because we want you to if it was any sweeter, you just you'd get bored at after a couple of baths.
• 1:26
  Andrea Morris [00:22:39]: Where does the Merlot come in then with that? What does the Merlot grape do to add to that blender to
• 1:27
  Taylor [00:22:46]: Great great question. And I'll be I'm happy to be transparent about the fact that that the Merlot was a very happy accident in this one. We in '21, we had, a cold snap. Did a lot of bud damage to our vineyard as it did almost every vineyard in Niagara. So traditionally, let's just say on on average, the yield, the crop of '22 was about 50% of previous years or expected. The Merlot was wiped out by about 95%. We had a hundred kilograms of Merlot off of, an acre and a half. And, we picked it, and we had seven little baskets of beautiful little round smiling Merlot berries.
• 1:28
  Taylor [00:23:26]: And, what are you gonna do with it? It's gonna go in the Merlot. We love to have a little compliment in 20 to the rose. We love to have a little blending component. I'm not sure it's enough to have a real big influence on the wine, but the palate and the brain are processing stuff that we're not always conscious of, and I'm sure it's in there somewhere. In '23, for example, we wanted to do something similar, so we picked some but we wanted to we wanted a bit of a fresher wine. We wanted something with a little bit more this is very what you just had is very 02/2022. That's a because it's got a roundness, a suppleness, and a a weight to the body that lower crop yields will give you. Twenty three, much bigger crop, cloudier, higher acid, fresher vintage of wine.
• 1:29
  Taylor [00:24:16]: So the our '23 rose reflects that. We added Cabernet Sauvignon and but it turned out to be 6%. We weren't really worried about whether it was 10% or 5%, because, frankly, we just wanted to add a little just a little it's like you make a martini, you you put a little vermouth, but maybe just so just the the smallest amount. You don't almost wanna notice it.
• 1:30
  Andrea Morris [00:24:40]: Yeah. Like when you make a Manhattan, just put a little bit of vermouth, not overdo it. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Just enough to give it that little zip zip. That little something something. Yeah.
• 1:31
  Andrea Morris [00:24:51]: It's because most roses that you try are either a Gamay, a Pinot Noir, Cab Franc.
• 1:32
  Taylor [00:24:57]: Yeah. Those are the three predominant styles in Niagara. Some and then, some are Cab Franc Gamay blends. Pinots are often on their own, but not always. Yeah.
• 1:33
  Andrea Morris [00:25:07]: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:34
  Taylor [00:25:08]: And they all work well.
• 1:35
  Andrea Morris [00:25:09]: It's a really nice, a really nice change and makes I think it makes it very special.
• 1:36
  Taylor [00:25:15]: I just gravitated to the Cab Franc as a great, I like the Bordeaux varieties as, as, roses. In in the Loire as well, there's that tradition of, Cabernet roses, both Cab Franc and Cab Sauv, and, very fresh. They can be savory. They can be almost slightly veg. They have this nice fresh red fruits, but also a vegetable kind of component, which we we can get to. And, I think that adds something very interesting to the wines. I know that sounds weird, but it's not weird when you taste it.
• 1:37
  Andrea Morris [00:25:44]: Okay. I'll believe you.
• 1:38
  Taylor [00:25:47]: Like, think of, like, a little of maybe arugula with a little pepper in it or something. It's just as a as a little something.
• 1:39
  Andrea Morris [00:25:54]: It's like putting them not beets, I'm happy.
• 1:40
  Taylor [00:25:57]: Exactly. Exactly. It's the it's the right it's, you know, you put a little, you put a little citrus on you put a little, like, grapefruit slices or mandarin or even raspberries on a salad. Fruit and they go well together.
• 1:41
  Andrea Morris [00:26:11]: Mhmm. Peaches and arugula with feta. There you go. Great. It's a great salad.
• 1:42
  Taylor [00:26:16]: Beautiful. I'm salivating. You just got me salivating.
• 1:43
  Andrea Morris [00:26:19]: I know. I'm hungry now too. Well, what's, let's move on.
• 1:44
  Taylor [00:26:22]: 2021 runway white. So the first one was the runway rose 22. This is the runway white. We've got the runway series, which is we'll pour three of them, and then we'll pour three varietal wines. Not in that order because we'll do the whites and then come to the reds. But, the Runway series is named after the Beams Hill Aerodrome and Aeronautical Training Society that was on this side, it was from King Street down to the lake. Our neighbors have they're still across the road from us. We look at one of the World War one airplane hangars.
• 1:45
  Taylor [00:26:53]: There was nine of those. There was four over beside it, two on our vineyard, and then two on the next vineyard over. And so we're just having some fun with the history of the place. And,
• 1:46
  Andrea Morris [00:27:03]: So did they use this area then for training purposes?
• 1:47
  Taylor [00:27:06]: Yeah. Oh, yeah. There was there was well, there are nine airplane hangars, so there was a a bunch of planes. There was thousands of cadets. These were Canadians and, you know, young men, 18 year olds from from both Britain and Canada that were, learning how to play fly planes to go over to the continent and, defeat the enemy.
• 1:48
  Andrea Morris [00:27:29]: Wow.
• 1:49
  Taylor [00:27:30]: Yeah. They were they had machine guns on these planes. They had, target practice on the lake. They'd fly down to the lake. They had stationary and moving targets. Stationary target is like a dock or something out there, and this a moving target is like a boat, like an armored boat with, like, sheet metal on the side that you get to shoot at. And I would have thought that would be a pretty cool video game for a a young man, in the early part of the twentieth century. So
• 1:50
  Andrea Morris [00:27:56]: That would be should kind of sounds like fun, except for me. I know shooting. I can't shoot anything. I'm in a zombie apocalypse. Give me a knife.
• 1:51
  Taylor [00:28:02]: The problem is is as fun as it would be is you realize that you do have to go to war and that your life is on the line, and, actually, it's probably a lot less fun than it. It sounds like and it's pretty serious business, actually.
• 1:52
  Andrea Morris [00:28:13]: So tell me a little bit more about the runway white. I have a challenge. Runway can be challenging for me. It's like You
• 1:53
  Taylor [00:28:20]: know what? For some reason, we pick a lot of words. Black Bank Hill's been, had some people have stumbled on that. But a lot of a lot of people call this runaway, for whatever reason. I don't know why. It's a but it's a very normal thing, but it is called the runway series. And, this wine is a blend of four grapes from our vineyard, all handpicked. So although it's our more accessible line, it's, it's got the same love and care as our more, quote, unquote, expensive fancy wines. Viognier lead, Gewurztraminer.
• 1:54
  Andrea Morris [00:29:00]: I was gonna say I could smell Gewurzt on this.
• 1:55
  Taylor [00:29:02]: Can you? Mhmm. Mhmm. Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. So we call it a dry white aromatic blend, and, we love the aromatic varieties here. We love we've got a bunch of Viognier planted. We've got Pinot Gris planted. We've got Gewurztraminer. Love the florality in this fruit and the spices we can get.
• 1:56
  Taylor [00:29:25]: I think our terroir is particularly it's one of our strengths is is these even, you know, I've even chatted with winemakers and Chardonnay, for example, is not considered an aromatic wine, but in Niagara, it can be semi aromatic. There's, like, a very pretty, almost perfume nose to it.
• 1:57
  Andrea Morris [00:29:45]: Yeah. It does have a very perfumey and I wouldn't say berry. It's just got that I I could smell the Gewurzt on it right away because it's got that floral Mhmm. That floralness, but also a little bit of the sweetness. Mhmm. But it's it's actually a nice dry white.
• 1:58
  Taylor [00:29:59]: It is. Yeah. It's dry. Well, I I think it's it's prob the Viognier and the Gewurt. The Gewurt is tucking behind the Viognier, both in terms of the concentration of that of the wine in that year, but they're both kind of, the aromatic wines. And, they both and the Viognier we'll pour the hundred percent Viognier in just a minute. And people ask me, is this sweet or is this dry? But it's just the plushness of the fruit that we're getting from the vineyard in our heavy clay soils. It's just concentration and flavor.
• 1:59
  Taylor [00:30:29]: So it comes with a plushness and but it finishes very dry in the mouth. And I like that style of wine.
• 2:00
  Andrea Morris [00:30:35]: Yeah. It does. It's really, it's not like a traditional Chardonnay.
• 2:01
  Taylor [00:30:40]: I don't know. This is no. This is a
• 2:02
  Andrea Morris [00:30:41]: It's very drinkable, and it's really enjoyable.
• 2:03
  Taylor [00:30:44]: It this is not a wine that you can drink and go, oh, this is like something else. This wine has never existed before. Nobody's made this blend before, and certainly not from the these grapes or in Niagara or from this vineyard. So
• 2:04
  Andrea Morris [00:30:58]: Yeah.
• 2:05
  Taylor [00:30:58]: And we had a lot of fun making it. It starts with, it started with the concept of a Viognier Chardonnay blend, which is not a traditional blend, but it's a blend that's been done many times before. It's wines that are both made in the same way, traditionally sort of barrel fermented barrel aged, Some level of oak treatment, but can be very neutral oak. So I'm not saying oaky at all necessarily, but Viognier being aromatic, Chardonnay being non aromatic, you kinda get a yin and yang. You get two sides, and you're kinda creating a a more beautiful all round wine that can be very flexible. Whereas a % Chardonnay or a % Viognier is quite much more of a specific thing with a specific place and time and a a and a purpose and a meaning and a objective. Whereas this is bringing to together to me two of the two of the weightier whites. They both have good weight and, cover a lot of bases with it.
• 2:06
  Taylor [00:31:56]: So it can it can air with a lot of foods, like a like a good house wine. You know, you gotta run the home and it's delicious enough to drink every day. It's gonna go with it's gonna go with your light Italian food to, obviously, your lunches and salads and French food to even up up to some roast chicken, light veal dishes, lemon veal, scallopini, lots of things.
• 2:07
  Andrea Morris [00:32:17]: Like a, you know, like a a cheesy pasta. Absolutely. Because it wouldn't like, a red would would be too much. But with the with this with the nice cheesy pasta, it would be, like, such a good compliment.
• 2:08
  Taylor [00:32:29]: I've started to drink white wines with even tomato based pastas. Really now?
• 2:09
  Andrea Morris [00:32:33]: Yeah. Aren't you a a a trailblazer?
• 2:10
  Taylor [00:32:35]: The I think no. I got it from I got it from an Italian movie I was watching, so I started trying it. And I'm like, for some just try it. When next time you go home, have a nice dry white wine. If you're having just some any kind of Pomodoro based tomato basil, simple simple spaghetti. I don't know. It does something really
• 2:11
  Andrea Morris [00:32:56]: nice. That sounds great.
• 2:12
  Taylor [00:32:58]: It works. It totally works. This one, one of the so the both Gewurtz and Viognier can handle a little spiciness too. So this is gonna go with
• 2:13
  Andrea Morris [00:33:07]: like Thai food or something.
• 2:14
  Taylor [00:33:08]: Your Thai food, your Indian food, Chinese spicy chili pork stir fry handles amazing. But surprise, I'm eating this. I'm kinda hungry. I'm at home, and, my wife brings out some, pizza. Some it was a spicy pepperoni pizza, and I'm eating this pizza. I reheated it from the day before. Have and I had a glass of this on hand. Oh my god.
• 2:15
  Taylor [00:33:32]: This was one of the best wine. This is I keep telling the story because this is maybe the best wine pairing I've had all year. This wine with spicy pepperoni pepperoni pizza. Okay. It was like the wine, the spices in your mouth, you're like, oh, that's hot. That's hot pepperoni. And you have that wine, and you think it's gonna just knock the wine over. The wine's like, no.
• 2:16
  Taylor [00:33:48]: You don't. I'm gonna stand up to you. And the wine took a whole step forward. The wine joined
• 2:17
  Andrea Morris [00:33:54]: the pizza in my mouth. Wow.
• 2:18
  Taylor [00:33:56]: I'm gonna stop you, spices.
• 2:19
  Andrea Morris [00:33:58]: You know, I'm really enjoyed that. And now I'm really hungry and thinking about all the things that I would like to make with that wine. Yeah. Just pick some tomatoes from my garden with some fresh basil and some ricotta and put it on pasta. That would be fantastic.
• 2:20
  Taylor [00:34:13]: Let's do the % Viognier.
• 2:21
  Andrea Morris [00:34:15]: Okay.
• 2:22
  Taylor [00:34:15]: And we get a lot of tasters in here, and they're not familiar super familiar with Viognier. It's around Niagara. Actually, more producers will produce some Viognier, but than we think. Because a lot of people have come up to me and have you tried this person's Viognier or that person? Like, I didn't know they did it. It's just produced in smaller amounts, but it's it's how how simply do we describe it? It's like a very aromatic chardonnay. Great whey, flashiness floral characteristics, stone fruits, and some good spiciness on the end.
• 2:23
  Andrea Morris [00:34:47]: Where is the vio where does the viognier grape originate from?
• 2:24
  Taylor [00:34:50]: It's from France.
• 2:25
  Andrea Morris [00:34:51]: I was gonna say, I was either the France or Germany.
• 2:26
  Taylor [00:34:55]: Yeah. Good guesses. And, but it's it's it was only originally from one small part of the northern
• 2:27
  Andrea Morris [00:35:03]: It is
• 2:28
  Taylor [00:35:04]: aromatic. Very aromatic. Yeah. So so I I pour this one after the runway white because the runway white, I think of as a baby Viognier. It's Viognier lead, but it's got a lot of other things going on to make it kind of an all rounder. You go in we're going from a shotgun to a rifle here. This is just zooming in. This is powerfully focusing you in this style of wine that's really these Rhone whites, and you can throw Marcelin and Roussanne as a category into them, what they do is unlike any other body of white wines in the world.
• 2:29
  Taylor [00:35:36]: I'd also say Alsatian white wines are the same thing. There's a body of whites that are living in their own little part of the solar system. And, we'd like to work with both these grapes because we think they're just tremendously exciting and, delicious in their own way.
• 2:30
  Andrea Morris [00:35:52]: It's really interesting because I think it has a little bit of a citrus. For me, I'm getting a little bit of citrus on it, but that's just my palate. But it's also, like, that aromaticness of it is just really nice. It's not overly fruity to me.
• 2:31
  Taylor [00:36:06]: This one this particular one has almost got this not almost. In my this bottle, May of last year, and it was, I guess, more classically fruity. And, well, the the the the typical what we call in wine world, typicity, the the the varietal typicity of this wine would be stone fruits like nectarine and peaches. Woah. So and and you get peach you got peaches on the Cab Franc and the rose.
• 2:32
  Andrea Morris [00:36:36]: I got peaches on the rose. Yeah. I'm not I'm I would probably say more nectarine for me.
• 2:33
  Taylor [00:36:42]: Right. Yeah. There's a little bit there's it's and that's a ripening scale. So nectarine is right before, like, you've got, you know, nectarine and then white peach and then And
• 2:34
  Andrea Morris [00:36:52]: I'm like like, almost orangey nectarine. Nectarine.
• 2:35
  Taylor [00:36:54]: Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of orange on this one.
• 2:36
  Andrea Morris [00:36:56]: Yeah. So that's
• 2:37
  Taylor [00:36:57]: sort of a little bit of
• 2:38
  Andrea Morris [00:36:58]: a little bit of citrus, that's what I was referring to.
• 2:39
  Taylor [00:37:00]: Grand Marnier. Well, citrus is a broad category, so that's a good that's good clarification.
• 2:40
  Andrea Morris [00:37:04]: Yeah. I didn't want you to think lemon or lime. It was more like a citrusy orange Yeah.
• 2:41
  Taylor [00:37:09]: With tangerines. Yes. Like Yes. More of the riper, richer. Mhmm. Almost the tropical side of citrus. This wine, as it's matured, has gotten almost more mineral style than fruit style. Not that the fruit is diminished, but it's kind of evolving into something that is actually you know, it's going a little bit I'm gonna I'm gonna use my old crotch metaphor again.
• 2:42
  Taylor [00:37:30]: It's getting a little bit more old world in style. Because traditional, these old world wines aren't trying to be fruity. They're trying to show you the earth. They're trying to show you where it's grown from.
• 2:43
  Andrea Morris [00:37:40]: So when you use the term minerality, like, if someone's not familiar with wine and just listening now, it would I would imagine someone going like, oh my god. I'm tasting dirt. But kind of define what that mineral
• 2:44
  Taylor [00:37:53]: is so amorphous. And, there's there's parts of wine school language debate that says this term shouldn't be used, and there's a very good ar very good argument that it shouldn't because it's basically undefined. But it's not gonna die because it's kind of a handy term. And I almost use it to describe if you wanna categorize flavors in terms of fruity flavors, often okay. Flavors in wine. Fruits, acids well, not acids. Fruits, spices, and flowers.
• 2:45
  Andrea Morris [00:38:28]: Also, there's some where their tobacco comes in.
• 2:46
  Taylor [00:38:31]: Plants, meat. So
• 2:47
  Andrea Morris [00:38:34]: And leather. People say, oh, it has a leathery taste. We've had that happen where people have referred to things as leather. So there is it is
• 2:48
  Taylor [00:38:40]: There's lots of there's lots of soap.
• 2:49
  Andrea Morris [00:38:42]: So why not let let minerality stick?
• 2:50
  Taylor [00:38:45]: So it's like, let's let's throw in a whole bucket of things like, when people talk about, you know, it's like river stones or something. Some of these words get really weird. But some kind of stoniness or even chalkiness or salinity, some non fruity, non flowery, non spicy type
• 2:51
  Andrea Morris [00:39:04]: of No.
• 2:52
  Taylor [00:39:06]: Not loam because you can drink Pinot Noir and go, oh, there's some, like there's this earthiness to it. Minerality is not I don't think it includes that.
• 2:53
  Andrea Morris [00:39:13]: Well, it's not it's like with Scotch. When you drink a really peaty Scotch, you can taste the peat.
• 2:54
  Taylor [00:39:20]: You sure can.
• 2:55
  Andrea Morris [00:39:20]: Because you can smell it, and it's like Absolutely. It's like I'm in a bog. Yeah.
• 2:56
  Taylor [00:39:24]: But this is great. You bet. Yeah. You bet.
• 2:57
  Andrea Morris [00:39:26]: And it's not like that. It's a bit
• 2:58
  Taylor [00:39:28]: it's a minerality is a funny term, and I probably just made it even fuzzier. But, c'est la vie. And, hey. Look. That's that's what wine is. You gotta gotta you gotta embrace all the gray zones and go, we're really searching to apply words. Experience itself doesn't have any words attached to it. Humans just brought the words later, like the luggage on a vacation.
• 2:59
  Taylor [00:39:51]: But the experience at the beginning didn't have any words, and it was perfectly fine without the words. The the wine didn't need any words.
• 3:00
  Andrea Morris [00:39:58]: So the words are kinda like the luggage tag. Yeah. Yeah. So that you know which one is yours.
• 3:01
  Taylor [00:40:03]: It's it's us trying to talk to each other about our experiences. Yeah. And that's that is let's just call that. When people get intimidated by wine, I think that's what they get intimidated by. The language. The conversation with the other person having a word that they don't know what it means. Because that's that's not that's not you and me connecting. That's you freaking me out.
• 3:02
  Taylor [00:40:28]: Like, I don't know what you're talking about.
• 3:03
  Andrea Morris [00:40:30]: That's why I ask the questions for people and go like, okay. If you're just listening, what does that mean?
• 3:04
  Taylor [00:40:35]: Like so that That's it.
• 3:05
  Andrea Morris [00:40:36]: Yeah. So it's like if you're walking up the ladder of wine, you just didn't feel like you fell down, and now you're back on the ground. No. It's like, no. Keep going.
• 3:06
  Taylor [00:40:43]: And I know lots I know lots of people that are way into wine, huge wine experience, that their idea of fun is they'll just make up words. It's like, actually, let's just write a poem. Oh, that tastes like I'm just gonna make something up. Liquid Jell O river stone moving through a field of chamomile. You know? And and they're like, that's how I feel. That's perfectly cool. Actually, I can get that. If somebody said that to me, oh, that feels right.
• 3:07
  Taylor [00:41:14]: I like the I like where you're going with that because they're just expressing themselves. Ultimately, the wine is an expression of yourself. You're discovering yourself. Right? You're discovering what you are experiencing the wine. The wine's not experiencing it. You're experiencing it. So The wine's like, I'm just in a bottle. Yeah.
• 3:08
  Taylor [00:41:31]: I'm I'm just hanging out. You I'd like to be at cool temperature. I like to be you know, keep the oxygen away. Yeah. Keep the sunlight away.
• 3:09
  Andrea Morris [00:41:38]: Please make some pasta and put it near me.
• 3:10
  Taylor [00:41:40]: That's right.
• 3:11
  Andrea Morris [00:41:43]: What would you pair that vignon vignon I I can never say it right. Vione. Vione. What would you pair that with food wise? Because that that's a conundrum for me. I don't know.
• 3:12
  Taylor [00:41:53]: Well, we talked a little bit about I like this with some spicier foods. I think a lot of people will do, like, Indian food with. I think this can do that. But it's also, it's also but it's also got, like, oh, Jesus, just a delicious Nicoise salad kind of a feeling to it. Or, I wouldn't do, like, a like, lot like fish, like a like a white fish, more delicate fish where the wine is sort of acting kinda like a sauce. You've got a fish with some just some simple herbs and some butter, not a nothing big on top.
• 3:13
  Andrea Morris [00:42:31]: But not a salmon. It does that doesn't seem like a salmon wine to me.
• 3:14
  Taylor [00:42:35]: You know what? Sometimes you just have to try.
• 3:15
  Andrea Morris [00:42:37]: Would you wanna arm wrestle about it or something?
• 3:16
  Taylor [00:42:39]: And and the other thing is is, like, I'm not a food I'm I'm more of a winemaker than a food pairing person. Those skills are actually quite separate. I do not profess to be any expert in terms of pairing food, and sometimes I I always go back to the comfort of the adage that pair
• 3:17
  Andrea Morris [00:42:58]: stuff you like. Right.
• 3:18
  Taylor [00:43:01]: Like, you don't actually don't think about it too much. You'll know
• 3:19
  Andrea Morris [00:43:03]: I would see that with Indian food that it would work.
• 3:20
  Taylor [00:43:06]: When it when it doesn't when it when a pairing doesn't work, you'll know. But, generally, it does because you're just kind of enjoying them together. But a real pairing is when they're actually improving each other. Mhmm. You know, when I first started pairing food with wine or trying to, and I haven't I haven't made a lot of progress in that area, to be honest, hardest thing has always been cheeses. I find cheeses. Everybody says, oh, wine and cheese. I find cheeses are about the hardest because the cheese is usually way too strong for the wine.
• 3:21
  Taylor [00:43:37]: You and you take a sip of the wine, and it's like, I can't even taste that wine. And the wine tasted way better before I put the cheese in my mouth. Once in a while and so that's a really hard one. When you compare a good, like there's some obvious classic cheese and wine pairings. We'll get into them. But, when they really work together, you're like, oh my god. But Moe, eight out of 10 times, it's up. I'm not sure about that.
• 3:22
  Taylor [00:44:05]: That's when
• 3:23
  Andrea Morris [00:44:06]: that's when you go to a cheese shop where they know what they're talking about, and you go, here's the wine I'm serving.
• 3:24
  Taylor [00:44:11]: Yeah.
• 3:25
  Andrea Morris [00:44:11]: Tell me what cheese is
• 3:26
  Taylor [00:44:12]: gonna work. Sure.
• 3:27
  Andrea Morris [00:44:13]: And that's how
• 3:28
  Taylor [00:44:14]: we do it. Yeah.
• 3:29
  Andrea Morris [00:44:15]: I opened a bottle by myself last weekend because I was just like, you know what?
• 3:30
  Taylor [00:44:19]: Totally. Long weekends need some champagne.
• 3:31
  Andrea Morris [00:44:21]: It's like yeah. Or bottles. I'm like, you know what? I can have that.
• 3:32
  Taylor [00:44:24]: Champagne, like rose, is one of the, in my opinion, one of the most easily parable things. Very food flexible. Just goes with a lot of things. Even better, rose champagne. That goes with that you almost cannot go wrong with.
• 3:33
  Andrea Morris [00:44:38]: No. Because it would work with every type of Kinda
• 3:34
  Taylor [00:44:41]: it kinda goes with anything.
• 3:35
  Andrea Morris [00:44:42]: Yeah.
• 3:36
  Taylor [00:44:43]: And, no. That's it's a great it's a that's one of the wonders of of a good sparkling wine is oh.
• 3:37
  Andrea Morris [00:44:50]: Yeah. Anything that you wanna pair with it is fantastic. Like, lunch, brunch, cheese plate
• 3:38
  Taylor [00:44:57]: Oh, yeah.
• 3:39
  Andrea Morris [00:44:58]: Pizza. Everything from Steak? Everything Anything tastes great.
• 3:40
  Taylor [00:45:01]: From eggs to, like, chocolate mousse. Oh, yes. Like any like, all day long.
• 3:41
  Andrea Morris [00:45:07]: Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:42
  Taylor [00:45:10]: Okay. Let's move on to the Chardonnay.
• 3:43
  Andrea Morris [00:45:12]: We're just dying over here. We
• 3:44
  Taylor [00:45:14]: Wow. We really got on the food pairing, Paul.
• 3:45
  Andrea Morris [00:45:16]: Yeah. We
• 3:46
  Taylor [00:45:16]: It's But
• 3:47
  Andrea Morris [00:45:18]: now, see, we're making wine fun. So it's like, yay. People are listening going, my god. I'm hungry. Now I need wine. Now we're doing Chardonnay.
• 3:48
  Taylor [00:45:26]: Here's our '21 Chardonnay. We've had we've made this is '21 is our fourth vintage. We started in '18. We made a Chardonnay every vintage because we're Niagara, and Niagara is makes great Chardonnay. This is the first one from our vineyard, so we're super happy to be pouring this one. And, It smells buttery. We we we just we love the style and the balance of this one. So we're really happy to bring this out.
• 3:49
  Taylor [00:45:50]: This is from, again, the north end of our vineyard. We didn't harvest anything from 2020 here. This is in the this is in the heavy clay soils, and the clay really still like that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:50
  Andrea Morris [00:46:02]: Thank you. You know what? It's again I find with wines on this side of the of King Street, which is the lake bed Yeah. They all have this really beautiful, like, softness. Yes. It's not at all harsh. It's just really
• 3:51
  Taylor [00:46:18]: Take take one of the fun things when I do tasting in the Sierra is I pour enough so people get three tastes. The first taste, I always say, don't don't think too much about the first taste. You're just kinda meeting the wine. And you're you're often just rinsing out the old one. The second, you're and you're in a lane change. You haven't got in you're going from the you're going from the right hand lane to the middle lane in the car because somebody's going really slow in front of you. Second sip, you get to meet it. You're in the lane.
• 3:52
  Taylor [00:46:47]: And then the third sip, you're like, okay. Nice to meet you. You just met the wine by the third sip. So and I love people will say what they say at the first taste and the third taste are almost always different. So you've got your last sip, Andrea. You said it you said what you said I forgot what you said. It was really Soft. Soft.
• 3:53
  Taylor [00:47:07]: Okay. So go for your last sip and tell me if you still think it's soft.
• 3:54
  Andrea Morris [00:47:11]: Not as soft as it was initially. It became a little bit harsher, like the guy behind me blowing the horn going get the hell out of my lane. Harsher or Harsher. Harsher. I would say Harder. Yeah.
• 3:55
  Taylor [00:47:22]: It's a
• 3:56
  Andrea Morris [00:47:22]: dryer. Get behind that. So that's
• 3:57
  Taylor [00:47:24]: good. So the wines or somebody will say this is really sweet. And by the third sip, they're like, oh, it's quite dry.
• 3:58
  Andrea Morris [00:47:31]: It became, like, more of itself. Like, when you first invite someone and you're on your best behavior, by the fourth sip, it was like, this is who I this is who I really
• 3:59
  Taylor [00:47:40]: am Yeah. Exactly.
• 4:00
  Andrea Morris [00:47:41]: So high.
• 4:01
  Taylor [00:47:42]: Exactly. Enjoy this. Exactly.
• 4:02
  Andrea Morris [00:47:44]: And that's when I was like, I really like that. Yeah.
• 4:03
  Taylor [00:47:48]: It's it's an inch it's a it's it's an interesting wine. It's got its own personality. It's, it's Chardonnays are interesting. They're sort of wines that winemakers spend a lot of time thinking about because there's a lot of different directions they can go in in terms of the oak treatment and the myelactic fermentation.
• 4:04
  Andrea Morris [00:48:07]: Because I find a lot of the California ones particularly have a very buttery Mhmm. Very buttery, like Mhmm. Back, like, back flavor to them. I initially got that with that. I got a little bit of butter on the on the nose initially. But it
• 4:05
  Taylor [00:48:22]: kind of diminished.
• 4:06
  Andrea Morris [00:48:23]: It did. Once it was, like, you know who I am You
• 4:07
  Taylor [00:48:26]: know what? Buttery. You know what? We'll go just flip back to the minerality conversation for a second. What came out, that harder thing that came out was the minerality in the wine. Let's call it that, the firmness to it.
• 4:08
  Andrea Morris [00:48:39]: That's really lovely.
• 4:09
  Taylor [00:48:41]: It's it's it's this is balanced. There's Yeah. The acid isn't sticking out. The oak isn't sticking out. The the butteriness is there's a warmth, a kind of a warmth that's kind of around the wine, but it's not sticking out. So everything's in check. It's like a nice It's really well balanced. Like a tailored suit that things fit.
• 4:10
  Taylor [00:49:00]: There's no elbows sticking out. There's no edges. And, these are the wines that can age really well because they're just composed, and they're just and I I well, we only brought this out to the tasting room about two months ago, so it was in bottle. 18 fermented in barrel, eighteen months in barrel aging, bottled a year in bottle. I'm amazed. I've been following this wine closely now for the last three months, I guess, and, it's still tasting fresh and young to me. It hasn't moved that much, and I like that because I'm watching this kind of glacial slope pace of this evolution, I'm like, woah. You've got your ducks in a row on this one.
• 4:11
  Taylor [00:49:45]: You know, when you're kinda going down the highway and you got you know, your luggage is sticking out of the window, you're like, you're gonna bang something at some time, and it's gonna end up messy. But this is this is compact and neat.
• 4:12
  Andrea Morris [00:49:57]: That's gonna age really nicely. Yeah. I would like to put that in a cellar and see where that goes and, like
• 4:13
  Taylor [00:50:03]: Well, you had you had a 50 mil pour. Sit down with share a bottle with somebody and give it a two or three hours and take your time, and that'll there's the journey right there in itself.
• 4:14
  Andrea Morris [00:50:15]: Two or three hours would be several bottles
• 4:15
  Taylor [00:50:18]: with my friends. I was being polite, Andrea.
• 4:16
  Andrea Morris [00:50:21]: Okay. I was just, like, saying. You know?
• 4:17
  Taylor [00:50:23]: I'm not suggesting anything, but I'm I'm I'm proposing that sometimes with wines, if you slow down a little bit, you can Andrea's making her funny, your crazy face. You can you'll get well, this is okay. There's no right way to do anything. No. True. But sometimes I'm tasting wines with people. I'm like, I'll just slow down and enjoy. People, there's not a finish line here.
• 4:18
  Andrea Morris [00:50:50]: But sometimes you do see that with people doing wine tastings where they just chug them back really quickly. It's like, no. Like, enjoy. Take your time. But, again, we're not, like, dismissing people that wanna just chug it and go to the next winery.
• 4:19
  Taylor [00:51:03]: One of the reason our tastings take a little while because we it's nice to linger on them. And if if if I'm gonna send you home with a bunch of wine, which I hope we do, I want you to make sure that you like them when you get home. And if you go too fast, you'd be like, I can't remember it being that way. The winery, why did I buy this? And and I don't want people to have that experience with Black Bengal. I like it when they go and they're like, oh, I really like that. I enjoyed that. Here's why, and I kinda remember it. And, yeah, so we tried to slow down.
• 4:20
  Andrea Morris [00:51:32]: Well, when I bought one from you, I was excited to go home and show it and try it with my neighbors because particularly your Pinot. Mhmm. Because I was like, I know that they love Pinot, and I wanted them to come here and buy your Pinot.
• 4:21
  Taylor [00:51:44]: So And they did.
• 4:22
  Andrea Morris [00:51:45]: And they did. Which was wonderful. Mission accomplished. Yeah.
• 4:23
  Taylor [00:51:47]: Totally appreciate that.
• 4:24
  Andrea Morris [00:51:48]: Yeah. Because it was funny. I remember that day specifically because you were like, you really like the Cab Franc. Why are you buying the Pinot? Like, because I want you to get more business.
• 4:25
  Taylor [00:51:56]: Because you're like, this Pinot this Pinot, my friends are gonna like.
• 4:26
  Andrea Morris [00:51:59]: Yeah. That's why I I I specifically bought it because I knew they would like it, and I knew that they would come here and buy it. And it was like, I can always get the Cab Franc.
• 4:27
  Taylor [00:52:05]: That was our 2020, I remember. And, the '21, again, just like that chard, first planted right beside that chardonnay. The '21 will come out. It's still not ready. It was bottled at the same time. So that, you know, '21 was bottled in May of twenty three. It's gonna have about eighteen months in bottle before it gets released in the tasting room. Let's go back to right where we started.
• 4:28
  Andrea Morris [00:52:29]: Yeah.
• 4:29
  Taylor [00:52:30]: Serving a wine when it's ready. Honestly, the Pinot, until recently, wasn't showing itself. There's no point in me selling a wine where it's not showing itself. It was kind of like, you know, like, the snail in the in the shell. It's still back there. It's not coming down to say hello. It's it's not coming it's not opening the front door and saying come on in yet. So you know what? It's it's not going out the door.
• 4:30
  Taylor [00:52:54]: But come back in, about, three or four weeks, and, we'll try some more pinot because it's we're pretty excited about that one too.
• 4:31
  Andrea Morris [00:53:01]: I'm very excited about that as well. Here's one.
• 4:32
  Taylor [00:53:05]: We're down to we got we got a 2020 runway red. So we're going back to the runway series. This is 60% Merlot, 20% Cab Franc, 20% Cab Sauv. And Good blend. And from a great vintage.
• 4:33
  Andrea Morris [00:53:17]: Beautiful color.
• 4:34
  Taylor [00:53:18]: Thank you. Young vines. This this wine has really got probably more structure. A bit more of a, what I call, like, a baby Bordeaux than, than the runway series would usually call for. But,
• 4:35
  Andrea Morris [00:53:30]: Very cherry on the nose initially.
• 4:36
  Taylor [00:53:32]: Yeah. Yeah. This is back to this is a good example of the perfume that we get on the reds in this vineyard and and why we're so oh, thank you. That's a good that's a good sound. Why we're pretty excited about a number of the red varietals on on on that where they're planted in the property is, they develop a very pretty nose. It's nice Mhmm. Violets and red flowers and roses rose kinda notes and all sorts of things. And, I'm not great with flowers, by the way, but it's there.
• 4:37
  Taylor [00:54:04]: And, this wine has taken an extra year involved. So I've served this, then I said, you know what? This isn't ready yet. It's too tight. And we brought it the 21 runway runway red, and we added a bit of that Pinot Noir to to sort of lighten it up and loose loosen it up. Yeah. We served that for a year, and then we just brought this one out a couple months ago and put it back on.
• 4:38
  Andrea Morris [00:54:24]: This is the 2020? This is the 2020. Was such a great year for grapes
• 4:39
  Taylor [00:54:27]: in this area. Such a great year. And, this is us making again, we're not trying to make a big 14 plus percent alcohol red wine. This is 12.8. It's very balanced. It's very drinkable, and it's something you can enjoy with food or without food. And, This would
• 4:40
  Andrea Morris [00:54:43]: be really nice with pizza.
• 4:41
  Taylor [00:54:44]: My neighbor, when I first brought this out, bought a bunch of it. Lovely lovely guy. And, he said, Taylor, this is barbecue wine of the summer.
• 4:42
  Andrea Morris [00:54:52]: Oh, yeah. Definitely. Give me a burger with this and Just
• 4:43
  Taylor [00:54:55]: Yep. Backyard. Yep. Good friends, but good wine.
• 4:44
  Andrea Morris [00:55:01]: Oh, it's a really nice wine.
• 4:45
  Taylor [00:55:03]: Yeah. Thank you so much.
• 4:46
  Andrea Morris [00:55:04]: Yeah. It's just it's, like I said, initially, very cherry.
• 4:47
  Taylor [00:55:08]: Yeah.
• 4:48
  Andrea Morris [00:55:08]: But then the cherry subsides.
• 4:49
  Taylor [00:55:09]: Yes? Yeah. And what do you get? What do you get after that?
• 4:50
  Andrea Morris [00:55:12]: I'm getting more I I don't wanna say mineral I didn't wanna say minerality.
• 4:51
  Taylor [00:55:17]: I know. I wasn't
• 4:52
  Andrea Morris [00:55:18]: But I'm like but it becomes earthier, I
• 4:53
  Taylor [00:55:20]: think. Definitely. Like, you're getting, some these are these are classic Bordeaux varieties.
• 4:54
  Andrea Morris [00:55:26]: Yeah. It becomes it becomes I think it becomes more solid or definitely ooey? I don't have the taste of it. Maybe. Yes. But definitely earthier. It becomes, like I think it becomes more grounded and and less fruity.
• 4:55
  Taylor [00:55:38]: Less fruit. Totally. Yeah. Totally less fruity.
• 4:56
  Andrea Morris [00:55:41]: Yeah. But just a really great wine.
• 4:57
  Taylor [00:55:43]: Thank you so much. Yeah. It's just this And I know that
• 4:58
  Andrea Morris [00:55:45]: these are really reasonably priced as well.
• 4:59
  Taylor [00:55:47]: This one's $30. Yep. And Oh, you
• 5:00
  Andrea Morris [00:55:50]: can't go wrong with that.
• 5:01
  Taylor [00:55:51]: No. Yeah. Oh, this is no. This is where we wanna provide, like, really solid, value, something you can open up at your home with friends on multiple occasions, not tired of, still want more, and go, this is, you know, a bit of a go to.
• 5:02
  Andrea Morris [00:56:06]: Yeah. And be be great with the barbecue. You're right.
• 5:03
  Taylor [00:56:10]: Totally. Yeah. Totally. And the 21 runway red, you still got. It's back. It's at 25, and it's got a little pinot. And it's it's evolving in a different direction. It's a different blend.
• 5:04
  Taylor [00:56:20]: It's different vintage. It's in a different style of wine, but it's evolving in its own direction. It's almost equally exciting way.
• 5:05
  Andrea Morris [00:56:27]: It's really nice.
• 5:06
  Taylor [00:56:28]: Thank you so much. So glad you're enjoying that.
• 5:07
  Andrea Morris [00:56:30]: I am. You know I like your wines.
• 5:08
  Taylor [00:56:32]: Mhmm. You always have. K. We're finishing our current flight. Let's finish this with the only grapes that are not from our vineyard. You've you've had this before.
• 5:09
  Andrea Morris [00:56:43]: I have. I know.
• 5:10
  Taylor [00:56:44]: This one has been othellus and back this is the one this is the Cap Franc you really like. But this is an even more deeply colored wine.
• 5:11
  Andrea Morris [00:56:52]: And the the legs on this are phenomenal.
• 5:12
  Taylor [00:56:55]: This is a real this is a real celery red. This is a wine that's,
• 5:13
  Andrea Morris [00:56:59]: Wow. That punches you in the face with plum.
• 5:14
  Taylor [00:57:02]: That's some a little
• 5:15
  Andrea Morris [00:57:03]: bit of the age coming on. Like, when
• 5:16
  Taylor [00:57:05]: Plum, a plum earthiness. There is some red cherry on it,
• 5:17
  Andrea Morris [00:57:09]: but it's gone Initially, the plum just goes pow.
• 5:18
  Taylor [00:57:12]: Some great concentration really hits the palate and still great structure and tannins.
• 5:19
  Andrea Morris [00:57:17]: Mhmm. Little peppery initially.
• 5:20
  Taylor [00:57:19]: There's a lot of pepper in our in our terroir, and it shows up in people have said to me the Chardonnay's got pepper. It's Viognier's got pepper.
• 5:21
  Andrea Morris [00:57:27]: I don't taste that in either. I didn't get that in either of
• 5:22
  Taylor [00:57:30]: those, but I The Viognier at the end has some nice spiciness to it.
• 5:23
  Andrea Morris [00:57:33]: It does have spiciness.
• 5:24
  Taylor [00:57:35]: Yeah. Yeah. But this one, Cabernet Franca
• 5:25
  Andrea Morris [00:57:37]: pepper It's just it's so rich. And the, like, the more you sip it, I think it becomes heavier. Oh, yeah. And it just is like it's it blankets almost. You know? Like, I can feel it kinda, like, putting a little blanket around me and snuggling. You know, like, those stupid snuggle blankets that people have. I shouldn't say stupid because maybe people like them. Those wonder blanket.
• 5:26
  Taylor [00:57:59]: I have a blanket all the time.
• 5:27
  Andrea Morris [00:58:01]: I don't need one. I have a dog.
• 5:28
  Taylor [00:58:04]: So I get to pour this wine for lots of different palates. And, you where your palate this feels like a warm, cozy sweater experience. This this wine can be too much structure and too drying for some people. But your very your palate is very comfortable in that zone. That's your happy place.
• 5:29
  Andrea Morris [00:58:21]: Mhmm.
• 5:30
  Taylor [00:58:22]: And so you can see that spectrum. And for you, this is not out of, like, stretching your your boundaries at all.
• 5:31
  Andrea Morris [00:58:29]: But no. Now on the fourth sip, the third sip, the black cherries are coming in. Oh, yeah. And now it's becoming fruitier to me?
• 5:32
  Taylor [00:58:37]: The the fruit is somebody said to my said, Taylor, you keep saying how well this wine's been aged, but I'm not sure there's enough fruit.
• 5:33
  Andrea Morris [00:58:44]: There is.
• 5:34
  Taylor [00:58:44]: And There's definitely enough fruit. There's lots there's lots, but I know why they made the comment because it's a bit it needs the wine needs to open. This is a wine you decant, and what you're describing comes out later after you let it open, you let it breathe. And, if there wasn't enough fruit, it wouldn't really age in beneficially. All wines get older, but the question is, do they age beneficially? Do they improve? And this one has got the structure, the acids, and the fruit, and they've got all those three things. It's gonna it's gonna con it's turning into a lovely wine where some of those tertiary aging characteristics are coming out.
• 5:35
  Andrea Morris [00:59:20]: It's, Yeah. It's really aging nicely. Whereas I was at a friend's house a a couple months ago, and she opened up a bottle of a 2017 red from in the Niagara area, and we had to pour it out because it didn't age well.
• 5:36
  Taylor [00:59:34]: It happens. Yeah. It happens.
• 5:37
  Andrea Morris [00:59:36]: And sometimes you'll just, like, open up a bottle when you and it's been like, now that I moved out here, I actually have a cellar. And, I know You
• 5:38
  Taylor [00:59:44]: need one.
• 5:39
  Andrea Morris [00:59:44]: I'd have one. Yeah. And then and I'm proud to say it's all Ontario wines. Great. And even better. From this region because I'm big on supporting local.
• 5:40
  Taylor [00:59:53]: I know you
• 5:41
  Andrea Morris [00:59:53]: And the the wines in this area are so great, and I forgot that I have stuff, and I'll go down there and pull it out.
• 5:42
  Taylor [00:59:59]: And I'm like, oh. Let's try this.
• 5:43
  Andrea Morris [01:00:01]: Yeah. It's like, well, that's been two years I've kept a bottle. This is a minor miracle.
• 5:44
  Taylor [01:00:06]: Yeah. But that's the fun of, a, living in the wine region and, b, collecting a little bit is you can pull something up that'll surprise you. And, Yeah. And I often say to people because I do I do want people to give these wines a bit of agency what they're gonna be like a year from now or two years from now. You don't need a fancy cellar. You don't need a fancy fridge. But if you got a little cool part of your basement, you have a little unfinished concrete floor in the furnace room, not not beside the furnace, but where the temp if as long as the temperature is not changing, it doesn't need to be 15 or 12 degrees. As long as the temperature is pretty consistent, you put it on a nice cold floor, no no vibration or or change in temperature, you're in you're you're you're you can age wines.
• 5:45
  Taylor [01:00:46]: It's not a problem. Yeah. And they'll and they'll it's a it's a decent investment because you'll see thing if you're a wine lover, you'll see things in the wines you didn't get before, and that's the fun of it.
• 5:46
  Andrea Morris [01:00:56]: Yeah. It's it's
• 5:47
  Taylor [01:00:58]: it's And it has to be fun, Andrea. You said it off the top.
• 5:48
  Andrea Morris [01:01:00]: If it's not fun not fun, then
• 5:49
  Taylor [01:01:02]: What are we doing this for?
• 5:50
  Andrea Morris [01:01:03]: I know. Right? But this is like I love going to to wineries and just having conversations with people like you where we can just talk about what is it that you taste in this wine? How is it different? And how is this how is this going to evolve, and and and what do you see in the future, like, five years down the road with this wine? And I just think it's so much fun to discover that. Well And it's not intimidating because everybody
• 5:51
  Taylor [01:01:26]: shouldn't be.
• 5:52
  Andrea Morris [01:01:27]: Everybody has their own palate. And, you know, when a lot of times I take people on wine tastings, and they're they're very people always start with whites because whites are easier. And then I always think gamay is like the gateway to the reds.
• 5:53
  Taylor [01:01:42]: It is. Can be.
• 5:54
  Andrea Morris [01:01:42]: Yeah. Yeah. It's like I'm, like, dipping my my toe in the sea of red. And then it's like once you start opening that up Oh, yeah. Then, like, oh my god. Like, how could you not love red wine? It's just
• 5:55
  Taylor [01:01:55]: Yeah. We we it's true. People have preferences. Some people really only drink reds and some only drink whites. And and I just tried to I said, I'm not gonna change your mind, but when you come here, try a little bit of everything and see see you know, you might have changed since the last time, last month or last year, and, you might your palate might surprise you with a new experience. It's just be open to it. It's all good. There's nothing to lose.
• 5:56
  Taylor [01:02:18]: No. Nothing's gonna bite you.
• 5:57
  Andrea Morris [01:02:19]: Exactly. And no there is no wrong answer. Totally. Yeah. It's not like you're gonna lose the game and be thrown out of the winery. Now for your tastings, we're talking about your tastings. Do people have to book in advance to come here?
• 5:58
  Taylor [01:02:30]: Yeah. We're currently by appointment, and we've been that way since we opened because we're such a small team. So that really helps us to organize our time, our weekends. And we're we're probably not gonna be like that forever. We're gonna have probably some more casual formats as we get a little bit bigger and we have a little bit more ability. But but right now, if you wanna come if you wanna get to know know our wines and and, get a good view of the portfolio, the the booked tasting, just at the top of the website, book a tasting. You don't have to pay. You just you just reserve an hour, and then you've got us for that time.
• 5:59
  Taylor [01:03:06]: And, you get a really good sense of what we do, and and, most people find it a good a good investment in their time. And, they'll leave with some things that they'll really enjoy down the road at their home with their friends and family. And and that's that's that's what we're focusing on. I mean, that's the experience that we really wanna share with people. And, but it's you know, that's where we are today. We'll keep evolving.
• 6:00
  Andrea Morris [01:03:27]: Do you what's your what's your future vision for the winery? Do you want it to get bigger, or are you happy with it this size?
• 6:01
  Taylor [01:03:33]: It's not gonna get bigger from an acreage standpoint.
• 6:02
  Andrea Morris [01:03:37]: No. But I mean From wise here.
• 6:03
  Taylor [01:03:39]: We we well, the okay. So we got 20 acres. We're gonna produce more from the vineyard every year, so but the production's not gonna get big. That will get up to about 3,500 cases, which is still the small end of a small mic a winery. Small winery going up to about 10,000 cases, I guess, by sort of, like, regulatory definition. Our you know what? We want our thing is, like, we're not trying to be big. We're trying to be really meaningful to the people who love our wine. So we wanna have, like, more than a casual relationship.
• 6:04
  Taylor [01:04:14]: We want this place to be, like, kinda meaningful. Like, you've been back, like, three or four times because you enjoy the wines.
• 6:05
  Andrea Morris [01:04:23]: And we
• 6:06
  Taylor [01:04:23]: have a lot of people like that. They've tasted it. Wines resonate. So they come back, and they keep collecting it. And they're like, Taylor, I I saw the first wines you made from this vineyard, and now I'm following them. I'm following your vineyard. I'm following Jonathan, your winemaker, joined us in '21. Now people are getting to see his impact on the style and his, a, improvement in the growing of the grapes in our vineyard and the improvement in the wine as we understand the wines.
• 6:07
  Taylor [01:04:50]: And, John is really dialing in how we express, what we're growing. Because, ultimately, how I see Black Bank Hills, First and foremost, it's a vineyard. It's a place. It's a site. And that's why we went out right at the beginning. I'll do this with everybody who comes by. Show them the vineyard, and it's like, okay. Realize where you are in Niagara relative to the bench, relative to the lake, the slope, the soil, the aspect, the openness, the sunshine, the protection that the escarpment gives us from the prevailing winds, why we grow why we can ripen the varieties that we can down here, some of the varieties that we you know, the the Cabernets, Syrah, Viognier, things that need a bit more ripening in this little pocket of beautiful pocket of Niagara that we're in.
• 6:08
  Taylor [01:05:41]: And, when people when you really get into the wines, you get you're getting into the vineyard because the the wines are just expressing that place. And, our vision is that people will basically join us and say, look. Send me a case a year. I wanna I wanna have a intimate relationship with you guys. And those people who kinda join as members will have a just a deeper conversation with them about what's coming out, why we made these wines, and we're always open to new people. It's not it's not an exclusive thing at all. It's just we wanna have a personal relationship with people where they're kind of as into it as we are. It's like share it's like that wine conversation that, you know, a good bottle of wine when you share it with a good friend.
• 6:09
  Andrea Morris [01:06:27]: Yeah.
• 6:10
  Taylor [01:06:28]: That's kinda what we're that's what Black Bank Hill is on a macro level. It's like sharing some other thing that we're having the same conversation. You know a heck a lot about this vineyard and about these wines because you've been drinking them and you've been talking to me, and now you're part of the conversation with us. Yeah. So that's it. That's all we wanna do.
• 6:11
  Andrea Morris [01:06:46]: That's fun.
• 6:12
  Taylor [01:06:47]: It is fun. It's our idea of fun. Yeah. That's why we're doing it this way.
• 6:13
  Andrea Morris [01:06:51]: I love that idea. And it's like, you know, because you don't so many people have that idea that they wanna get bigger and bigger and bigger, and then the corporate stuff comes in. And I think that that that loses the charm then, which is, like, why I've been focusing a lot on smaller places like yourself. Right. Because it's not often that you get to spend this much time with somebody
• 6:14
  Taylor [01:07:12]: Totally.
• 6:15
  Andrea Morris [01:07:13]: And just really get to know the person behind the wines as well. And that, to me, I enjoy the wines a lot more when I know the story behind it, and I know what the blood, sweat, and tears were that made this where it is.
• 6:16
  Taylor [01:07:26]: I was just talking to the team, Jonathan and Meg, about this exact topic, and there's really three things. There's the vineyard, there's the wines, and then there's the people. And not just the winemaker, it's also the customer and the conversation. Those and I'd almost say when people talk about terroir or what we're experiencing or what you do, it's those three things. It's the people, it's the land, and the grapes coming together. And, yeah, I think you said that really nicely. That that was that was very touching to hear because, I've been I've been a Niagara wine fan for a good long time now, over twenty years, and and sometimes I've had that experience where, yeah, the place got a little just too big. Yeah.
• 6:17
  Taylor [01:08:11]: And the wines just weren't as exciting.
• 6:18
  Andrea Morris [01:08:14]: And, also, the environment isn't the same. Because once the corporateness comes in, then there's that whole we have to do things this way because now it's about making money and not about making wine. There you go. And I think that the beauty of this area is there's so many people like yourself that are passionate and loving about wine and really wanna make a product that you're putting your heart and soul into, and I can taste that when I'm when I'm tasting your wine.
• 6:19
  Taylor [01:08:42]: Well, that's that's a real treat to hear.
• 6:20
  Andrea Morris [01:08:44]: Yeah. And that's why I'm a big supporter of all these smaller lot wineries in the area because I think that it really is a really special experience.
• 6:21
  Taylor [01:08:52]: There's something
• 6:22
  Andrea Morris [01:08:53]: And not to say that I don't like some of the bigger wineries.
• 6:23
  Taylor [01:08:55]: Oh, no. That's absolutely true. Absolutely true. And, there's I often feel like wine is kind of as a medium. Let's call say it's like painting or sculpting or music or something. It's a medium, and you work with it. And it's got it it's got an advantage at a smaller scale. Like, it's just it's actually it's like you go and you have a wedding and you've got 200 people and you see the chef trying to make food for 200 people at the same time.
• 6:24
  Taylor [01:09:20]: You're like, it can't be as good as if he he had 12 tables in a small little Yeah. Bistro downtown. Yeah. It's impossible. So you have this very natural advantage where you remove so much distraction where you can just sort of be there and have a quiet moment in the vineyard, in the winery, whatever you're doing. And and, so it it's there is I definitely feel there's a there's a advantage to being small.
• 6:25
  Andrea Morris [01:09:46]: And most importantly, you have the control.
• 6:26
  Taylor [01:09:49]: Yeah, Mark. You
• 6:27
  Andrea Morris [01:09:49]: don't have anyone else telling you what you need to do. It's like, these are the wines I envision making. You're bringing old world to new world and kind of making the most of the two.
• 6:28
  Taylor [01:09:59]: Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:29
  Andrea Morris [01:10:01]: That's what I feel like.
• 6:30
  Taylor [01:10:02]: So Me too.
• 6:31
  Andrea Morris [01:10:03]: I'm so glad we did this today.
• 6:32
  Taylor [01:10:04]: Thanks so much, Amy.
• 6:33
  Andrea Morris [01:10:06]: Know how much I love your wine.
• 6:34
  Taylor [01:10:07]: You're passionate. We we love passion. We're all about it too.
• 6:35
  Andrea Morris [01:10:12]: And I will I really hope that you, as the listener, feel as passionate about Black Bank Hill as I do and really wanna come out here and experience this because it's such a wonderful winery. And this whole Niagara region is just absolutely fantastic, particularly the Bent region, which I'm more attached to. But I think that it's well worth the trip, and I just wanna say, like, thank you so much, Taylor, for your time.
• 6:36
  Taylor [01:10:32]: My thank you. And for
• 6:37
  Andrea Morris [01:10:33]: your Our pleasure. Spectacular wines. And I really hope that you enjoyed this episode of Spill the Wine. And just be sure to visit the show notes because there'll be information on the winery. There'll be some photographs of the wine that we've tasted and, links to the website so that you can explore Black Banquet Hill yourself. And, also, be sure to like and follow Spill the Wine because that will get us the ability to do more of these podcasts. And, also, if you have any topics or suggestions or things that you would like us to explore explore more in the podcast, then you can just email us at podcastspillthewine@gmail.com. Okay? So we just like to say cheers.
• 6:38
  Andrea Morris [01:11:12]: Cheers. And join us for our next episode.