It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for grape growers. This is what we live for. Since early winter, Warren and Dad have been busy in the vineyards, nurturing the grape vines all for one ultimate goal – harvest. And it has finally arrived. At Cattail Creek we have already started taking in our first grapes for the season. Throughout the harvest, come by for our Eat The Grapes, Taste The Wine event that we will be hosting. Every day that we are harvesting grapes (unfortunately, because we harvest at the ideal time for the grapes, it is difficult for us to predict the days) you can eat the grapes harvested that day and taste the wines that those grapes produce. See for yourself how the flavours translate in the wine!

Pear Up! In October

At this time of year, the farmer’s markets are brimming with amazing produce from our local farms. Cattail Creek will be taking advantage of this by pairing our wines with well – pears! For each Saturday and Sunday in October, we will be matching Anna Olson’s recipe for Pear Crisps with our Off Dry Riesling 2007. So swing by for a delicious pairing!

Taste The Season In November

Every year the wineries of Niagara on the Lake join forces to offer Taste of the Season for the five weekends in November. At each of the 18 wineries, you can taste a featured wine matched with delicious food. At Cattail Creek, we have paired with Treadwell Farm to Table Cuisine (awarded Best New Restaurant by Toronto Life in 2007) located in Port Dalhousie. They will be preparing their Beet Cured Lake Trout served on a Crostini topped with Daikon Cress which will be paired with our Dry Riesling 2006. The tickets are $40.00 plus taxes and are available through the Niagara on the Lake Chamber of Commerce.

New Releases

New on our shelves are two amazingly complex dessert wines from the 2007 vintage. Our Select Late Harvest Cabernet Franc 2007 ($26.00/375 mL bottle) is developing wonderfully in the bottling, originally reminding me of Mom’s home made strawberry freezer jam but now developing beautiful notes of cranberries and a touch of mint. Meanwhile, the Select Late Harvest Riesling 2007 ($23.00/375 mL bottle) exhibits delicate aromas and flavours of ripe apple and pears. And finally, Cabernet Franc Icewine 2007 ($70.00/375 mL bottle) is incredibly intense with luscious flavours of strawberries and sour cherries. All wines are now available through our boutique as well as available on-line for ordering.

What They Are Saying…

As people (and writers) are slowly discovering us, it turns out they have lots to say. John Szabo (one of the few Master Sommeliers on Canada) gave us great acclaim in the Globe and Mail a few weekends ago, highlighting our Riesling Reserve and Cabernet Franc Icewine as do-not-miss wines.

Meanwhile, Tony Aspler had great things to say about our Chardonnay Musqué 2007 giving it four out of five stars – a great honour.

Lastly, being a University of Toronto alumni, I had a great chat with Lisa Rundle when she was in Niagara this summer. You can read all about it in the University of Toronto magazine, or catch it on our web site.

Join The Cellar Cats Club

Become the first to know what’s happening at Cattail Creek Estate Winery by joining the Cellar Cats Club.

Receive 2, 4, 6 or 12 bottles of featured wines four times a year complete with wine notes, tasting ideas, food matches and recipes for each wine delivered. All you need to do is pay for the cost of the wines, plus shipping. Plus, you will get insider information on the latest news from the winery, first-in-line invitations to special events at the winery, exclusive access to pre-release wines, limited quantity wines and back vintage wines released from the Family’s Cellar, 25% off of all non-wine items in our boutique, VIP Vineyard, winery and barrel cellar tours (must be reserved in advance), complimentary tastings at the tasting bar and exclusive invitations to Cellar Cats Club only events. Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff!

And if that wasn’t enough, every new member to join the Cellar Cats Club will receive a $10.00 gift card to Cattail Creek Estate Winery! Perfect for yourself or those very hard to buy for friends!!!

Matt Seguin – Co-Op Student

I am originally from Guelph, Ontario. I always had an interest in food and travel, so after high school I enrolled in the Hotel and Food Administration program at the University of Guelph. During my time there, I developed a passion for wine.

I knew I wanted to turn this hobby into a career, so after finishing my studies at Guelph, I enrolled in the Winery and Viticulture Technician program at Niagara College. I was drawn to the practical nature of the program and was eager to expand my wine knowledge.

I have finished my first year at Niagara College and have begun working at Cattail Creek, where I will complete the co-op component of my program. I was very excited to join the Cattail Creek family and I am currently enjoying gaining practical experience working in the wine boutique, out in the vineyards, and in the winery.

This fall I will be working full time in production with our winemaker Tatjana. I know there is a lot to learn and I am very much looking forward to it.

I have also brought my interest in cooking to Cattail Creek, creating several recipes to match with our wines. So next time you visit be sure to ask about our featured wine and food pairing!

My favourite wine is our 2006 Riesling Reserve. I love how our old Riesling vines (planted in 1976) have given this wine such depth and complexity. I have a few bottles tucked away to see how they develop over the next several years.

And A Big Thanks…

If you can imagine it, on September 12, 2008 we celebrated our first anniversary. It was a great weekend as we pre-released our 2007 Riesling Reserve and 2007 Dry Riesling along and re-released our multi-medal winning 2006 Off Dry Riesling (and no, we will not be releasing this one again since the very few remaining cases are now nestled in the family cellar) for that weekend only. I became a little reminiscent as I looked back over our first year – all the wonderful people that I have met and the outpouring of support that our visitors and other wineries have given us. Thank you so much and we look forward to serving you more great wine this upcoming year!

Cheers!

Roselyn Dyck-Cieszkowski