Leaning Post - Cabernet Franc, Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara (2019)

TASTING NOTES

Raspberry, strawberry, blackberry and blackcurrant followed by tomato leaf, roasted red pepper, cured meat, cigar box, cocoa, and cumin. Balanced but with ever-present tannins lending immense structure and age-ability. Decant in advance to enjoy now, this wine can easily age for a decade.

2019 had a cool start leading to sunny and warm weather continued well into harvest allowing grapes plenty of time on the vine to fully ripen.

Hand-picked and hand-sorted on November 12th, the grapes were destemmed and left to soak on skins prior to fermentation. Fermentation was started in small, open-top fermentors. The skins were punched down by hand 2x per day throughout the fermentation process. The wine remained on skins for 6 days after fermentation before being gently pressed. After being transferred to French & American oak barrels (35% new) to be aged for 20 months, the 2019 Cabernet Franc was bottled in September 2021.

Leaning Post began as a virtual winery and now a home property in Winona, Ontario.

Ilya and Nadia are the brains and passion behind Leaning Post Wines. It started with a dream to take unique, interesting single vineyard blocks in Niagara and turn them into distinctive, terroir driven wines. 

Ilya has been a winemaker in the Niagara Region for the last 17 vintages working at Daniel Lenko Estate Winery, Foreign Affair and now at Leaning Post Wines. Ilya is also a consulting winemaker at the Good Earth Winery.