Therianthropy - Avabelle, Bock Vineyard, St David’s Bench, Niagara, Ontario (2023)

TASTING NOTES

Soft and juicy with blackberry jam, sweet cigar, new leather, eucalyptus and dark chocolate. Earthy palate with warming spices and stewed plums. 

Bock Vineyard, St David’s Bench, Ontario, Canada (elevation 450 ft). Minimal till and permanent cover crops. The vineyard has one of the highest heat unit accumulations in the Niagara Peninsula enabling quite ripe fruit development. The soils, red loam are not common in the region.

30% whole-cluster. After 3 days of cold soaking at 8 C, primary fermentation commenced spontaneously and took 15 days to complete. Gentle punch-downs and pump-overs were employed when needed to keep the cap healthy and to extract flavour and structure. 100% of the wine went through malolactic fermentation, taking one month to complete. Rested in concrete egg for 8 months on fine lees (no stirring).

Therianthropy is a winery project located in the emerging wine growing region of Creemore Hills, Ontario. It was founded by a group of wine-loving humans who are passionate about cool climate winemaking and believe in unearthing the treasures which are the emerging terroirs of Ontario. 

Vintner David Eiberg came to winemaking after a career in investment banking. He took his love of wine and returned to the University of California Davis to train in oenology and cut his teeth working and harvesting with exceptional winemakers in France, California, Oregon, South Africa and most recently in Southern Ontario. 

Therianthropy's winemaking approaches include: fruit from the best vineyards, wild fermentations, low-intervention winemaking, low S02 and long elevage.