Lovely, lighter summer wines from Liebling Wines

Translated, “Liebling” (Leeb-ling) means Darling and is a reference to family patriarch Matthias Oppenlaender. Growing up Matthias was Oma's (grandma’s) favourite and the label has been created by his daughters to commemorate her and to honour their father.

Matthias Oppenlaender left Germany 40 years ago to begin what is now a respected grape-growing operation in Niagara. He was, in fact, my teacher for the grape-growing portion of my wine-making education.

I met both Alison and Jessica Oppenlaender this past February at the Canadian Culinary Championships where they were pouring the wines of their new project: Liebling Wines.

As I enjoyed both the wines and hearing about their project, I decided to profile their wines as the first in a series about Ontario wineries.

Given their history, it’s understandable that the Oppenlaenders are making wines from grapes that do exceptionally well in southern Ontario (aka cool climate): Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Gamay Noir. 

They also produce a Cabernet Franc (another grape that grows well in Niagara), and there are approximately 80 bottles kicking around in the Ottawa LCBO stores for those who enjoy a more robust red. All their other wines can be ordered directly from their website.

Like all grape varietals, Riesling has different expressions depending on the clone used. The Liebling St. David’s Bench Riesling uses the famed 21 B clone developed by another German, Hermann Weis of the renowned St. Urbans-Hof.  Today, 21 B remains the most grown Riesling clone in Niagara.

In the early 1970s Weis arrived, clone in hand, and planted Niagara's largest parcel of Riesling. In 1983 that parcel would become the site of his Vineland Estates winery, which continues today as one of Niagara’s finest destinations.

Making this Liebling wine involved the pied de cuve method, which is a way of introducing wild yeasts to promote the fermentation of the grape juice.

The wine was aged in stainless steel to preserve the clarity of the grape’s profile and to maintain the bright acidity. Fermentation was stopped shortly before completion to allow a small amount of sugar to remain.

The wine opens with floral notes and a touch of vanilla and then gives aromas and flavours of lime, nectarine and yellow Delicious apple. 

The amount of sweetness left is sufficient to balance the citrus-inflected acidity and the whole just works, leaving you feel uplifted.

This is a wine for richer but simple fare like schnitzel, pork hock with sauerkraut or a lemon-butter, parsley and pecorino gnocchi.

For consumers raised on classic French Sauvignon Blanc, the Liebling interpretation will be a treat for those with old-world palates. 

For better or worse, however, New Zealand has captured imaginations and palates with their expression of the grape over the last two decades. This is not throwing shade as I happen to love good New Zealand SB.

Liebling Sauvignon Blanc reminds me more of a well-made Touraine SB from the Loire valley in France.

It exhibits a classic aroma of black currant leaves (if you grow this plant you’ll understand the pungent funkiness), passionfruit, sweet herbs and grass. All of this has come to be known as “Cats pee on a gooseberry bush”  and in fact, there was a wine with that name in Canadian circulation for a while.

On the palate, you’ll experience lime pith, pink grapefruit and tropical fruit with a dry but mouth-watering gooseberry finish. 

As with their other wines, this is good stuff worth experiencing, especially if you’ve been feeling particularly proud of Canada these last half year. This is quality wine at a fraction of the price of what our neighbours have been shipping to us for years.

Exploring our own with Liebling is a good place to start.

Gamay is the other lighter-bodied red grape you find in Burgundy. While Pinot Noir from Burgundy commands some of the highest wine prices in the world, Gamay Noir delivers loads of fabulous drinking at reasonable cost.

Beaujolais is the southern sub-region of Burgundy where Gamay is grown and became famous for a minute for the release of something known as Beaujolais Nouveau. This is Gamay, bottled just eight weeks after harvest and is meant to be consumed while young. It’s fresh, light and uncomplicated and for the French, it’s a way of celebrating the year’s grape harvest.

I’ve long held that Ontario, after Beaujolais, produces some of the world’s best Gamay and I was so convinced of this that I invited to lunch Canada's Global Affairs trade commissioner for wines, beers and spirits, Janet Dorozynski. 

I floated the idea that Gamay would be the perfect export wine with which to make Canada’s reputation abroad. A perfect export product as it can be harvested as early as late September, requires no long maturation and can be on its way to foreign markets by the following May.

At the time, the two largest purchasers, globally, of Gamay were Germany and Japan so there was already a potential for what Ontario could manage to produce for export. 

Janet felt it was a sound idea but poured cold water on it by citing internal politics as a major stumbling block. I’ll remain deliberately vague on this point.

I suppose that’s a good thing because it means more for us and it’s time that more people discovered this great Canadian red wine.

It was a pleasure to sample the Liebling Gamay as it had been some time since I’d had Gamay from Ontario. 

Here was that fresh, uplifting character of red fruit like cherry, raspberry and lingonberry backed by the perfume of vanilla and hints of black pepper and almond. 

The acidity rounded out the fruit admirably while the tannins were soft, providing for a smooth medium-length finish.

Delicious wine for bourbon-glazed BBQ salmon or a Japanese dish like sweet soy/dashi broth braised daikon radish with tuna loin.