Reviews

Creekside 2005 Laura’s Blend Red
I did a little bit of comparative tasting with this wine, between the 2001 and the 2005 versions. 6 years on the 2001 is loaded with cassis and cedar notes, though heavy on the wood both nose and taste … I still have a few bottles of the ’01 so more experimentation is needed over the next few years to see how this one’s arch progresses. But now let’s focus on this newly released “monster-wine” they call the 2005. The blend, as usual, is Cabs Franc and Sauv with Merlot, and the Laura of the name refers to owner, Laura McCain. I put this wine through its paces to see how it would end up in a few years. Initially, I used a regular glass, then a big Spiegelau young red glass, then I decanted the rest of the wine and used the two aforementioned glasses to re-taste. In the regular glass, restrained floral, black fruit and those cedar tones were the dominant aromas … opening it up revealed red fruits, plum, cassis, cocoa and black licorice. Flavours started out as fairly closed off, with black fruit, cedar and tons of tannins (no floral) … opening helped showcase cinnamon notes on the tongue, with red and black fruits intermingling with spices and herbs. The tannin bite mellowed with aeration and became more of a dull roar than the lion’s share it started out as. This one should age better than its 2001 counterpart though my experimentation will continue with both wines and I’ll keep you posted. Right now, my prediction is that the ’05 has the potential to be a real beauty 6 years down the road – it has good pedigree and that makes all the difference.
2005
Red
Red Blend
0
$19.95
Canada
Ontario
Niagara Peninsula
at the winery and thru Winery to Home
http://www.creeksidewine.com
2011-06-08
(Re-Tasted March 2012) ... It was only recently that Creekside started adding the other Bordeaux varieties into their Laura's mix ... here we are dealing with the days of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc only blends. In Ontario, 2005 was the second "really good" to "great" vintage of the decade, depending on who you spoke to, so it seemed only right to lie this one down for a spell. Bottled in late 2007, the back label proclaimed 2008-2013 as a perfect window in which to drink the wine - so here we are tucking ourselves neatly into the latter part of that time period. Upon opening, the wine had aromas of licorice, smoke and cassis (more smoke and licorice though) - as it sat in the glass a touch of unsweetened strawberry jam seemed to waft up and take hold, but still had the other features to back it up. The taste was something different, gone was the licorice and only a hint of smoke remained; dried blackberry dominated for a spell than red currant showed up, but all soon fell to a fiercely dry finish that was a touch woody, and getting harsher with time in the glass. All-in-all good mouth-feel here, though still slightly tannic, with fruit that still shows up - if none more than a little dried ... it's those tannins that seem to keep wanting to rise up and crush those delicate fruit nuances that still remain. If you've got some then you'll want to decant it and drink it or you could hold out another year or two, but not longer - in this case the decanter is key to smoothing those (wood?) tannins.

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