Maker: 80x Wine Company, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Made at Rockway, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Grape: 100% Pinot Noir.
Place of origin: St. David’s Bench VQA, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
Style: Red.
ABV: 12%
Price: $35 Canadian (About $26 US).
Thanks to André Proulx for the bottle! For more on 80x and our trip to Niagara back in 2022, click here and here.
Appearance: Light plum.
Nose: Fresh red plum, pipe tobacco, nutmeg.
Palate: Dry, but fruity. Tropical fruit punch, blueberry, dark chocolate.
Finish: Chocolate, mulberry.
Parting words: I took notes on this wine last year but only got around to posting this review now because of life (kids, injured cat, vacations, the news, etc). I was a little nervous about letting this wine sit in the cellar for as long as I did, but I had nothing to fear. Despite the “ruff” vintage (no, it’s not my pun, it’s the actual origin of the name!), this wine is everything I want out of a Great Lakes Pinot Noir. It’s fruity and complex, not overly tart or overoaked. André and company did a wonderful job with this one. They turned a potential mutt into a purebred beauty, like the fancy collie the Simpsons got that one time.
Anyway, this was a very enjoyable wine. I don’t think there’s any of this left, but if you run across anything else from 80x, grab it! 2019 Ruff Pinot Noir is highly recommended.
P.S. Here at Sipology Blog, we love Canadian wine, and Canadian people and the country in general. We love that Canada is its own country, and we want it to remain that way. Nuts to anybody who thinks otherwise.
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