Article on Frontenac in Iowa

Some more news on the new American viticulture:

The Frontenac grapes growing above Flint Creek are capable of bearing a full crop after temperatures as low as minus 33 degrees. It is disease-resistant and a heavy producer of small black berries in a large cluster. And it makes a great wine.

Wine lovers share grapey goodness in Iowa

paul, had you noticed that the best of class red wine at the MI wine competition was a frontenac? the owner tells me that the '05 version has developed nicely in the bottle as well - though i haven't tasted it. like many hybrids, it tends to oxidize quickly and requires deft winemaking to get the bright purple, deliciously balanced wine that won this year.

David, I hadn't noticed that, but am very happy to hear it.

I agree with your statement. What's more, not all wineries do a good job making balanced hybrid reds with depth: I have found the "country wineries" outside our major regions (i.e. Niagara and SW Ontario) to generally be more "miss" than "hit". But it all starts in the vineyard: one cannot expect a wine made by tinkering in the cellar - in an attempt to remedy poor or non-existent practises in the vineyard - to ever be as good as a wine resulting from meticulous, disciplined vineyard management. Unfortunately, some winemakers just don't have the body of knowledge to make fine wine from the ground up; for some, maybe it's not an issue because they aren't aiming that high to begin with.

Unfortunately we have hardly any commercial Frontenac available in Ontario ... well, there is one example from up near Kawartha but I didn't think much of it when I tried it last year.

I do, however, remember a wonderful example that made it to MoCool 2001 - a Minnesotan example: it had a deep ruby colour and was wonderfully redolent of cherry fruit; it had fine-grained tannins on the mid-palate. Whoever made it knew what they were doing.