Reviews, musings, and sundries ...

Our friend, Evan Saviolidis, one of Canada's leading young wine experts, has a website at winesavvy.ca, where he offers Wine Appreciation courses, wine ratings and wine tastings in Niagara. Evan is a certified Sommelier and Journalist with Canada’s leading wine publication, Tidings Magazine.

Amateur Winemakers Resource, Paul Battilana:
"We love these guys. They seem to have the right idea about winemaking - produce quality wines but remember to have fun too. They have some really wonderful wines and some interesting ones as well. 1998 Livia's Gold is an early harvest Botrytis Affected Chardonnay and a particular favorite of mine. They also produce what they call "Fun Wines" which include raspberry, strawberry, peach and even chocolate. For the winemaker this place is great, it is all about having fun, experimenting and sipping at the good stuff. Out of all of the wineries on the route this year, this our number one pick."

Awards & Cudos, August 20, 2002 Newsletter
"Peter Kocsis, proprietor of Crown Bench Estates Winery, has become a collector."

"In the three years since opening his Beamsville winery, Kocsis has been accumulating international medals for the company’s VQA wines, including 16 won just this year. Of those medals, there have been six gold, five silver and five bronze awarded to Kocsis wines."

READ ON

Gold medal, 2000 Livia's Gold.

The International Wine and Spirit Competition is the premier competition of its kind in the world. Its aim is to promote the quality and excellence of the world's best wines, spitis and liquers.

Entries are judged in categories and are divided into further groups by variety, region and vintage as necessary. Unlike some competitions, the International Wine and Spirit Competition restricts the number of winners each year to one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze in each tasting category - thereby ensuring the quality and prestige of each winner.

VINES magazine, May/June 2000

New vintner on the block

The newly opened Crown Bench Estates Winery is an artisan winery in Beamsville, ON which focuses on producing premium wines from grapes grown on owner Peter Kocsis' own property.

Previously a grower for neighbouring Thirty Bench Winery, Kocsis, who is getting help from consulting winemaker Deborah Paskus, hung out his shingle late in 1999. The Aberdeen Road site boasts some of the oldest plantings of vinifera grapes in Niagara, including a 30-year-old block of Chardonnay that is used to create two vintage wines and a unique late harvest vintage, Livia's Gold.

The opening inventory also includes barrel-aged Cabernet Franc and Merlot vintages; and a Vidal Icewine, from the 1998 vintage. For more information, call 905.563.3959 or visit www.crownbenchestates.com.

WHITES: CHARDONNAY:
1998 Crown Bench Estates Chardonnay Vintner's Estate
Niagara Peninsula VQA

A solid Chardonnay from Beamsville's newest estate winery, Crown Bench has turned exceptional fruit from old vines into a broadshouldered oaky vintage. Smoke, vanilla and ripe pear notes predominate in this vintage which possesses a medium finish and excellent concentration, thanks to diligent cropping in the vineyard. This high quality, low production wine is the jewel in the crown of Peter Kocsis' new vineyard realm. $24.95 [CW]