This weekend we have a special treat on Season 2, Episode 2 of our SNL (Saturday Night Lockdown) Wine Club. We’re going to be joined by Will Roman of Rosewood Wines in Niagara! Will’s family started Rosewood in the early 2000’s and he is now the General Manager and Bee Master. Yes, they also have an apiary and produce honey and mead! So we’ll be featuring their wines all week at the Byward Wine Market ahead of Saturday’s Zoom tasting.

Will and I met about 10 years ago as two young guys kicking it in the wine industry, and we got to know each other over the years as we frequently crossed paths at wine tastings and industry events. Since Will took over management of his family’s winery 7 or 8 years ago, it’s shifted gears a few times, smoothly evolving from a young winery that focused on classic-style Niagara wines to an avant garde winery that has been delivering some of Niagara’s most exciting, top quality wines. They don’t stop moving or rest on their laurels, and they love pushing their own boundaries with constant experimentation. Several of their wines remain classic in style but many have moved into more raw, “low-intervention” style. We can’t quite call them fully “natural” as not all the viticulture is entirely organic (that is really difficult in places as humid as Niagara) but their philosophy and style very much go as natural as possible.

Will Roman and Ryan Corrigan at Rosewood.

Will and the team at Rosewood subscribe to the French philosophy of “lutte raisonnée”, or the “reasoned struggle”. A kind of sustainability philosophy that many natural winemakers are moving towards. It refers to the constant struggle between being entirely organic (or as organic as possible) and also the need to protect your crop and livelihood. Sometimes wineries are forced to choose between maintaining organic certifications and losing their crop of they spray chemicals. Rosewood strives to always be as organic as possible as standard practice, but if other tools are necessary they will use them sparingly and as the exception to their rule. Check out my Wine 101 primer if you want more details on the whole world of natural wine, and what all the organic, biodynamic, and sustainable terms mean individually in wine production.

When Ryan Corrigan joined the team as Head Winemaker in 2016 is when Rosewood seemed to really hit their stride. In the years since, the philosophical, stylistic, and aesthetic synergy of Will and Ryan has been palpable in the style and just pure joy of the wines. They’re making top quality wines, but not taking themselves too seriously. Prior to Rosewood, Ryan worked at some great wineries all over the world and came home to help make some of Ontario’s most sought-after wines as the assistant winemaker at Pearl Morrisette, one of the foundational low-intervention wineries in Ontario. He then brought all that know-how to Rosewood where Ryan and Will started to evolve the wines into something with more flare and imbuing the obvious fun they’re having in winemaking. And all the while they’re also maintaining their beekeeping, honey and mead foundations that have been a big part of the Roman family for three generations. They’ve even pushed the bounds of low-intervention wine co-fermented with honey and that is super interesting and really delicious. More on that below.

So this week we are not going to focus on any one specific wine from Rosewood. You can grab any wines you like from them. Will will be on hand to discuss their philosophy, winemaking, Niagara wines in general, and guide us through tasting of various wines. If you’d like to participate, as usual just swing by the Byward Wine Market and grab any of the bottles we have in the shop or on the links below. You can do just 1 bottle, or grab several to taste through the lineup. Then just send me a note to let me know which wines you’ve picked up and that you want to join the tasting. Then I’ll send the Zoom link out to everyone on Saturday afternoon ahead of the call.

Here’s a few features we have at the shop that would be interesting to compare and contrast in a tasting:

A lineup of Rosewood Wines at Byward Wine Market.

‘NEPTUNE’ 2018 $28 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
If you love Riesling, you’re going to appreciate the wild, natural style of this. If you usually hate Riesling, for being either too sweet, too acidic, or too petrol flavoured (common complains), then you’ll be very pleasantly surprised to find the lovely dry round texture of this beauty wine with little to no hints of tradition petroleum notes. It’s 100% Riesling, bone dry with less than 2 g/l, wild yeast fermentation, aged 18 months 60% in clay amphorae and 40% in large 500L neutral French oak barrels going through full malolactic fermentation, unfined and unfiltered. It’s different, but awesome different. Think bone dry wine with rich mineral saline mid plate with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. It’s called Neptune for the god of the sea. When you taste it you’ll see why. And the seafood pairings are endless.

‘RIESLING AF’ 2019 $22 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
Yes, it stands for Riesling As Fuck. The name says it all. It’s everything you want in a great Riesling. Classic to the max with it’s Art Deco label and fresh lemon-lime acidity bracing a bit of residual sugar for a beautiful balance with minerality and citrus. Wild ferment, unfined, aged 8 in old French oak and stainless steel. A really cool side-by-side stylistic contrast with ‘Neptune’ or just a solid go-to for the classic Riesling lover and spicy food pairings.

‘THERE BE DRAGONS’ 2018 $31 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
“There Be Dragons” is the phrase for the sea monsters that were drawn on the edges of old maps to signify the unknown, uncharted territory. What ‘Neptune’ is to Riesling, this is to Sauvignon Blanc with the wild ferment, raw, unfined, unfiltered, low-intervention Sauv aged 18 months is large 500L neutral oak barrels. It’s super delicious, but doesn’t resemble anything close to a New Zealand Sauv Blanc or classic Sancerre. So approach this with an open mind, but if you’re already a natural wine lover, then pass GO, collect $200 and enjoy! This one’s for you.

“LITRE OF GRIS” 2020 $35 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
If you don’t get the Super Trooper’s reference, then no Gris for you! (bonus Seinfeld reference there too). For the Orange wine lovers, this 100% Pinot Gris has 4 days fermentation on the skins with wild yeast, aged 10 months in neutral oak puncheons and 3 months in stainless steel tanks. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. Delicious, and conveniently packaged in 1 litre bottles for added enjoyment.

‘NIGHT MOVES’ 2019 $30 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
A Bob Seger inspired title for an equally cool bottle of Gamay. Inspired by the great natural Gamay’s of Beaujolais, made in low-intervention style with wild yeast ferments, 15 months in neutral oak, and no fining or filtration. With 60% fermented whole-cluster in french oak vats and 40% destemmed in stainless steel it creates that perfect balance of juicy roundness to stemmy grit that nicely melds together showing pretty red fruit, a little bit of flowers, a little bit of earth, and a little old time rock and roll. As a big Beaujolais fan, this is a personal favourite of mine in their portfolio.

‘LOW FIDELITY’ 2019 $30 per bottle at Byward Wine Market
Known in past vintages as their “Unfiltered Pinot Noir”, it came back in 2019 with a new moniker and label. It’s like the appreciation of the cracks, pops, and authentically warm tones of vinyl over the impossibly perfect pristine sound of mp3’s. The low fidelity result of the low-intervention hands-off approach that says: sometimes less is more. Light, lifted cherry fruit, layered with minerality, earth, mushroom and lifted floral notes. A beauty bottle of Pinot, not just for Niagara.

‘MEAD BLANC’ 2020 *available Wednesday
’MEAD ROYALE’ 2019 *available Wednesday
Do yourself a favour and grab at least 1 of these bottles. Personally, I had not had many great experiences with Mead. Wasn’t really my thing. But Rosewood has changed that for me. Mead Blanc is 45% Gewurztraminer, 45% Riesling, and 10% honey. Sounds weird, right? But it connects. Have this with some spicy chicken wings, pad Thai, or even spicy cauliflower tacos. Another cool result of experimentation and thinking outside the box. The Mead Royale is simply a really nice desert wine. Use this as you would an Ice Wine, Sauternes, or Tokaji. Aged in oak for 9 months, unfined, unfiltered, and really great to sip with desert after dinner, or on the couch with Netflix and leftover Christmas chocolates.

These are just a few we’re featuring, but Byward Wine Market is also carrying: “FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT” 2020, LOOKING GLASS 2019 & SOUPAIR KËWL 2019.

And since you need to purchase an item of food to go with any wine sales at the bottle shop, we’re bringing in some Rosewood honey, so you can taste a bit of everything they do. Those will be in stock and online starting Wednesday of this week. Here’s a link to everything we carry from Rosewood.

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The Byward Wine Market is fully open for in person shopping, as well as online orders offering curbside pickup or local delivery within Ottawa. Reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re interested in other recommendations. Lastly, please feel free to forward this to anyone in Ontario who may be interested in home wine delivery and follow us on Instagram at @bywardwinemarket!