2009 Poetica Chardonnay VQA
Certified Organic & Biodynamic

$49.95 / 750ml (Ontario Price Shown)

Wine Lovers' Notes:

On the Bottle

featuring the poem
A Thousand Thousand Leaves
by Diana Hartog
1979
from Matinee Light (Coach House)

In the Glass

Balance and harmony - everything we strive for at Southbrook is expressed in this Chardonnay. Neither wood nor fruit is on top but both are present. This balance, and perhaps tension between the two main influences of the wine, continues onto the palate and through the finish. It's rich and substantial, yet like fine lace; evanescent and pure, silky yet powerful; a fire-sea of minerality.

In Print

Bronze Medal - 2011 Canadian Wine Awards

94 points - "Poetica features the work of Canadian poets on its labels. After a bottle of this, you might be inspired to scribble down a sonnet or two. The nose is fabulous, with classic, opulent pear, butterscotch, vanilla/sponge toffee, peat smoke, fine brown spice, yellow flower and peach. Can I stop now? It's full bodied, very rich, yet refined and poised with silky texture. Great acidity here thanks to the 2009 vintage; elevating the rating towards 'outstanding'. Which is where the length sits as well. Drinkability now but it should age well for most of this decade".
- David Lawrason, WineAlign.com

92 points - "Deep straw colour; spicy, Burgundian nose, touch of barnyard, apple; ripe and full on the palate, generous, toasty, spicy, orange, pineapple and melon flavours. Great balance and length".
- Tony Aspler, The Wine Guy

93 points - "The flagship white from Southbrook and it lives up to its lofty place on the hierarchy. Such a beautiful Chardonnay and easily one of the top three made in Niagara. Sperling says the winemaking 'adheres to the traditional model of Burgundy' and more specifically the Chards of Meursault... The complex nose shows apple-pear-pineapple fruit, brioche, gun flint, mineral and vanilla cream. This is exciting stuff on the palate wtih lush fruits delivered on a spine of racy acidity. It shows elegance and power with weight in the mouth to go with ripe apple-pear fruit, a touch of butterscotch cream and a vein of minerality that runs through the core. This, like most the Poetica Chards, has the stuffing to mature gracefully for many years down the road".
- Rick Vansickle, Wines in Niagara

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Diana Hartog

Diana Hartog arrived in British Columbia with her family from San Francisco in 1970 and has since become a citizen. She travels widely in the winter; otherwise she lives and writes in a studio perched on the side of a mountain outside the village of New Denver: the magnificent lake view discreetly obscured by birches. Her first book, Matinee Light, won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award from the League of Canadian Poets; Candy From Strangers won the 1986 B.C. Book Prize for poetry; Polite To Bees, a poetic bestiary, and Ink Monkey, 2006, have followed. In 1996 her novel The Photographer's Sweethearts was published by Overlook Press in New York and received a starred review in Kirkus. Of her poem, "A Thousand Thousand Leaves," she says "It was written in that state of innocence, awe, and gratitude so appropriate to spring, in the spring of my life."

Winemaker's Notes:

In the Vineyard

In the Winery

In the Cellar

Hand harvested and sorted grapes were whole cluster pressed; settled juice was racked to barrel, where indigenous yeast and malolcatic bacteria fermented the juice.  After 10 months of aging, selected barrels were combined to make Poetica.