Last Friday evening, an intimate group of twenty influencers were invited for a private dinner and wine tasting event at the home of John and Angela Kocsis. They run a limited production, luxury brand winery, Atlantis Niagara Wines, in Beamsville, Ontario.
Meant to introduce and familiarize the group with the family’s selection of handcrafted wines, they were wonderfully gracious hosts.
Guests were greeted with a selection of fine local cheeses from Upper Canada Cheese Company, a block of BRIX dark chocolate for wine, olives and other nibbles. These were served with a 2013 Gewurztraminer Late Harvest (which turned out to be a crowd favourite) – a fine way to begin an evening. This wine smells like Heaven and honeycrisp, has nice, slow legs and tastes like fresh honey on your tongue. Just lovely.
Angela lovingly and painstakingly prepared a delicious dinner of herbed mash potato, panko crusted halibut and Andouille sausage with sautéed veggies. The meal was paired with Atlantis’ 2011 Maestro Angelo Rossi Cabernet Franc which tops the alcohol scale at 15%. It has a young pumpkin colour with peach and apricot scents on the nose.
The Atlantis Niagara 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Ice Wine
has a delightfully big strawberry rhubarb character on the nose, with a candy apple flavour profile.
Throughout the evening, John stopped at each table, answering questions and offering more wine for empty glasses. He explained that winemaking is a part of his family history, that he meticulously goes through every step of the wine making process and that not a single bottle is produced without passing through his hands. The love and appreciation John has for his craft is always apparent, without possessing an air of arrogance and remaining refreshingly down-to-earth.
Atlantis Niagara Wines focuses mainly on premium ice wines, but they also carry Gewürztraminers, Cab Francs and Vidals. It would be remiss not to mention that these wines are all highly concentrated on the palette, with a long finish, almost candy sweet, many with notes of dark cherries, ripe apricots and honey. These wines however will all only get better with age.
The evening ended with Atlantis’ marketing genius, Graeme McMillan explaining a bit more about the wines we tasted, instructing us for instance, that one should move ice wine to the halfway point of the tongue and let it sit there for a few seconds for the best flavour experience.
Kocsis is currently crowd funding through IndieGOGO in an attempt to raise funds so that Atlantis Niagara can become synonymous with Niagara Tourism, offering a range of exciting curated wine excursions. To learn more about their selection of wines or to purchase, please visit www.atlantisniagara.com
The invited guests (with John in the back, middle) were all in great spirits by the end of the evening.
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