Ontario Reviews : Winery Spotlight - Adamo Estate Winery
26 Mar 2020- Details
- Category: Newsletter Archives
Located in one of those unlikely places of Ontario (near Orangeville) to grow grapes, Adamo is the brainchild of the folks who own Hockley Valley Resort. The land was originally slated to be another golf course, but at the last minute was changed into a 23-acre winery of which 18 acres are planted … and while not a self-sustaining winery when it comes to fruit, as much of their fruit comes from various vineyards around Niagara (~100 tons), they do grow 7 varieties: Vidal, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir, L’Acadie Blanc and Marechal Foch. How do they get vines to survive that far north in Ontario? Geo-blankets, which they installed back in 2015. The vines are now 8 years old and are coming into their prime fruiting years (harvesting 10 tons in 2019 and looking at doubling that in 2020) which makes winemaker, Shauna White, extremely happy.
Shauna has been overseeing the winemaking since 2016 when she took over from consulting winemaker Jonas Newman (of Hinterland fame) who helped make the first vintage in 2015.
In total they have about 60 different labels in their portfolio, but only 26 (or so) different wines get made in any one vintage – right now around 9000 cases with growth to about 15,000 by 2024 … the other 34 labels just give them flexibility if something really special does come along.
Having visited the winery in early 2020 I can tell you it’s a pretty impressive operation from the winery restaurant with outstanding food, overseen by Chef de Cuisin Iniyan Vijay (also for the main resort) to the blanketing, that looks like a layer of snow over the vineyard (even when there isn't any) … to a fabulous coffee bar, if you arrive first thing in the morning.
The following are the 6 top wines I tried from a tasting of 32 current and upcoming wines:
In addition to the six reviews below be sure to check out the Side Bar for the latest videos and podcasts
plus links to reviews of older wines, cellar dwellers, published articles, On the Road notes and more.
Click on the wines name to see the full review:
Adamo 2017 Appassimento ... (****+)
Adamo 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Old Vines – Lenko Vineyard Reserve ... (**** ½)
Adamo 2017 Chardonnay Oaked, Wismer Foxcroft ... (****+)
Adamo 2016 Gamay Noir Oaked, Huebel Grape Estates ... (****)
Adamo 2017 Merlot, Edgerock Vineyard Reserve ... (****+)
Adamo 2016 Petit Verdot, Edgerock Vineyard ... (****+)
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Ontario Reviews : Winery Spotlight - Adamo Estate Winery
