Heavy Red WinesHeavy Red WinesA big red wine should have deep purple colour in youth fading through ruby and brick to brown as it ages. Aromatics should be heavy, rich, intense. Oak should be one spice on the plate, not an aim to itself. Complexity is highly valued in both aroma and on the palate. Alcohol should be relatively strong for a cold climate wine, being in the 12.5 to 13% range. Acidity after malolactic conversion or fermentation should be in the 5 to 6 g/l range. It is fully expected that the normal range of winemaking adjustments to the crushed grapes and to the wine will be necessary to reach this goal in poorer growing seasons.
At their best they are big, strong, heavy with oak, fruit, alcohol, extract and tannins, and show layers of flavour. They dance in your mouth, and are too good to dilute with food (though most people do so). The best have solid acidity which makes them extremely long-lived in conjunction with the alcohol, tannin and extract.
The vineyard strategy will be to allow the grapes to ripen as fully as possible, not just to increase the sugars but primarily to reduce the concentration of malic acid. These varieties must harden off quickly and be very winter-hardy. Crop loads on vines destined for the heavy red must be limited to allow full ripening of both the grapes and the vines. Canopy management to allow sun penetration to the grapes and wood will also be necessary to this wine.
We feel that the blend of varieties below will approach our goal, but we could really use the Minnesota selections. Sufficient tannins will be a problem, and we will have to deal with this in the cellar.
At this point in time, we know of four cold-climate varieties that MAY, grown properly, vinified and blended correctly, approach this ideal of a heavy red wine. Sabrevois is our first choice, followed by DM 8521-1. Two University of Minnesota selections (# 1177 and 1180) are barred to our use, a third has just passed through quarantine (the Frontenac vine) and two other French hybrids (Landot Noir, Landal Noir) approach our selection criteria in the warmer portions of Central Ontario. As well, Lucy Kuhlman may act well as a blending ingredient.
We will be planting the following:
18 vines of Sabrevois - which provides fruit, colour and a bit of tannin, 6 vines each of Landot Noir and Landal Noir, which probably fall slightly short of the winterhardiness requirement (1 year out of 5 a low crop??) and 10 vines of DM 8521-1, which provides colour and tannin. To this we have added 11 vines of Frontenac and 4 vines of Lucy Kuhlman in the test rows, grapes from which will most likely be added to the Heavy Red blend.
Sabrevois is a grape crossed and created by 
Elmer Swenson and is named after the village in Quebec where Gilles Benoit of Vignoble des Pins first proved that a very good varietal wine could be made from this grape.
DM 8521-1 is a shy producer, very winterhardy (-40), extremely disease resistant and should, when ripe, add some very desirable characteristics to our big red. Unlike our other reds, it probably needs grafting to produce a commercial crop.
Landal 244 , Landot Noir 4511 (with Frontenac to the right) are closely related. Landal is the grandparent, and Landot the parent, of the recently released Frontenac (in order below). All have good colour and depth of flavour, and should work together harmoniously. Award-winning wines have been made in many places with Landot and Landal, and Frontenac should be a good addition.
COVA Light Red
COVA Heavy Red
