Wine Find: Leaning Post Wines 2023 Dolcetto
If you'd told me a few years ago that one of the most interesting wines coming out of Niagara this year would be a grape almost nobody outside of Piedmont, Italy grows, I'd have raised an eyebrow. And yet, here we are, sipping Ontario's first single-variety Dolcetto, made by a winery that has built its entire identity around asking, "why not?" Let me introduce you to the Leaning Post Wines 2023 Dolcetto!
First, a Little Jargon Translation
Let's clear something up right away, because the name of this grape can be confusing. Dolcetto translates to "little sweet one" in Italian. And no, that does not mean the wine is sweet. In fact, it's almost always made bone dry. The name refers to the sweetness of the grape itself at harvest, not the finished wine, which is one of those quirky wine-language moments where a literal translation leads you completely astray. Consider this your permission to stop side-eyeing the label.
Dolcetto is a black grape from Piedmont, in northern Italy, where it usually lives in the shadow of its more famous neighbours like Nebbiolo (the grape behind Barolo and Barbaresco) and Barbera. Unlike Barolo, Dolcetto is the wine you pour on a random Tuesday. It is juicy, approachable, food-friendly, with soft tannins and real charm. It's almost never grown outside of Italy, which makes what's happening in Niagara right now genuinely unusual.
About Leaning Post Wines and Their Road to Dolcetto in the Vineyard
Leaning Post Wines is run by Nadia and Ilya Senchuk out in Winona, on the far western edge of Niagara wine country, where the escarpment and Lake Ontario sit closer together than almost anywhere else in the region. Their estate site, Senchuk Vineyard, sits in the Lincoln Lakeshore sub-appellation, and it's the kind of place that produces wines critics keep comparing to Burgundy, "precise, structured, full of personality".
Back in 2020, Ilya spent months researching cold-hardy grape varieties, hunting for something interesting that could actually survive a Niagara winter. Most of the trendy, under-the-radar European grapes people get excited about simply can't handle the cold here. Somewhere in that research, Dolcetto stood out. He planted just twelve rows of it, under an acre, on the home vineyard alongside the estate's Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Gamay.
Three years later, in 2023, that tiny planting produced its first harvest, and it only yielded enough fruit for two barrels! Two. One aged in a one-year-old French oak barrel, the other in barrel much older, for about fifteen months total. As far as anyone can tell, it's the first single-variety Dolcetto ever bottled in Ontario. There's reportedly a small amount of the grape planted somewhere in Prince Edward County too, but it's folded into a field blend rather than bottled on its own, so this really is a first.
The fact that Ilya landed on Dolcetto still rings with me today. There was no market gap to fill, no sommelier begging for an Ontario Dolcetto, no trend to chase. He just got curious about a grape with zero reputation in this country and decided to gamble a few years of vineyard space and patience on finding out what would happen.
This is exactly the kind of thing that made me fall in love with Ontario wine country in the first place. This region already knows what it does best: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and the sparkling wine that comes with them. But knowing your strengths hasn't stopped Niagara's winemakers from tirelessly experimenting and pushing at the edges of what else is possible here.
Leaning Post Wines 2023 Dolcetto!
In the glass, this Dolcetto is a beautiful ruby with a slight crimson edge. The nose brings violet, blackberry, plum, rhubarb, and thyme, an unusual and lovely combination that hints at both the fruit and the herbal, savoury side of this grape.
On the palate, it's dry with medium-plus acidity, medium alcohol, and medium tannin. The fruit stays bright throughout, with black currant, strawberry, and plum carrying through to a finish that picks up a little peppercorn at the back palate.
This is classic Dolcetto, and all about balance. Nothing is fighting for attention here. The fruit, acidity, and tannin all show up in proportion. It's a light-bodied red, exactly as Dolcetto should be, and one I can already picture on a patio table this summer.
While there may just be a few bottles of the 2023 Dolcetto left, the winery team claims that if I was that enamoured by the 2023, wait until I try the 2024. Clearly, I am looking forward to that.
The Leaning Post 2023 Dolcetto can be purchased at the winery for $45.00.
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