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Big Head Wines' Fantastic 2022 Chardonnay Stone

Posted 8/29/2023

Big Head Wines interiorBig Head Wines interior 

 Big Head Wines' excellent 2022 Chardonnay Stone is flying off the shelves this summer, according to the winery's front desk in-house expert.

With a aroma of peaches, melon and fruit pits, the first taste establishes a solid impression of wet stones, caramel, and citrus. The lemony finish is very long and powerful.

The Passion of Big Head Wines' Owner for his Work

You don't have to meet the master to see how impassioned he is by his winemaking craft. Everything you read about Andrzej Lipinski points to his talent for winemaking and his attention to detail. He raised Niagara appassimento wines several notches while working for other Niagara wineries before opening Big Head Wines.

Big Head Wines' Alluring Appassimento

I first discovered Big Head in 2019 through its 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon made using the appassimento technique, and it blew me away. Since then, I got my WSET2 award in wine, but nothing has changed about my opinion of this Big Head winner.

Appassimento Cabernet Franc in Niagara is Simply Outstanding

Imagine silky red cherries flowing down your throat with no tannins, just warmth. You’ve touched the roots of something enormously satisfying in an appassimento Cabernet Franc in Niagara, and then you’ve come back up for air. What just happened? You remember a rich, dark cherry smoothness that keeps going.

That is how Big Head’s 2016 Cabernet Franc feels when you first taste it. The spicy aftertaste is bright with remnants of sweetness lingering. There’s definitely a fruity sensation that’s reminiscent of cherry liqueur, making Big Head’s Cabernet Franc very satisfying.

The Magic of the Dehydrated Grape

Making Niagara’s best Cabernet Franc is all about the perfection of the dehydrated grape in action. Call it a distillation of superb taste. Lipinski has been “a poster boy for appassimento winemaking in Ontario for many years,” says quench.me.

Appassimento is a vintage air-drying technique for grapes that’s both time-intensive and fastidious in its monitoring requirements. The process makes ripe grapes’ favours much more concentrated, dense and complex.

Dehydrated grapes’ chemical composition is different from the non-dehydrated variety, according to sciencedirect.com. They have higher phenolic composition, higher antioxidant activity, and more mineral content as well. But it is the technique of winemaking that affects the extraction of minerals, antioxidants and the phenolic profile.

The Soul of a Niagara Winery: a Connection of Terroir and Taste

There is a visceral connection between the terroir, its fruit, the winemaker's art, and the people serving you the wine you're about to taste. I've always sensed the soul of a place by sort of inhaling this connection whenever I visit a Niagara winery. Every boutique Niagara winery always makes outstanding wines. But sometimes the connection breaks at the server; you get everything but the winery's soul. What a wonderful chance lost when that occurs.

 

Big Head Wines
823 Line 6
Niagara-on-the-lake, ON