Konrad Ejbich's new book, Pocket Guide to Ontario Wines, Wineries, Vineyards and Vines (McClelland & Stewart, 272 pages, $22.99) is a milestone: No one before had attempted such a detailed examination of the Ontario's wines and wineries. (My forthcoming book on Ontario wineries is totally different from Mr. Ejbich's.)
So kudos to Konrad Ejbich, a colleague I enjoy spending time with. His book has some strong points, such as good introductions to each winery and useful sections on vintages. But the book is disappointing overall, and I doubt it will be useful to many Ontario wine buyers.
First, there are too many errors — not only typos, but names of wineries, addresses, phone numbers and websites. This is pretty basic stuff, and you'd think an editor might have checked it. Beyond that, it's not clear what readership the book is aimed at.
While I find the information on individual vineyards (size, soil structure, grape varieties) useful, most wine consumers likely won't. Nor will most consumers want to read about grape varieties not grown in Ontario, or ratings of wines that have long been unobtainable. Both are here.
Then there's the bizarre wine-scoring system. It's a five-star scale that goes as follows (with half-stars): Great, Outstanding, Terrific, Fine, Admirable, Above Average, Good, Average, Passable and Unremarkable (half star). Other symbols indicate "Poor" and "Flawed" wines.
It's counterintuitive. I asked 100 of my students to rank those words, and not one put "great" at the top. Nearly all ranked "outstanding" highest, as I would. "Great" came third or fourth. And does "fine" mean "oh, it's fine" or "it's a fine wine?"
Worse, two-star wines are classed as "good" and 1 1/2 stars are rated "average" here. Consumers are used to five-star systems and expect anything under three to be mediocre to poor. (Decanter, the British wine magazine, describes three stars as "good," two as "fair," and one as "poor.")
Consumers look at stars or numbers, not words — especially when the stars are next to the wines and the words are at the front of the book. If I owned a winery, I'd be pretty upset to see my "good" wines rated two stars and dismissed by readers who focus on wines in the three- to five-star range.
Many descriptions and ratings don't match. One wine has "a vague, vinous nose. Functional but uninteresting." Another has "some grassy nuances but dry, oxidative, resiny overtones dominate somewhat tired fruit flavours. Match with bland food." A third has "an unfortunate whiff of Asian lady beetle." All three are rated "good" (two stars). What on earth is good about those descriptions?
Among other problems: Mr. Ejbich complains that he had to taste some wines under poor conditions, but he rates them anyway. Why not leave them out if the tasting was unreliable? And there are entries for "Verjus" and "Lees," but not for VQA — a key part of Ontario's wine landscape.
Mr. Ejbich undertook an ambitious project, but despite his enormous energy, enthusiasm and support of Ontario wine, his book is badly flawed. Maybe he can correct the next edition, but that would mean changing scores and descriptions, which would call this book into question. It's too bad. A good book of this sort would be very useful to wine buyers in Ontario.
Four varied wines on today's list. Note that the Jackson-Triggs Meritage is available at Wine Rack stores and some Vintages stores; the others are in the LCBO.