In my family, August is a big month – there are at least 2 birthdays and three anniversaries to contend with; that’s why somewhere in the middle of the month, we have “the family BBQ” to celebrate everything all at once. At this event, we sit around on the patio and everybody catches up, shoots the breeze and inevitably wine questions get thrown my way. Unfortunately, this year the outdoor part was rained out, but the wine questions flew fast and furious. One from my brother seemed well timed (as I had just returned from a Vintage Tasting in the Lake Erie North Shore region where I tasted this wine). He asked, “if I’ve had a good Ontario Shiraz?” I have tried quite a few, but none seems more true to the peppery-spiciness of this grape than this Pelee Island offering. The wine is aged 20 months in 5000L Hungarian raw oak barrels (no toasting/charring on the inside of the barrel) and hand harvested from the southern most grape growing point in Ontario – Pelee Island. The nose is all peppery and spicy – the taste kept the spicy aspect along with rich tannin-filled black fruit … there’s good ageabilty in this bottle and it’s limited to only 900 cases. It’s worth putting your hands on one or more of the 10,800 bottles available exclusively through the winery – it might sound like a lot but at $18.95 it’s a steal and should go quickly.