E65 - Flat Rock Cellars, Canada

The winery is named after the limestone rocks they pulled out of the ground. The same limestone found under Burgundy and Bordeaux. The architect who designed the building now works on Canada's Parliament. And the president will debate the physics of cork versus screwcap until the cows come home. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Ed Madronich, owner and president of Flat Rock Cellars on the Twenty Mile Bench in Niagara, Ontario, Canada. Ed is a self described wine geek who goes down to the lab to ask the winemaker what she is doing not because he does not trust her, but because he genuinely cannot help himself. The conversation covers the limestone terroir of the Niagara Escarpment, Flat Rock's four pillar sustainability philosophy, the Project Nature Nurture experiment on wild versus cultured yeast fermentation, the Twisted blend that beats hundred dollar wines at Decanter, and the case against cork built entirely on physics. Quality is not a hope. It is a cost of entry. Featuring: Flat Rock Cellars, Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara, Ontario, Canada, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay.