Sparkling Honors For A High Achiever

You’ll be really flying high with Violette Sparkling Brut from Westcott Vineyards, an exciting Niagara garagiste family winery.

    The Chardonnay/Pinot Noir grower with 25 or so acres near Jordan offers this gorgeous new bubbly to honor a pioneer aviatrix who flew right around the world back in 1928.

Violette Selfridge de Sibour

    Violette, daughter of London store magnate Gordon Selfridge, took off from England in a flimsy Gypsy Moth biplane with husband Jacques de Sibour. With an open cockpit yet! They had cut/pasted paper maps, spending hours with compasses, encyclopedias and naval charts and left with just 50 lbs of luggage each including a black lace evening dress for her and a dinner jacket for him. (Business class?)

    The Violette bubbly is silky smooth, dry, fruit forward and delicious, with elegant balanced and vivid white fruit, peach and pear nuances and, like a little black dress, it goes with anything, anytime (92) available at the winery, 905-562-7517 or westcottvineyards.com, $25.95.

    Violette, herself, captured her airborne adventures in Flying Gypsies published by George Putnam, a mutual friend of Violette and Amelia Earhart.

Bubbly Violette

    Westcott's Delphine Rose 2016, $15.95, will be in LCBO Vintages July 22: It’s delicately crushed red berry-tinged unoaked sipping pleasure, Pinot and Cab Franc, crisp, dry and beautifully refreshing (90).

    The Chablis-style Lillias 2016 is crisp, stony-steely and leans towards apple-citrus (89) while the Estate Chardonnay reminds me more of Washington State Chards, rich and toasty-oaky, smooth and satisfying (91), $21.95 and $25.95 respectively, at the winery source.

    What to say about a red wine called Temperance? An easy-drinking Gamay and Pinot Noir blend showing red and black plum and blackberry fruit notes, more of a quaffer (88). Good value at $19.95. It's not no-alcohol!

    Chef Andrew McLeod of Bolete restaurant, St Catharines, is on hand at Westcott when fine cuisine is called for and the winery even boasts an African Bedouin tent on the patio!