Colio Estate Wines
Colio Estate Wines is a 240 acre vineyard and winery in Colchester, Ontario in Canada. Located at 42 degrees north latitude, the Lake Erie North Shore VQA region is at a latitude similar to that of northern California or the Tuscany region of Italy. Colio Estate is south of Detroit, near the southern border of Michigan. It is also south of the latitude of New York's Finger Lakes wine region.
Colio Estates Wines' "Colio Negri Signature" Cabernet-Merlot won first place in the field of 16 competitors judged blind by 51 Canadian tasters in the St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005. In so doing it beat such competitors as Château Branaire-Ducru, Château de Camensac, Château Lynch-Moussas, and Château Haut-Bages-Liberal.
Colio Estate Wines' Reserve Merlot won second place in the Ottawa Wine Tasting of 2005, in which 35 expert blind tasters evaluated six wines from Ontario, six from British Columbia, and six from Bordeaux in France. The Colio Merlot beat all six named growth French wines in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 or Grands crus classes in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine: Château Lascombes, Château Pontet-Canet, Château Rauzan-Gassies, Château Pichon Longueville Baron, Château Brane-Cantenac, and Château la Tour-du-Pin-Figeac.
Colio has been noted for their red wines, from their original Master Winemaker Carlo Negri. In 2003 they brought on board a young Winemaker Tim Reilly. They have steadily seen an increase of awards for their white wine program. Tim took the Head Winemaking reigns officially in August 2007. Since then, Colio has seen some promising wines ready for release, as Tim seems willing to carry on the tradition of great red wine.