The Wine at a glance

The portfolio of Five Rows focuses on 6 main varietals that have been selected based on their unique style and expression of the Lowrey Vineyard, as well as their characteristic representation of the St. David's Bench Appellation. Pinot Noir accounts for the majority of our planting while Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, Shiraz, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc make up the remaining rows.

Through a focus on balanced vineyard management, thinning and hand work, our yields are very low, resulting in only small batches of wine being crafted. It's our belief that this concentration results in fruit and ultimately wine that is highly concentrated with the character of the terroir — the soil, minerality, local flowers and occasional tears in the pinot.

We hope you will enjoy our wine and explore the variability of the nature of the wine in the years to come. We wish to invite you to become engaged in the evolution of Five Rows — get to know us, our land and our wine because without you, there is no winery.

The Lowrey family has farmed the area for 5 generations. Current generations, Howard Lowrey and his son Wes Lowrey tend to the vineyard with a focus on achieving the most characteristic and complex examples that their varietals can produce.

Tasting

Due to the reality of crafting very small quantities of wine, we are limited to offer tastings on weekends between 11am - 5pm, May 1 to December 31 or during the week by appointment only. 

We’re currently able to provide tasting of our Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s difficult for us to manage large groups and please no buses – when you get here you’ll see why.

We also encourage potential customers to visit our very supportive sommeliers and establishments. They are serving some of our releases that they consider to be signatures of our winery.

Purchasing Our Wine

To purchase any of our small releases, we recommend you contact us via phone or email. We try to encourage you to purchase in increments of cases of six because of the logistics of delivery and storage. It's also recommended that you cellar our reds to realize the full possibilities that our vintages have to offer over time.

We know that small batches of wine may sell out quickly so we welcome you to contact us about reserving your selections of upcoming releases.

wines@fiverows.com

You

Every person that we connect with through our winery is a partner and steward of Five Rows and we are forever appreciative of those who believed and invested in us through the wine. We invite all who have experienced our wine to register their unique bottle number and vintage release online with us - Here. This is simply a list of those individuals who have experienced our wine and the beginning of a long friendship through our craft.


Click here to register your bottle for our records

Current Vintages

Vintage
2009
Varietal
Pinot Noir
Vineyard
Lowrey Vineyards
Product of / Produit du Canada
Cases
182 (7 barrels)
Release Date
May 1, 2012
Price
$50/bottle
Tasting notes: Sometimes the best of wines and the worst of seasons magically collide to create an unexpected moment of glory. The growing season of 2009 was one of those odd times. A late budbreak set the tone for what would be a cool, wet summer. We usually harvest Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris in early September, but nothing was close to being ripe in the late summer of 2009. Cue the blessing in disguise.

The moderate September days and cool fall nights helped move the Pinot ripening window to a time when Botrytis concerns were at a minimum. This was uncharted territory for Niagara Pinot growers. You must understand that there is one and only one certainty when growing Pinot Noir - they WILL rot at some point. When the inevitable did not happen in 2009, we were afforded the luxury of harvesting at the exact point when tannins, flavours, sugars and acids were aligned to my liking.

We chose to harvest Rows 1 and 2 on October 6, the latest Pinot pick we've had in 25 years. The remainder of the fruit was taken in on October 17. Average harvest parameters were 22.9°Brix, 8.4 g/L TA and pH 3.15. Fruit was destemmed and crushed into one tonne fermentation bins and allowed a cold soak at 10°C for five days. All bins were warmed to 14°C and inocualted with RC212 yeast at 250 ppm. Ferments averaged about 7 days, with a peak temperature of 29°C. Each bin was allowed to macerate post-fermentation until tannins showed signs of softening.

The wine was pressed and settled before clean-racking into seven French oak barrels (average age 2.5 years). Malolactic fermentation was carried out in oak. Barrels were racked and returned every 6 months. Total time in wood was 24 months before final blending in November 2011. 182 cases were bottled on April 2nd, 2012.

In my early tasting notes for this wine I have written, "something dark, alluring and mysterious about this Pinot. Reminiscent of a rainy day on our honeymoon spent tasting great Burgundies in the dank cellars of Beaune."

Aromas: cherry, violet, cassis, smoke, earth

Palate: dried cranberry, Bing cherry, soft tannin, haunting length

Cellaring: 2013-2019
Vintage
2009
Varietal
Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine
Vineyard
Lowrey Vineyards
Product of / Produit du Canada
Cases
109
Release Date
July 1, 2011
Price
$45/bottle
Tasting notes: At 8:03 AM on January 2nd, a new era began at Lowrey Vineyards. As the sun peeked over the escarpment we welcomed the dawn of our very own "Ice Age". After an evening of perfect freezing conditions (-12°C) it was decided to harvest five rows of specially selected Cabernet Sauvignon, our first foray into the world of Icewine. A beautiful morning unfolded before us, with a light snow gently filtering the weak rays of winter sun. It soon became clear that picking the fruit and braving the cold are the easy part, and actually quite enjoyable.

To understand the travails of pressing frozen grapes to yield minute amounts of juice, I want you to imagine trying to squeeze a tray of ice cubes in an effort to produce water. It takes equal amounts of pressure and patience I assure you!  Too much of the former and not enough of the latter can lead to problems… big problems. Less than a minute into the second press load I cranked up the pressure and was horrified to hear the sickening hiss of a slow leak in the press bladder.  Luckily we had a back-up bladder on hand, but the subsequent dismantling of the press load and bladder re-assembly really set us back. In the end, patience prevailed and the luscious Cab juice began to flow. It was thick, sweet and full of super-concentrated flavours of ripe strawberry and raspberry.

Technical Notes: This is a special icewine because it only endured a single press. Normally, multiple pressings take place with each successive squeeze getting lower concentrations of sweet juice and higher concentrations of water. Ultimately, these portions are all put together in a diluted final blend. Our "Single Press" netted only 280L of juice (39 degrees Brix) that was subsequently treated with pectinase enzyme then fermented in oak with EC118 at an inoculation rate of 350ppm. An older French oak barrel was used for the fermentation and aging regimen. The marathon ferment began January 29th and wasn’t stopped until June 21st at a specific gravity of 1.070.

The strength of this wine is its aromatic intensity and overall balance, with just the right amount of acid (TA 10.65g/L) playing off the sweet characters. Notes of Strawberry jam dominate the nose while subtle hints of white chocolate entice the palate.
To view our past vintages click here.