Southbrook Poetica Chardonnay 2009 ($50, winery now, 93 points) — The flagship white from Southbrook and it lives up to its lofty place on the hierarchy. Such a beautiful Chardonnay and easily one of the top three made in Niagara. Winemaker Ann Sperling says the winemaking “adheres to the traditional model of Burgundy” and more specifically the Chards of Meursault. The grapes for this wine were whole cluster pressed and the settled juice racked to barrel where indigenous yeast and malolactic bacteria fermented the juice. After 10 months of aging the top selection of barrels were combined to make the Poetica. The complex nose shows apple-pear-pineapple fruit, brioche, gun flint, mineral, and vanilla cream. This is exciting stuff on the palate with lush fruits delivered on a spine of racy acidity. It shows elegance and power with weight in the mouth to go with ripe apple-pear fruit, a touch of butterscotch cream and a vein of minerality that runs through the core. This, like most the Poetica Chards, has the stuffing to mature gracefully for many years down the road.