By Rick VanSickle

It has been said that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and maybe that is true for wine and cider maker Zoe Marshall Nares.

As co-founder and co-owner of both Stoss Lee Wines and Stock and Row Cider in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, I can see a lot of Zoe Marshall Nares, below, in a man who had a profound impact on my own life.

I first met Zoe’s dad, Brian Marshall, at an experimental high school in the wilds of the Yukon in a tiny town surrounded by majestic mountains pristine and lakes. I quit high school in the middle of Grade 11 in Toronto after hearing about this new style of learning institute called the Carcross Community Education Centre and worked for half a year on the CN Railway in Fraser, B.C., to pay for the modest tuition. I arrived at this new school, my guitar and dog Thijs in tow, in 1974 having no clue what the future held.

Marshall was a so-named “parent member,” a teacher, a mentor, a visionary and part of the original group that believed a community like Carcross could thrive as a “learning by living” educational experience that was funded only partially by student tuitions. As students, we baked bread and sold it in Whitehorse, made crafts, cut wood to feed the massive boilers that heated the school, raised chickens, grew vegetables, had a winter fish farm that fed us, hunted for moose, and did whatever it took to keep the school running.

I looked to Marshall, above in the Yukon circa 1974, as a guiding light and admired his vision for alternative learning and his passion for music, the arts and his work ethic. He taught both history and drama and was the kind of teacher I had always hoped for. In my first year at the school, Marshall directed students in a production of the Arthur Miller play The Crucible. I played Judge Danforth as we toured most of towns in the Yukon large enough to host us, from Dawson City to Whitehorse. Never before had Yukoners seen such a large travelling drama production and it was a miracle that Marshall could put the cast, production crew and transportation together to offer not only The Crucible, but also a children’s play called the Sun Snatcher for younger audiences.

Wrote Marshall in a post on the Carcross website years later, “Did Carcross change me? I think not, it reinforced my belief in the good of people working together. It reinforced my belief that people (when properly tasked) can solve their problems. It reinforced my respect for those who are younger than me — something I hope has allowed my kids to thrive.”

And thrive they have; both Zoe and her brother Kyle, a restaurateur in Montreal, are the visionaries behind Stoss Lee Wines and Stock and Row Cider, with Zoe involved in both sides of the operation and Kyle more on the wine side.

Now, I know how proud their father is of Zoe and Kyle because he reached out to me to do what fathers do best — he talked glowingly about his children and urged me to see for myself what they have built in The County. Sitting across from Zoe on a sweltering hot day with my wife Maureen at the cidery/winery and listening to her talk about the what they have built and the road to get there was fascinating. I could see in her what I admired so much in her father.

The property, in a bucolic setting with a striking 100-year-old dairy barn, a small, but inviting tasting room and sprawling outdoor spaces to while away the afternoon with a range of spectacular ciders and wines, was purchased in 2017 by Kyle Marshall Nares (Zoe, above, invested a couple of years later) with the vineyard and orchard planted in 2020. “This is just a dream coming together,” Zoe tells me as we sit down to taste a selection of ciders and wines. The Nares part of her name is from her mother’s side, now divorced from her father Brian.

Zoe has a background in the cider industry, working at Brickworks in Toronto before it was sold to a larger beer conglomerate, and taking cider courses in Oregon and spending time in a friend’s orchard learning the ins and outs of growing apples and making cider. It was there (and in her own basement) where she tested out different recipes of cider to find their flagship cider for Stock and Row. “We thought at the time that there was a lack of low sugar, full flavour ciders being offered in the market and set out to create the best options possible,” she told Canvas Rebel in an interview. Zoe is a graduate of the CINA advanced certificate in the cider and perry production program and is a Level 3 sommelier.

The two brands are separate, but joined at the hip at the farm where both the grapes and apples are grown and where guests can taste and buy all the products.

Stoss Lee Wines

Zoe and Kyle Marshall Nares are the owners of Stoss Lee Wines with Zoe as the winemaker. She has been working with Justin Willett from Tyler winery and Lieut Dit winery in Santa Barbara County to hone her winemaking skills. Kyle is a co-owner of Lieu Dit Winery and Garde Manger Restaurant in Montreal. He’s travelled much of Europe and North America learning about vineyards and wineries and holds a certificate in viticulture from Okanagan College in B.C.

Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Melon de Bourgogne are the varieties grown at the estate with grapes (more Pinot and Chard, plus Cabernet Franc) sourced from The County and Niagara filling out the small production. Zoe also makes small batches of eclectic ciders either co-fermented, blended with wines or aged on grape skins.

The production is tiny from the two-acre home vineyard with only eight barrels of wine were produced in 2022 and 16 barrels in 2023. The first estate Pinot Noir sold out quickly and is not reviewed here.

Zoe describes the winemaking at Stoss Lee as low intervention, using only indigenous yeasts and light oak use in the cellar. They don’t use herbicides, employ perpetual cover crops and as light as possible fungicide use in the vineyard. “We aim for pure, mineral, ethereal wines that reflect the limestone soils and cool climate of Ontario.”

The distinct northern, continental climate in the County puts Stossel in a precarious position for winter bud survival. Grape growers go to extreme lengths to protect fragile buds and devise robust strategies to escape winter with minimal damage to the tender plants. Stossel uses a “spare parts” system to minimize risk through the coldest months. “Here we rely on keeping extra canes or trunks through the winter to provide insurance options and geotextile blankets to ‘tent’ our rows of vines and capture the earth’s heat. Once we’ve escaped winter’s harshest conditions, we open up and remove the blankets and eventually do a final second pruning to balance each vine to the appropriate number of buds to ensure the highest quality grapes.”

The name Stoss Lee is derived from the distinctive geologic feature that is home to their vineyard. This glacially deposited hill of gravels, clays and sands has two slopes, north and south — the Stoss side and the Lee side.

Here’s what I tasted with Zoe:

Stoss Lee WS Cuesta Chardonnay 2022 ($42, 93 points) — While Stoss Lee would love nothing more than to focus on its own estate fruit, its small vineyard cannot possibly produce all the fruit it needs to sustain a successful business. Winemaker Zoe Marshall Nares carefully selects grapes from top vineyards in Niagara, including the Wismer-Cuesta Vineyard (the WS stands for West Side), located between Vineland and Jordan on the Twenty Mile Bench, for this lovely Chardonnay. It’s wild fermented, with low sulphur additions, and bottled unfined and unfiltered after barrel fermentation and 12 months in neutral French oak. It shows racy/stony minerality on the nose with pear, yellow apple, pure saline, lemon zest and touch of spice. It has a surprising rich and creamy texture with ripe orchard fruits, some flinty/stony notes, lemon tart, integrated spices a long, lifted and finessed finish. Can cellar until 2029.

Stoss Lee Parapluie Rosé 2023 ($29, 91 points) — This rosé called Parapluie, which means umbrella in French, is made from 100% Cabernet Franc sourced from Prince Edward County (Lighthall Vineyards). It’s whole cluster pressed, wild fermented in stainless, aged in one large neutral 500L oak puncheon for five months and bottled with low sulphur, unfined and unfiltered. The nose shows rustic/earthy red berries, savoury notes, a touch of anise and herbs with a squirt of citrus. There is subtle sweetness on the palate with ripe and brambly wild raspberries, dark cherries, cranberries and herbs in a robust style that is vibrant and perky through the finish.

Stoss Lee Only the Lonely 2022 ($36, 90 points) — Not sure how Marshall Nares dreamed up this unlikely blend of 50% Pinot Noir (estate) and 50% Chardonnay from the Cuesta Vineyard in Niagara but somehow it works. After a five-day maceration, the blend was barrel fermented (wild) and aged for 10 months with four months resting in stainless. It was finished with low sulphur additions, unfined and unfiltered. It shows a pale red colour in the glass with a touch of cloudiness. It’s highly aromatic with floral notes to go with fresh cherries, saline, moderately reductive, red currants and savoury notes. There is subtle spice, racy minerality, savoury red berries, and nectarine on the palate with mouth-watering acidity and saline keeping this unique wine bright and vibrant through the finish.

Stoss Lee Èclair Cider 2023 (the 2022 price was $22) — This was a preview bottle given to me without a label (other than some handwritten words by Zoe) and a perfect example of how the two brands — cider and wine — can come together as one at the farm. The russet apples were fermented in stainless and aged on Chardonnay skins for eight months in stainless steel and six months in neutral oak. Now, I’m not sure where this sample is at in its evolution, so I am giving you some initial thoughts on this rather delicious and unique hybrid cider/wine. Right off the bat, heed this advice (that I did not) and make sure the cider is cold when opening and slowly release the air in the bottle before fully cracking the crown cap. It is a tad randy upon opening and a third of mine ended up on the kitchen floor and in my mouth. It pours a vigorous bead in the glass and showed a light and cloudy tangerine colour in the glass. Immediately the nose lights up with notes of Mandarin orange, nectarine, mulled apples, peach pie and earthy/savoury accents with just a wisp of spice. That bubble is sustained on the palate and the flavours are more earthy and more savoury with orange zest, cider apples, underbrush, lemon curd and all highlighted by mouth-watering acidity on a sharp, electric finish. Not too much funk, but just enough rock ‘n’ roll … just be careful when opening!

Stock and Row Cider

Justin Dalipi and Zoe Marshall Nares are the owner/operators of Stock and Row with Zoe taking on the cider making role. While Stossel concentrates on more complexity in their wines, the low alcohol/low sugar cider portfolio is for everyday drinking, she says.

When the cider brand was envisioned, “one thing was clear to us, we wanted to support local. On every one of our cans, you will see our tag line Local Love; we are committed to using 100% Ontario apples in every one of our products, as well as working with local growers and farms for fruits we use in our Farm Series,” Zoe told Canvas Rebel. “We are committed to supporting local businesses and organizations and are grateful for the support we have received from our local community.”

The low-sugar ciders have quickly become well received in The County and beyond. They can be found in countless bars and restaurants all over Ontario, at your local LCBO and at Loblaws stores.

The name comes from the word rootstock and the rows where the apples are grown, so Stock and Row.

Here’s what liked from the ciders we tasted:

Stock and Row Slow and Low Cider — If you are looking for a new go-to Ontario craft cider, this flagship 100% Ontario cider with just four grams of sugar just might be your answer. It’s an instant classic in a pure and refreshing style with bright green apples, a touch of saline and a clean and bright finish.

Stock and Row Lime Crush Cider — This cider is inspired by Zoe and Justin’s love for sour beers and margaritas. The nose shows vivid key lime notes and fresh cut apples with an edgy hint of spice that has a clean, fresh and crisp finish. The owners suggest topping it up (if you are so inclined) with your favourite sparkling wine, ginger beer, or tequila. Made from 100% Ontario apples, and key lime concentrate.

Stock and Row Cold Tea Cider — This is a really delicious 100% Ontario apple cider subtly infused with black raspberry tea and a light touch of stevia. It’s made with zero sugar and low (4% abv). The black raspberry notes are subtle on the nose with bright apples, light black tea, and a touch of citrus. It’s crisp and clean on the finish with light tannins adding complexity and body through a bright finish.

The post Where wine meets cider, the bucolic world of Stoss Lee and Stock and Row appeared first on Wines In Niagara.