For Le Clos Jordanne and its passionate winemaker, there's magic in the alchemy where Old World meets New World.
The winery and its winemaker focus on cool-climate varietals Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Le Clos Jordanne captured the coveted grand prize at the prestigious wine competition Judgement of Montreal in 2009 for its 2005 Claystone Terrace Chardonnay. It beat out the French, the Californians and the Aussies, quite a feat since it was only the second wine ever produced by the Niagara winery. In subsequent years, the winery has taken home countless medals for what some have called “some of this country’s most profound and beautiful Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs wines ever made”. And this fall, a true competition is about to be uncorked as the Le Clos Jordanne plans to introduce two new Claystone releases as well as a pair of its most premium, 2020 Grand Clos wines. It’s the crowd-pleaser versus the king, says Thomas Bachelder, Le Clos Jordanne Winemaker.
“For the Grand Clos Chardonnay versus the Claystone Chardonnay, Claystone has this beautiful very strong, almost saline seaside minerality and acidity whereas the Grand Clos is more refined and has a beautiful chalkiness”.
This year will be an opportunity to taste both side by side, he explains. “It’s a fun polemic” since it’s been a full decade since a new Claystone varietal has hit the store shelves.
“For the Grand Clos Chardonnay versus the Claystone Chardonnay... Claystone is a little wilder and a little less composed, with a little more fruit, but just as noble.” - Thomas Bachelder, winemaker, Le Clos Jordanne
At Le Clos Jordanne, the strategy was Burgundian in style: to create a vineyard defined by its appellations.
Looking back, perhaps one could have anticipated the competition: a battle of terroir. But then that was the point when Le Clos Jordanne was founded in 2000. The original vision of the winery, a joint venture in Ontario between Vincor of Niagara (now Arterra Wines Canada) and the Famille Boisset of Burgundy, was born of tradition. The strategy was to create a “domaine” structured in the Old-World manner and produce exceptional Burgundian-style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, each being the ultimate expression of its unique, New World Niagara terroir.
The mission has not changed, and over time, by listening to the land and the grapes, the winery with Bachelder as its lead, has identified a “single-vineyard-within-a-vineyard” across all the estate’s approximately 50-hectare of vineyards. The approach is similar to the Grand Cru tier in Burgundy, the “clos” refers to the enclosure that is the vineyard itself, a natural plateau on the Jordan Bench surrounded on three sides by forest.
Lawrason explains why this matters: “The terroir hunters are important because they are accelerating the process of defining sub-regions that regulators, such as in the VQA of Ontario, eventually recognize as being different enough to have their names on the labels. As is the case in Europe where there are hundreds of appellations, large and tiny.”.
This is the future, and says the critic, efforts like Bachelder’s are “an ideal chance to taste the progress”. It’s this progress that is getting Le Clos Jordanne wines noticed around the globe. There’s so much potential, says Bachelder. He’s excited to ramp up marketing to get the word out about the winery’s amazing products and to develop online sales, which will all ultimately help enable the next vintages at Le Clos Jordanne and more future award winners.
The Claystone Terrace Release: A Perfect Pair
Claystone Terrace Pinot Noir has an outstanding wild black and red berry perfume, mouthfeel, mineral and savoury overtones and a long, rich finish.
Claystone Terrace Chardonnay is likewise noteworthy. A wine of precision and tension, it boasts a great breadth of fruit, savoury nuances and stony minerality.
For its 2022 debut, the Claystone Pinot Noir and Chardonnay will be available to try at select restaurants with limited availability also for Great Estates Wine Club Members only.
