An evening with Thomas Bachelder

An eager crowd of almost 50 wine lovers gathered to sample a rare vertical of Le Clos Jordanne pinot noir and to hear winemaker Thomas Bachelder speak about recent vintages and his adventures making these stunning wines.

Bachelder Sanders Vineyard Chardonnay

The evening started off with reception wine samples of two new Chardonnays for Bachelder wines, Thomas’ current wine project.  The 2011 Niagara chardonnay is a full-bodied and rich that the crowd really enjoyed.  But the single vineyard 2012 Saunders Vineyard chardonnay got people really really talking… there were murmurs of the wine tasting like a high end Meursault.  Expect to find these delicious wines in the LCBO soon.

Thomas Bachelder

Before we started tasting the wines, Thomas gave a short introduction to the wines and their respective vintages.  Thomas also offered some insights into his fascinating process of discovering the unique Niagara terroirs.  He explained that the approach with Le Clos Jordanne was to separate grapes into east West and Centre blocks in a year in year out process to find the best parcels and site characteristics.  He offered some fresh insight into the mysterious process of uncovering terroir.


As a vintage overview, Thomas suggested that the 2005 wines would be most concentrated and dark.  2006 was a good year with lighter color.  2008 was a tougher year, so lighter color and perhaps some leafiness.  2009 was expected to be ripe and dark with the most smoky characteristics.

The tasting revealed a great variety of wines as Thomas had suggested.  Some really ripe, dark wines, some a little green and a few with a pronounced smokiness.  All wines had really lively acidity.  It happens quite rarely, but our group scored all of these wines remarkably consistently with our guest speaker with Thomas and the group showing definite preference for the 2005 and 2006 wines.  In fact, the 2005 and 2006 wines were all in the top 4.  It was great to see 10 year old Niagara Pinot Noirs still presenting so well.

At the end of the tasting, Thomas surprised us with a few bottles of his soon to be released 2012 Lowrey Vineyards Pinot Noir.  This fruity, aromatic red will be released through Vintages in May and it was a special treat to get a sneak peak of this fantastic wine.

Raffle winnder David Turgeon (L)

And finally, as part of our 40th Anniversary/Birthday celebrations, we raffled off a bottle of 2006 Grand Clos Chardonnay. Fortunately, the winemaker was on hand to sign the bottle for the occasion. Congratulations to TVC club member David Turgeon for winning this very special bottle of Niagara chardonnay.

And here is how the wines were ranked.


2005 La Petite Vineyard $35: Group 1 / Speaker 5

2008 Talon Ridge Vineyard $40: Group 7 /  Speaker 7

2005 Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $35:  Group 1 / Speaker 5

2006 Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $ 40:  Group 3 /  Speaker 1

2009 Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $ 45:  Group 6  / Speaker 6

2006 Le Grand Clos $70:  Group 3 /  Speaker 3

2008 Le Grand Clos $70: Group 5 / Speaker 4

2009 Le Grand Clos $ 75:  Group 8 / Speaker 8

Beautiful Chardonnay, very good Pinot

"Beautiful whites", "very good Pinots" were a few of the comments made about Le Clos Jordanne wines at our March 17th wine tasting event. Most of these wines were made in a very wet summer and so accolades to the wine makers who had a difficult harvest to contend with. The Pinots were light in colour but had, in most cases, considerable mouth feel, body, flavour and complexity. The bouquets varied considerably.

Overall, the group was particularly impressed with the Chardonnays. One person commented that he didn't think Ontario could produce Chardonnays as good as these. It was very interesting and also surprising to taste the differences in vineyards separated in distance by only 50 metres with variances in nose, flavours, and minerality! Clearly, terroir is a major factor in Niagara.

Our guest speaker, Sebastien Jacquey, still a newcomer to Canada and to Le Clos, explained the challenges that the winery faces in being an organic winery, especially having to deal with additional diseases and pests from all the orchards in the Niagara peninsula. With all of Sebastien's training and experience in Burgundy, France's loss is clearly Canada's gain. Selastien also brought along an experimental Riesling for the group to taste, one that will never hit the public. Our attendees were very appreciative of the wines and the chance to question the winemaker. Fortunately, Clos Jordanne's production is increasing so there is more product on the market. It's possible to buy some the 2006's as well as the 2007's and lay them down for several years.

So, here is how the Group and guest speaker, Sebastien Jacquey rated these wines. Sebastien did taste them blind. There was total agreement on the Chardonnays because there were only 3 of them but there was also some agreement between Sebastien and the group on the Pinot Noirs. Both had Le Clos Pinot Noir as their top 1 or 2 wines and the Petite Village - a very nice wine on its own - ranked fifth of the five Pinots.

We are very grateful to Thomas Bachelder for providing our reception wine and arranging for Sebastien as our speaker and to Sebastien for being our guest speaker. Once again, another informative and enjoyable evening for the TVC group! Here are the rankings.

Guest Speaker Rankings - Pinot Noirs:
1. Pinot Noir 2006, Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $40 (wine D as poured)
2. Pinot Noir 2006, Le Grand Clos $70 (wine E)
3. Pinot Noir 2006, La Petite Vineyard $40 (B)
4. Pinot Noir 2006, Village Reserve $40 (A)
5. Pinot Noir 2005, La Petite Vineyard $35 (C)

Group Rankings - Pinot Noir:
1. Pinot Noir 2006, Le Grand Clos $70 (wine E)
2. Pinot Noir 2005, La Petite Vineyard $35 (C)
3. Pinot Noir 2006, Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $40 (D)
4. Pinot Noir 2006, La Petite Vineyard $40 (B)
5. Pinot Noir 2006, Village Reserve $40 (A)

Group and Speaker Rankings - Chardonnay
1. Chardonnay 2006, Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $40 (wine G)
2. Chardonnay 2006, Le Grand Clos $65 (H)
3. Chardonnay 2006, Village Reserve $40 (F)

Next event - Wines of Le Clos Jordanne

On March 17, we are very excited to have the chance to sample 8 wines from Le Clos Jordanne - three Chardonnays and five Pinot Noirs - all except one from the 2006 vintage. This is an opportunity to compare different vineyards and production techniques of the same grape varieties. Some of these wines need more time but this is a unique occasion to taste products from an up- and- coming winery so you can stock your private cellar for the future!

Event: Wines of Le Clos Jordanne
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM (Reception Wine); 6:20 PM (Formal tasting)
Where: Toronto Board of Trade, 1st Cdn Place (Entrance off Adelaide St. between Bay & York)
Directions: How to Find the TO Board of Trade
Costs: TVC Members: $52; Guests $65
Register: Register/Buy Ticket

Lots has been written and blogged about Le Clos Jordanne and its chief winemaker, Thomas Bachelder, but some of it is worth repeating.

The winery has received no end of accolades about their wines, particularly their Pinot Noir, since the release of its first wines. Why is their wine considered so good? First and foremost, the vineyard was well planned and laid out at the beginning. The winery employs Burgundian traditions of mixing clones within planting blocks, spacing vines tightly and employing the Guyot pruning system or Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) to position the shoots towards the sun to ensure optimal photosynthesis, air circulation and ripening. Secondly, the best Burgundian clones were used on the best grafts possible for the soil underneath the vineyard. Thirdly, Organic/Bio dynamic farming is used. There are no synthetic fertilizers and pesticides used. Fourthly, allowing the expression of terroir to come through in their wines is very important to Le Clos. Wild yeasts are used in their wine making; the fermentation process is gentle and unhurried; and they minimize fining and filtration to preserve the flavour compounds that can be removed through such procedures. Fifthly, they concentrate on only two types of grapes/wines - Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Lastly, but not least in importance, the winery engaged a very good winemaker, Canadian-born Thomas Bachelder, who spent several years making wine in Burgundy. TVC members who attended our 2000 Premier Cru Burgundy tasting in January 2007 tasted a couple of Le Clos wines and may recall Thomas as our guest speaker. In fact, the group loved the mystery wine and ranked it their 2^nd favourite over the premier crus. What was it? The Le Clos Jordanne, 2004 Pinot Noir, La Petite Vineyard!

We will be tasting the following wines from Le Clos Jordanne:

Chardonnay 2006, Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $40
Chardonnay 2006, Village Reserve $40
Chardonnay 2006, Le Grand Clos $65
Pinot Noir 2005, La Petite Vineyard $35
Pinot Noir 2006, La Petite Vineyard $40
Pinot Noir 2006, Village Reserve $40
Pinot Noir 2006, Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard $40
Pinot Noir 2006, Le Grand Clos $70