Domaine Le Clos Jordanne Jordan Village Chardonnay 2023 (Niagara) - Wine Review

Tonight's white wine review is a lovely Chardonnay from Niagara that was featured in the September 12 LCBO VINTAGES New Release Collection as part of the thematic on "Local Wines You'll Love" from Ontario. This wine is also a VINTAGES Essentials product that is always (and widely) available at LCBO outlets across the province.

Like the excellent 2023 Le Grand Clos Chardonnay and 2023 Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir wines I enjoyed a couple of weeks ago, this white wine is produced by Domaine Le Clos Jordanne (DLCJ), a unique joint-venture winery project that was first established in 2000. The goal of the project was to establish a 'domaine' in Ontario's Niagara Peninsula and produce ultra-premium Canadian VQA wines from Burgundy's classic grape varieties – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Le Clos Jordanne released its first wines in 2007, with Thomas Bachelder as the winemaker. While the project was paused in 2016, it was revived in 2019 by Arterra Wines Canada in a new partnership with Thomas. The signature style of cool-climate wines produced from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir was also revived, along with the philosophies of low intervention and terroir expression. The wines of DLCJ are crafted using sustainable winemaking practices, with a focus on delivering the best and most authentic expression of Burgundian-style wines through the lens of Niagara terroir.

After years of nomadic winemaking, Domaine Le Clos Jordanne established a permanent home in 2024 by opening its doors at the former Angel's Gate property on the Beamsville Bench sub-appellation in the heart of the Niagara Peninsula. Today, DLCJ uses innovative New World practices combined with time-honoured Burgundian techniques, such as harvesting and sorting the grapes by hand. Every step of the process, from vineyard to bottle, receives careful consideration. Alongside Thomas, the winemaking team consists of Phillip Brown (Associate Winemaker) and Kerri Crawford (Assistant Winemaker).

First crafted in the 2019 vintage, the Jordan Village Chardonnay is made with fruit from selected parcels in all three estate vineyards – Claystone Terrace, Le Clos Jordanne, and Talon Ridge – into one terroir blend. The older vines are now deeply rooted and produce exciting wines with clarity, intent, nobility, ageability, and a sense of place. While the Le Grand Clos Chardonnay offers a snapshot of a hyper-localized expression of place, the Jordan Village showcases place on a macro approach that captures Jordan's Escarpment region as a whole. The Claystone Terrace and Le Clos Jordanne vineyards are a mere two hundred metres apart from each other (near King St. and Jordan Rd.) on the first rise of the Twenty Mile Bench, while the Talon Ridge Vineyard is located on the final rise and at the top of the plateau of Vinemount Ridge (off 17th Ave. in Jordan Station). Although each of these vineyards provides its own special characteristics, there is a throughline that connects each vineyard and its blocks to each other and their shared home in Jordan.

For this vintage, this 100% Chardonnay is crafted with 38% Talon Ridge Vineyard, 37% Claystone Terrace Vineyard, and 25% Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard fruit. All the grapes were hand-picked when they felt the flavours were "there" – with thick skins, ripe, starting to soften, and in good sanitary condition. They wanted the seeds to be completely brown, an indicator of true phenolic ripeness. The grapes were manually sorted and gently whole-cluster pressed. After the juice (or 'must') settled in tank for a couple of days, the naturally clear juice was allowed to start wild yeast fermentation in tank before being transferred into 228 L French oak barrels (approximately 20% new) to complete the long and slow fermentation. The wine remained in barrels for 20+ months, after which it underwent malolactic fermentation. The barrels chosen for Domaine Le Clos Jordanne wines are specifically selected to deliver and express the terroir of the wines, not mask it. Each lot is tasted systematically, barrel-by-barrel, over the course of many months, and only those truly representative of the terroir of each individual parcel are selected, blended, and then bottled and aged for a minimum of six months prior to release.

In 2023, the growing season in Niagara was a classic vintage with no major curve balls. It began with a slightly mild winter followed by a relatively warm spring, which resulted in early bud break. Summer was classical, with occasional heatwaves followed by big thunderstorms, which meant being vigilant in the vineyard. Harvest was hard and fast, with a beautiful, dry, and warm fall. From a great vintage, let's see how this 2023 Chardonnay from Niagara is tasting tonight...

Tasting Note:

DOMAINE LE CLOS JORDANNE JORDAN VILLAGE CHARDONNAY 2023 - VQA West Niagara, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada (#20455) (XD) - $30.00
Screw cap enclosure. The medium+ intensity nose takes some coaxing to reveal ripe golden apple, pear, lemon, and melon aromas nuanced with vanilla, butter, and spice, plus whiffs of flinty mineral and mealy notes. Quite complex. On the dry, medium-full to full-bodied, creamy palate it has lovely ripe apple, lemon, vanilla, buttered toast, and sweet spice flavours, plus some earthy minerality that appears on the mid-palate. It is good structure with fresh, juicy, and mouth-watering acidity. Savoury with earthy and flinty mineral notes linger on the long, and very juicy finish. Highly recommended buy! Score: 91+ pts

A few other wines by Domaine Le Clos Jordanne are available at the LCBO, while the full range can be ordered direct from the winery or through Arterra Wines Canada.

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Domaine Le Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos Chardonnay 2023 and Pinot Noir 2023 (Niagara) - Wine Reviews

Tonight's wine reviews are a pair of excellent, premium wines from Niagara that arrived as part of the feature on "Local Wines You'll Love" from Ontario in the recent September 12 LCBO VINTAGES New Release Collection.

Both of these wines are produced by Domaine Le Clos Jordanne (DLCJ), a unique Franco-Canadian winery project that was established in 2000 as a partnership between the Boisset Family in Burgundy and Ontario-based Vincor Canada. The goal of this joint venture was to establish a 'domaine' in Ontario's Niagara Peninsula and produce ultra-premium Canadian VQA wines from Burgundy's classic grape varieties – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

The first wines were introduced to the marketplace in 2007, with Thomas Bachelder as the original winemaker. He developed the brand's signature style around cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, low intervention, and terroir expression. The wines were crafted using sustainable winemaking practices, with a focus on delivering the best and most authentic expression of Burgundian-style wines through the lens of Niagara terroir. This approach led to international recognition and critical acclaim.

In 2016, the original Le Clos Jordanne project was paused before being revived in 2019 by Arterra Wines Canada in a new partnership with Thomas. After years of nomadic winemaking, the brand established a permanent home in 2024 by opening the Domaine Le Clos Jordanne winery at the former Angel's Gate property on the Beamsville Bench sub-appellation in the heart of the Niagara Peninsula. Today, DLCJ uses innovative New World practices combined with time-honoured Burgundian techniques, such as harvesting and sorting the grapes by hand. Every step of the process, from vineyard to bottle, receives careful consideration. Alongside Thomas, the winemaking team consists of Phillip Brown (Associate Winemaker) and Kerri Crawford (Assistant Winemaker).

These wines form Le Clos Jordanne's top-tier "Le Grand Clos" range, which is their mission to hone in on the "filet mignon" of the Clos Jordanne vineyard and their finest expression of the Jordan Bench terroir. Le Clos Jordanne's estate vineyard is located about 14 km east of the winery on a premium parcel of the Jordan Bench, on the first rise from the plain, a natural plateau near the slope of the Niagara Escarpment. The vineyard features limestone-laced silt and clay glacial soils, which are known for bringing intensely focused fruit, minerality, and ageability to the resulting wines. Both the Le Grand Clos Chardonnay and Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir come from blocks located on the western side of the vineyard – a happenstance of aspect, altitude, drainage, and geology. The Chardonnay is from Block 1, while the Pinot Noir is from Blocks 3 and 7.

The vineyards are farmed both traditionally and sustainably in order to preserve the natural balance of the vines and maintain the parcel's terroir specifics and quality of fruit. Each vine is tended to by hand, from pruning through to harvest, with the vines pruned to either a single- or double-Guyot cane system. Some of the tasks in the vineyard include leaf stripping, which takes place on the eastern side of the vine, exposing the clusters to more sun and airflow, promoting healthy ripening and helping to prevent disease. The soil in the vineyard is managed to nurture and maintain a natural level of microbiological life. Every other row is cultivated, alternating yearly, leaving a varied cover crop in the remaining rows. This creates competition in the root system while allowing the topsoil to remain loose and aerobic. Each year, every second row of the soil is broken up (deep-ripped) in order to aerate the soil structure and help avoid compaction.

To craft this Chardonnay, hand-harvesting began slowly and meticulously on October 7, picking only the best bunches. The fruit was whole-bunch pressed, and the full tank of free-run juice was racked into French oak barrels, where it would remain for the next 18 months. The juice underwent wild yeast fermentation, followed by malolactic fermentation on its lees. During this process, Thomas, Kerri, and Phillip would go through each individual barrel, watching the process slowly unfold, and nearing the end of élevage, a selection of 33 barrels, seven of them being first fills, were blended and bottled.

To craft this Pinot Noir, the grapes were hanging beautifully with thick skins and great flavours when it was decided to hand-harvest on October 2 due to unseasonably warm weather and a heatwave in the short-range forecast. After hand-sorting and destemming, the grapes were placed into multiple fermentation tanks, separated by individual blocks, and allowed to naturally warm as the wild yeast began the fermentation process. After about a month, with daily pump-overs or punch-downs, the ferment was complete and the free-run wine was placed into 48 barrels, a combination of both first-fill and previous-fill barrels. After a fairly long period of ageing in barrel, the final wine was selected from 19 barrels, four of them being first fills, and then blended and bottled.

In 2023, the growing season in Niagara was a pretty classic vintage for the region, with no major curveballs. It began with a slightly mild winter followed by a warm spring, which meant early budbreak. Summer featured occasional heatwaves, along with big thunderstorms, which meant vigilant viticultural practices were needed. Harvest time arrived hard and fast with a beautiful, dry, and warm fall, with all the grapes harvested and processed within a very short 22-day window, ending on October 24. There were a handful of extra-long days and a few sleepless nights, but the passionate crew worked tirelessly to give the fruit and wines the attention and love they demanded and deserved. From a great vintage, let's see how these 2023 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from Niagara are tasting tonight...

Tasting Notes:

DOMAINE LE CLOS JORDANNE LE GRAND CLOS CHARDONNAY 2023 - VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario, Canada (#184549) (XD) - $55.00
Screw cap. Lovely, rich, and layered aromas of medium-high intensity deliver perfectly ripe apple and pear notes nuanced with vanilla, citrus, oak spice, butter, and mealy complexity. On the dry, full-bodied palate it is rich and flavourful with lovely orchard fruit and stone fruit, apple, pear, lemon citrus, and melon joined by oak spice, vanilla, and butter flavours in a complex profile. Impressively textured with an almost chalky mouthfeel. Some leesy notes add further complexity on the mid-palate. Lemon citrus and apple notes taper to savoury with leesy mineral, gentle oak spice, and vanilla notes on the exceptionally long finish. Highly recommended buy! Score: 93+ pts

DOMAINE LE CLOS JORDANNE LE GRAND CLOS PINOT NOIR 2023 - VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario, Canada (#184564) (XD) - $55.00
Screw cap. The medium-high intensity nose has crushed ripe raspberry and spice aromas with oak accents, plus whiffs of black cherry, earthy mushroom, beet root, and clove add complexity. The weighty, medium+ bodied has a nice, chalky textured mouthfeel and fresh acidity. It's dry and ripe with delicious dark raspberry, earthy mushroom, beet root, oak spice flavours, plus some notes of clove , white pepper, and stony mineral. It has grainy, chalky textured tannins with good structure and tension. Dark raspberry and spice notes taper to savoury, stony minerals on the long, chalky textured finish. Highly recommended buy! Score: 93 pts

A couple of wines by Domaine Le Clos Jordanne are available as VINTAGES Essentials at the LCBO, while the full range of wines can be ordered direct from the winery in Niagara or through Arterra Wines Canada.

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