About Us
About Le Clos Jordanne
Canadian Winemaker Thomas Bachelder spearheaded the original project, building on the cool climate, low-intervention, terroir revealing winemaking techniques he had developed during years spent making wine in Burgundy and Oregon.
The craft
The goal of Le Clos Jordanne was to create a “domaine” in the Niagara region, producing ultra-premium, Burgundian-style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, expressive of the unique terroir of the Jordan Bench.
Meet the winemaker
THOMAS BACHELDER is an internationally recognized Canadian winemaker - and Le Clos Jordanne’s original founding winemaker - with a speciality in the production of cool climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
His terroir-revealing wines with distinct, complex minerality helped to propel a young Niagara region into the global spotlight in the mid to late 2000s. His efforts were instrumental in showcasing how old world, Burgundian winemaking techniques employed on new world terroir - with minimal intervention
The Land
Our beginnings
The vineyards, hand-selected for their similarities in both their climate and the clay and limestone-rich soil to Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, were planted with ultra-premium rootstock imported directly from Burgundy. The low yield vines were harvested using an unhurried approach - hand-picked, hand-sorted and moved using a gravity flow system that ensured careful handling.
These techniques, combined with Bachelder’s expertise in cool-climate winemaking, led to wines that truly raised the bar on quality for the Canadian wine industry
The wine
Critical acclaim
The first batch of Le Clos Jordanne wines were released in 2007 to great critical acclaim. In 2009, the 2005 Claystone Terrace Chardonnay generated global praise after winning first place in the Judgement of Montreal competition, showing the truly exceptional capabilities of the Niagara region and beating out favoured competitors from France and California.
It was only the second wine Le Clos produced.
Present and future
Continued Excellence
In June 2019, Arterra Wines Canada announced a new partnership with Thomas Bachelder to rebirth the beautiful wines of the Le Clos Jordanne and bring the prominence of this great vineyard back into the Canadian and international spotlight.
With a renewed focus on and attention to the Niagara region’s unique terroir, Le Clos will continue to produce Burgundian-style New World Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with finesse, complexity and elegance.
Soil. Climate. Location.
Le Clos Jordanne is surrounded and sheltered by Carolinian forests and their glacial ravines. The limestone-laced, silt and clay soils bring intensely focused fruit, minerality and age-ability to the wines produced there.
Two vines, great wines
Like its Burgundian counterparts, Le Clos Jordanne holds to the Burgundy varietals of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, producing wine from only these two grape varietals. The vines were imported directly from France and are from mixed Burgundian Dijon clones.
Spaced tightly together, the Le Clos Jordanne vines better colonize the land, resulting in lower yields. However, the fruit that does develop is a higher quality, because it enjoyed wider access to the nutrients in the soils, and the sun’s energy and goodness.
Quality Production
The winery is one of the few in Niagara that covers their vines with white netting to protect the grapes from the hungry birds. These nets are put on select vines at véraison (the time when the grapes begin to change colour) preventing the birds from attacking the darkening grapes, which would make them more susceptible to rot and disease. White nets are used to help the canopy absorb the sun’s heat, allowing Le Clos Jordanne’s vineyards to exhibit the best of Niagara’s terroir.
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