BACHELDER NIAGARA CHARDONNAY

Tasting notes:

Bright lemon-yellow in colour. On the nose, lifted ripe lemon notes mix with hints of white stone fruit and flinty mineral nuances. It is medium to full bodied on the palate with a scented stone fruit character and a long and complex mineral finish.  

About the wine:

The grapes for this wine come primarily from the organically-grown Saunders Vineyard (Beamsville Bench) and the Wismer Vineyard on Twenty Mile Bench.

The combination of Niagara‘s strongly continental climate and the Dolomitic limestone-rich soils of these vineyards, imparts great minerality and freshness to the resulting wines.

Harvest is done entirely by hand to ensure careful handling of the grapes. This tenderness and natural approach to the harvest follows through to the winemaking process. The grapes are lightly pressed before fermentation using only wild yeats. Malolactic fermentation took place in carefully selected French oak barrels before an extended period of maturation.

The care in selecting the barrels is paramount, Thomas alsways uses the same cooper ensuring consistency in the barrels. The wine will spend 16 months in these oak barrels after all, best to be sure they are good. 

About the producer:

Thomas Bachelder spent many years as the head wine maker at Le Clos Jordanne in Burgundy before setting up his own wineries. The first vintage in 2009 showed the class of his wines and since then he has gone from strength to strength producing great chardonnay for not only Niagara, but Ontario and Burgundy and Pinot Noir from Oregon and Burgundy. 

A fantastic lunch companion, Thomas is a true enthusiast of winemaking and a real character fast becoming an icon of great handmade wines.