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 When I received an invite to a media tasting of Le Clos Jordanne wines, I replied in seconds flat. Who in the wine community had not heard of this upstart Ontario winery whose chardonnay won a “Judgement of Montreal” tasting in 2008, beating out competitors from France and California. And that wine, the 2005 Claystone Vineyard Chard, was only the wineries second vintage. Who were these Jordanne guys and where did they come from?
At the January tasting in the dining room of the Terminal City Club, I got answers from none other than the winemaker himself, Tom Bachelder, who spoke passionately about terroir. Bachelder is from Montreal, but he’s practically French, having trained in Burgundy and spent much of his wine making career there. LCJ is a collaboration between Vincor Canada and Famille Boisset of France, so terrior naturally plays a key part of the Le Clos Jordanne story.
The winery owns four organically farmed vineyards near the town of Jordan Station on the Niagara Escarpment, a limestone bench that stretches over the falls and into the U.S. What Bachelder is trying to achieve with his single vineyard chardonnays and pinot noirs is clear distinction between the lots to give pure expression of terrior.
Here are my notes:
2006 Claystone Chardonnay is a big, elegant wine with a full mouth feel, round baked apple and apricot flavours, accentuated by caramel and vanilla. Though it finishes clean, with slight mineral notes, the oak treatment kind of dilutes its Frenchyness and adds Californication. Still, impressive. $40.
2006 Grand Clos Chardonnay has a similar roundness, but with livelier, fresher acidity and less oak. Endowed with tropical citrus fruit, it has an exquisitely long finish that cuts with a steely edge. My preference. $55.
2006 Claystone Pinot Noir has spice, flowers, wood, and gamey wild raspberries and cherries. Beautiful acidity, fresh fruit and hints of mineral make this a heady wine. $45.
2006 Grand Clos Pinot Noir is a more feminine pinot with warm red fruit and orangey, candied citrus notes. Brilliantly elegant and smooth in texture, it’s very seductive. A date wine. $70.
Le Clos Jordanne also blends the vineyards into entry-level Village Reserve wines. The excellent 2006 Village Pinot was the earthiest of the bunch and tasted well worth $30.
Ok, I’m impressed. Now, I’m just wondering when and where I can get these puppies in Vancouver restaurants and stores. I’ll let you know when it appears at Everything Wine, and please tell me if your company has them now.
And, happy St. Patty’s to all who would be green.
 I’m not dead, just blogging elsewhere.
It was that darned holiday season that pulled me away from here three months ago. With plans for three weeks in Southern California, I forced myself to crank out four advance posts for the Everything Wine store blog in one week, and I never got back to my own blog. Then, as a new years resolution, I decided to redesign the place in Word Press – finally.
But before I could launch this new page theme, the Olympic circus came to town and my job at Canada Hockey Place inhaled my life. Twelve days straight with one day off over sixteen different games that all looked like hockey Halloween. I’ve never clapped nor whoo-hooed so hard in my life.
 Though I haven’t been blogging as much, I have added seven new Olympics videos to my Winetalker Youtube channel including my four part series, Better Know a Colbert. I knew he would be at Pride House that week, and on the way to my CHP job I asked a show crewmember when he was scheduled to be there. 6 pm Thursday I just walked upstairs at Qmunity, signed a release, and watched the Can v Suisse game until the man showed up and stayed all of fifteen minutes. So far, Colbert Report has not broadcast this footage, but I have it online. More Vancouverage is coming soon.
Also, I re-scanned and uploaded a new set of images from my old Deadhead Families portrait project, circa 1989. Just looking at them makes me hear Jerry’s voice.
On the wine front, I have plans to review wines from Trio Vintners, Wertzberger Cellars and Le Clos Jordanne, so please come back soon.
And, yea Canada! You deserved it all.
 Natalie MacLean is a gal who likes her wine buzz. The Ottawa-based wine writer says as much on page seven of her book, Red and White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. Right up front, she states,” I wouldn’t be writing about wine if it weren’t for the buzz.” How can she be any more honest? Despite having alcoholism in the family, she comes right out and admits to what few wine writers will: they like to catch a jag.
I’ll second that emotion.
Nat’s wine writing has been awarded numerous James Beard and MFK Fisher awards and she writes an immensily popular e-newsletter called Nat Decants, which has become a powerhouse of vinformation since it began in 2001. I especially like the wine and a food matcher, accessible on the right panel of this page.
 But, for all the wine knowledge she dispenses to the masses – did I mentioned she is an accredited sommelier? – Natalie’s history lacks front line experience. She’s never worked the service side of wine or food, nor the distribution or retail sector, or in the winegrowing fields.
In an attempt to put some balance in her wine life, Nat set out for wine regions she’d never visited to get the first-hand experience she’s been craving and to write a book about the wines she’d drunk all over.
Chapters on tasting in Burgundy, Champagne, Bordeaux are rich with descriptive prose and insight about the ancient producers there. And the chapter with author Jay McInerney is like soaking your brain in alcohol. But the chapters I enjoyed the most were the ones where little Miss Intellectual rolls up her sleeves and dives into one-day wine jobs. Like a vinicultural George Plimpton, this is where Nat is at her most vulnerable best, literally.
In Undercover Sommelier, she dribbles red wine on a table she is serving and gets a cold shoulder from the customer. She writes, “For the first time in my life I realize what it’s like to feel servile, dismissed,” and you want to say welcome to the real world, princess.
In A Tale of Two Stores she sells wine and decides that “Working in a wine store is a lot like life: you spend most of the time waiting around for just one or two memorable moments, (which you can easily miss because you went to the bathroom.)”
Been there, thought that, too.
And in Harvesting Dreams, Nat gets down and dirty picking grapes in a Bonny Doon vineyard. In a flight of fancy, she says, “At first, I feel like a hero returning to a hometown parade: leafy green vines reach down in front of me on either side, like well-wishers wanting to shake my hand. But after three hours, the streets are deserted and I’m alone. It’s backbreaking work carrying an ever heavier pail…”
Oh, her aching back.
These first-hand experiences form the character arc of this book, and create drama, which is what readers, like me, love. Much of the informational interludes – such as the pages on proper behavior on both sides of the table, which should be read by every foodie on the planet – could have been written from her office in Ottawa. But her real-life situations keep readers from falling asleep from wine theory overload. She writes with wit and wonder, and it’s a treat to see her learn how the wine industry works, being brought along for the ride.
Ok, enough about Natalie MacLean, here’s how you can buy her book, Red and White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
Click on the link here and buy it from Amazon. The original hardback is the cover shown here. The paperback reprint that I got has a “new chapter.” It’s a fun holiday read.
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