Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, CanadaThomas Bachelder is one of Canada's leading chardonnay and pinot noir specialists honed through time in Bourgogne and Oregon and years in the vineyards of his Niagara home base. Ouest is a powerful, structural white sourced from a site under 7km from Lake Ontario, at 160m (the hill of Wingfield), and from 30-year-old vines on sloping, dolomitic limestone soils. After a native ferment, this rested in French oak (none new) for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Weighty and powerful, with honeysuckle, yellow plum, yellow apple, meringue, wild herbs, broken stones, lemon pith, wild herbs, and crushed flake salts that dot the palate, lingering on the lengthy saline finish. Drinking beautifully now and with time ahead.Tasted: 17 June 2022Tasted by: Prices:
ON
$47.95
750ml
winery online/direct
Producer: Mary et Thomas Delaney-Bachelder et FillesDistributors: Winery Direct Grape: ChardonnayUPC: 185729000415
Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, CanadaThe Wismer-Wingfield chardonnay fruit is the latest ripening parcel at Bachelder. It's also "the furthest from Lake Ontario (6.8 km!), at the highest elevation (169 metres at the very top)." Long hangtime always makes for intense flavours, which you get in this wine. If Bachelder were in charge of Ontario's, hell, Canada's jumble of wine classifications, he would be sure to have a Cru level, and this label would be one of them. The palate is all about power and length, and as it ages, it will get even more intense. Look for a saline style of chardonnay with richness and mouth-filling qualities over a stony mineral chalky undercurrent, adding complexity and length. Drink or hold; there is no rush here.Tasted: 29 November 2021Tasted by: Prices:
ON
$47.95
750ml
winery online/direct
Producer: Mary et Thomas Delaney-Bachelder et FillesDistributors: Winery Direct Grape: ChardonnayUPC: 185729000415