Tasting Notes The 2024 La Violette collection features eight single vineyard wines and one vineyard blended gamay called Les Villages. Of the eight, four are from Niagara-on-the-Lake, and four from the Niagara Escarpment, a balance not found in Bachelder’s multi-site chardonnay and pinot noir releases. Which leads to a comment that gamay can do very well in warmer Niagara-on-the-Lake, offering more colour depth, weight and roundness — in a style a bit closer to Beaujolais itself, especially from older vine sites like Bai Xu and Willms. Whereas the cooler Bench sites render a paler appearance and more linear, higher acid style, yet impressive flavour intensity, especially the Wismer-Foxcroft and Wismer-Wingfield. Virtually all of them are solidly in the gamay red-fruit zone, with various incarnations of strawberry, red cherry and pomegranate seed. Almost all show red rose florality, some are peppery and herbal, some less so. Oak is barely present thanks to ageing in older neutral French oak, more to soften and grace the texture. They are medium weight, all registering in the 12.5% to 13% alcohol range, some showing fine tannin. The degree of herbality and tannin is influenced by the percentage of whole clusters with stems, included during the fermentation. Helpfully, those percentages are included on the labels. Overall, the length of finish in this set of wines is excellent, with only Les Villages and Haynes falling into “very good” range. More detail on each wine can be found at WineAlign.com, but the real joy of this exercise is trying them all, comparing and learning the lessons of Niagara’s terroir. The set would make a terrific tasting this spring and summer with about 12 people assembled.
Backgrounder Quebec-raised Thomas Bachelder started out as a wine writer but veered into winemaking in Burgundy after a visit there in the 1990s. Pinot and chardonnay have been his calling ever since, taking him to Oregon, then to Niagara to head up a Franco-Canadian joint venture in 2003 called Le Clos Jordanne, which he still oversees. But his own venture, with partner Mary Delaney, is an exploration of Niagara terroirs in detail. He sources fine organically farmed sites around Niagara, many with older vines, to demonstrate the region’s diversity and quality potential. In 2019 he created the La Violette release (with five wines) to indulge “our love affair with Gamay Noir — first kindled in France.” But he has never tried to replicate Beaujolais because Niagara’s limestone soils differ from Beaujolais granites. He’s out to prove that gamay can be a fine, terroir-driven wine – and much more than a light, fruity charmer. To reveal this, his winemaking is minimalistic, using indigenous yeast and all but neutral barrels, with very little handling.
Love this whole post, David. Thank you.