Le Clos Jordanne: Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir

Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir

• Varieties: 100% Pinot Noir
• Type: Red
• Region: Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada
• Alcohol Level: 13.5%

Wine Description:

Both Le Grand Clos Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blocks happen to come from blocks on the western side of the vineyard: a happenstance of aspect, altitude, drainage, geology, and destiny! When tasting the wines from the Le Grand Clos blocks, one often first senses a great brooding tension of fruit and longevity under the mantle of a fine perfume. Simply profound. How the Le Grand Clos parcel defines itself in juxtaposition to that of Claystone Terrace, just several hundred metres away to the east, is astonishing! The purity of the almost 'reluctant volume' here is unbelievable: the terroir wants to be chalky-lean - but carries the regal breadth and weight of a Grand Vin with ease; poise.

Tasting Note:

Typical for this parcel, Le Grand Clos shows impressively-pure, mute but fine stony raspberry fruit, ripe cherries, plums, and dried herbs on the nose, overlaying red currants and red rose petals on the aromatic and dense mid-palate. It has huge drag, and the opulent, perfumed finish is chalk-laden, with wet stone, a hint of clove, and firm, but ripe, ageable, long tannins. Clearly, there is significant improvement to come: this wine still has much to teach us of local "sense of place," and of the longevity of Pinot Noir from the Niagara bench's most august terroirs.