May 24, 2014 - Lovely burgundy like Chardonnay. Drinking beautifully.
September 14, 2013 - 14% d'alcool, 100% Chardonnay
Oeil : paille soutenue, légèrement dorée, viscosité plutôt forte en parois
Nez : projection d'intensité 5/10, frais, austère à l'ouverture, il a beaucoup évolué au cours de la première heure d'ouverture, notes minérales, saline, de fruits jaunes et blancs, touche miellée, touche de fleurs blanches, touche boisée, touche de paille séchée, crème fraîche, touche végétale, un relent épicé, très invitant
Bouche : sec, ample, acidité rafraîchissante, amertume moyenne, persistance moyenne+, rétro fruitée, florale, minérale, végétale, épicée
Conclusion : superbe de fraîcheur et d'élégance, conservant un caractère bien Nouveau-Monde avec avec une superbe retenue qui en fait un vin tout en équilibre et fort apprécié par toute la tablée. Possiblement à son apogée. 90-91
February 16, 2012 - Belle minéralité. Très belle longueur. Acidité en équilibre avec la charpente du vin.
January 2, 2012 - I think this represents well just about everything I can reasonably expect from an Ontario chardonnay of quality. My advice to those experimenting is to jump straight to this to judge the area, then move on.
December 26, 2010 - Generally LCJ wines score higher for us, but this one started out a bit rough, with some unusual notes for the varietal, very good, but not in the 'outstanding' realm that we've experienced before with this winery, perhaps in a 'dumb' phase? - Light gold, medium bodied with a nose of petrol, vaseline, apple, pear, caramel, butterscotch and vanilla, interesting, balanced, sweet on the palate with good length (87 Points).
November 15, 2010 - Servi à l'apéro après un Mumm Napa. Bu sur 1 h30, vraiment délicieux.
October 30, 2010 - WINEMAKER’S NOTES
Located just 300 meters east of our Le Clos Jordanne Estate Vineyard,
Claystone Terrace is essentially a mirror image of Le Clos Jordanne
Vineyard, separated by a thin, treed ravine. The wine, however, could
not be more different in style. The beauty of the bench’s variety of
soils is apparent in this more masculine Chardonnay: from the moment
you put your nose in the glass, you can sense the virility and minerality
of this wine. Claystone Terrace Chardonnay 2007 is less up-front, more
masculine, more tightly-wound than Le Clos Jordanne next door
(as is the Claystone Terrace Pinot Noir), but remains a beautifully-rich,
lanolin-textured Chardonnay with layered overtones of melon, pear,
anise, and fresh floral stone fruit. The 2007 vintage is muscular, with
a ‘chewing on pebbles’ minerality and an acid grip that is somehow
steelier than the other wines.
Drinking Prime: 2010-2013 and beyond.
VINE MANAGEMENT
Our vineyards were all certified organic (ECOCERT, September 2005)
after 3 years pre-certification. Low yields also ensure that the grapes
achieve maximum ripeness given Ontario’s shorter growing season due
to our later spring start. Each vine is cared for by hand, including
pruning; shoot-thinning and positioning; leaf plucking; green and hand
harvesting. Synthetic fertilizers are never used, nor are synthetic fungicides,
pesticides or herbicides. At véraison, all vineyards are completely netted
to protect our small yields, as well as to prevent the diseases brought
on by multiple bird pecks. We are endeavouring to make wines that
express their ‘sense of place’, and in order to do this, we must strive to
be stewards of both the land and our vines.
GROWING SEASON & HARVEST
2007 was a drought year. Some remember it as a hot summer, but
mostly it was very dry. 2005 was much hotter, and even 2004 had a
hotter September. On the Jordan Bench, there was nary a drop of rain
from mid-July through September. The fruit was harvested under
optimum conditions; the yields in Chardonnay were bang-on, and the
resulting wines richly fruity, tight and mineral, and sure to be long-lived.
It was an atypical year for the region, but one that we celebrate as it has
brought us white and red wines that, while approachable fairly young,
will live for a long, long time. The weather stayed dry and warm and
the lovely sunshine continued through picking, fermentation and
barrelling. As usual, we made a strict selection of the best grapes on
the sorting table, but the fruit was of an irreproachable quality and
cleanliness. By carefully watching our yields and picking date, we
were able to retain freshness and character in a drought year: we are
especially proud of this. The Claystone Terrace Chardonnay was
harvested on the 23rd and 24th of September, 2007.
C L A Y S T O N E T E R R A C E
2007
C H A R D O N N A Y
VINIFICATION
This Chardonnay was hand-harvested, and gently whole-cluster pressed
in a Vaslin-Bucher press using the longest, slowest and most gentle
possible ‘Crémant’ setting. The must was naturally settled for 24 hours,
drawn off the lees, conserving the fluffiest lees for yeast nutrition. The
juice was then drawn and gently placed into barrel for fermentation
with indigenous yeasts from the Claystone Terrace vineyard.
AGING
Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally in the spring following the
vintage. The wines and lees were stirred once per week during the aging
period until that time. The barrels are a mixture of air-dried staves
from the Allier and Vosges forests, are coopered into chestnut-hooped
barrels sourced primarily from Damy of Meursault, who are experts at
showcasing terroir: not oak. This wine spent 17 months in 15% new
oak barrels. The used-barrel portion of the cuvée (roughly 85%) includes
precise percentages of barrels that have been previously used one to
four times to ensure the purity of the terroir is properly showcased,
and the resulting wine never heavy-handed. This Claystone Terrace
Chardonnay was bottled on April 23rd, 2009.
November 29, 2009 - Subtle oak, very high minerality, overall very good.