Closson Chase
Producer Website
from Janis Robinson article (http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a200908181.html )
Just to demonstrate, after yesterday's onslaught, that I am not anti-Canadian, I am highlighting arguably the two finest producers in Ontario as my wines of the week.
First, Deborah Paskus of Closson Chase, a relatively new outfit in a very new and exciting wine region, Prince Edward County, where Closson Chase is now far from the only producer but is certainly the most impressive to have come my way. Vines were first planted here in 1999, in shallow soils on fractured limestone, thus dictating Burgundian varieties Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Vines have been planted on a slope leading down to the north shore of Lake Ontario, thus benefiting from the warming lake effect despite the high latitude and extremely continental climate. In fact, the winter of 2004/5 was so cold and there was such damage that vines are now routinely, painstakingly and expensively banked up every winter and released from their protective mound in the spring. But the limestone really does seem to have brought something special to the Chardonnays in particular, which seem to be outstanding by any measure. There's a highly successful unoaked Chablis style called Sans Chêne as well as regrettably small volumes of an oak-aged bottling. We have served them blind to wine professionals with top white burgundies and, quite literally, amazed and astounded our friends.This is perhaps not so surprising as Deborah Paskus established such a track record for top Chardonnay in Niagara, where some of the grapes were sourced for early Closson Chase vintages before the Prince Edward County vines matured.
Don't ask me what's going on in the picture of Paskus, taken by Clay Stang for Air Canada's EnRoute magazine, but do be aware that Closson Chase is an exciting private enterprise, one of whose major investors is Seaton McLean, formerly of Alliance Atlantis Communications, who made a big fuss here in the Financial Post a few months back about the iniquities of Canadian wine labelling regulations. (Go, Seaton!)
Closson Chase's Pinot Noir is more of a work in progress