Le Clos Jordanne is one of Canada's most celebrated wineries, but it has not had a permanent home for open to the public for touring and tasting until now.Le Clos Jordanne
Twenty years after making its first wine, Le Clos Jordanne is settling into a permanent home in Beamsville, Ont. One of Canada’s most celebrated wine producers, Le Clos (as winery workers typically call it, dropping the affected French pronunciation of the town of Jordan) never had a winery or tasting room to call its own until now.
Wine lovers were limited to buying bottles of Le Clos Jordanne’s wines from liquor stores, online or at restaurants. There wasn’t a location open to the public for touring and tasting. No tasting room selling branded T-shirts, ballcaps or fleece vests to buy to broadcast their good taste.
“This is a new era for Le Clos Jordanne,” says winemaker Thomas Bachelder, who served as winemaker until 2009 and was called back to oversee the revival of the brand in 2017. “The original promise of the project is finally being realized, with an expanded mission that includes the original Jordan vineyards and new ones on the Beamsville Bench.”
Bachelder produced the first vintage of Le Clos Jordanne chardonnay and pinot noir in 2003, working out of the cellar at Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The operation, which was a joint-venture between Vincor Canada (now Arterra Wines Canada) and the Burgundy-based Boisset Family Estates, would move to a nondescript green building on the South Service Road in Jordan that was to be a temporary home until a showplace winery designed by Frank Gehry was to be built in the centre of the Le Clos Jordanne vineyard that’s bordered by Carolinian forests.
In 2009, Le Clos Jordanne’s Claystone Terrace Chardonnay 2005 beat out wines from top producers from Burgundy and California to win a blind tasting called the Judgement of Montreal, which was modelled after the famous Paris tasting in 1976 that helped raise the profile of California wines around the world. That win helped inspire a group of like-minded chardonnay producers in Ontario to create the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration in 2011. The annual event, which runs through Sunday (July 23) at various locations in Niagara wine country, brings together Chardonnay producers from around the world to focus attention on the attributes and appeal of top-quality examples.
Le Clos’s would continue to receive high scores and praise from Canadian and international critics. Behind the scenes, however, there were growing pains. The partnership with the Boisset family dissolved, leaving Vincor Canada as the sole proprietor. Vincor was taken over by the American-owned Constellation Brands in 2006, one of the world’s largest wine producers, and the passion behind a Canadian success story like Le Clos Jordanne dimmed.
Projected costs for Gehry’s vision of an undulating steel structure that was designed to “look like a silver cloud floating over the vineyard” was the only thing to soar. The ambitious project never broke ground. Additional grape vines were planted to cover the location for Gehry’s warped structure.
Winemaker Thomas Bachelder worked with the winery until 2009, and produced the first vintage of Le Clos Jordanne chardonnay and pinot noir in 2003. He was called back to oversee the revival of the brand in 2017.Le Clos Jordanne
Le Clos Jordanne production declined. The brand eventually ceased operation in 2016 following the disastrous winters of 2014 and 2015, which greatly reduced grape production from the estate vineyards in Jordan. The wines produced from Niagara’s exciting 2012 vintage sent it out on a high note.
Le Clos 2.0
After parting ways with Le Clos Jordanne, Bachelder took on consulting roles with several emerging chardonnay and pinot noir-focused wineries in Niagara, including Domaine Queylus, while he and his family developed their own brand, Bachelder wines. Despite his busy schedule, there wasn’t a question in Bachelder’s mind about embracing this second chance to reach Le Clos Jordanne’s true potential.
“Le Clos has been my passion project,” he said in 2019 when the new wines were unveiled. “How could I not be a part of its renaissance?”
Arterra has taken a cautious approach to reviving the brand. In 2017 and 2018, they produced only the top-of-the-line Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir and Le Grand Clos Chardonnay as a signal that quality was the priority going forward. Le Clos Jordanne’s affordable Village label was revived in 2019 and the lineup expanded to include a chardonnay and a pinot noir produced from the Claystone Terrace Vineyard, adjacent to the Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard, in 2020.
Rumours about a potential home for Le Clos Jordanne started as soon as Arterra completed the acquisition of Angels Gate Winery and Kew Estate Vineyards Winery in May. The deal included more than 190 acres of vineyards, including chardonnay and pinot noir as well as merlot, cabernet sauvignon and some of the oldest plantings of riesling in Niagara, planted in 1975 on the Kew property on King Street.
Kew operates out of a century-old farmhouse, with lots of intimate nooks for tasting the stellar sparkling wines they produce. The larger Angels Gate property was the more suitable home for Le Clos Jordanne. It is ideally situated on Mountainview Road, a busy part of the Niagara wine route, with existing buildings that will afford a spacious tasting room and dedicated winemaking facility. (The additional sales channel at the cellar door is sure to benefit Le Clos Jordanne’s long-term profitability considering most of the wine produced in Ontario is sold in Ontario.)
Moving forward, the Le Clos Jordanne portfolio will expand to include chardonnay and pinot noir from the Beamsville estate vineyards, while other Arterra brands, such as Jackson-Triggs and Inniskillin, will use the other grape varieties. Having another source for grapes will help Le Clos Jordanne not only increase its production, but could help to mitigate against the frost and winter injury issues that have affected the original vineyards in Jordan.
It isn’t often that companies change a winery’s brand in such a fashion. The changeover to Le Clos Jordanne created three job losses, including Angels Gate vice-president of production Philip Dowell, who made the wines at Angels Gate Winery and Kew Vineyards. (Dowell originally came to Canada in 1998 to be Inniskillin’s winemaker. When he started at Angels Gate in 2007, the winery owned 23 acres of vineyards and produced 5,000 cases of wine.)
“We will remain as Angels Gate winery until renovations are complete,” explained Arterra senior manager, Isabelle Méplon. Angels Gate existing inventory will be sold. A grand opening for Le Clos Jordanne will be scheduled once the remodelling has been completed.