By Rick VanSickle
He’s madly jotting down notes in his journal — a wine savant bible of sorts — and today’s ink colour is black as he writes the final thoughts for his La Toussaint release from Bachelder Wines.
Thomas Bachelder, who as a young man, quickly switched from a career in journalism to become a budding winemaker, has a way with words and that is quite evident in his chaotic jumble of notes that are written in English and French (depending on where he wrote them) and in four colours. He takes notes over the life of each wine he makes in a vintage before it leaves the winery. Starting with the first barrel samples, he writes in green, then to red as the wines progress, on to blue for the penultimate tasting and finally black, the last taste before he sends his babies into the mouths of consumers around the world.
Now, I may have the colour order wrong, but no matter —I am mesmerized by the process, the detail, the dedication, the madness (?) of Bachelder’s ardent sense of purpose — not only in how he goes about the business in making 11 different single-vineyard expressions of Chardonnay and seven expressions of Pinot Noir, but also his precise documentation of the esoteric nuances of the wines over time from barrel to bottle and then to consumers. Who does that? Bachelder does. For. Every. Wine. He. Makes.
You will see many of the tasting notes within the descriptions online for “La Toussaint” (all Saints Day) release, that arrived in Bachelder subscriber’s in-boxes last Friday. Included in the information about the release is an incredibly detailed “Terroir Catalogue” and flip book that outlines each wine. The release is now live, and ordering has begun. Go here for the full release, a body of work that he calls “a cool, classic, crunchy, concentrated, complex and cellarable vintage.”
Last week I sat deep inside the “Bat Cave,” where the magic happens on the Beamsville Bench for Bachelder and his partner in life and business, Mary Delaney, to taste 11 single-vineyard Chardonnays and seven Pinot Noirs. He calls all his wines (aside from the Village series) “Cru” and some “Grand Cru” Niagara and proudly puts vineyard (and even blocks within vineyards) over appellation next and producer last. And, yes, it’s the Burgundian way, but Bachelder clearly has a handle on the various terroirs he has chosen to champion over a significant body of work.
Bachelder always insists that we taste the wines in geographical order — from east to west terroirs across the Niagara Peninsula to paint a picture of the nuances across the region, beginning in Four Mile Creek and ending in Lincoln Lakeshore for the Chardonnays in 2022 and, for the first time, all Bench wines under recently changed VQA rules for Pinot Noirs from St. David’s to Lincoln Lakeshore. I have said this before, while it might be more prudent for some to taste in order of intensity from lighter to fuller bodied, such is not the case here, and not the way Bachelder wants to taste. I fully respect the methodology and love the challenge of finding similar nuances from terroir to terroir as he does, if that is even possible.
Here’s a snapshot (see photo above) of the wines available and the prices, which you might notice are the same as last year. But before we get to the tasting, some notes.
The 2022 vintage
In Wines in Niagara’s vintage report for 2022, the overall harvest was awarded 7½ stars out of 10. Even though tonnage in the 2022 vintage was slashed in half due to a wet fall in 2021, followed by a brief but severe cold episode in the winter of 2022, there are some very good wines from this vintage, especially for the Burgundian grapes of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but it will take astute buying prowess to get them — there just isn’t a lot of it to go around. Some wineries will have more wine than others, depending on how they were impacted by the deep freeze.
Chardonnay seems to be the superstar for the white wines in 2022, with one winemaker calling them “focused, fresh and concentrated.” On the red side, Pinot Noir was touted as having great potential.
Bachelder, in his assessment of the 2022 vintage, acknowledged it is a smaller-than-average vintage, but it produced exceptionally high-quality grapes, “with many of our beloved parcels producing just a couple of barrels — less than 50 cases,” he said. “This is especially true for Pinot Noir, but we have reduced quantities of Chardonnay and Gamay Noir to offer, as well.”
He called the Chardonnays “beautiful, focused, fresh, and concentrated examples that will help define our limestone terroirs for years to come. They are classic, ageable wines.”
On the Pinot Noir side, Bachelder is even more excited. “It is the Burgundian reds that leave us speechless,” he said. “For Pinot Noir, we had not yet seen a vintage like this in Niagara — both cool and rich. This growing season delivered exactly what we love: freshness, vitality, a stunning sense of place, and varietal correctness.”
Bachelder added that the 2022 wines are “well-coloured but not opaque; they are firm, energetic, have pin-point balance, and are heaped with fresh fruit and firm power. Make no mistake — this is an impressive, classic, complex, concentrated and cellarable vintage — a truly ageable vintage for Niagara, but one that will be scarce. Small but utterly beautiful.”
The winemaking
All wines made at Bachelder are from local terroirs, using wild (indigenous) yeasts, and grapes from older vineyard parcels when possible. Low-impact viticulture – especially organics – is preferred wherever possible. Everything goes to French oak barrels for long aging and development. The barrels are carefully chosen for their “transparency” and ability to help express terroir. No new oak is used in any of the Bachelder wines. Knowing that, I will spare you the repeated details in each tasting note below.
“The intent is to make pure, subtle, suavely textured wines that sing lightly and clearly of their vineyard origins, with as little makeup as possible – wines that are finely perfumed and tightly wound, offering the classic refined fruit and textured minerality of the delicate silt, clay and dolomitic limestone-laced ancient lakebed terroirs of Niagara,” said Bachelder.
What’s new?
In Bachelder’s continuing mission to define Niagara’s terroirs, he has added some new vineyards to the portfolio in 2022. New names that you’ll see on the labels include Werner-York and Roadblock. Mio makes its appearance on a Chardonnay (a Mio Gamay was released in April) and BeamCity is back, this time as a single vineyard.
The Wismer name is well-represented on both Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, as befits what Bachelder calls his “Cru” sites. For longstanding fans of those names, and of Willms, Bai Xu, Saunders, Grimsby Hillside and Lowrey, you can add these to your 2022 expression to your cellars.
A final note: My order of tasting notes might not follow exactly how we tasted them strictly from east to west, because, as always, things get crazy at a Bachelder tasting. A wine or two might be out of place, but the photos had to match the wines and that’s how they appear here. Otherwise, I need another four hours for a do-over. Yikes! Here’s what I liked, beginning with the Bench Pinots.
The Pinot Noirs
Bachelder Wines Lowrey Pinot Noir 2022 ($65, 93 points) — On the tail-end of the St. David’s Bench, planted on the shores of the old riverbed of where the Niagara River used to run many moons ago, lies the picturesque Lowrey Vineyard. “It is surely one of the great honours of our lives to work with this special place,” said Bachelder. The oldest, eastern part of the vineyard was planted in 1984 by the Lowrey family for Karl Kaiser (winemaker and co-founder of Inniskillin). Kaiser used the vineyard for his ground-breaking international collaboration Alliance series Inniskillin made with Burgundy’s Jaffelin (Bernard Répolt, now with Rémoissenet). The idea of doing an Alliance brand soon led to the idea of Le Clos Jordanne, that Bachelder and his family eventually moved to Niagara from Oregon to help start. There are lovely notes of violets, earth and cherries on the nose of this pretty Pinot Noir, followed by brambly raspberries and integrated spice notes. It has a luxurious texture and chalky tannins on the palate with rich, earthy red berries, savoury umami notes, a touch of anise and a lifted, long finish. Can age to 2029.
Bachelder Wines Old Eastern Block Pinot Noir 2022 ($75, 94+ points) — As above, but the Eastern Block of the Lowrey Vineyard consists of a blend from the original five rows of Lowrey planted in 1984 and the 1988 plantings. Bachelder is one a few winemakers, including Five Rows Craft Wine (home estate of Lowrey), where the grapes come from, who craft this historic fruit into wine. Bachelder’s MO is to treat this with less oak to show the prettier side while maintaining freshness and finesse. Even more so than other vintages, the 2022 Old Eastern Block shows deep-rooted intensity on the nose with floral perfume notes to go with black raspberries, ripe cherries, beetroot, elegant spices and just a hint of earth and underbrush. The melange of red berries on the palate is bolstered by chalky tannins to go with that certain goût de terroir that shows up every vintage from the Lowrey Vineyard and particularly evident in the older vines. It finishes with fine oak spices along a vibrant, finessed and long, long finish. A perfect bottle for the cellar, say until 2030.
Bachelder Wines Hanck Pinot Noir 2022 ($65, 93 points) — Across the canal and onto the Twenty Mile Bench, the Hanck Vineyard parcel is located just 10 metres across the headland from Wismer-Parke’s Wild West-End parcel. It shares a similar aspect and soil profile to Wismer-Parke, however, it is a little lower in altitude, and a little closer to the lake. In fact, the next three Pinot Noirs are no more than 30 metres apart from each other yet show their own personalities. The Hanck Vineyard Pinot shows earthy, forest floor notes on the nose with anise, black raspberries, savoury notes and spice. It’s mouth-filling, red-fruited, with some truffle/umami qualities, earthy/savoury notes, ripe, polished tannins with lovely modest spice notes on a bright, lifted finish. Can cellar to 2029.
Bachelder Wines Wismer-Parke Pinot Noir 2022 ($60, 93 points) — From the sweet spot on the Twenty Mile Bench, on reddish magnesium and dolomitic-limestone clay soils with a solid silt component, this is one of two expressions of the Wismer-Parke Vineyard. The plumpest and juiciest of the Pinots thus far going east to west with an assertive nose of ripe Morello cherries, black raspberries, forest floor, lavender, crunchy pomegranate and savoury spices. It shows dense red berries, plums and anise on the palate with chalky, ripe tannins, flecks of bloody/iron minerality, earthy/savoury notes on a silky frame and a long, lifted finish. Can cellar until 2031.
Bachelder Wines Wild West End Pinot Noir 2022 ($75, 95+ points) — The same as above, but this is from a specific block planted to a “mystery clone” that intrigued Bachelder as much as the song Wild West End by Dire Straits, hence the name of the wine. I tasted this alongside the 2021 vintage (also at one and then two days in the bottle) to make sure I had a full perspective on this enigmatic and exciting Pinot Noir. It shows more colour in the glass than the 2021 version and has a more robust and floral nose with layers of brambly black raspberries, dark cherries, a touch of cassis, savoury spices and a profound sense of place with all those loamy/earthy/perfumed notes. Such a wonderful, silky texture on the palate and a more elegant, pretty feel with integrated and pure red berries, red currants, anise, some savoury notes, ripe tannins, enticing spice notes and a long, lifted and echoing finish. A gem here just waiting to come into perfect harmony. Give this time, say a year or two and watch it dazzle over the next decade.
Bachelder Wines BeamCity Pinot Noir 2022 ($39, 92 points) — While this was a “village assemblage” of Beamsville Bench vineyards for the 2021 vintage, this and the wine below are both single vineyard wines from the Beamsville Bench. It shows a generous range of red berries on the nose in a pretty, seductive and suave style with savoury spice notes. The palate reveals the full range of dark cherries, wild raspberries, a touch of anise, chalky tannins and toasty spices on a long, finessed finish. Drinking pretty well right now but can cellar to 2029.
Bachelder Wines Roadblock Pinot Noir 2022 ($60, 93 points) — The nose on the new Roadblock bottling leans heavily on the black cherry side of the red fruits, or “crunchy Morello cherry,” as Bachelder calls it, with more subtle black raspberries, pomegranate, anise, violets, and perfumed spices. It’s rich and forward on the palate with dense red berries, lovely anise, smooth tannins, chalky minerality and a vibrant, lifted finish. Drinking pretty well right now but can cellar to 2029.
The Chardonnays
Bachelder Wines Willms Chardonnay 2022 ($49, 93 points) — This Chardonnay vineyard is located near Old Town in NOTL, and is from the Four-Mile Creek sub-app. It was planted in 1983 when there was hardly any vinifera in Niagara. The Willms Vineyard (which was called Sandstone in an earlier incarnation) is uniquely located between two bodies of water, some six km from the lake, and about four km from the Niagara River. It is a combo of silt, loamy-clay, gravel, limestone, and sand. It has a generous nose of pear, yellow apple, sizzling saline minerality, a subtle apricot/nectarine thing going on with elegant spice highlights. It sings on the palate with more saline minerality and wet stones to go with orchard fruits that come at you in layer after layer and introducing integrated, fine oak spices on a lifted, long finish. Can cellar to 2028.
Bachelder Wines Bai Xu Chardonnay 2022 ($49, 93 points) —The Bai Xu Vineyard is one of the oldest vinifera plantings in the region. Their Grape Grower number is 011. The Chardonnay and Gamay Noir vines are the oldest Bachelder works with — 41 years old as of the 2022 harvest. So much beauty on the nose of this classy Chardonnay that shows savoury stone fruits, saline freshness, white flowers, citrus/lemon notes and lifted spices. The elegance continues on the palate with integrated pear, quince and citrus revealed in layer after layer to go with pristine minerality, seamless oak spices, a creamy smooth texture and a long, finessed finish. Would love to see this as it ages gracefully over the next six years.
Bachelder Wines Werner-York Chardonnay 2022 ($39, 94 points) — This is a new single vineyard for the Bachelder lineup. It’s a vineyard owned my Marty and Rachael Werner located on York Road on the St. David’s Bench with the property’s roots going all the way back to James Secord as part of a 400-acre parcel purchased in 1780. A good portion of the grapes are devoted to the Werners’ sparkling program, soon making their debut. “This is the kind of terroir discovery that our ‘mapping Niagara, one vineyard at a time’ project is all about,” said Bachelder. This is so lovely with a pristine, suave and elegant nose that sneaks up on you with its intriguing subtleties of pure saline, wet stones, fresh pear, lemon, white peach and fully integrated spice notes. It’s mouth-filling on the palate with dense stone fruits, lemon, chiseled salinity, river rock, subtle creamy notes and spice with an elevated and long, finessed finish. I will be watching as this progresses and the nose catches up to the palate … what a beauty in waiting. Give it some time and grab a few bottle … this could be the bargain of the release.
Bachelder Wines Cuesta Chardonnay 2022 ($60, 93 points) — This ‘Far-East Man’ Chardonnay is from the cooler, eastern side of Cuesta, and “displays classic Bench red-soil reduction/terroir,” said Bachelder. “We wanted to call this one a mini-Foxcroft, but clearly, this one puts the oyster back in the shell. It has its own thing going on.” As we move west through the region, the minerality is amped up, and here it screams classic bench wet stones and saline on the nose with pear, yellow apple, lemon-tinged citrus and savoury spice notes. It’s concentrated yet lithe on the palate and shows a lovely marriage of pear, quince, apple, citrus and stony minerality through a long finish aided by mouth-watering acidity. Lovely, pure Chardonnay. Can cellar to 2029.
Bachelder Wines Wismer Foxcroft Chardonnay 2022 ($60, 94 points) — Bachelder has always worked with the Wismer family, now in its second generation, and has been growing grapes on the Vineland Bench for 25+ years. “Craig Wismer is a wine lover with a good palate, a man of passion and commitment, and he and I have been thick as thieves for years in our pursuit of understanding soils, terroirs, clones and viticulture,” said Bachelder. The Foxcroft Vineyard “Nord block” is just off Victoria Avenue on Moyer Road. Such a minerally nose of saline, flint and crushed oyster shells to go with ripe stone fruits of pear, apple, nectarine with subtle spice otes. It’s more concentrated on the palate with pear, quince and lemon zest, and holds that flinty mineral edge though a razor sharp and lifted finish. Can cellar to 2030.
Bachelder Wines Wismer Wingfield Chardonnay 2022 ($60, 93 points) — This is another coveted site for Chardonnay in Bachelder’s arsenal of single-vineyard, single-block expressions. He keeps seven rows of the Wingfield Vineyard for the Hill of Wingfield, with some declassification into the Wismer-Wingfield expression. This is all about poise and elegance with a lithe touch on the nose, showing stone fruits, floral notes, an amalgam of minerally attributes and well-integrated spice notes. It turns richer and more concentrated on the palate with mouth-filling pear, yellow apple and lemon tart, hinting at wet stones, a touch of spice and a silky texture with a vibrant, lifted finish. Can cellar to 2030.
Bachelder Wines Hill of Wingfield Chardonnay 2022 ($75, 96 points) — Bachelder sources the grapes for this single-block wine from seven rows of the Wismer-Wingfield Vineyard, at the south-west side of the vineyard, set aside for just him. What he doesn’t use ends up going into the wine above, sourced from other rows in Wingfield. Bachelder not so quietly refers to this as one of his “grand cru” parcels, even though it is a classification that still has no standing in Niagara (but should). The Chardonnay grapes grown in this parcel, which is at the highest elevation and furthest from Lake Ontario, are the latest ripening of all the Chardonnay grapes Bachelder sources. Lovers of stony/mineral/saline-laced Chardonnays will always gravitate to this ultimate expression from the Bachelder family. It always reminds me of a pristine mountain stream with all those fresh salinity and wet stone notes on the nose followed by white flowers, lemon curd, bergamot, pear, fresh apples and just a hint of spice. It’s layered and textured on the palate with generous pear, lemon, yellow apple, that lovely melange of minerality and flint, vanilla toast, savoury spices, and then the feisty march through a long, long, tingly fresh and vibrant finish that echoes for minutes. Such a beautiful wine that will continue to improve in the cellar until 2030 and maybe beyond.
Bachelder Wines Mio Chardonnay 2022 ($45, 93 points) — Although on the opposite side of Old Highway 81, there is a nice slope there, and “a very ‘Benchy’ vibe to the wine (but you’ll also feel a few nods to the Lincoln Lakeshore flavours),” said Bachelder. This is the first Chardonnay from the Mio Vineyard to hit the Bachelder lineup. The nose is overt with ripe pear, grapefruit/lemon notes, a floral edge, and fresh saline with apple and spice. There’s good concentration on the palate with rich and savoury pear dominant stone fruits, subtle flinty notes, lemon tart, spice and a lifted, long finish. Can cellar to 2028.
Bachedler Wines Ivy and Warren Chardonnay 2022 ($49, 92 points) — Bachelder call this 2022 organic Saunders vineyard “a special Saunders with a pleasurable richness underpinning a flinty tension.” It has a lovely, open knit nose ripe pear, yellow apple, apricot, lanolin, lemon citrus, spice and flint. It shows a concentration of stone fruits on the palate with pine nuts, flint, and a touch of cream and spice on a fresh, long finish. Can cellar to 2028.
Bachelder Wines Red-Clay Barn Block Chardonnay 2022 ($45, 94 points) — The Grimsby Hillside Vineyard is a wild, stony site out in the extreme west of Niagara. It’s nestled into the foothills of the escarpment. This is the third time that Bachelder is making the Red-Clay Barn Block. The nose is pure and concentrated with pristine salinity and chalky minerality to balance the ripe pear, lemon oil, yellow apples, and toasty vanilla and spice notes. A touch of flint emerges on the palate to go with a melange of ripe stone fruits, lanoline, flint, lemon cream and spice on a long, finessed and echoing finish. Can cellar to 2032.
Bachelder Wines Frontier Block Chardonnay 2022 ($60, 95 points) — The topsoil in the Frontier Block of the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard varies from silty clay/loam mixes to grey and red clays, over top of heavy red clay subsoils, with another layer that appears to contain calcareous limestone shale and gravel deposits (suspected to be eroded material from the escarpment face that settled on the site). This is the fourth iteration of Frontier from Bachelder and I find myself drawn to its charms every time I taste it. The oyster shell/saline notes on the nose draw me into this personable Chardo. That freshness is followed by yellow apples, quince, lemon tart, toasted almonds and spice. There is good concentration of stone fruits here with a touch of flint, layers of saline minerality, a creamy, lacy texture and toasted almonds and spice that light up the palate through a long, focused and finessed finish. A thing of beauty. You can cellar to 2030.
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