On the first Monday morning of June, the master winemaker Thomas Bachelder was making what sounded like a germane point about French grammar and the new name of an old winery that he has been associated with for its 20-year history. I am not entirely sure what the point was because most of my attention was focused on the flute of delicious and palate-refreshing blanc de noir sparkling wine in my hand. I think it was something about the masculine or feminine gendering of the word ”clos” or possibly “domaine.”
Whatever the L’Acadamie Française might have to say, that old winery has a new name and Le Clos Jordanne is now Domaine Le Clos Jordanne. Domaine Le Clos Jordanne (or DCJ as I think I may start to pretentiously call it) has a new name because it is now truly housed in a domain: the building and estate on Niagara’s Beamsville Bench that used to be Angel’s Gate. And that’s where Thomas Bachelder and company had welcomed me and a handful of wine journalists on the eve of its opening.
Until last week Clos Jordanne, one of Niagara’s most prestigious and sought-after labels, had no winery in which to receive visitors. Until last autumn’s harvest, Clos Jordanne wines were made in other wineries controlled by its owner, Arterra Wines Canada, the country’s biggest. The acquisition of the old Angel’s Gate winery earlier last year was widely seen as a signal that the on- and off- and on-again history of Le Clos Jordanne was finally solidified, just as the original Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines with which it made turned 20 years old.
As it turns out, the acquisition of the property and building were not the only items in Arterra’s shopping cart. The company has bought a number of other vineyards on the Beamsville Bench for the purpose of making more wine under the Domaine Le Clos Jordanne label. The original Clos Jordanne vineyards, including Clayton Terrace and Le Grand Clos, are near the town of Jordan, to the east, closer to the Niagara River.
Future DCJ wines made from Pinot Noir or Chardonnay grown on the Beamsville terroir will be distinctly labeled. For Bachelder, who makes wine for his own label from sites all over the Niagara Peninsula,See this column from November 2022 on Bachelder’s Toussaints project. the idea of developing new wines for Clos Jordanne is clearly tantalizing, and he mused that fans of the Domaine might eventually split into rival camps, depending on which expression they preferred.
2020 Crémant de Jordanne
The distracting glass of sparkling wine turned out to be another new thing. This was the 2020 Crémant de Jordanne, not yet to be released. It’s a “white from black,” blanc de noir made from Pinot Noir. “We have a lot of Pinot Noir, so that’s what our first sparkling was always going to be,” explained Bachelder. Seventy-five percent of the Clos Jordanne vineyard is planted with the red grape. It should retail for about $55, and is clearly meant to rival the houses from the French bubbly region that begins with a “C.” It was crisp and clear, underneath citrus it echoed the raspberry notes that its sister still wines often show.
As it turned out the gathering was more than the showcase of the new winery, which will receive guests by appointment, but also the launch event for the 2021 vintage of the current six wine Domaine Le Clos Jordanne portfolio. Levi de Loryn, director of winemaking at Arterra across Canada was at the event. He explained to me that the 2021 DCJ were ready for release this autumn, as per the usual cycle from harvest to market. The company had held them back to wait for the new winery to open. These wines will be released, along with the Crémant, to the public this summer.
At the event, we tasted the Pinot Noirs first, on the principle that the reds are in fact lighter on the palate than the weightier Chardonnays. This makes sense in the setting of a technical tasting when the wines are taken without accompaniment. At a meal, food will serve as a balancing agent, and one would happily begin with a DCJ Chardonnay with the first course and slide into the Pinot Noir on the second.
I have grouped the wines by their classification or specific vineyard site.

Domaine Le Clos Jordanne winery. Credit: Malcolm Jolley.
2021 Jordan Village Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
The Jordan Village wines are classified by the simple appellation of “Niagara Peninsula” because even though all their fruit comes from the original Clos Jordanne vineyards, the Grand Clos and Clayton Terrace sites are technically in the sub-appellation of 20 Mile Bench, while the slightly higher Talon Ridge site is in the sub-appellation of Vinemount Ridge.
The real story of both these wines is the price: $29.95 a bottle for limited production of just 1,200 (Chardonnay) or 1,250 (Pinot Noir) cases. Arterra makes a lot of wine, and could easily market these ones as a trophy collector’s item at twice the price. If their natural competitors are the fellow cool climate wines from Burgundy, premium Oregon Pinots and Chards, or even boutique Niagara, then they are among the best deals in the country.
Bachelder said at the tasting that he and his DCJ team of associate winemaker Phillip Brown and cellar master Kerri Crawford metaphorically “go to Burgundy, not to copy but to inform.” The Pinot was pretty and vibrant, with a floral note on the nose, a cherry red fruit character, and evident tannins that suggest long life ahead. The Chardonnay was bold and showed pineapple tropical fruit that is balanced by a clean line of mineral acid, resonating into a delicious long finish.
2021 Claystone Terrace Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
The Clayton Terrace site makes the smallest production of Clos Jordanne wines with just 500 cases of each, priced at $42 a bottle. Bachelder explained his team makes more barrels of the Claystone and Grand Clos wines that they use: most of the production goes into the Village wines.
Phil Brown spoke of a wild character to the Claystone Pinot Noir, whose vines lie near the edge of a Niagara Escarpment forest. In the red were raspberry notes, and maybe a more serious and earthy and concentrated version of the Village Pinot. Claystone Pinot has its particular fans. Its sister wine, the 2021 Claystone Chardonnay also echoed the Village white, but maybe with a touch more salinity: less Montrachet, more Meursault.
2021 Grand Clos Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
Bachelder calls the wines of the Grand Clos site “meatier,” due, he thinks, to greater western sunlight exposure. Production at Grand Clos is slightly larger than at Claystone with 800 cases made of Pinot Noir and 700 cases of Chardonnay. At the apex of the DCJ pyramid, the Grand Clos wines are priced at $49.95 respectively.
Going back to the Village as a baseline, the 2021 Grand Clos Pinot presented as a kind of deeper, darker, more concentrated version, with notes moving into black cherry and a quiet balance of acidity, and soft but firm tannin in a young wine. The Grand Clos Chardonnay showed richly with a combined note of lemon meringue pie, if this could be said to be present in a glass. The wines were delicious, and want a long meal to be savoured slowly as they open up.
Other things
More good news: there will be wines to come. We had a sneak peek of some of the 2022 wines, to be released this autumn, and even a barrel sample of 2023 Chardonnay from one of the Beamsville sites. It’s too early to comment, except to say the future of Domaine Le Clos Jordanne looks bright.
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