Worlds best Chardonnay - Its Canadian!

WINE TALK
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2005 Le Clos Jordanne Chardonnay Claystone Terrace

Canadian chardonnay: World's best? - Jun. 12, 2009" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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“The Judgment of Montreal was organized by the Société des alcools du Québec, a provincially-owned alcohol retailer with more than $2 billion in annual sales. It invited Quebec’s top wine writers and sommeliers, who tend to favor Old World wines, to revisit the historic Judgment of Paris.”

Who would have guessed that a Canadian wine would come out on top??

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Old world wines include Europe also…

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But, what was the competetion? The article doesn’t name names.

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Not much of a help.

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It doesn’t matter! This Canadian sponsored competition with Canadian judges in Canada was won by a Canadian wine! The details matter not.

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I find it hard to believe that this wine would outrank a good Corton-Charlemagne, or even good Puligny and Chassagne 1er Crus.

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that’s it, i’m ordering a bottle to try with my Puligny-Montrachet! (oh… i’d have to buy some puligny montrachet too =( )

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This wine isn’t even listed on Wine-Searcher Pro:

http://www.wine-searcher.com/prof/wine-select.lml?Xwinename=Clos+Jordanne+Claystone+Terrace

They’ve got a listing for a 2006 Pinot, at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, and that’s it.

If you broaden the search, to “Clos Jordanne Chardonnay”

http://www.wine-searcher.com/prof/wine-select.lml?Xwinename=Clos+Jordanne+Chardonnay&Xvintage=2

then you get four hits: Newfoundland-Labrador LC, Nova Scotia LC, and two at the Ontario LCB.

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To my knowledge, the wines from Le Clos Jordanne are not exported anywhere outside of Canada. There are allocations sent to Quebec and the rest go to the local Ontario market (LCBO, direct and restaurants). Given that there are no independent retailers in Ontario or Quebec, it’s no surprise that wine-searcher fails to find the wine.

I’ve been buying their wine since in inaugural 2004 vintage and they are impressive. There’s some pretty serious money behind the effort (thru VinCorp) and both the vineyard chardonnays and pinots are the best that I’ve ever enjoyed from Niagara (that isn’t saying much but they are very worthy). The Claystone Vineyard has always been my favourite vineyard (there’s a Le Clos Jordanne vineyard, Claystone Vineyard and La Petite Vineyard). They also have a favourite block from Le Clos Jordanne vineyard that is bottled as Le Grand Clos (both chard and pinot). At nearly double the price of the regular vineyard, I don’t think it’s worth the premium.

I was very dismissive of this tasting as well, especially given that most of the early reports failed to list any of the other wines in the tasting. I know that in the Chardonnay section, there was a Montelena chard. I have the full list somewhere and will try to dig it up.

These are very nice wines, possibly the best produced in Niagara and I’d never be hesitant to offer them to any wine geek friend of mine. They are definitely more of a cooler climate style with nice perfume, great acidic backbone and lower alcohol.

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Here’s the list of the results.

Le Clos Jordanne has a PDF of the full article in the SAQ newsletter (SAQ is the Quebec government wine board) here. It describes the tasters, methodology, etc.

RESULTS (score / wine / price*)
Cabernet Sauvignon

  1. 91.8% / 2004 Château Mouton Rothschild / C$490**
  2. 91.1% / 2004 Château Pichon-Longueville-Lalande / C$124
  3. 90.6% / 2004 Château Montrose / C$99**
  4. 89.9% / 2005 Mondavi Reserve / C$150
  5. 89.4% / 2000 Diamond Creek “Volcanic Hill” / C$300
  6. 89.3% / 2002 Arrowood “Réserve Spéciale” / C$118
  7. 88.9% / 2004 Ridge “Monte Bello” / C$199**
  8. 88.6% / 2005 Château Branaire-Ducru / C$98
  9. 88.2% / 2003 Château Léoville-Las-Cases / C$381**
  10. 88.0% / 2005 Caymus “Special Selection” / C$145
  11. 87.2% / 2003 Torres “Mas la Plana” (Spain) / $C45
  12. 87.1% / 2005 Château La Garde*** / C$36
  13. 85.8% / 2004 Pauillac (3rd wine of Château Latour) / $85.75
  14. 85.8% / 2005 Château Haut-Marbuzet / $74
  15. 85.5% / 2002 Heitz “Martha’s Vineyard” / C$168**
  16. 85.1% / 2004 Pepper Bridge (Washington) / $77.25
    Chardonnay
  17. 88.8% / 2005 Clos Jordanne “Claystone Terrace” (Ontario) / C$37.50
  18. 88.5% / 2005 Saint-Aubin 1er cru, “Clos du Meix”, Hubert Lamy / C$43.75
  19. 88.5% / 1999 Rosemount Estate “Roxburgh” (Australia) / C$44.25
  20. 88.0% / 2006 Meursault “Le Limozin”, Jean-Claude Bosset / C$68
  21. 88.0% / 2005 Santenay “Clos de Malte”, Louis Jadot / C$41.50
  22. 87.4% / 2006 Beaune “Clos des Mouches”, Joseph Drouhin / C$108.25**
  23. 87.4% / 2006 Kumeu River Estate (New Zealand) / C$32
  24. 87.3% / 2005 Mer Soleil / C$49
  25. 87.1% / 2002 Sonoma-Cutrer “Les Pierres” / C$50
  26. 86.8% / 2006 Château Montelena / C$44.50**
  27. 85.5% / 2006 Pouilly-Fuissé “2 Terroirs”, Mommessin / C$30
  28. 85.3% / 2005 Chassagne-Montrachet “Les Chaumes”, J.-N. Gagnard / C$48.25
  29. 85.3% / 2004 Arrowood / C$34
  30. 85.1% / 2005 Pouilly-Vinzelles “Les Quarts”, La Soufrandière / C$44.50
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Interesting, and thanks Ken for clarifying. I will accept the idea that Canada’s best wines are actually quite good if not amazing. This tasting is still mostly bogus. I’m not familiar with those specific Burgs, but the selections from CA are not impressive.

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