Bachelder: producer profile and 12 wines tasted

Expressing the terroir of the Niagara Peninsula in Canada’s Ontario province is Thomas Bachelder’s aim – a passion inspired by years in Burgundy and Oregon. Michelle Cherutti-Kowal MW visited him and his wife at their winery to discover more and taste a range of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Gamay.

By Michelle Cherutti Kowal MW

published 1 November 2022

in Tastings

The first time I met Thomas and Mary Delany Bachelder was in 2018 at a tasting of Canadian wines at the Trafalgar Square embassy in London. In front of them on the table was a map of Ontario’s Niagara wine region with names and arrows handwritten all over it, pointing to single vineyards. ‘Discovering and channelling terroir is our raison d’être,’ they said.

Historically, terroir has not been the focus of Canadian wineries, but the Bachelders are one of a handful of producers that are attempting to do just that: unearthing and interpreting the region’s vineyards. My curiosity piqued, I decided to revisit Niagara, and the Bachelders, to find out more.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 12 Bachelder wines

How did it all begin?

Thomas Bachelder embarked on his wine journey as many of us have: tasting wines with friends. He turned his passion into a career, becoming a wine journalist in his hometown of Montréal in Québec, but eventually winemaking school beckoned.

In the early 1990s going to a Canadian winemaking school wasn’t an option but he could speak French, so Thomas, along with his new bride Mary Delany, moved to Burgundy. Burgundy’s influence on Thomas was immediate: ‘They (Burgundians) never spoke about grapes, just places.’

Over the ensuing decade, he honed his winemaking skills at Domaine de la Créa (Beaune), Domaine Marius Delarche (Pernand-Vergelesses) and Château Génot-Boulanger (Meursault). Thomas’ lifelong passion for terroir was born.

Meeting fellow winemaking student Luisa Ponzi (Ponzi Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley) led to a summer in the US state and introduced Thomas and Mary to an alternative interpretation of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. That experience led to a move to Oregon in 1999 when Thomas became winemaker at Lemelson Winery.

‘Burgundy discovered terroir hundreds of years ago and we (winemakers) attempt to interpret it. In Oregon, I learned that terroir was there just waiting to be discovered.’

Coming home

In 2003, Thomas’ Canadian passport and experience in interpreting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in both the New and Old Worlds made him an ideal choice for a new winemaking project in Ontario’s Niagara region: a joint venture between what was then Vincor Canada (now Arterra Wines) and the Boisset family of Burgundy.

The vision was terroir driven, modelled after Burgundy: only Pinot Noir and Chardonnay would be produced, with three levels of quality. Vines were planted in 2000 and Le Clos Jordanne was born. The first wines, from the 2005 vintage, were released to wide acclaim and announced to the wine world that Thomas Bachelder, winemaker, had come home.

Thomas eventually parted ways with Le Clos Jordanne in 2010. The company eventually had its doors shut in 2016 by then owners Constellation but was revived in 2019 by new owners Arterra Wines, who immediately hired Thomas back as chief winemaker.

In 2009, Thomas and Mary started Three Terroirs, devoted to making Chardonnay (and eventually Pinot Noir) in the three places they knew best: Oregon, Burgundy and Niagara. Operating as a micro-négociant in each country allowed them the flexibility to source grapes from different plots and interpret the terroirs in all three locations.

Within a few years, they discovered that people were most interested in the wines from Niagara so, in 2015, Bachelder Niagara became their sole focus.

Destination Niagara

The modern history of the wine industry in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula only dates to the mid-1970s. The region has spent much of the ensuing 40 years trying to convince the world that it could grow grapes and make quality wine, beyond just icewine.

Its success is evident. Today, the Niagara wine route has boutique wineries, tasting rooms and top restaurants. Niagara is now a wine destination.

Niagara possesses both continental and maritime climates, resulting in material differences in growing conditions depending on where the vineyards are located (continental for vineyards located in the slopes of Niagara escarpment – commonly called benches – and maritime for those vineyards closer to Lake Ontario

In addition, the region has multiple soils – limestone, clay, silt, gravel, sand/sandstone and often a combination. Altitudes range from 95m to 170m and the distance from Lake Ontario ranges between 3.2km to 13km. It is this interplay between grape, proximity to the lake, altitude and soils that Bachelder seeks to express.

Bachelder Niagara: the facts

Founded 2009

Owner Thomas Bachelder and Mary Delany Bachelder

Annual Production 5,000 cases

Key vineyards Niagara-on-the-Lake: Bator, Willms, Bai-Xu, Lowrey

Niagara Escarpment: Wismer Foxcroft, Wismer-Park, Wismer-Wingfield, Cuesta, Saunders, Hanck

Wines between 25 and 28. Key bottlings are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Gamay from the Niagara-on-the-Lake VQAs of Four Mile Creek and St David’s Bench and the Niagara Escarpment VQAs of Twenty Mile Bench, Beamsville Bench and Lincoln Lakeshore

Associated wineries Les Clos Jordanne

Grapes and winemaking style

Initially Thomas and Mary focused on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, two grapes they knew well via their ‘spiritual home’ of Burgundy. The winemaking style is the same for each wine. Thomas is focused on transparency: letting the vineyards ‘sing lightly and clearly’ to promote their sense of place.

Low intervention winemaking is his philosophy, which includes a light touch when it comes to use of barrels. Wines are aged for two years in a combination of barrel and bottle prior to release. ‘I just try to get out of the way,’ he says.

Bachelder makes seven single-vineyard wines for each grape: two from vineyards located near the historic lakeside area of Niagara, which has a maritime climate, and five from vineyards located in the bench area that is more elevated and continental. They also make a village-level blend from across the region.

Their newest project is all about Gamay, which is turning out to be one of Niagara’s shining stars. Thomas and Mary have been long-time admirers of Cru Beaujolais, so adding Gamay to their line-up was a natural progression.

Unlike the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, winemaking is different for Gamay. There are two expressions of Gamay for each vineyard, with the difference being the percentage of whole bunches used in the winemaking. Currently eight wines are produced from four single vineyards, as well as a village-level and more unusually, a blend between Pinot Noir and Gamay.

Visiting the vineyards

Thomas felt it was important that I explored the vineyards before I tasted the wines, so we visited eight distinct locations, providing the opportunity to appreciate the uniqueness of each. We then headed to what is affectionately known as the ‘Bat Cave’ (ageing cellar) to meet up with Mary and taste through the range.

With the same regional map from our first encounter years before visible in the background, we sat down and sampled the most recent releases: 2020 Gamays, 2019 Chardonnays and 2019 Pinot Noirs. As the wines were from the same vintage and grape, and had the same winemaking, differences had to be attributed primarily to terroir.

And there were differences. One Pinot Noir was lean and tart while another – sourced from a vineyard just 10 metres away – was rich and fruity. Some differences were more subtle, such as fruit profile and alcohol, but the thread that tied them all together was fruit purity and freshness.

This is a credit to the vineyards and the region but the overall elegance of the wines was a reflection of Thomas’s winemaking.

I asked him what was next – perhaps Cabernet Franc or Riesling, two of Niagara’s other premier grapes. He replied: ‘No we will stick with these grapes as we’ve only just begun. There is still so much to do and discover.’

Modest visionaries

Towards the conclusion of the tasting, Thomas looked at me and said: ‘Do you know what you haven’t heard today? You haven’t heard me say Bachelder.

‘This is not about me, it’s about the vineyards and their founders – the Lowrey and Wismer families among others. As well as pioneers like Karl Kaiser who, 40 years ago, asked these vineyard owners to take a risk and plant these grapes.’

As I left, my lasting impression was that this modest couple, together with a few other unheralded Niagara winemakers, are doing what was done in Burgundy hundreds of years ago: methodically and successfully mapping Niagara Peninsula terroirs ‘one vineyard at a time’.

Bachelder: producer profile and 12 wines tasted