Tawse Winery: producer profile and 10 wines

Canadian wine is little-known. Even those wineries that enjoy national acclaim are rarely celebrated beyond the country’s borders.

Habitual ‘winery of the year’ within Canada, Tawse Winery finally managed to break onto the international scene when the estate’s 2011 Chardonnay made the cover of Decanter in 2015. It was named among the world’s best Chardonnay outside Burgundy.

Scroll down for Michaela Morris’s tasting notes and scores on the latest releases from Tawse Winery

This was a coup for financier Moray Tawse. When he founded the winery in 2000, there were fewer than 60 producers in Ontario (compared to almost 200 today) and the average price for local wine was about C$12 per bottle [the equivalent to about £5 in 2000].

‘My goal was to make the best wine in Ontario,’ he says. Tawse entered the market boldly with wines retailing for C$40-$50 [about £17-£21 in 2000] – despite warnings from skeptical colleagues that no one would pay such prices for Ontario wine.

He proved them wrong and Tawse Winery’s success has helped boost both the quality and reputation of the region.

How did Tawse Winery expand?

Tawse began with a modest 3.7ha. The original Cherry Avenue vineyard boasted Chardonnay planted in 1981 and Riesling planted in 1976 – old by Canadian standards.

After the purchase, he learned that a minimum of 4ha was required to legally register as an estate winery.

He was able to convince the neighbouring grower to sell him an adjoining 0.3ha. But there was a catch. Tawse also had to buy another 20ha site that his neighbour was trying to offload.

‘My neighbour didn’t like it because it was all stony limestone and he couldn’t get any sizeable crop from it,’ recounts Tawse. But being a keen Burgundy aficionado, he made the connection between limestone and great Chardonnay.

‘He sold me the land like it wasn’t worth anything. Now it’s one of my best vineyards,’ states Tawse, referring to his Quarry Road plot.

Tawse continued to buy vineyards guided by a singular focus on quality and terroir. ‘It was pretty easy to buy good sites if I paid up a little bit,’ he says.

Tawse Winery now has five vineyards totalling 66ha, all of which are located on Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. This is usually sufficient to supply the winery with enough grapes, but in short vintages he sources fruit from a handful of like-minded growers with choice plots.

Explain the philosophy at Tawse Winery?

Soon after acquiring his first vineyard, Tawse broke ground on a cutting-edge gravity-flow winery, complete with a geothermal energy system. It was completed in 2005, the same year former carpenter Paul Pender arrived for a winemaking internship.

Pender stayed on, replacing the outgoing winemaker the following year, and immediately started the conversion to organic viticulture. ‘We figured that all of the great vineyards in the world are farmed organically,’ Pender says.

Tawse Winery was also Demeter certified biodynamic for 10 years, though has recently withdrawn. Pender explains that this has allowed them the freedom to farm the vineyards in the best way they see fit, which still includes many biodynamic practices.

Pender calls the winemaking non-interventionist and the philosophy has remained consistent since the start. He seeks elegance, balance and sense of place.

‘We aren’t looking to make big extracted wines or oxidised, reductive or weird, funky wines,’ he explains. The mantra is fresh and clean, with an emphasis on single-vineyard bottlings. They are unpretentious yet confident and distinct in their identity.

What’s the connection with Burgundy?

The inspiration at Tawse Winery is unequivocally Burgundy. In fact, prior to establishing his winery, Moray Tawse was looking to do the impossible: buy vineyards in the Côte d’Or.

Being based in Toronto, he soon realised that investing closer to home was more feasible on many levels. He started exploring Ontario’s wine country and was particularly impressed by the soils on the Niagara benchland.

‘I believe Ontario has the best terroir for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay behind Burgundy,’ Tawse declares. ‘Burgundy has a lot of marl and schist in its soils – things we don’t have. But we do have a lot of limestone.’

To help him achieve his vision, Tawse hired French-Canadian turned Burgundy superstar Pascal Marchand.

Tawse met Marchand at Clos des Epeneaux while on a cycling trip through Burgundy in the 1980s. The two stayed in touch and, when Marchand left Jean-Claude Boisset in 2006, Tawse was among his first clients.

Marchand continued consulting at Tawse Winery until 2008 when he partnered with his friend to form Burgundy négociant house Marchand-Tawse.

Tawse eventually acquired the vineyards in Burgundy that he originally sought when he bought Domaine Maume in Gevrey-Chambertin in 2012.

Splitting his time between the two projects, Tawse has formed a solid bond with winemakers in Burgundy. ‘They really taught me how to understand their grape varieties.’

According to Tawse, Ontario Chardonnay can stand up to Burgundy but the province’s Pinot Noir is still too young. ‘Pinot vines have to be 30 years old before they really develop personality,’ he states. Much of the region’s plantings are less than 20 years old.

And beyond Burgundy?

Besides vineyard designates of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Tawse Winery also produces multiple site-specific Riesling and Cabernet Franc. Both varieties benefit from Niagara’s position on the southwest corner of Lake Ontario.

‘The close proximity to the lake has a moderating effect, allowing for a longer, slower development,’ explains Pender.

Cabernet Franc usually hangs well into November, ripening beautifully year in and year out. If Chardonnay put Tawse on the map, Cabernet Franc is the winery’s brilliant sequel and a testament to this grape’s potential in Ontario.

As for Riesling, this is where Tawse Winery plays its value card, putting out an impressive range of wines under C$25 (£14.50), including a traditional-method sparkling.

The purchase of the Limestone Vineyard in 2012 added 18ha of Riesling to Tawse’s arsenal, making it the winery’s largest production.

To manage his ever-growing collection of vineyards, Tawse has established a sister winery, Redstone.

Based in Niagara Peninsula’s sub-appellation of Lincoln Lakeshore, it focuses on red Bordeaux varieties and Syrah with the same winemaking philosophy. Tawse has also opened an 80-seat restaurant here – something else he has been able to cross off his bucket list.

Tawse assures me that he isn’t looking to expand further. But if the right terroir popped up, I have a feeling that he would find it difficult to resist.

Tawse Winery: the facts

Date founded 2000

Owner Moray Tawse (vice-president and co-founder of First National Financial Corporation)

Director of viticulture and winemaking Paul Pender

Annual production 25,000-30,000 cases/year

Area under vine 66ha, including Limestone Vineyard North (21.5ha), Quarry Road Vineyard (12ha) and Cherry Avenue Vineyard (8.5ha)

Key wines Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc

Tawse Winery: Michaela Morris tastes the latest releases

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