‘A perfect area for Chardonnay and Pinot’: Adam Lowy of Niagara rising star Cloudsley Cellars

There was always wine on the table when I was growing up – my parents both enjoyed a bit of wine. When I was 14 or 15 my parents brought myself and my sister to Champagne. I wasn’t drinking, but I remember visiting Pommery and their cellars.

The real passion for wine started at university. With a couple friends, every once in a while we would pool our resources and buy something decent and explore. I realised there was that next level of complexity.

I had a year after university where I worked in finance and didn't like it. When I left, everyone said, “You never shut up about wine so why don't you go work in the wine industry?”. I realised there were all these import agencies, and ended up on that side of the trade for 17 years, selling wines from all over the world.

I [also] had a tasting group with friends. It was still possible to drink the great wines of the world at that time. They were expensive, but attainable. So I was very fortunate to be able to develop my palate at that time.

I was always really drawn to Burgundy. What drew me in was the whole notion of terroir.

I wanted a change and I wanted to get onto the producer side. While I was doing a little consulting, I thought, “I’m down in Niagara a lot, why don’t I buy some grapes, make some wine – just a small amount on the side – and have some fun with it?”.

I very quickly realised I was enjoying it and within a couple of years I scaled up the operation. I am not a trained winemaker. We have a winemaker at Cloudsley [Matt Smith], but I oversee the process and have the final say in the blending.

I made it very clear from the beginning that this project would focus exclusively on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

We are sitting on a very long limestone escarpment. It’s the same geological feature that Niagara Falls flows over, but in this particular place it traverses the Niagara Peninsula. And the Peninsula is between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It’s that lake effect combined with the limestone soils that really make this such a perfect area for Chardonnay and Pinot.

And as this escarpment has broken down over millions of years there’s a great variety in exposure, soil depth and composition. So as a canvas to explore terroir, it’s really ideal. Like in Burgundy where you can have a few metres separating vineyards and you can have very different experiences, that exists here.

In 2020, we made six Pinot Noirs all from Twenty Mile Bench and all very different. We’re [also] really blessed with great natural acidity.

I drink more Ontario Pinot Noir and Chardonnay than anything else. For a dinner party, I love a really nice roast. [Wines] depend on how that’s done and the time of year. Often we’ll have a mixture of Cloudsley and some Burgundy.

I don’t drink a lot of claret but there’s something about a special occasion and a big roast – such as a prime rib – at the centre of the table where nothing beats a great bottle of Bordeaux with some age on it.

Classic roast chicken, especially if it’s very good chicken; there’s nothing better and it fills the house with aroma. It works equally well with our Chardonnay and Pinot.

People talk about Niagara as a region but it’s really some different regions.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a wonderful, very historic town – old by our standards – and a fantastic place to visit. There are a lot of wineries in that region, as well.

But if people are particularly passionate about wine, I think they really need to make a trip up to our neck of the woods on what we call “the bench”; Twenty Mile Bench but also Beamsville Bench.

There's some great smaller wineries, where you get a more intimate experience. And there are pockets of really great restaurants, as well, including the region's only Michelin-starred restaurant.

[At Cloudsley] We put some patio tables out when the weather’s nice and welcome people here to taste. My vision for welcoming people here is sort of more in-line with what you traditionally would get in Burgundy; tasting the wine and speaking with the winemaker or the vigneron.

I have a great deal of Ontario wine, but outside of that it tends to be more French and Italian. I love the wines of Tuscany and Piemonte [Piedmont], and Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Northern Rhône. I also have a real interest in German Riesling and some Austrian wines. I've got some grey hair on my head and I think I'm still with the classic wines from the classic regions!

I like to spend a lot of time outdoors and in the woods. I live on a farm property and I have a workshop where I can do some woodworking and metalworking, which is a nice distraction. The odd piece of furniture comes out but mostly, as my wife points out, I just work on the shop itself!

I live about an eight-minute drive [from the winery]. We have chickens, for the eggs. One of my great joys is to give people farm-fresh eggs.