Le Clos Jordanne vertical and horizontal Pinot Noir tasting
Jeremy at Cafe Taste has been a big fan of Le Clos Jordanne ever since the first release of the 2004's a couple years back. We actually both stood in line at the Summerhill LCBO on their first release day to buy one of each wine (all we were allowed to buy) and meet the winemaker Thomas Bachelder.
Since then Jeremy's built a great relationship with the local Inniskillin rep, and he's been able to finagle his way into the last two release parties they've thrown. This is a great treat -- tasting all the wines of a vintage beside each other to compare the minor (and sometimes major) difference between each bottle.
So now that they're in their third year of production, Jeremy decided to do a vertical AND horizontal tasting for his monthly wine tasting event at Cafe Taste.
The wines were all Pinot Noir:
- 2004 Le Petite Vineyard
- 2004 Jordan Vineyard
- 2004 Claystone Vineyard
- 2005 Claystone Vineyard
- 2006 Claystone Vineyard
My personal faves were the 2004 Le Petite, which was very light and elegant, but perfectly balanced; and the 2006 Claystone, which was delighfully silky and struck the perfect balance between minerality and bright red fruit. Note that the 2006 improved vastly with a good hour of decanting and another 20 minutes in the glass; this one is still before it's time.
The 2004 Jordan had a bit of funk on the nose, which while not-unpleasant, distracted a little when sampled in the lineup. And I found the 2004 and 2005 Claystone's not quite as elegant as the 2006.
That said, I'm nitpicking, because I'd be more than happy to drink any of these wines on almost any occassion -- they truly are fantastic.