Le Clos Jordanne showcases New World terroir
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Degan Beley
February 5, 2010
“Why does the old world have terroir and we just have varietal wines?” Le Clos Jordanne’s winemaker Thomas Bachelder asked at a recent Terminal City Club tasting. “It’s not fair.”
Sampling five wines – all from 2006 but from various vineyards – he walked us through the different regions and vineyards and illustrated how much terroir comes into play even for Canadian regions. Le Clos Jordanne is situated on a 400km limestone bench stretching around the lake and into the USA. It has a landscape perfectly suited to wine and the proprietors recognized this, starting the winery with a terroir experiment.
Le Clos Jordanne is a joint venture between Vincor and Domaine Boisset from Burgundy. The idea was to start a winery completely from scratch in the burgundy tradition and try to capture the characteristics of the Niagara Peninsula area around the village of Jordan.
There are four vineyards: Talon, La Petite, Claystone and Le Clos. Village Reserve comes from all four; La Petite is so small it can only be used for the reserve and the La Petite Pinot Noir. The Claystone and Le Clos grapes contribute to both pinot noir and chardonnay.
This is a careful, deliberate operation. The yields are so low that they have to net the vines or the birds would eat everything. Then the grapes are hand-picked and hand-sorted to eliminate rot. The exacting methods pay off, however. These are top-notch Niagara wines, and they’re now available in BC.
All of the wines we tasted are the same vintage (2006) and the same grapes (pinot noir and chardonnay) in order to better find the characteristic expressions in the wine. Starting off with the Village Reserve Pinot Noir, we tasted blackberry and floral notes. This is almost a perfumey wine with the characteristics of all vineyards mingling happily. In contrast is the Claystone Pinot Noir which comes from the western, “best part” of Claystone. Thomas Bachelder has determined that the tough minerality of this area is most representative of Claystone.
Finally, the Grand Clos Pinot Noir takes the best grapes from all four vineyards and the result is both delicate and bold. Karen of WineBard.ca detects citrus and she’s right: in there with the red fruit is a bit of tangerine. Paired with the pinots were a Fraser Valley duck breast on potato cakes, five spice beef tempura on potato puree and bruschetta that brought out the richness of the wines.
The two whites we tasted, Claystone Chardonnay and Grand Clos Chardonnay, were sipped in conjunction with preserved lemon risotto, seared scallop with sunchoke tureen, and chardonnay-poached lobster with black truffle chip. Again, the differences between the single vineyard and the Grand Clos were evident. Claystone is hard and tight, yet elegant. It has a soft palate and the sweetness of the wine is enhanced by the food. The Grand Clos has a rich, lemony essence to it, slightly mineral and utterly mind-blowing.
I’m not normally a fan of chardonnays but both of these are gorgeous and rich – completely unlike any other American chards. I will be buying both again without a doubt.
Categories: Events, Food, Wine
Ocean Wise turns 5!
Leave a Comment Degan BeleyJanuary 29, 2010
Most people would want to sit back and relax after working tirelessly for years, but not so for Ocean Wise. Upon reaching their 5th anniversary they pulled out all the stops and threw a party that included many members of the media and several Ocean Wise restaurants.
Ocean Wise is a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program that identifies sustainable seafood choices for restaurants and suppliers and makes it easy for diners and consumers to make ethical choices. Just look for the Ocean Wise icon on menus. They’ve been at it for 5 years without any funding (the Vancouver Aquarium is footing the bill) and have gotten almost 300 partners onto the program in that time. This year they also achieved national reach accross Canada.
Our dinearound started at the aquarium where we raised a glass to all that they’ve accomplished before being whisked away to surprise dinner destinations dependent on the colour of pre-assigned ribbons.
Like a bus full of kids on a field trip we shouted out possibilities each time the bus turned a corner: “Nook! L’Altro Buca!” as we spun through the West End, then “Grouse Mountain!” as we headed over the Lion’s Gate bridge. When we stopped in front of the Edge Bistro (3135 Edgemont Blvd.) in Edgemont Village, we all discovered a delightful locale new to all of us.
The Edge
At the Edge we had plump BC mussels in a coconut curry broth followed by a decadent pecan-encrusted salmon stuffed with shrimp and Dungeness crab. Chef Robert Clark of C Restaurant was dining with our group and explained that BC mussels have a much higher meat-to-shell ratio than PEI mussels – a helpful fact we lamented as we became more and more full over the course of the evening. We washed these dishes down with a Pacific Breeze chardonnay from New Westminister and their smoky, spicy Killer Cab then it was back on the bus to head to stop #2.
Hotel Vancouver
We were more familiar with this property but no less surprised when the bus pulled up in front of the Hotel Vancouver. Here we were seated at the back bar of Griffins and served gorgeously plated bites starting with the beet-cured salmon crêpe pictured above, paired with the fresh apple Nk’Mip Riesling. Next was a mini niçoise salad with quail egg, caviar, green bean, tuna sashimi and olive tapenade. Paired with the Quail’s Gate gewürztraminer, this dish was fresh and clever and perfectly executed.
As for hot dishes, there was a smoked sablefish with crisp pancetta and greens accompanied by a Hugues le Juste pinot noir and a seared Arctic char on apple beignet with Granville Island Lager foam and apple-sherry vinegar reduction.
A custom cocktail from the bar, “The Torch” (red pepper, grapefruit, and ruby vodka) finished it all off nicely.
C Restaurant
But no, we weren’t done yet: there was still the finale at C Restaurant. As Chef Robert Clark didn’t like the idea of being the first guests to the party, we nipped into Nu for a cocktail from the carousel bar.
At C, we had another taste of Ocean Wise seafood in the form of a huge Baynes Sound (Denman Island) scallop and Denman Island herring with various forms of pea shoots. The wine for this dish was a beautiful 1998 Selbach-Oster, Reisling, Zeltinger Sonnenuhr that was just the right acidity to balance the oil of the fish.
And then finally – finally! – it was time for dessert – Salt Spring Island Goat Cheese and Vanilla Mousse with stone fruit preserved and spiced liquid marshmallow. It was a not overly sweet dessert which allowed for a pairing of not one but two dessert wines; Forbidden Fruit’s “iced apple dessert wine” and Vista d’oro’s delicious fortified port style wine with walnut brandy. It was a sweet end to an entirely sweet evening.
Finishing up there was time to thank our gracious hosts and congratulate them again on making Ocean Wise what it is today. We also had an opportunity to compare notes with the other buses and their dining experiences. In addition to the restaurants listed here, Aria, Burrard Bridge Marine Bar and Grill, the District, Fraiche, Revel Room, Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company, Tapenade Bistro, and Zen participated. It was great to see the range of restaurants with sustainable Ocean Wise choices available, from high end hotels to casual neighbourhood spots. Check out the complete list of restaurants and partners and show your support.
Categories: Downtown, Events, False Creek, Food, North Vancouver, Restaurants, Wine
Introducing Tinier Bites
13 Comments Karen HamiltonJanuary 19, 2010
She is why you haven’t heard from me in a while.
Our little bundle of joy came into the world at 5:32pm on Friday, January 15th. Now that we’re back from a weekend stay at the hospital after a complicated labour, we are in the throes of new parent bliss as she entertains us, strains us, and keeps us on our toes.
Being a human food factory is more exhausting than being a human incubator, so you will likely not hear directly from me in the next 6-10 weeks as I recover from surgery and focus on my daughter. However, I’m confident that Degan and Bruce will have plenty of content to keep you busy, since Bruce just got back from Argentina and Antarctica and Degan’s been out and about at the events that Team Tiny Bites gets wind of.
If you actually do want to hear about mommyhood and such, visit Flickr for photos and Twitter as @karenhamilton. I may also post from time to time on my personal blog.
Hope your new year has started as memorably as ours has!
Categories: Food, Miscellany
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