I recently took part in a wine tasting with a group of esteemed wine writers at the Terminal City Club in Vancouver. The speaker and guide for this session was Winemaker Thomas Bachelder of Le Clos Jordanne winery in the southern region of Ontario. This wine region is centered around the Niagara region in Ontario where grapes are produced and harvested. This tasting featured 5 different wines all from the same 2006 vintage (2 whites and 3 reds) we were served a tasting platter of foods that were paired to the white wines selection and then another tasting platter of foods paired to the red wines selections.
Thomas walked us through the different regions and vineyards and pointed out how much terroir comes into play even for Canadian regions. Le Clos Jordanne is situated on a 400km limestone bench stretching around the lake in Canada and into the USA.
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.
Food Pairing for White Wines
The two whites we tasted, Claystone Chardonnay and Grand Clos Chardonnay, were tasted with preserved lemon risotto, seared scallop with sunchoke tureen, and chardonnay-poached lobster with black truffle chip.
Food pairing for Red Wines
Paired with the pinots were a Fraser Valley duck breast on potato cakes, five spice beef tempura on potato puree and mushroom bruschetta.
By: Richard Wolak
