In Niagara (7) Thomas Bachelder: top Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gamay from Canada’s Niagara region
Website: https://bachelderniagara.com/
Tasting with Thomas Bachelder is a remarkable experience. He has an innate curiosity and knowledge of wine that has led him to become the leading proponent of single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Niagara Peninsula of Canada. And, more recently, he has turned his hand to Gamay and now has a wide range of Gamays that express both their vineyard origin, and also winemaking choices. Jamie Goode and Treve Ring taste through the latest releases: due to be launched today (1 November 2022) they represent perhaps the most exciting set of wines to come from Niagara.
Thomas Bachelder hails from Montreal, Canada. Until 2010 he was founding winemaker at Le Clos Jordanne in Niagara, a position he took after experience working and studying wine in Burgundy, before working as winemaker at Lemelson in Oregon. In 2009 he started Bachelder wines, an ambitious three-terroir winemaking project focusing on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Oregon, Burgundy and Niagara.
His model was to act as a micronegociant, buying grapes in each of the three regions and renting winery space to work in. The results were excellent: as Thomas points out, the winemaking and philosophy behind the wines in all three regions is similar (he aims at a European elegance), but beyond that, the personality of the regions is still evident. ‘You can make Oregon elegantly,’ he says, giving an example, ‘but you can’t take the Oregon terroir out of it.’
More recently he began to focus solely on Niagara, and has expanded his range significantly with vineyards across the Niagara Peninsular. ‘I’d been making wines in Oregon for about 7 years,’ he says, ‘and then Niagara started to be the emptiest warehouse. Burgundy and Oregon were good sales, but Niagara was flying off the racks. I thought: I should do more Niagara in my own country.’
‘It is a limestone terroir,’ Thomas says, ‘but it is more like the dolomitic limestone of Alto Adige.’
What’s the strength of Niagara as a wine region? ‘I think the strength is not what I do, but it is able to be a maritime climate and a continental climate. If you are on the bench you are continental, and if you are close to the lake you are very much like a maritime climate like Bordeaux. But here on the bench we are more like Burgundy, because once the lake stays warm at the end of the season, the summer cools down and the lake stays warm and it keeps the lakeside vineyards warm. But it doesn’t keep us warm on the bench so the vines struggle to ripen. I believe the mother vine pulls up more minerality that way.’
He’s also added another variety to his skillset: Gamay. This range has also expanded since the debut in 2016.
‘I’ve been making Pinot Noir and Chardonnay here since 2003,’ says Thomas. ‘My last vintage in Oregon was 2002 at Lemelson vineyards.’ These wines will be released on November 1st, after two years’ elevage. He describes this sort of tasting as ‘mapping Niagara one vineyard at a time.’
Ring (TR) and I (JG) tasted through the wines independently in Spring/Summer 2022. Our notes are below.
PINOT NOIR
Bachelder Les Villages Bench Pinot Noir 2020, Niagara Escarpment
Supple and bright with lovely red cherries and spice, and a core of layered cherry and plum fruit. There’s a lovely texture and also some supple structure with flesh and also a good acid line. Very fine and expressive. 93/100 (JG)
This comes from his single vineyard Bench vineyards on the Escarpment in Vineland and Beamsville. Juicy and bright, with downy plums, wild blackberry, subtle violets, framed with light, furry tannins, and finishing with a tart twist. Drink now, with a light chill. 89/100 (TR)
Bachelder Saunders ‘Warren Saunders 100’ Pinot Noir 2019, Beamsville Bench
Sweetly aromatic with juicy red cherries and plums and some fine dried herb and spice notes. The palate is fresh and structured with fine spices, a hint of pepper, with silky spicy hints. There’s nice structure to this with good tannins and nice concentration. This vineyard always gives small berries. Lots of potential here with grainy detail but also a touch of warmth. Nice intensity here. 94/100 (JG)
From Beamsville Bench’s organically farmed Saunders Vineyard (named for visionary farmer Warren Saunders, who recently turned 100 (!), 3.9km from the lake and on clay, silt and limestone soils. So perfumed, with fragrant raspberries, cherries flooded across a plumped base. There are some herbal green twinges to brighten, and long, finely downy tannins to frame. The whole finishes long with a wash of salinity. Very smart, drinking well now and with time ahead. 92/100 (TR)
The next four come from soils with lots of magnesium oxide in the soils.
Bachelder Wismer-Parke Wild West End Pinot Noir 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
Fleshy and bright with a nice green hint to the supple cherry and plum fruit and some hints of reduction. Lovely intensity to this wine but also some generosity, and nice green hints. Give this time to hit its stride and then I think it can show amazing elegance. Sappy and detailed. 93/100 (JG)
The Wild West End Wismer-Parke is taken from the westernmost rows of the Vineland Bench vineyard, planted to a mystery clone of Pinot Noir rooted into reddish magnesium oxide and dolomitic-limestone clay soils. This has more gravitas than the classic Wismer-Parke Pinot Noir, imbued with even more sultry ferrous notes within the dark cherry, black raspberry, crushed red florals, dried leaf matrix. Tannins are fine, yet firm and structural, while acidity remains lofted and limestone lit. Quite striking, and special. 93/100 (TR)
Bachelder Wismer-Parke Pinot Noir 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
Delicate but not lacking in flavour, this has fine structure with subtle reductive hints and a nice spicy, grainy quality. There’s a touch of meat and iodine savouriness as well as some grainy structure. This is juicy and expressive with almost perfect balance: there’s fruit, but also savouriness, some fine meaty hints, some bloody hints, and fine sappy green notes. Such a classic. 94/100 (JG)
This Wismer-Parke is on the Vineland Bench, 5.4 km from the Lake, and an altitude of 110 metres, rooted into reddish magnesium oxide and dolomitic-limestone clay soils. Earthy ferrous notes weave throughout this silken Pinot, tinged with herbal raspberry, crushed red florals, and fleshed with cherries. Tannins are light and long, and acidity is lifted and shining, imbuing the wine with inherent energy. Lovely seriousness met with lightness of being. 92/100 (TR)
Hanck Pinot Noir 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
This is right next door to Wismer-Parke. This is fleshy and fine, with lovely details and sleek black cherry and cranberry notes, with emphasis on the fruit. It has some structure but there’s also lovely flesh and prettiness: Vosné rather than Gevrey. This is so supple and fresh with really nice texture, but finishes with some covert structure. Very fine. 96/100 (JG)
Hanck vineyard is on the sweet spot of the Vineland Bench, on reddish magnesium and dolomitic-limestone clay soils. Though just 10 metres from Wismer-Parke, the wine is entirely different. Very earthy and green-edged, with herbal raspberry, sapid cherry, wet tea leaves, on a sleek, streamlined palate, lit with salinity. Ample tension here. 92/100 (TR)
Bacheder Cuesta Pinot Noir 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
Some hints of seaweed (nori) on the nose with some red cherry and rusty iron, as well as fine green notes. The palate is fine and fresh with red cherries as well as spice and iodine. This is quite light and expressive, but there’s some volume, too. It has a sweet core. Light and transparent with some mineral notes. Superbly mineral and light. 94/100 (JG)
Cuesta (old lake coast) is 5km from the lake at an altitude of 133 metres on the Twenty Mile Bench, on soils rich in dolomitic limestone and silt. A reductive wave opens into black cherry, black raspberry, pitchy thorns, seaweed, with a softly cushioned palate framed with fine green edged tannins. The finish lingers with a faint flinty salinity. Open this in advance and enjoy. 91/100 (TR)
Lowry Old Vines Pinot Noir 2019 St David’s Bench
Planted in 1993. Supple and fresh with nice structural density as well as cherries and plums. This is a layered Pinot Noir with freshness and nice structure as well as appealing red fruits. There’s a prolonged, grippy finish which persists. Some notes of iodine and dried herbs. Less floral than the other Pinots, but satisfying. 93/100 (JG)
This single vineyard St. David’s Bench Pinot Noir is some of the oldest pinot noir vines in Niagara. The Lowrey Vineyard was once part of the Alliance project between Jaffelin (Burgundy) and Inniskillin. These vines were planted between 1988 and 1993, on a gentle slope at the base of the Niagara Escarpment. Sultry wild raspberry, cherry roll across the silken palate, with tight, bright acidity and fine, long tannins framing this to a lengthy saline finish. 93/100 (TR)
Lowry Old Eastern Block Pinot Noir 2019 St David’s Bench
Planted in 1984 and 1988. Supple and detailed with a little bit of flesh, showing red cherries and plums. There’s a supple character and the wine flows nicely across the palate. There’s some grip here and good acidity. Everything works together: satisfying with some softness and richness hiding in the background. 94/100 (JG)
This single vineyard St. David’s Bench Pinot Noir is some of the oldest pinot noir vines in Niagara. The Lowrey Vineyard was once part of the Alliance project between Jaffelin (Burgundy) and Inniskillin. This is from the oldest block at Lowry Vineyard, planted in 1984 and 1988. Perfumed and elegant from the fore, with wild raspberries, wild cherries woven with tight, fine spicing and black tea leaves across a graceful palate. Wild herbs and salinity season, all framed with long, fine tannins. Energy and finesse, this is drinking beautifully now and with time ahead. 94/100 (TR)
CHARDONNAY
Bachelder Les Villages NOTL Chardonnay 2020 Niagara-on-the-Lake
Textured and concentrated with sweet pear and peach notes, and a touch of nut and spice. Very expressive with a nice chalky saline edge under the rich fruit. There’s the Niagara richness and softness, but also a bright fine spiciness on the finish. Very expressive. 92/100 (JG)
They released two Les Villages Chardonnays in 2020, both made identically, but one from Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) and the other from the Bench. This cuvée blends fruit off The Willms, Bator, Bai Xu and Patte Rouge parcels. After a native ferment in primarily neutral French barrels, this rested 16 months sans bâtonnage before bottling. Creamy and ripe, with lemon curd, white peach, downy pear, and white blossoms on an expansive, lees-decked palate, finishing with a buzzy stony spice and an acetic lift. A lovely intro to NOTL Chardy. 89/100 (TR)
Bachelder Les Villages Bench Chardonnay 2020 Niagara Escarpment
This is very expressive and mineral with nice finesse. Fruity and fine with lemons, pear and peach, and a nice oyster shell minerality. Very fine and yet also with an inherent richness and purity. This is fine and delicate with great precision. Superb. 94/100 (JG)
They released two Les Villages Chardonnays in 2020, both made identically, but one from Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) and this one from the Bench. Fruit here comes off Saunders, Wingfield Ouest and Est, Foxcroft Sud and Nord. After a native ferment in primarily neutral French barrels, this rested 16 months sans bâtonnage before bottling. An alluring flicker of reduction pokes through a lees-decked, lemon peel, green apple core. There’s a wonderful purity and cool freshness here, one that lingers across stony spice on the finish. Quite smart, and a lovely duo of Village chardonnays to enjoy. 90/100 (TR)
Bachelder Willms Chardonnay Vigne de 1983 2019 Four Mile Creek
Soils are quite sandy here. This is rich and mouthfilling with pear, peach and some apple, with nice richness to the fruit, and a spicy limey finish. There’s some nutty warmth here and honeyed richness on the finish. I like the contrast between the richness in the middle, and the lively spicy minerality framing it. 93/100 (JG)
As the label notes, this is from old vines (planted in 1983) in the Willms Vineyard, 6km from Lake Ontario, and 4km from the Niagara River, with a soil combo of silt loamy-clay, limestone, gravels, and sand. Thomas selects the eastern side of the vineyard for this wine. After a native ferment, this rested in French oak (none new) for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Broad and savoury, a buzzy undercurrent sweeps along green apple, pear skin, and a stony salinity through a lingering finish. Very moreish now, and with time ahead. 92/100 (TR)
Bachelder Bai Xu Vignes de 1981 Chardonnay 2019 Four Mile Creek
Sandy and loamy sediments over lacustrine clay. Such an interesting wine, showing some mid-palate richness but also freshness and fine spiciness that runs all through the palate. This has lovely detail and some fine spiciness, with a mineral twist. It’s rich but fine with nice freshness. So much detail. 94/100 (JG)
Bai Xu is nestled in Four Mile Creek (just over from Willms), where some of the oldest vinifera plantings in Ontario grow. The site is 6km from Lake Ontario and 4km from the Niagara River, and this clone 95 Chardy was planted in 1981 on sandy loams over clay / limestone. After a native ferment, this rested in older French oak for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Creamy and broad, with plumped white florals, lemon curd, yellow plum, with a green apple brace, and fine spice throughout the silken palate. Very welcoming, and ready for drinking now and over shorter term. 91/100 (TR)
Bachelder Cuesta Far-East, Man! Chardonnay 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
This is from the coolest part of the vineyard that barely gets ripe. It’s fresh and mineral but there’s a slight salinity, with some seaweed character, showing transparency but also some mealy oak notes. There’s less obvious fruit here and you get the mineral and spice and seaweed character. There’s a lovely volume in the mouth. So expressive. 95/100 (JG)
Cuesta is 5km from the lake at an altitude of 133 metres on the Twenty Mile Bench, on soils rich in dolomitic limestone and silt. After a native ferment, this rested in older French oak for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Ripe and round, with creamy perfumed pear, yellow apple, lemon curd, lit with a buzzy limestone hum, and lingering with ample exotic spices. This weighty wine would be a good match for creamy risottos (lobster ideally). 92/100 (TR)
Le Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos Chardonnay 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
This is bright and fresh – a high limestone site – with a great acid line. It’s pure and linear with some yellow plum and a touch of lime. So supple and rounded, but with a good acid line. Supple and elegant with lovely purity. There’s an amazing precision to this wine. 95/100 (JG)
Bachelder Wismer-Foxcroft Nord Chardonnay 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
This is mineral and grainy with a mealy, spicy edge to the pear and white peach fruit. There’s a delicacy to this wine, but also some white peach and meal character that gives it breadth and accessibility. There’s a slight saltiness to this and a tapering finish. Very stylish with many layers of flavour. 95/100 (JG)
Nord comes off a plot in the large, lauded Wismer-Foxcroft vineyard, 5.4 km from the lake, and 30 year old Chardonnay vines at 110m altitude on a steep, stony-silty and dolomitic limestone slope. After a native ferment, this rested in older French barrels for near 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Striking wine, leading with a streak of flinty reduction before driving through green apple, lemon peel and pith, broken stones, and ample salts, all underpinned by a savoury fine lees bed. So much to unpack here now, this wine has ample years ahead. Energy, power, charisma, structure – this wine has it all. 94/100 (TR)
Bachelder Wismer-Wingfield Ouest Chardonnay 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
18% new oak. Nutty, spicy, mealy nose with a touch of honey. The palate is fresh and supple with some mid-palate warmth and roundness, showing honey, pear and citrus. Nice texture with some softness, but has some spicy framing on the finish. 93/100 (JG)
Ouest is a powerful, structural white sourced from a site under 7km from Lake Ontario, at 160m (the hill of Wingfield), and from 30-year-old vines on sloping, dolomitic limestone soils. After a native ferment, this rested in French oak (none new) for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Weighty and powerful, with honeysuckle, yellow plum, yellow apple, meringue, wild herbs, broken stones, lemon pith, wild herbs, and crushed flake salts that dot the palate, lingering on the lengthy saline finish. Drinking beautifully now and with time ahead. 93/100 (TR)
Bachelder Wismer-Wingfield Ouest Chardonnay Puncheon Reserve 2019 Twenty Mile Bench
One puncheon, bottled in magnum. Fresh, lively and spicy with some mealy notes. There’s bright pear, peach and mandarin, with some lemony detail and fine spiciness on the finish. Lovely depth here, with a touch of honeyed richness, with some freshness on the finish. 94/100 (JG)
Bachelder Saunders ‘Warren Saunders’ 100 Chardonnay 2019 Beamsville Bench
Freshness and intensity here with juicy lemon and pear fruit, with some nice spiciness. There’s a brightness to this wine with some mealy hints and nice intensity. There’s a focus and immediacy to the fruit. Nice depth and structure. 93/100 (JG)
From Beamsville Bench’s organically farmed Saunders Vineyard (named for visionary farmer Warren Saunders, who recently turned 100 (!), 3.9km from the lake and on clay, silt and limestone soils. After a native ferment, this rested in older French oak for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Creamy yet sleek, with green pear, yellow plum, acacia blossom, across a struck match scented lees bed. There’s a lovely tension here between the creamy underlay, and the buzzy limestone energy through a saline finish. Drinking well now, and with time ahead. 93/100 (TR)
Bachelder Grimsby Hillside North Slope, Starry Skies Chardonnay 2019 Lincoln Lakeshore
Textured and ripe with nice pear and peach with some mineral characters. There’s a fine spiciness and some detail on the finish. Lovely texture to this wine with great detail. There’s great precision, and also a bit of fruit sweetness. Layered and quite light on its feet. 94/100 (JG)
Grimsby Hillside is a wild, stony, site out in the far west of Niagara, nestled into the foothill of the Escarpment (122m) in clay, silt, and limestone soils. However, it’s likely that this site has many micro fragments of the 4.6 billion year old meteorite that hit the vineyard on September 25, 2009. After a native ferment, this rested in older French oak for around 16 months, sans bâtonnage. Creamy and powerful, with downy lees bedding a textural top tier of pear, green apple, lemon pith, raw almonds, and ample flake salts. So well knit, and complete, with judicious use of wood to expand and relax, through the lingering saline finish. Powerful, cellar-worthy. 93/100 (TR)
GAMAY
Bachelder Les Villages Gamay Noir 2020 Niagara Peninsula
Sweetly aromatic with red cherries, plums and a fine spiciness. There’s a sappy, tea leaf note hovering in the background. There’s a nice combination of sweet and sour here, with cherries and raspberries, with a sour cherry finish and some fine spiciness. Has drinkability but also some seriousness. Very expressive. 92/100 (JG)
Les Villages is a blend of the 5 Gamay parcels he works across Niagara, incorporating 28% whole clusters in the final blend. Fragrant wild raspberries, strawberries flood the juicy, jubilant palate, threaded with brighting green herbaceousness, and hugged with downy soft tannins. An herbal style, in nice balance, ready for chilling and enjoying now. 89/100 (TR)
Bachelder Bator Gamay Noir 100% Destemmed 2020 Four Mile Creek
Fine, dark and spicy on the nose with raspberries and wild strawberries and some subtle herbal notes. Complex and brooding with a lovely texture on the palate, showing fine-grained structure. Perfumed red fruits with a firm tannic core. Spicy, vital and alive with potential for development, although the fruit is sweet now and has a lot of appeal. 94/100 (JG)
This is one of 3 wines using Bator Vineyard fruit this year, a site close to the Welland Canal, in Four Mile Creek. As the label states, this cuvee is entirely destemmed, leaving a silken wild strawberry, green raspberry palate, with white pepper spicing, and softly sticky tannins to frame. There’s a bright zippy freshness to this green edged wine, making this a charmer. Enjoy now, with a slight chill. 90/100 (TR)
Bachelder Bator Gamay Noir 13% Whole Cluster 2020 Four Mile Creek
Perfumed and fresh with lovely floral red fruit aromatics. Cherry as well as strawberry and raspberries. This core of fruit continues to the palate which is aromatic and expressive with some fine sappy notes and some liqueur-like richness, showing a lovely seamless layer of red fruits that cover the substantial tannin. There’s a nice weight on the palate, too – almost glycerol like. 95/100 (JG)
This is one of 3 wines using Bator Vineyard fruit this year, a site close to the Welland Canal, in Four Mile Creek. As the label states, this cuvee has 13% whole cluster in the mix. Wild cherries, fragrant wild raspberries, candle wax glide along the silken palate, with lifted, bright acidity and long, fine tannins framing. The whole cluster brings an alluring lift to the whole. Bright and charming, and ready to enjoy now with a slight chill. 91/100 (TR)
Bachelder Bator Gamay Noir Pinot Noir Passez Toutes Les Grappes 2020 Four Mile Creek
One-third of each of the Bator Gamays plus a barrel of the Bator Pinot Noir. Complex, fruit driven nose with some green hints, some dried herbs and a dark cherry note. The palate is really distinctive: there’s a green hint here and some depth and richness – the Pinot seems to be dominating, and the green adds some extra dimensions to the fresh, sweet red and black fruit core. 90/100 (JG)
This P.T.L.G.(Passez Toutes les Grappes) is Bachelder’s take on Bourgogne’s traditional Passe-tout-grains, a blend of pinot noir and gamay. This blends 2/3 Gamay Noir with 1/3 Pinot Noir, with fruit off their Bator (part of Line Two Vineyards), and Willms Vineyards, and vines dating back to 1998. Fragrant and finessed, with perfumed cherries, raspberries, crushed plum on a softly silken palate, framed with long, fine tannins. Acidity feels effortlessly placed, light and unobtrusive, to carry this medium bodied through a baking spiced finish. Enjoy now, liberally, with a slight chill. 91/100 (TR)
Bachelder Willms Les Naturalistes Gamay Noir 55% Whole Cluster 2020 Four Mile Creek
Sandstone soils. This is very fine and expressive with very fine structure. It’s floral and silky with lovely red cherry fruit and a bit of strawberry. Floral and expressive with a really nice mouthfeel. Has a supple red fruit character, some fine tea leaf notes, and an appealing sappiness. Has a nice tapering finish. There’s structure here, but it’s masked. 94/100 (JG)
Les Naturistes comes from a 1983 planted vineyard owned and farmed by the Willms family, in the heart of Four Mile Creek, rooted in silty, loam clays, gravel, limestone and sand. This was fermented with 55% whole cluster. Herbal edged and green tinged, with lovely sapid raspberries and crunchy plum along a lengthy, saline and peppery palate. Acidity is bright and energy is high through the lightly warming, ample white pepper finish. 90/100 (TR)
Bachelder Bai Xu Gamay Noir 32% Whole Cluster 2020 Four Mile Creek
Concentrated and quite dark-fruited with black cherries and plums, and a silky texture. There’s a touch of green, with a lovely fresh acid line from the limestone. I like the way that this feels in the mouth, with sappy red and black cherry fruit, some rounded texture, but also some framing. Lovely supple, assured, ripe Gamay. 93/100 (JG)
Jackson Bai and his family own Four Mile Creek’s Bai Xu vineyard, planted in 1981 with unknown clones, on a mix of loamy clay, silt, sand and limestone. This Gamay utilized 32% whole cluster in 2020. Deep raspberry, strawberry jam, wild cherry flood a structural palate, threaded with herbal green notes, and hugged with downy tannins moving slightly astringent on the finish. A plumper, fuller cuvee in Thomas’ terroir-driven gamay collection. 90/100 (TR)
Then to the Bench
Bachelder Wismer Foxcroft Gamay Noir 52% Whole Cluster 2020 Twenty Mile Bench
This is a substantial, structured wine with a core of red cherries and plums, showing some fine spices and then some tannic grip. Very linear and compact, with some fruit sweetness but also some depth and focus. Juicy and lively on the finish with a touch of spice. This is a really refined expression of Gamay. It’s serious and this could age, even though there’s a lot of fruit. 94/100 (JG)
The 2020 vintage includes two Gamay from Wismer-Foxcroft Vineyard, the special Twenty Mile Bench site known for its exceptional Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Planted in 1993 to magnesium and limestone laced soils, this gamay was 52% whole cluster. Silken smooth, the palate is gilded with herbal raspberry, herbal crunchy plum, white peppercorns, wrapped with long, soft tannins and lit with a bright acidity. The finish is long with white pepper. 91/100 (TR)
Bachelder Wismer Foxcroft Gamay Noir 33% Whole Cluster 2020 Twenty Mile Bench
Very fine and pure with lovely silky red cherry and plum fruit. It’s supple and fine with a lovely red fruit core and then some spiciness on the finish. There are some fine sappy hints here, but the main thrust is sweet, pure, appropriately structured cherry and plum fruit. There’s a bit more structure here, with some edges. 94/100 (JG)
The 2020 vintage includes two Gamay from Wismer-Foxcroft Vineyard, the special Twenty Mile Bench site known for its exceptional Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Planted in 1993 to magnesium and limestone laced soils, this gamay was 33% whole cluster. Super fragrant, with wild blueberry, iris, slatey notes along a lengthy, slender palate, shimmering on the bottom with that limestone light, and effortlessly lifted with a bright acidity. Drinking beautifully now, with a slight chill, and will continue to hold smartly short term. 92/100 (TR)
