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Bachelder "Les Villages" Gamay Noir 2020

Canada, Ontario
92 JG 92 Points (Wineanorak (Jamie Goode))
91 WA 91 Points (WineAlign)
90 NW 90 Points (Wines In Niagara)

The 'Les Villages' series occupies a rung just below the top single-vineyard expressions from Thomas Bachelder, but consists of fruit from those same vineyards, making it a great value series!

Country Canada
Province Ontario
Region Niagara Peninsula
Producer Bachelder Wines
Vintage 2020
Color Red Wine
Varietal(s) Gamay Noir
¥5,390  (incl. tax)

The 'Les Villages' series occupies a rung just below the top single-vineyard expressions from Thomas Bachelder, but consists of fruit from those same vineyards, making it a great value series!

Country Canada
Province Ontario
Region Niagara Peninsula
Producer Bachelder Wines
Vintage 2020
Color Red Wine
Varietal(s) Gamay Noir
Data
Closure Cork
Volume 750ml
Alcohol 13%
Product Code A017R00520
UPC 185729000774
Inventory In Stock (80)
Owning & Enjoying

Tasting notes

A deft blend (read: obsessed-over) of Gamay Noir parcels from single-vineyard origins, with the expression of the terroir of all-Niagara as its goal … this wine leads us on a dizzy dance combining the deep, ripe fruit and silky tannins of NOTL (Niagara-on-the-Lake) with the delicate perfume and limestone angularity of the best Bench (Escarpment) vineyard fruit. A bewitching nose of rose petals, black raspberry, and smoky cherry jelly. Already incredibly delicious, best from 2023-2025!  Wismer-Foxcroft, Bai Xu, Bator, Willms … all these great terroirs have found their place in this wine that effortlessly marries balance and a slatey minerality, dancing the line between easy drinkability and ageability.

Cellaring

Enjoy thorugh 2033

Press
92Wineanorak (Jamie Goode)
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. 
91WineAlign
David Lawrason: This has a pretty nose of strawberry, pepper, pink rose and fine barrel spice. It is light to medium bodied, smooth, warm and lively. Lovely fruit concentration here. Some drying tannin. The length is excellent. Tasted June 2022
90Wines In Niagara
Even at this level, Bachelder wants consumers to get a taste of what he commonly refers to as “cru” level Gamay that is carefully curated from his key single vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Bench. The goal is to create an expression of the terroir from all of Niagara that combines “the deep ripe fruit and silky tannins of Niagara-on-the-Lake with the delicate perfume and limestone angularity of the best Bench vineyard fruit,” he says. The 2020 vintage brings a richness and plumpness to the fruit, and it shows on the nose here with a ripe and succulent array of cherry-raspberry berries, plums, subtle spice notes, earth and bramble. Those ripe red fruits are tempered somewhat by vibrant acidity giving lift to red berries and plums with added earthiness and savoury notes. Can cellar 3+ years. It’s sourced from Wismer-Foxcroft. Bai Xu, Bator, and Willms vineyards. The label on all the Villages wines in 2020 have an illustration by Shelley Szczucki that shows the appellations where the grapes are sourced.
Reviews & Ratings

John Szabo, MS: Another fine edition of Bachelder's Niagara Peninsula blend of gamay, ripe in the generous 2020 vintage, supple and fruity, immediately engaging and appealing. I love the silky tannins and balanced-ripe acids; length too is impressive. A very sharp value overall. Drink or hold short term - this is pretty much à point. Tasted June 2022.

Production

Appellation

VQA Niagara Peninsula

Vinification

Aged in neutral oak for 18 months

Producer

Producer Description

In just over a decade, Thomas Bachelder has made a name for himself as a producer of world class, terroir-based, organic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Burgundy, Oregon and Niagara. With their two young daughters in tow, Thomas and his wife Mary Delaney have unwittingly become wine gypsies, following their passion to produce terroirrevealing wines from these two most noble Burgundian grapes.

Made with intention

They make wines from local terroirs using ‘wild’ (indigenous) yeasts, using organic vineyards wherever possible. Everything goes to barrel for long ageing. The intent is to make pure, suavely-textured wines that sing lightly and clearly of their vineyard origins with as little makeup as possible – wines that are finely-perfumed and tightly-wound, offering the classic refined fruit and textured minerality of the delicate silt, clay and dolomitic limestone-laced ancient lakebed terroirs of Niagara.

A little note from Thomas and Mary

We’re inspired by the love of our spiritual home – Burgundy – where the grapes we love originally evolved, where even the tiniest of vineyards are put separately into a bottle. Our aim is to help discover, quantify and name the Terroirs of Niagara, one-by-one, from west (just outside Hamilton) to east (just outside the “Old Town” of Niagara-on-the-Lake) – and to deliver their energy and their purity of spirit to your glass! Pull the cork and dream of the vineyard from which it comes!

Santé! Cheers!
Thomas & Mary Delaney-Bachelder
 

“…Bachelder is evidently on a monk’s errand to map out the escarpment with Burgundian-like precision.” - John Szabo, MS

Customer Reviews

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