Leaning Post 2024 Chardonnay

Nose: An immediate wave of pineapple, lemon-curd, peach pith, and sea-spray, followed by wet-stone minerality.

Palate: Beautiful richness balanced by grilled Niagara peaches, cumin, and lemon-meringue, mingling with crème fraîche, flint, and roasted almond.

Finish: Silky smooth and exceptionally long, eventually overtaken by wet-stone and crisp acidity.

Pairs beautifully with roast chicken, pan-seared scallops, or a soft-ripened cheese; the wine's stony minerality and gentle richness also make it a natural match for grilled Niagara peaches or a simple almond-crusted fish.

Drinking wonderfully on release, with the structure to reward 3-5 years in the cellar.

Senchuk Vineyard (estate) – 15%; Grimsby Hillside Vineyard – 85%

2024 was a warm and steady growing season in Niagara, with a dry, moderate, and long fall that allowed the Chardonnay to reach full ripeness with excellent retained acidity, producing wines of both elegance and power.

The 2024 growing season was warm and steady, with a dry, moderate, and long fall that produced grapes of elegance and power, fully ripe in flavour with excellent acidity. The fruit was hand-picked and hand-sorted from four vineyards: the majority from younger vines at Grimsby Hillside Vineyard (picked September 17), with the remainder from Bock Vineyard (September 19), the estate Senchuk Vineyard (September 22), and Hemeris Vineyard (October 11).

All the Chardonnay was whole-cluster pressed and kept separate by vineyard block. The juice was allowed to settle before being racked into French oak barrels, where fermentation occurred spontaneously with indigenous yeast and malolactic bacteria. Once fermentation finished, the wine remained in barrel for ten months before bottling in September 2025.

Founded by Ilya and Nadia Senchuk in 2011 on 11 acres in Winona, at the far western edge of the Niagara Peninsula, Leaning Post Wines built its reputation on single-vineyard, sub-appellation-driven Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Winemaker Ilya Senchuk sources fruit from a small circle of sites he knows intimately — the estate's own Senchuk Vineyard along with Grimsby Hillside, Keczan, Hemeris and Bock — farmed and vinified with minimal intervention so each site's character comes through clearly in the glass. Leaning Post was an early champion of the Lincoln Lakeshore sub-appellation designation and is Certified Sustainable by Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario. The wines have consistently ranked among Ontario's top producers and are poured in leading restaurants in Toronto, Montreal, London and Copenhagen.