There’s a story in Zen Buddhism about a monk who asked his students, “When you’re balanced on top of a 100 foot pole, how can you step even higher?” Because this is Zen, I presume the wily teacher is really asking about enlightenment: once you reach the highest level of spiritual attainment, what do you do next? How do you keep yourself sharp? After all, if you get complacent on a pole, you have a long way to fall.
I thought of this story a few weeks ago at a tasting hosted by the Ontario winery Le Clos Jordanne for their 2007 vintage of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. When Le Clos first released its wines three years ago, they were universally acclaimed by critics and consumers. Wine lovers fell over each other to buy as many bottles as possible, and this first vintage (2004) disappeared from the shelves instantly. In other words, Le Clos Jordanne started life at the top of a 100 foot pole. How can they step even higher?
For Le Clos Jordanne, the answer appears to be that they are continually striving to be even more Clos Jordanish (Clos Jordaneque? Clos Jordaney?) than they already are.
The Le Clos trademark is its obsession with micro-terroir. Each tiny parcel of their land produces its own wine, just like it’s done in the best parts of Burgundy. With each passing year, Le Clos Jordanne is refining this process, creating more cloistered vineyards (“clos” in French) and even subdividing the vineyards that they already have. For the winemakers, each little dip or incline in the land generates its own flavour. This year, they’ve introduced the Talon Vineyard — this vineyard is more elevated than the others and produces wine with a charming fruitiness.
Is this working? Is Le Clos finding a way to step off the 100 foot pole? At the risk of sounding sycophantic, the answer is yes. Le Clos has always been strongest in its mid-priced single vineyard wines, such as the Claystone Terrace Vineyard and La Petite Vineyard. At $35 to $40 per bottle, these wines are pricey, but they taste as good as or better than many $80 Burgundies. I am thrilled that Le Clos wants to expand this line with the likes of Talon Vineyard (and perhaps the St. Francois Vineyard in the future).
Unfortunately, these single vineyard wines are so delightful that they eclipse other Le Clos offerings. Their flagship wine, Le Grand Clos, is $65-70, but I’ve never found it dramatically better than its cheaper cousins. At the other end of the spectrum, Le Clos sells a $25 entry-level wine called the Village Reserve. These are made by blending grapes from a variety of vineyards. The Village Reserves are tasty in isolation, but I can’t think of any good reason to throw money at them if you can get a vastly superior single-vineyard bottle for $10 or $15 more.
Stay tuned next week for complete tasting notes for their Pinot Noir.
Matthew Sullivan is a civil litigator in Toronto. He writes a weekly blog entry here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column also appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at [email protected]. Follow along on Twitter: @shortcellar.
Photo by Alan Levine of “Walking in the Sky” by Jonathan Borofsky, on display at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.