Black Bank Hill - Chardonnay, Lincoln Lakeshore, Niagara, Canada (2022)

TASTING NOTES

Preserved lemon, roasted pear, crème fraîche, brioche, orange blossom. Layered flavours of yellow apple, tangerine, guava, grilled pineapple, clover honey, fennel seed, chalk, rose petal, macadamia nut. 

The fruit was hand sorted and whole cluster pressed right into 3 second use French oak barriques without enzymes or settling. Primary fermentation was completed by wild yeast lasted between 27 and 45 days. The malic fermentation occurred spontaneously but was intentionally stopped at 60% completion. Bâtonnage occurred twice weekly for 11 weeks. Élevage lasted 20 months. The wine was filtered and lightly fined prior to being estate-bottled on 26 July 2024.

Black Bank Hill is a vineyard and craft winery in the Lincoln Lakeshore sub-appellation of the Niagara Escarpment wine region. Based on heavy, clay-dominant soils which retain water and nutrients; the warmer than average meso-climate at the foot of the escarpment is open to sunlight and air circulation, enables heat accumulation and the ripening of grapes such as Syrah.

Taylor Emerson and Jonathan McLean launched Black Bank Hill in 2018, initially collaborating with Cloudsley Cellars for production. In 2023, Taylor was able to open their own facility in Beamsville and continues to produce a range of delicious wines.