parallax

Media

Wine reviews, articles, and more

SFD-The-Challenges-of-Extreme-Winemaking_Humboldt-Vineyard_CR_Heather-Daenit.jpg__PID:0368f91c-33af-4b89-808b-968ddd0d60fa

Seven Fifty Daily

Evening Standard

Toronto Life

World of Fine Wine

Decanter

The Globe and Mail

Condé Nast

New York Times

Toronto Star

National Post

Award winning Pinot Noir in Prince Edward County
Pinot Noir Reviews

Grande Cuvée Pinot Noir

94 points - John Szabo (2019 vintage)
"The 2019 Grande Cuvée is composed of 60% South Clos fruit and 40% Churchside, aged in 40% new wood. It was a real pinot year in the County, yielding wines of tremendous perfume and silky, delicate structure, a real delight. Youthful flavours of orange-tangerine over raspberry and cranberry swirl around beguilingly delicate, feathery tannins framed with very finely chiseled acids. It's still tightly wound of course (and not yet released), with terrific tension and energy. This should be a cracking wine in time; revisit in a year."

94 points - David Lawrason (2017 vintage)
"Oh my, is this the best County Pinot to date? Let the debate begin. It has a fabulous nose and such great woven elegance and County structure. Very harmonized, energized yet graceful. Love the lifted seamless cherry, florals, vague wood smoke and spice. It is medium weight, with great finely honed tension. Tannins are very fine. The length is excellent to outstanding."

South Clos Pinot Noir

94 points - Michael Godel (2017 vintage)
"If, as winemaker Keith Tyers says, 'Closson Chase is all about place, as I think the entire County is,' then the remarkable 2017 South Clos was indeed THE harbinger of location that yields to this next level, single varietal assemblage. Forget the fact that is somewhat of an oxymoron because it applies to the full scoop of maker, estate and collection of places within the proverbial place. Here purposes some of Prince Edward County's, the vines associated with lands around the Closson Road and Ontario as a whole's best pinot noir fruit that a vintage can supply. I can think of some other similarly lauded pinot locales; Cotes de Nuits, Central Otago, Hemel-en-Aarde, Lowrey Vineyard on the St. David's Bench. The kinship is cool, if an unnecessary parallel to draw, but the precision, focus, exuberance, zeitgeist and specificity of this Closson Chases makes this Grand Cuvée stand apart. Tyers may be a great maker of chardonnay but with pinot noir in hand he is now a master. Drink 2021-2028."

Churchside Pinot Noir

94 points - David Lawrason (2020 vintage)
"This very fine, elegant pinot has the prettiest aromas I can recall from the County, and I have tasted pretty much all of them. It is lifted yet delicate with perfectly ripened strawberry/cherry, fine florals and classic new oak spice, vanilla, and toast. It is light to medium bodied, almost silky and elegant with some internal heat, although only 12.5% alcohol. Tannins are fine, the flavours are focused and hit excellent length. Great work here by Keith Tyers and the maturing Churchside site, both getting a leg up from a fine vintage."

Award winning Chardonnay in Prince Edward County
Chardonnay Reviews

Grande Cuvée Chardonnay

94 points - John Szabo (2019 vintage)
"The 2019 Grande Cuvée Chardonnay is a stellar follow up to the excellent 2018. It's composed of 60% fruit from the Churchside vineyard and 40% from the South Clos across Closson Road with vines now 20 years old. It's a little reductive-flinty off the top (freshly bottled, not yet released), little stink here, which should blow off in due time, and is in fact a good sign at this stage of early development, auguring well for its longevity. Wood is a minor factor, providing just a light spice sheen, while acids are in fine form, sapid and succulent, framing just-ripe citrus fruit, apples and pears. I love how tightly wound and stony this is, a terrific County expression in a cool year, you could call it a classic vintage. Tuck this in the cellar for 2-4 years and begin to enjoy from about 2024. Cracking wine."

95 points - Vic Harradine (2017 vintage)
"Buttered toast and spiced, baked apple mingle with toasty/flinty aromas on the nose in the first bottling of this premium, flagship Chardonnay. It envelops the palate with a surge of flavour with ripe peach and Mirabelle plum interwoven with tang-laden lemon curd and sharp green apple. This is medium-plus bodied with generous mouthfeel and a lengthy finish and aftertaste replaying palate flavours. This wine showcases deft balance, persistent purity of fruit, good depth, complexity and ability to age to 2026 with careful cellaring. Kudos to winemaker, Keith Tyers, for this stunning cool-climate Chardonnay."

Churchside Chardonnay

94 points - Michael Godel (2017 vintage)
"Truth be submitted, discussed and told the 2017 Closson Chase Vineyard is a lovely, accessible, County for all chardonnay but this, this is something other. This Churchside '17 from a block of vines at the prettiest little chapel around delivers the fullest fruit compliment of the times, in headline, lede and body of work. It does so with a posit tug of tension and spot on, pinpointed and precise attention to balance. States a case with best butter, better toast and even greater purpose. The '17 Churchside undulates and circles, coming to rest in the moment where it all melts down, like a ball in place on the roulette wheel, always having known what number it would be. Drink 2019-2026."

South Clos Chardonnay

95 points - Michael Godel (2020 vintage)
"More than 20 years of vine age, acumen and wisdom are the gain of a South Clos chardonnay and winemaker Keith Tyers is surely more than comfortable making it happen. Dry and warm vintage shows in the dried herbs, almost fennel to pollen dusting on the nose and a stoic presence in almost every respect. Would not go so far as to call this a taut and unforgiving chardonnay, nor is it particularly flinty or reductive. What it shows is utter purity and linearity, a platinum gemstone sheen and shine, controlled power and so much more packed away in reserve. The flavour bursts and energy spurts indicate just how long this will travel. Top, top."

Mentions in other Media