The journey to define Niagara Peninsula Terroir
When we introduced the Toussaint Release on November 1st, we called it the broadest exploration of Niagara we’ve ever bottled. The response from friends near and far reminded us that Niagara’s story resonates well beyond our borders.
Now we’d like to linger on the landscape itself: the narrow, beautiful corridor that makes these wines possible. Think of this as a tasting travelogue – an invitation to drive east to west through the vineyards along our own Route des Grands Crus, where every bend in the road reveals another nuance of terroir.
Niagara stretches 52 kilometres from our eastern vineyards near the Niagara River to the western-most vineyards near Hamilton. For Bachelder, a mere 44 kilometres separates our first vineyard in the northeast, outside the Old Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake (almost on the Niagara River), from our southwestern frontier at Grimsby Hillside, near Stoney Creek.
The drive
You could cross that distance on the Queen Elizabeth Way in half an hour. But you’d miss the drive that really matters – along Regional Road 81 (still locally called old Highway 8). York Road, Queenston Street, St. Paul Street, King Street – it has many names, but one spirit.
Beginning on the sandy west bank of the Niagara River, the route climbs through Queenston and the St. David’s Bench VQA, slips along St. Paul Street through downtown St. Catharines, then runs west with the Escarpment on your left, and that Great Lake a constant on your right.
It traverses the Short Hills Bench VQA, the Jordan and Vineland Benches – together called the Twenty Mile Bench VQA – and their pretty little towns of Jordan and Vineland. Then onward to the charming towns of Beamsville and Grimsby, known in the VQA sub-appellations as the Beamsville Bench, and finally out to Fifty Mile Creek where the Grimsby Hillside Vineyard sits in the Lincoln Lakeshore VQA sub-appellation. Grimsby Hillside marks our frontier – where the Escarpment and lake draw close and signal the edge of the viticultural Peninsula.
Our preferred tasting order: From East to West
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Bai Xu Vineyard
Begin at the river, where sandier soils and sun-warmed breezes give generous, stone-fruited Chardonnay and supple, aromatic Pinot Noir. Line One and Line Two vineyards – Kirby, Bator, and Willms – lie just outside Old Town, where the blacktop of Highway 55 (the first asphalt road in Niagara) cuts a diagonal from town to the Queen Elizabeth Way (and hence on to Toronto). On Line Three, at Bai Xu, sedimentary stone meets stone fruit – ripe, mineral, and faintly waxy. Roundness and potential.
2023 Kirby Pinot Blanc | Vieilles Vignes | Old Vines, VQA Four Mile Creek
(although Kirby is made from Pinot Blanc, the local terroir speaks as loud as the variety, with a palpable family resemblance to Bator, Willms, Bai Xu – even Werner-York up on NOTL’s St. David’s Bench.)
2023 Bator Chardonnay, VQA Four Mile Creek
2023 Willms Chardonnay | Vieilles Vignes | 1983 Planting, VQA Four Mile Creek
2023 Bai Xu Chardonnay | Vieilles Vignes | 1981 Planting, VQA Four Mile Creek
2023 Bator Pinot Noir, VQA Four Mile Creek
St. David’s Bench
Lowrey Vineyard
Climb slightly inland to limestone. At Werner-York Vineyard, just north of the Queenston limestone quarry and near the Lowrey Vineyard Pinot Noir site, roundness gives way to lift – light, lacy Chardonnay echoing the grace of the Pinot grown nearby.
2023 Werner-York Chardonnay, VQA St. David’s Bench
2023 Lowrey Pinot Noir | Vieilles Vignes | Old Vines, VQA St. David’s Bench
2023 Old Eastern Block | ‘84/’88 Cuvée | Lowrey Vineyard, VQA St. David’s Bench
Jordan & Vineland Benches
Wismer-Foxcroft Vineyard
Carrying the elegance we find in St. David’s Bench westward, we arrive in the heart of the Benchlands. Here lie our “unclassified Grands Crus”: Cuesta, Wismer-Foxcroft, Wismer-Wingfield, Hill of Wingfield, and Spencer Morgan for Chardonnay; Cuesta, Wismer-Parke (and its wilder West End), Hanck, and Spencer Morgan for Pinot Noir. Limestone and clay trade places like dancers, producing wines of tension and depth. This – along with the fabulous Benchland Crus of Jordan – are where our love affair with the Bench began.
2023 Cuesta Chardonnay | Far East, Man! VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Wismer-Foxcroft Chardonnay | Parcelle ‘Nord’, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Wismer-Wingfield Chardonnay, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Hill of Wingfield Chardonnay | Wismer-Wingfield Vineyard, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Spencer Morgan Chardonnay | Gravel Road, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Cuesta Pinot Noir, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Wismer-Parke Pinot Noir, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Wild West End Pinot Noir | Wismer-Parke Vineyard, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Hanck Pinot Noir, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
2023 Spencer Morgan Pinot Noir | ‘La Côte’, VQA Twenty Mile Bench
Beamsville and Beyond
Grimsby Hillside Vineyard
Further west, and just below the Beamsville Bench VQA, Mio brings minerality and texture that would read “Bench” if geology – not Highway 8 – drew the line. The organic Saunders Vineyard, located further west by Mountainview Road, demonstrates how purity and power can coexist, as revealed in both our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir explorations. Fifteen kilometres more and you’re at Grimsby Hillside Vineyard, where the slope befriends the lake and limestone meets red clay. Here, the landscape feels both Bench and Lakeshore at once – narrow, steep, and filled with promise. The Red Clay Barn Block and the Frontier Block sit a few hundred metres apart in the same organic vineyard – a mini-miracle of terroir diversity.
2023 Mio Chardonnay, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore
2023 Ivy & Warren Chardonnay | Saunders Parcelle ‘Haut’, VQA Beamsville Bench
2023 Red Clay Barn Block | Grimsby Hillside Vineyard, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore
2023 Frontier Block | Grimsby Hillside Vineyard, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore
2023 Ivy & Warren Pinot Noir | Saunders Parcelle ‘Bas’, Beamsville Bench
These are the places we map and the stories we tell, one vineyard at a time – our Niagara Route des Vins, our little Route 66 of terroir.
And as these stories travel – toasted in Toronto, noted in New York, lauded in London, shared by friends who have stood in our cellars – Niagara’s voice grows clearer in the world.
Niagara Rising – and the story continues, vineyard by vineyard.
Santé,
Mary & Thomas Delaney-Bachelder
The meaning of “ours”
When we say “our vineyards,” we mean relationship, not ownership. These parcels belong to their growers, the stewards who farm them with care and conviction. We have walked the rows season after season, studied the geology, tasted the fruit, and carried their character into barrel and bottle. Through that shared care, they’ve become ours in the deepest sense – part of our story, our craft, our commitment to Niagara.
As a micro-négociant, we depend on growers who share our obsession with quality. Their vines give us the chance to map Niagara vineyard by vineyard – to let, through collaboration rather than possession, this remarkable peninsula speak.