With Le Grand Clos’ terroir, one first senses a great brooding tension of fruit and longevity under the mantle of a fine perfume. Simply profound. This wine still has much to teach us of local “sense of place,” and of the longevity of Pinot Noir from the Niagara bench’s most august terroirs. Born of a cool, long, late, and ultimately ‘quite ripe’ vintage the Grand Clos Pinot Noir 2019 is overflowing with dry extract and verve. The vintage and vineyard are beautifully expressed, given the exceptional terroir delineation between parcels that nature gave us in 2019. Le Grand Clos is always a bit austere, but with the differentiated fruit profiles, it simultaneously presents an alluring purity of red and black fruit and a wine that is unbelievably cohesive, silky, and sure. Alternatively thrilling, wild red raspberry and then deliciously-corrupt black raspberry and blueberry with a minty edge, this wine is “switchedon,” slightly smoky and satisfies in the mid-palate with a long finale. So long, it begs to be put in the cellar for a few years! This is a wine that clearly stands on the shoulders of the ‘17 and ’18 –standing higher yet couldn’t be there without them! With greater vine age, we sense even greater precision – and yet – confoundingly – a greater weight that will certainly grow up around the wine in bottle.