County Pinot Noir Archives | Norman Hardie WinesNorman Hardie Winery and Vineyard

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Possibly one of the greatest vintages we’ve had since 2004. For those who love Burgundy you will not be disappointed. Wonderful bright fruit on the nose with a steely core mid-pallet and a wonderful long finish. VQA Prince Edward County

$5900

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Reviews

Richard Hemming MW , JancisRobinson.com

17

“Very pale and limpid ruby. Fragrant floral character with cranberry, raspberry and herbal notes. Super-fine floury tannin. Finishes with a baked cherry note. From the fruit, it almost feels like its from a warmer place than Ontario – it's so concentrated, yet the alcohol is so light.”

For those who love Burgundy you will not be disappointed. Wonderful bright fruit on the nose with a steely core mid-pallet and a wonderful long finish. Truly encapsulates our favourite quote in describing Pinot Noir: “great Pinot should be like a steel hand in a velvet glove.” Ultimately what’s in the bottle is a true expression of the beautiful calcareous limestone& clay soils tempered by a wonderfully cool-climate that we have due to our proximity to Lake Ontario.

Available at at LCBO

The palate is ripe and loaded with flavours of red cherry, strawberry and classic beetroot with a long, lingering finish. Fresh and lively now, this wine will taste it’s best with 5-6 years in the cellar towards 2026 and onward.

The yields for our 2017 were very low due to heavy rains during flowering. The low yields per root mass combined with idyllic end of summer weather resulted in grapes with beautifully ripe skins and rich phenolic ripeness. As always, we followed our longstanding practice of minimal intervention wine making. All our clones were co-fermented with natural/indigenous yeasts spending between 25 and 35 days on the skins. They were gently pressed in our basket press extracting all the potential of the vintage. The wines were aged for 18 months in 228litre French oak casks (one third new, one third second fill and the remaining third neutral older casks). The wines were then racked to tank incorporating only the best fine lees for an additional two months aging. The wine was racked a second time and bottled unfiltered and unfined. This wine has good concentration of fruit and great depth even with its relatively young age at a remarkably low 11.5% alcohol

The long, sunny, warm fall of 2017 is expressed by sweet, red berry aroma and enhanced by elegantly balanced extended oak influence. The palate is ripe and loaded with flavours of red cherry, strawberry and classic beetroot with a long, lingering finish. Fresh and lively now, this wine will taste it’s best with 5-6 years in the cellar towards 2025 and onward.

Reviews

John Szabo MS , WineAlign

92/100

A typically light and delicate, silky, beautifully transparent County pinot here from Hardie, from a vintage that is proving to be far better than first expected, after a challenging season. But tough vintages highlight the both the top vineyards and the most competent winemakers, evident in this detailed and finely crafted example. I love the light cranberry and red cherry fruit, pure and refined, the light cinnamon/old oak influence, and the sapid acids and fine length. Delicate and refined all around, enjoyable now, but ultra-stable - two weeks in an opened bottle have barely affected the wine, so cellaring into the mid-late twenties should be rick-free. Tasted August 2019.

The 2016 season was characterized by a hot and dry growing season. Harvested mid-September, the grapes were fermented with indigenous yeasts from each individual vineyard block. 21-25 days on the skin in total: 6-8 day cold soak with 2 pump overs a day, followed by 7 day fermentation with maximum of 2 punch downs a day, remaining days gentle turning of cap once a day. Gentle basket press before being put to French oak barriques for 10 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulphur dose before bottling.

This is classic County Pinot Noir with the emphasis on finesse and elegance which is derived from the very rocky limestone soils of the County. The wine is rather deceptive, as it starts with elegant bright fruit notes and grows into complex layered Pinot Noir.

Reviews

Richard Hemming MW , Jancis Robinson

16.5+/20

Fine-grained tannins, bright acidity, fuller and more concentrated than their Niagara Pinot Noir. Sweet spices on the finish. Still a closed book.

Jamie Goode , Wine Anorak

95/100

11.7% alcohol. Deliciously sappy and bright with some raspberry and red cherry fruit. Elegant and pure with some silkiness to the perfumed, floral red fruits. Real finesse here: a beautifully expressive, balanced wine that’s drinking well now, but which will develop beautifully over the medium term. Such precision. Norm says that this has a hardness and an inaccessibility in the mid-palate which is a bit like Chambolle, and is a very good thing. 95/100

Michael Godel , WineAlign

93/100

If a Norman Hardie pinot noir ever drifted with such a prominent perfume I can’t recall, but here from 2016 it is with fresh flowers, sweet rosewater and fragrant spice. The impossible magic of lithe rendering, low alcohol and intuitive balance are always a Hardie thing but these ideals can’t be stated often enough. It’s like they all come together in 2016 in an effortless way, in structure and invisible layering like never before. The finest subtleties wave and oscillate in hushed, variably collective tones. The whisper effect is new and somehow intrinsic, explained, without words and inexplicably obvious. This story will be read over 10 years. No surprise there. Drink 2019-2028. Tasted February 2018.

Due to a devastating late spring frost (May 23rd!), we lost most of our County crop in 2015 resulting in a minuscule production of our celebrated County Pinot Noir. Fermented with indigenous yeasts from each individual vineyard block. 21-25 days on the skin in total: 6-8 day cold soak with 2 pump overs a day, followed by 7 day fermentation with maximum of 2 punch downs a day, remaining days gentle turning of cap once a day. The wine was pressed in small batches in a traditional basket press before being put to French oak barriques for 10 months. Natural malolactic fermentation, bottled unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulphur dose before bottling

A refined Pinot with classic red cherry notes and firm tannins, both hallmarks of the very rocky limestone soils of the County.

The 2014 season was characterized by a cool growing season, but unusually long, warm and sunny fall; harvested at the beginning of October, the grapes achieved outstanding phenolic complexity, while retaining vibrant acidity at a wonderfully low alcohol. Fermented with indigenous yeasts from each individual vineyard block. 21-25 days on the skin in total: 6-8 day cold soak with 2 pump overs a day, followed by 7 day fermentation with maximum of 2 punch downs a day, remaining days gentle turning of cap once a day. Gentle basket press before being put to French oak barriques for 10 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulphur dose before bottling

This is classic County Pinot Noir with the emphasis on finesse and elegance, derived from the very rocky limestone soils of the County. The wine is rather deceptive, as it starts with elegant bright fruit notes and grows into complex layered Pinot Noir.

Reviews

John Szabo MS , WineAlign

92

Hardie rarely misses a beat, and the 2014 pinot emerges here with supreme grace, fine-grained, delicate, seemingly light but anchored on solid base of impossibly ripe fruit at just 10.9%. I love the length, the absence of any wood flavour, the terrific mineral saltiness. Lovely wine. Tasted April 2016.

Michael Godel , WineAlign

93

In Prince Edward County and for Pinot Noir there is no substitute and no comparison. Quixotically sweet Pinot Noir fruit, from the lowest of the low yields, scrupulously heeded and handled with care and yet also, somehow without a care to the world. As self-effacingly pretty and impossible as ever though in 2014 the tensity is lower, the anxiety bereft and not so crucially or dearly developed. There is almost no crisis from out of this first of the near-crisis vintages. This is an early to love Norm Pinot Noir, brought to life and with red citrus that only a Hardie low alcohol Pinot can bring. Humility only exceeded by impossibility.

Richard Hemming MW , Canada Comes Courting (Again)

17.5

Perfumed and floral - this smells how you wish most Volnay would. Cherry blossom, strawberry, light chalky texture. Sublime fruit clarity.

This vintage was picked early due to a very even and balanced growing season. The fastidious work of our vineyard crew all season long allowed our county fruit to achieve incredible phenolic ripeness with remarkably low sugars: the alcohol on label is very restrained 10.9%. Fermented with indigenous yeasts from each individual vineyard block. 21-25 days on the skin in total: 6-8 day cold soak with 2 pump overs a day, followed by 7 day fermentation with maximum of 2 punch downs a day, remaining days gentle turning of cap once a day. Gentle basket press before being put to French oak barrels for 10 months

This is classic County Pinot Noir with the emphasis on finesse and elegance which is derived from the very rocky limestone soils of the County. The wine is rather deceptive, as it starts with elegant bright fruit notes and grows into complex layered Pinot Noir.

2012 proved to be one of our most exciting harvests. Similar in concentration and body to 2010, while maintaining focused minerality and purity throughout the finish. Fresh and bright aromatics on the nose, followed by ripe cranberry on the palate. Medium body with firm structured tannin. Wonderful length. Platinum Medal - WineAlign 2014 National Wine Awards of Canada

Reviews

WineAlign , 2014 National Wine Awards of Canada

Platinum

Our 2012 County Pinot Noir was the highest-rated Pinot Noir at the 2014 National Wine Awards of Canada, winning Platinum.

Our County Pinot is always made from 100% local County fruit, from our own estate vines and a few select vineyards in the Hillier region. Pinot Noir from 2011 was picked in late September and early October at 21.5 brix. Despite a cool vintage the grapes were picked with incredible phenolic ripeness. The average yield was approximately 1kg per vine. The wine was fermented using indigenous yeasts on skins for 23 to 26 days. As the wines aged, no sulphur was added until August of 2012 due to long, slow malolactic fermentation. Approximately 33% new, 33% second and 33% third fill tight grain 3 year dried French oak barrels used for ageing. Bottled unfiltered and unfined.

This 2011 vintage compares as a wonderful cross of 2009 and 2010. The nose and palate each present all the wonderful rich decadent fruit notes and velvety tannins of the 2010 vintage combined with the tension, nerve and acidity on the finish so characteristic of the 2009 vintage. Structured and firm finish, integrated balance. Suggested Drinkability Window: Now through 2016.

Reviews

Tony Aspler

90/100

Cherry red colour; high toned, red berry nose; lean and sinewy Burgundian style with flavours of raspberry and cherry backed by lively acidity. Volnay in style, elegant and sophisticated.

Susy Atkins , The Telegraph (UK)

A serious treat, and talking-point. An attractive, soft and juicy Canadian pinot, with hazelnuts, cassis and plump black cherries.

Jamie Goode , The Wine Anorak

95/100

Pale cherry red colour. So expressive, pure and supple with red cherry and herb fruit and complex, fine, spicy notes. Real precision and elegance with a subtle meatiness under the silky cherry fruit. So supple and pure, with haunting perfume and real finesse. 95/100

Our earliest county harvest to date. Picked mid-September (2 weeks earlier than usual). Wonderful phenolic ripeness and given the richness of the fruit the ferments were worked vigoursly to maximize extraction.

Beautiful, rich with velvety texture. Wonderful balance between the fruit and the tannin. Suggested Drinkability Window: Now through 2016.

Reviews

David Lawrason , National Post

91/100

2010 was one of the best pinot vintages yet in PEC and this is a fine effort. It’s a pale ruby shaded pinot with a great nose - lovely woodsy, smoky nuances around the ripe raspberry-cranberry fruit. It’s medium weight, quite smooth and substantial with juicy berry fruit, minerality and chalky/dusty tannin (not at all green). The finish hits excellent length. Best over the next five years.

Jamie Goode , The Wine Anorak

93/100

Very interesting nose with floral, fruity raspberry and cherry fruit. Sweet and smooth on the palate with black cherries and plums. Very long, pure fruit here: so drinkable, but also has complexity.

The texture is pure silk and elegance, with fresh, delicate and tart red fruit. This is vibrant and pure, with energetic acidity, very fine-grained tannins and a wonderfully refreshing 11.5% alcohol. Flavours run to the wild strawberry and cherry spectrum. Very compelling, inviting constant sips.