Pearl Morissette Irreverence Blanc 2020

The Land

To most Americans Niagara means icewine, but the Niagara Peninsula is a serious cool-climate table wine region. Lake Ontario sits to the north, and the Niagara Escarpment rises behind the vineyards. Air off the lake bounces against the escarpment and keeps circulating, which softens winter cold and slows spring budbreak. Pearl Morissette is based in Jordan. Its home vineyard is on gravel soils in the Creek Shores appellation, and it also farms the 19th Street vineyard up on the Twenty Mile Bench and a leased red-clay site near Redstone. Summers are humid, so the team raised the fruit wire to 60 centimeters to keep the grapes away from damp ground, and they protect the skins from too much sun.

The Wine

The Pearl Morissette Irrévérence Blanc 2020 is a skin-contact white blend led by Chardonnay with Riesling and aromatic varieties, each fermented separately before blending. The Chardonnay goes into old wooden foudres, while part of the aromatic fruit spends months on its skins in clay vessels. The estate ages its wines on their primary lees with no racking and bottles them with no fining or filtering. Expect a hazy gold to pale copper color, then aromas of peach, bergamot, jasmine and black tea. The body is medium and dry, with a chalky, almost creamy texture, and the finish is long and lightly tannic. In 2020 Ontario had a hot July with three heat waves, then a dry September and October that brought the fruit in clean and fully ripe, on a reduced crop.

The People

François Morissette grew up in Lachine, outside Montreal, and was pouring sulfur-free wines as a sommelier at the bistro Laloux about a decade before natural wine became fashionable. He then spent seven vintages in Burgundy, working with Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny and Jean-Marc Roulot in Meursault and learning from the Gouges brothers in Nuits-Saint-Georges. In 2007 he partnered with Toronto developer Mel Pearl to found Pearl Morissette in Jordan, and Svetlana Atcheva now runs the cellar with him. The vineyards are farmed along organic and biodynamic lines, and the cellar leans on cast-stone fermenters and old foudres. VQA Ontario rejected their 2010 Riesling four times as "atypical," and they sold it anyway as Cuvée Black Ball. This is natural wine from Niagara with Burgundy training behind it.

Food Pairing

Serve it lightly chilled, around 48 to 52 degrees, and let it warm in the glass. Tourtière, the Québécois spiced pork pie, is the natural match: the wine's grip and acidity cut the pastry and pork fat. Grilled shrimp with garlic, chili and lime meets the wine's citrus and bergamot. Roast turkey thighs with sage and a little cranberry give the skin tannin something to grab. For a vegetarian plate, try roasted squash with brown butter, toasted hazelnuts and a few flakes of salt. This is the bottle for the friend who swears they don't drink Canadian wine.