Pearl Morissette July 2023
By Jonathan Gray, National and Upstate NY Sales
The word 'singular' has been thrown around to such a saturation point in wine sales propaganda that it hardly seems to mean anything anymore. Whether it’s meant to signify 'tastes like nothing else' or something more nuanced, I do think it points to a high that wine lovers are constantly chasing: a wine that's uniquely great, irreducible to the sum of its parts, but stands alone in whatever context the drinker situates it. From our band of growers, Pearl Morissette's wines seem to embody both notions of the word, but arguably exceed its limitations, too. They provide perennial surprises while simultaneously tasting so much like themselves and so little like anything else, that I'm tempted to call them singular, but I won't.
What Francois & Co are up to in the Niagara Peninsula has so much more to do with the multiple: due to their fidelity to nature, its vagaries make constant experimentation necessary across many varieties, vineyards, techniques and fermentation vessels. To Pearl Morissette, it seems that making terroir wine is a fluid, non-linear process that isn’t a beeline towards cementing singular identities for their winery, its wines, or the Niagara Peninsula. None are under the yoke of weighty narratives yet, so why impose them? This burden towards narrative is where the notion of the ‘singular’ in wine sneaks in fixed pairings or assemblages between two or more elements that constitute what becomes ‘singular’ about a wine, winery, or region in our discourse about them. Think of ‘a singular expression of grape x on soil y’ or ‘a singular example of z appellation’ so common in wine screeds, tech sheets, and the like. This immediately installs an ordinal notion of quality in which whole regions, wines, wineries, grape varieties et al are fixed into some network of categories and then ranked therein. The implication is always that a wine can only be singular within an order, and its place in that order says more about our pre-conceived notions of the wine world than the wine itself. This phenomenon isn’t unique to wine discourse, to be sure, but for Pearl Morissette, it is an ill-fitting construction. Luckily for them, it’s a reach to claim that we have much on hand to reasonably compare their wines with, or a sensible order to insert them into in the first place. Their expectation is that they can only discover the essence of their place through open-eyed experimentation, hard work, and time. This attitude wards off that tendency towards simple narrative. I think that wines can begin to taste of a place through the multitude of variables due to a grower’s attenuation to changing conditions, not despite them, and our task is to recognize this process as emerging, living terroir.
Pearl Morissette begins with change as the grounding ethic for their entire project--that change is the only constant--summed up beautifully in their blog titled 'Everything changes, Nothing is truly lost.' With this approach, the fact that Niagara Peninsula is such a young region with very little recognition as a source for fine wines is a great privilege - not a hindrance. Year in and out, a vineyard or variety’s voice gains new clarity, new wines emerge and go away, a Chardonnay of oxygen and expanse gives way to something chiseled and weightless, a concrete tank gets traded for a foudre, cuvée blends are radically altered, and we're back on our toes, learning what these wines can do, and what it is to enjoy and interpret them. (and how to sell them ;) )
Pearl Morissette's wines carry something vital, multiple, and innocent - becomings of terroir, rather than representations of its idea. They’re delicious, fascinating efforts that emanate origin, bottled alive. If you believe that great terroirs are still emerging, and that this all may be somehow intelligible in a glass of tasty fermented grape juice, these are wines for you to spend time with. They are some of our favorites to drink, and despite all this talk of change, they’re consistently rewarding.
Here's what landed:
2020 Pearl Morissette Irreverence Blanc
-2020 Irrévérence is a blend of 51% Chardonnay from the Redfoot
and Home Farm vineyards, 26% Viognier from Redfoot vineyard, 19% Pinot Noir from Home Farm vineyard (processed as white juice) and 4% Riesling from Redfoot vineyard. Part of the Viognier and the Riesling spent 6 months on their skins in qvevri (amounting to 13% of the total blend); Pinot Noir was fermented and aged in foudres, as was the rest of the Viognier. The Chardonnays were fermented and aged in a combination of foudres and demi-muids. All the wines were blended a year after harvest and spent additional 8 months aging in a combination of old foudres and puncheons. A textural, sort of orange, but not really, aromatic wine that's supposed to fuck with your senses a bit.
2021 Pearl Morissette Oxyde Riesling
-2021 Oxyde is 100% Riesling from Redfoot Vineyard in Lincoln Lakeshore. It was harvested on October 15th, 2021, and entered the press as 100% whole bunches. Fermentation by indigenous yeast proceeded slowly and steadily in a combination concrete (56%) and old foudres (44%), without any temperature control or sulphur additions. The wine was aged in its fermentation vessels on primary lees without any racking for a total of 5 months, when it was moved to stainless steel tanks for 2 months of cold-settling.
2021 Oxyde was bottled unfiltered and un-fined on May 11th, 2022. Its sharp angles, and salty mineral tang are counterpoised with textural depth.
2021 Pearl Morissette Primesautier
- Although the 2020 was dominated by Lemberger, the 2021 is a blend of Gamay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Four Mile Creek VQA. Creek Shore’s red shale soils with silt and water-retaining clay coupled with its warm days and cool nights are great conditions for yielding a spritely, spicy, thirst-quenching summer red.
2021 Pearl Morissette Racines du Ciel Cabernet Franc
- A restock of the stunning 2021 Racines du Ciel! From their Home Vineyard in the Creek Shores VQA, this is spice-laden and ethereal. Aged between demi-muids and foudre for 18 months.
2021 Pearl Morissette Roselana Rosé
- Roselana restock. For 2021, this chameleon cuvée is a blend of Gamay & Pinot Noir pressed for different lengths of time that spent a short elevage apart, some elevage together, and a little more time with some whole-cluster Syrah made as a red wine in foudre. A high-energy, almost red rosé with pithy fruit, and a slight pleasant bitterness that keeps you coming back.
2021 Pearl Morissette Fougue Chardonnay
- A high density planting of Chardonnay in the Home Vineyard in the Creek Shores VQA pressed whole cluster into concrete and old foudre. It ages in those same vessels on its primary lees for 23 months. The 2021 has bright acidity and vivid fruit with a shimmering weightless quality.
2021 Pearl Morissette Chamboulé Pinot Noir
- Red fruits of plum and cherry with anisette and verdant herbal tones. Fermented whole cluster in concrete and foudre.
What Francois & Co are up to in the Niagara Peninsula has so much more to do with the multiple: due to their fidelity to nature, its vagaries make constant experimentation necessary across many varieties, vineyards, techniques and fermentation vessels. To Pearl Morissette, it seems that making terroir wine is a fluid, non-linear process that isn’t a beeline towards cementing singular identities for their winery, its wines, or the Niagara Peninsula. None are under the yoke of weighty narratives yet, so why impose them? This burden towards narrative is where the notion of the ‘singular’ in wine sneaks in fixed pairings or assemblages between two or more elements that constitute what becomes ‘singular’ about a wine, winery, or region in our discourse about them. Think of ‘a singular expression of grape x on soil y’ or ‘a singular example of z appellation’ so common in wine screeds, tech sheets, and the like. This immediately installs an ordinal notion of quality in which whole regions, wines, wineries, grape varieties et al are fixed into some network of categories and then ranked therein. The implication is always that a wine can only be singular within an order, and its place in that order says more about our pre-conceived notions of the wine world than the wine itself. This phenomenon isn’t unique to wine discourse, to be sure, but for Pearl Morissette, it is an ill-fitting construction. Luckily for them, it’s a reach to claim that we have much on hand to reasonably compare their wines with, or a sensible order to insert them into in the first place. Their expectation is that they can only discover the essence of their place through open-eyed experimentation, hard work, and time. This attitude wards off that tendency towards simple narrative. I think that wines can begin to taste of a place through the multitude of variables due to a grower’s attenuation to changing conditions, not despite them, and our task is to recognize this process as emerging, living terroir.
Pearl Morissette begins with change as the grounding ethic for their entire project--that change is the only constant--summed up beautifully in their blog titled 'Everything changes, Nothing is truly lost.' With this approach, the fact that Niagara Peninsula is such a young region with very little recognition as a source for fine wines is a great privilege - not a hindrance. Year in and out, a vineyard or variety’s voice gains new clarity, new wines emerge and go away, a Chardonnay of oxygen and expanse gives way to something chiseled and weightless, a concrete tank gets traded for a foudre, cuvée blends are radically altered, and we're back on our toes, learning what these wines can do, and what it is to enjoy and interpret them. (and how to sell them ;) )
Pearl Morissette's wines carry something vital, multiple, and innocent - becomings of terroir, rather than representations of its idea. They’re delicious, fascinating efforts that emanate origin, bottled alive. If you believe that great terroirs are still emerging, and that this all may be somehow intelligible in a glass of tasty fermented grape juice, these are wines for you to spend time with. They are some of our favorites to drink, and despite all this talk of change, they’re consistently rewarding.
Here's what landed:
2020 Pearl Morissette Irreverence Blanc
-2020 Irrévérence is a blend of 51% Chardonnay from the Redfoot
and Home Farm vineyards, 26% Viognier from Redfoot vineyard, 19% Pinot Noir from Home Farm vineyard (processed as white juice) and 4% Riesling from Redfoot vineyard. Part of the Viognier and the Riesling spent 6 months on their skins in qvevri (amounting to 13% of the total blend); Pinot Noir was fermented and aged in foudres, as was the rest of the Viognier. The Chardonnays were fermented and aged in a combination of foudres and demi-muids. All the wines were blended a year after harvest and spent additional 8 months aging in a combination of old foudres and puncheons. A textural, sort of orange, but not really, aromatic wine that's supposed to fuck with your senses a bit.
2021 Pearl Morissette Oxyde Riesling
-2021 Oxyde is 100% Riesling from Redfoot Vineyard in Lincoln Lakeshore. It was harvested on October 15th, 2021, and entered the press as 100% whole bunches. Fermentation by indigenous yeast proceeded slowly and steadily in a combination concrete (56%) and old foudres (44%), without any temperature control or sulphur additions. The wine was aged in its fermentation vessels on primary lees without any racking for a total of 5 months, when it was moved to stainless steel tanks for 2 months of cold-settling.
2021 Oxyde was bottled unfiltered and un-fined on May 11th, 2022. Its sharp angles, and salty mineral tang are counterpoised with textural depth.
2021 Pearl Morissette Primesautier
- Although the 2020 was dominated by Lemberger, the 2021 is a blend of Gamay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Four Mile Creek VQA. Creek Shore’s red shale soils with silt and water-retaining clay coupled with its warm days and cool nights are great conditions for yielding a spritely, spicy, thirst-quenching summer red.
2021 Pearl Morissette Racines du Ciel Cabernet Franc
- A restock of the stunning 2021 Racines du Ciel! From their Home Vineyard in the Creek Shores VQA, this is spice-laden and ethereal. Aged between demi-muids and foudre for 18 months.
2021 Pearl Morissette Roselana Rosé
- Roselana restock. For 2021, this chameleon cuvée is a blend of Gamay & Pinot Noir pressed for different lengths of time that spent a short elevage apart, some elevage together, and a little more time with some whole-cluster Syrah made as a red wine in foudre. A high-energy, almost red rosé with pithy fruit, and a slight pleasant bitterness that keeps you coming back.
2021 Pearl Morissette Fougue Chardonnay
- A high density planting of Chardonnay in the Home Vineyard in the Creek Shores VQA pressed whole cluster into concrete and old foudre. It ages in those same vessels on its primary lees for 23 months. The 2021 has bright acidity and vivid fruit with a shimmering weightless quality.
2021 Pearl Morissette Chamboulé Pinot Noir
- Red fruits of plum and cherry with anisette and verdant herbal tones. Fermented whole cluster in concrete and foudre.
