Bachelder Wines

05/14/2026

Victoria Day weekend is when summer opportunities start to feel close enough to plan, not just dream about.

If the growing conversation around place-driven Niagara wine has you curious to taste more deeply, the time is right to make a plan. Our summer Taste & Buy appointments are now open through to the end of September.

At the Bat Cave, we guide you through the Niagara travelogue – the vineyard sites, soils, benches, lake effects, and grower relationships that shape our Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gamay Noir.

A Bat Cave visit is not a walk-in tasting room experience. It is not a casual patio stop. These are focused, guided Taste & Buy appointments reserved for mailing list subscribers.

Why subscribers only? Because that connection is the basis of our commitment to each other. In return for your attention when we land in your inbox, we welcome you into our cellar, offer our time, and share the wines in context.

Appointments are required.

If you are already subscribed, you’ll find the booking link in our newsletters that you’ve received in the past. If you don’t have one of those newsletters in your inbox, send us a message with the name and email address you used to subscribe, and we’ll send it along.

Not yet subscribed? Use the link in the first comment below to join our mailing list. Your Welcome Email will include the booking link.

Summer is opening. Come taste Niagara with us.

04/28/2026

Congrats to Magdalena Kaiser for another story for Decanter that brings Canadian wine to international attention. She writes about "10 wines that perfectly capture the fresh spring taste of Niagara Peninsula" and we're thrilled that she included our brand news Haynes Street Gamay Noir on her short list!

The full article and wine reviews are available to Decanter subscribers. We'll put the link in our comments below.

04/24/2026

As the LCBO says in its magazine for the April 25 Vintages release, “sometimes, you want to splash out.”

For exactly that reason, Vintages is releasing two of our single-vineyard wines online and as Flagship Exclusives.

First up: Bachelder Wismer-Wingfield Chardonnay 2022 – and we don’t even have any left! With 96 points from Treve Ring at wineanorak.com, it has Mother’s Day treat written all over it.

Does Mom prefer red? Look for Bachelder Wismer-Parke Pinot Noir 2023, with 93 points from Rick VanSickle at winesinniagara.com.

Bachelder Wismer-Wingfield Chardonnay 2022 | 345819 | $60
Bachelder Wismer-Parke Pinot Noir 2023 | 520379 | $65

See the links in Comments for a list of stores with inventory.

04/19/2026

Cuvée from the Heart brings together twelve collaborative wines made by Ontario winemakers in support of climate action – and Thomas helped shape two of this year’s cuvées.

If you are browsing the auction, we hope you will take a closer look at these wines – whether in the mixed cases (Lots 330 to 377) or the individual cases (Chardonnay: Lots 392 to 398, Pinot Noir: Lots 413 to 419).

Link in our comments below.

04/16/2026

to an earlier vintage of Cuvée from the Heart, when this intrepid group of volunteers came together to hand-label the bottles for that year’s Fine Wine Auction.

Bidding has just opened for the 2026 Grapes for Humanity Fine Wine Auction.

Within this year’s auction, Cuvée from the Heart brings together twelve collaborative wines made by Ontario winemakers in support of climate action – and Thomas helped shape two of this year’s cuvées.

If you are browsing the auction, we hope you will take a closer look at these wines – whether in the mixed cases (Lots 330 to 377) or the individual cases (Chardonnay: Lots 392 to 398, Pinot Noir: Lots 413 to 419).

The Auction is linked in our comments below.

04/13/2026

We are proud to take part in the 6th Annual Grapes for Humanity Charity Fine Wine Auction, presented with support from Waddington’s. This year's auction is April 16 - 22, 2026.

Within the larger auction, Cuvée from the Heart stands as one of its most distinctive features – twelve collaborative wines created by Ontario winemakers, rising talent, and students in support of climate action.

Thomas helped shape two of this year’s cuvées: the 2024 Niagara Chardonnay with Marlize Beyers and Phillip Brown, and the 2024 Niagara Pinot Noir with Ilya Senchuk and Matt Smith.

Before bidding opens, we encourage you to review the catalogue and register online through Waddington’s to be eligible to bid.

Links are in the comments below.

04/07/2026

We also release our “Les Villages” bottlings at this time, and the 2024s are full of promise.

💙 Blending the best of what the peninsula has to offer, the 2024 Les Villages Gamay Noir carries the VQA Niagara Peninsula appellation as it combines the best of both. This wine has a beautiful, deep ruby colour and a scented, enticing nose of pomegranate, rhubarb, red currant, and light sour-cherry nuances. It finishes with a hint of anise and some fresh raspberries. Rich and sinewy, with a deliciously juicy feel. Finishes dry and clean with a cleansing slatey stoniness.

💛 The 2024 Les Villages Chardonnay Bench has all the classic elements of Bench wines with the trademark 2024 brightness and focus — the sea-at-low-tide savouriness and stoniness, all with the class and lemon-oil flavour development of a ‘grand vin!’ A savoury, chalky, mineral viscosity lingers on the finish. Long, rich, yet lean!

❤️ This 2024 Les Villages Pinot Noir still has much to give, to reveal! If you want to age a truly great Pinot Noir that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg — look no further! It’s a gorgeous, red-fruited, crunchy wine with – typical for the 2024s — an impressive brightness of fruit: cherries, raspberries, and even some super fresh, small forest strawberry overtones. Although elegant, this wine is quite rich and lightly astringent and has beautiful ageing potential. Deliciously good right now, yet there is a potential for improvement for the next few years. And it will hold deliciously for long after!

04/06/2026

We love when the wine writers begin to weigh in on our new releases. The tastings are so interesting for us too. And sharing with Christopher Waters Waters & Wine is always a treat.

Here's one review. You can find the rest at the link in the first comment.

Bachelder Kirby Gamay Noir Vieillies Vignes 2024
Four Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula $29

45 per cent whole cluster. 274 cases.

This is ripe and pretty on the nose. Initially, there are perfumed notes of dark fruit and flowers, followed by hints of coffee bean as the wine warms up. The palate centres on a fleshy core of cherry and red berry fruits, with stony notes on the finish. An impressive character that’s juicy and fresh but also serious — this is an age-worthy gamay that I would love to see in three to five years This has 12.5 per cent ABV. Drink now to 2032. (94+/100)

04/04/2026

Always a treat to share our releases with Christopher Waters Waters & Wine!

Bachelder’s latest La Violette release features new single vineyard gamay noirs from Haynes Street and Wismer-Wingfield. These debut releases, unveiled on April 2, join a diverse collection of gamays offered by Thomas and Mary Bachelder, which are produced through partnerships with local growers in Ontario’s Niagara region.

This year’s online release, which marks 10 years since started pursuing gamay in Niagara with the same passion as their pinot noirs and chardonnays, includes nine distinct expressions — eight single vineyards and one multi-regional blend — sourced from vineyards across Niagara-on-the-Lake, Jordan, Vineland and Beamsville.

These are ripe red wines with substantial fruit flavours and no peppery or oaky accents. They aren’t the gamays of old from Niagara, but they’re also not crunchy styles reminiscent of Beaujolais. This is something else entirely.

My latest Substack post surveys the new release to share my thoughts and impressions. The free link is the bio.

04/02/2026

The La Violette Release is now available online.

This release is centred on our love affair with Gamay Noir – first kindled in France, now brought vividly to life through the “Crus de Niagara.”

The 2024 wines take you across the Peninsula through eight single-vineyard Gamay Noirs: Kirby, L’il Kirby, Willms, Bai Xu, Haynes Street, Wismer-Wingfield, Wismer-Foxcroft, and Mio.

(Not pictured) Alongside them are our Les Villages blends in Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gamay Noir – the not-to-be-missed regional counterpoint to the Crus.

Now live online. Link in our bio.

Come wander Niagara, one bottle at a time.