Yahoo News Norman Hardie: the man putting Canadian wine on the map
Born in Johannesburg, raised in Botswana and educated in wine in Dijon, Norman Hardie was sommelier at the first Four Seasons in downtown Toronto when he befriended senior vice-president of food and beverage, Alfons Konrad. ‘He treated me like a son, but thought I was a f***ing idiot when I told him I would make wine,’ he tells me as we tuck in to chicken Kiev at The Game Bird at The Stafford in St James.
But Hardie was not deterred. Despite Canada’s harsh climate, in 2003 he traded in his Armani suits to craft impeccable wines in Prince Edward County and the Niagara region, from resilient vines grown in chalk and a limestone soil. Konrad had to concede that the project was a success.
A purist at heart, Hardie avoids ‘quick-fix’ chemical jabs and desensitising bought-in yeasts, and laments how ‘place’ is often forgotten in modern wine-making, which he fears is becoming as automated as ‘a self-driving car’.
At his tasting bar in Canada he also stocks ‘maple syrup, embroidery and Joe Beef [steak] sauces from Montreal. And last year we sold £150,000 of goods in addition to wine.’ Hardie also built a pizza oven so guests at his vineyard could stay and experience wines alongside ‘upbeat indie rock’ chosen by his young team.
Gino Nardella, master sommelier of The Stafford, pours Hardie’s unbelievably sapid, citric, complete Niagara Chardonnay 2014 (£23; thewinesociety.com), the antithesis of ‘tutti-frutti’, then powdery, peachy, cerebral 2013 Pinot Noir (£33; lastdropwines.com). Its scents grip me.
I fully appreciate how leading wine critic Matt Kramer was momentarily silenced by the profoundness of such breathtaking wine.
