Growing Niagara wine with Purpose with Jonathan McLean of Black Bank Hill

On a chilly spring afternoon, we are the only ones in the tasting room. Black Bank Hill came highly recommended by other producers in the Niagara wine region, so this stop was quickly built into the itinerary. The current wine selection is handwritten on a lined notepad: name, varietal, price. “This is our winemaker, Jonathan McLean,” sales manager Meg McGrath nods towards the man inquiring about our visit. “Let me show you around,” he insists. Glasses in hand, we promptly follow him into the barrel room and through it into the vineyard for story time.

The winemaker 

Winemaking and viticulture was McLean’s second career pursuits after biochemistry. “I’ve never really considered winemaking as a career,” he admitted, but working in restaurants, he developed an interest in wine. After graduating from Brock University’s winemaking program, McLean moved back out west, where he spent eleven years making wine across the Okanagan, British Columbia (including LaStella and Tantalus Vineyards).

A typical winemaker’s journey takes them around the globe, working harvests in different wine regions. This wasn’t McLean’s journey, but Okanagan has a lot of foreign winemakers, which allowed him to work with winemakers from all over the world in a local climate. “The nice thing about having a bunch of different people that you’ve worked with is you can kind of pick and choose what you like from them and carry that with you,” he shared. “In hindsight, it was tough because you’re spending so long training, but now that I’m on the other side of it, I see all the tools and the skills that I picked up from those mentors as really invaluable. I’m really happy that I have gone that way, because it’s given me the confidence to move forward and believe in myself,” he added.

The winery

Black Bank Hill is a family business. The owner, Taylor Emerson, came back to Canada from London, UK, where he worked at the Weather Network, for a hard career pivot to winemaking in 2017. “Aloof” cousins on the mother’s side, Taylor and Jonathan, reconnected over winemaking while Jonathan was working in BC. Having recently lost his father, Jonathan felt a pull back to Ontario, strengthened by the opportunity to work with Taylor. 

“Taylor did a really good job finding a piece of property that can create really beautiful, distinct, and elegant wines,” Jonathan noted. The 20-acre property produces 12 varietals, five red (Pinot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot) and seven whites (Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne). For such a small piece of land, the range is very impressive.

2022 was the first year McLean grew the grapes and made the wine. The immense amount of rain made this a challenging harvest, resulting in a much lower yield. But despite the difficulties, those first few bottles performed really well at the National Wine Awards and in the Decanter Awards, with the Cabernet Franc winning platinum two years in a row. 

Tasting at Black Bank Hill winery in Niagara, Ontario, Canada. Photos by Kateryna Topol.

The not-so-secret sauce

Black Bank Hill winery is inherently natural. No enzymes or other additives are used in production. “People are often surprised that I’m able to create these colours and tannin structures without additives,” I was one of these people, he pointed out. There are a few things that he does differently in the cellar, but in McLean’s point of view, it is his winegrowing skills that make the wine:

The advantage of being the winemaker and wine grower is the ability to nurture the grapes throughout the year: “I’m making wine for four months before the grapes even show up,” he points out, “I think the big difference is the relationship I have with my vineyard”. This care and attention enable Jonathan to predict the yield outcomes come harvest, “my yields are always bang on, and that’s a sense of pride for me, at the end of the season, I can say, Taylor, you told me to pick 44 tons, and I picked 44 tons plus 200 kilograms”.

The grapes are hand-harvested and put through a basket press instead of a modern membrane press. This very strategic decision is one of many that look to treat the grape with respect and ensure year-to-year release consistency. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that the grape is the hero of the show,” he shared.

Left: barrel room at Black Bank Hill, Niagara. Photo by Kateryna Topol. Right: Black Bank Hill Cabernet Franc harvest. Photo by Jonathan McLean.

The philosophy 

McLean is currently working on his Master’s in Environmental Sustainability. When asked why he chose sustainability over winemaking, a question he’s been asked more than once, he replies: “For me, what was more important is creating wines more sustainably, particularly in how it relates to my Indigenous heritage.”

“We didn’t know much about our father’s side of the family,” he admitted. But after his father’s passing, McLean’s sister dug into their heritage, learning that they come from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. “I’m also part of the Bear Clan. My heritage goes back seven generations, all the way to the Mohawk Valley and what is now called New York state,” he shares. “My family has been part of this region for time immemorial, and a part of this is honouring them and honouring my ancestors, particularly my great-grandmother, who had her Indigenous status removed by the Canadian government.”

In the vineyard, he “decided to make a sustainability program based on traditional Indigenous knowledge, and that still is the goal,” but first, he needs to properly understand the traditional knowledge systems and how all of these relations (nature, community, history) can inform his approach to viticulture. “Reconnecting is a really challenging thing, because you feel the feelings,” he admits, “and you can choose to feel the feelings, and if you do, you have good days, and you have bad days,” admiring the strength of Indigenous people and being saddened by their continuous mistreatment.

Black Bank Hill winery production spaces. Photos by Kateryna Topol.

The winemaking future 

“My thesis is all about approaching wine in a different way, changing the colonial paradigms of sustainability and just kind of breaking down colonial structures in this industry,” McLean stated. “We have a lot of places in our industry where power is kind of collected and protected for certain people, and I’d love to see an industry that’s more inclusive. An industry that invites new voices and new faces.” McLean’s theory is that inviting new voices into the industry will inspire innovation that the industry so affected by climate change desperately needs. 

Winemaker’s favourite bottles

Visit blackbankhill.com to learn about the wine club and upcoming events.