“Single vineyard estate wines has always been the dream.”
Mason Vineyard Estate Wines
The Mason Vineyard Estate wines are from my personal vineyard. They represent the answer to my question - what would happen if I could make all the decisions and bottle what I think is best off of this site?
From the start of this dream a decade ago, our goal has been to focus primarily on low intervention and wild ferment Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc wines.
Low intervention — is a philosophy where the winemaker works hard to avoid manipulating the wine during the winemaking process. Manipulations might include adding commercial products or high levels of sulphur that are typical of more volume, mass market wines. We don’t manipulate.
Wild fermentation — is the basis of natural wine; where the winemaker allows the wild yeasts from the vineyard site to ferment the grapes into wine, thereby avoiding the “unnatural” process of overriding the native yeasts with commercial yeasts. We wild ferment.
We believe that our site and other vineyards in Niagara are especially ideal for making the best wines in the world. It’s that simple. Incredible terroir produces exceptional wines and our terroir is second to none.
I hope you enjoy the attention that was given to the wine in your glass. Creating it was rewarding and a pleasure.” — Kelly Mason
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Our mission is to create exceptional wines of site. Our winery purpose lives and breathes making wine to push our limits and show just how far Canadian wines can go.
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We believe that truly extraordinary wines result from applying all of a winery’s resources and attention towards making great wine while avoiding the distractions of conventional wineries.
This is an important differentiator between Mason Vineyard and other winery models which might focus on hospitality or tourism-centric activities and revenues. We believe that what it takes to produce beautiful and distinct wines is nothing short of fanaticism and relentless focus.
For a winery to pursue making beautiful, complex and highly expressive wines, it can only focus on one thing — growing and making great wine. All other activities are a distraction and detract from the outcome that we strive for.
The result is a strategically performance-driven winery designed to make great wine which sells out completely online and through reserved allocation, to the exclusive and passionate audience we have cultivated.
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Winemaker Kelly Mason was born and raised in Montreal. Before establishing herself as a premiere Canadian winemaker, her career began in 2007 in the Carneros subregion of Napa Valley with an internship at Saintsbury Winery under a Burgundian winemaker.
After studying Winemaking at Brock University, Kelly continued her focus on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as an intern at Tawse Winery followed by Le Clos Jordanne.
Continuing on her focus, Kelly became a well sought after expert in Burgundian varietals which brought her to balance the head winemaker roles for Honsberger Estates for many years as well as The Farm winery for their five award winning vintages. During that time Kelly took on the role of assistant winemaker at the esteemed Domaine Queylus, becoming head winemaker in 2018.
Over the last decade Kelly has owned and farmed the now recognized Mason Vineyard; growing low-yield Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Franc grapes for a number of top tier wineries in the region including Domaine Queylus and The Farm.
In 2021 Kelly launched Mason Vineyard, her own winery dedicated to meticulously crafting exceptional estate, single vineyard Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc wines.
Mason Vineyard Estate — Current Release Wines for 2026
Shipping is included for 6 bottles or more in Ontario.
2024 ‘L’avenir’
Chardonnay | Unfiltered
Winemaker: Kelly Mason
Varietals: 100% Chardonnay, Clone 76
Vineyard: Mason Vineyard
Viticultural Appellation: Twenty Mile Bench
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Pick Date : September 21, 2024
pH : 3.47
TA : 6.24
Alcohol : 12.6%
Residual Sugar : 1.83 g/L
Fermentation: Wild Ferment
Ageing: French Oak, Burgundy barrels, 17 months in mainly neutral oak with use of second and third fill barrels.
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WINEMAKER JOURNAL: I think it is important to highlight appellation when we look at Niagara Chardonnay. In my career, I have worked with three NOTL appellations and multiple sites in the Lincoln Lakeshore appellation. And of course, Twenty Mile Bench. In most cases, the difference between the multiple growing sites and the grower decision-making, is out of our hands. However, the winemaking has been constant. On my Twenty Mile Bench site, I make the decisions at every level - and I’ll add that it’s different up here, in a beautiful sort of way. This block of Chardonnay combined with my picking style is allowing me to produce a leaner version of Chardonnay where I need to carefully manage the oak regime to add back texture, weight and richness. This has to be done delicately and I will die on the hill of oak restraint on Chardonnay. After the pride I felt with the 2023 vintage, I went into 2024, (and frankly also 2025) with the mindset of replicate. So, if you enjoyed the 2023, here’s it’s next sibling with all the same common denominators of restraint.
So happy with this vintage.
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NOTES: The 2024 Mason Vineyard Chardonnay was hand picked and whole cluster pressed then settled in a cold tank. It was then racked while keeping fluffy lees and then left to go through a primary and secondary wild fermentation in barrel. Once complete, it spent 17 months élevage in oak – about 20% second fill, 14% third fill and the remainder neutral barrels. It has gone through complete malolactic with a light bentonite fining.
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TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits a luminous lemon green shade in the glass. The nose is already open and expressive with notes of gunflint, wet stone, golden delicious apple, lemon zest, candied ginger and pine pollen. The balance on the palate is spot on: dry with crisp acidity, beautiful weight and richness. Very intense flavour concentration that replay the complex mineral and fruit notes of the nose. Generous but still tightly focused with great fruit purity, tension and excellent length. This is a fabulous example of Niagara Chardonnay that delivers everything you might want from the variety in a beautifully balanced, intense and complex package.
PRICE: $48
2024 ‘The Matriarch’
Pinot Noir | Unfiltered
Winemaker: Kelly Mason
Varietals: 100% Pinot Noir, Clone 115,667,777
Vineyard: Mason Vineyard
Viticultural Appellation: Twenty Mile Bench
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Pick Date : September 30, 2024
pH : 3.93
TA : 5.40
Alcohol : 12.6%
Residual Sugar : 0 g/L
Fermentation: Wild Ferment
Ageing: French Oak, Burgundy barrels, 17 months in mainly neutral oak with use of second and third fill barrels.
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WINEMAKER JOURNAL: I’m just dying to tell you about the 2025 vintage, because the harvest and the profile is so top of mind right now. Here’s the thing with 2024, for me, it was one of those Pinot Vintages where things went right, which is almost the best we can hope for with Pinot. Give me Pinot that is clean, ripe and any imperfections we’ll sort out. As a reference the pinnacle to this would be Pinot that flies across the sorting table with no sorting – that has only happened twice for me: 2015 and 2025 so yeah, 10 years apart. Sounds about right for Pinot! The 2024 only revealed itself with time in barrel. Easiest wine to belnd this year. All barrels went to the blend, except one - I held it back for an additional year of ageing.
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NOTES: I am still in love with this challenging grape. I am seeing it evolve so much in bottle and realizing that we pour it for you in its youth and I wonder how often you taste it with some age? If you have a 2021 still – really tough vintage – you should try it. If you have a 2022, it has evolved beautifully. I can see an amazing opportunity for a vertical from 2020-2025 down the road. The site and winemaking philosophy remain recognizable and all I have to sort out is the vintage effect on the wine. The 2024 is young right now, but trust me, it has potential to be as good as the 2020 with perhaps a little more elegance due to a cooler vintage than 2020.
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TASTING NOTES: Pale ruby that shifts toward garnet-brick colour along the rim. Moderately expressive nose showing extreme complexity: earth, beetroot, leather, smoke, sour cherry, cherry pit, iron, black tea and baking spice. Bone dry on the palate with electric acidity, robust but suave tannic structure and some serious flavour intensity. Flavours are tightly correlated with the nose with the addition of game meat, nutmeg and clove characteristics tossed in. What a profound wine of terroir. This Pinot is such a focused and eloquent expression of place but is currently coiled tight like a spring. This needs time to open up and gain a little fat around the mid-section. Put it away for a couple of years and let it relax. You’ll be happy you did.
PRICE: $60
MORE WINES BELOW
2024 ‘The Landed’
Cabernet Franc | Unfiltered
Winemaker: Kelly Mason
Varietals: 100% Cabernet Franc, Clone unknown
Vineyard: Mason Vineyard
Viticultural Appellation: Twenty Mile Bench
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Pick Date : November 2, 2024
pH : 3.81
TA : 5.60
Alcohol : 13.5%
Residual Sugar : 0.36 g/L
Fermentation: Wild Ferment
Ageing: French Oak, Burgundy barrels, 17 months with 10% new oak, 10% second fill, 30% third fill and remainder in neutral oak.
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WINEMAKER JOURNAL: Similar to the Pinot Noir, this wine did all its work in barrel with age. Pleasantly surprised with how it aged, this wine became complex, layered and earthy. A super example as to why Niagara should keep growing Cabernet Franc! It is young right now, and I would encourage you in its early months to decant and if you can, have a glass the next day. As a recap, our goal here at Mason Vineyard, with all our Estate wines, is to show off what our site on the Twenty Mile Bench can do and be part of a larger vineyard community in Niagara that is leading the way for high recognition of the beauty cool climate wines.
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NOTES: As usual, we picked in early November. The fruit was destemmed, but not crushed with whole berries straight to tank. After a short cold soak, we fired up the heating jackets and the ferment took off. The wine stayed on skins for a total of 38 days before being pressed off to barrel, just ahead of the Christmas holiday.
This wine is a pure expression of Niagara Bench Cabernet Franc with an amazing texture.
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TASTING NOTES: A bit shy on the nose at the moment giving up subtle but very appealing hints of crushed stone, ripe black fruits and savoury dried herb characters. On the palate, the wine is dry with fresh but not overbearing acidity, a plush core of ripe fruit and polished tannins providing an almost velvety texture. The flavours pop with great intensity in the mouth. Black cherry, black plum, blackberry, elderberry, licorice root, and wild thyme. There is exquisite balance and refinement on display here. Super approachable in the short term, but there is plenty of stuffing to carry this wine through some mid-term aging. Really a strong case for Cabernet Franc as our flagship local red. Perfect varietal expression with ripe fruit, stony minerality and complex, but not green, herbal character.
PRICE: $60
2024 ‘The Outlier’
Cabernet Sauvignon | Unfiltered
Winemaker: Kelly Mason
Varietals: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone 169
Vineyard: Mason Vineyard
Viticultural Appellation: Twenty Mile Bench
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Pick Date : November 2, 2024
pH : 3.97
TA : 5.77
Alcohol : 12.6%
Residual Sugar: 1.41 g/L Fermentation: Wild Ferment
Ageing: French Oak, Burgundy barrels, 17 months with 60% second fill, 40% third fill.
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WINEMAKER JOURNAL: Kelly to provide on Sunday evening
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NOTES: We harvested in late November and destemmed, with whole berries straight to tank. It’s a small lot, just five rows of vines, so we don’t get much tonnage. This has an impact on fermentation temperature and extraction; we need heat, and without enough mass in the tank, that can be a bit of a challenge.
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TASTING NOTES: Deep ruby in colour, this classic cool climate Cabernet Sauvignon delivers elegant aromas of cassis, black cherry, cedar, mint, tobacco, graphite and baking spice. Dry on the palate with good acidity, firm but polished tannins and some nice padding in the middle to keep things from being too austere. Medium-full body with excellent length. The flavours correspond closely to the nose with some anise, vanilla and just a hint of intriguing barnyard notes joining in to add to the already formidable complexity. This wine is still wound tight at the moment and there is definitely plenty more to come from this beauty. It is solidly structured and built to reward your patience. Tuck this away for at least a few years in the cellar before popping the cork; but if you insist on drinking it now, decant with aeration or pair it with a nice big piece of red meat for best effect.
PRICE: $55
“A wine should express the land where it’s made.”