Tawse Winery

About Tawse Winery

Tawse is a family-owned estate winery situated on the lower slopes of the Niagara Escarpment. At Tawse we unite traditional winemaking techniques with state-of-the-art technology to create wines of exceptional elegance, depth and character.

Our fruit is harvested from old-growth, low-yield vines and gently handled using natural gravity flow and geothermic energy. We apply rigorous organic and biodynamic methods to every aspect of our wine production and Ecocert and Demeter seals now appear on all Tawse vintages made from our biodynamic vineyards.

Representative Biography

Jessica Otting, Winemaker

Jess has been enthralled by the world of wine since a very young age; at seventeen she completed her first vintage for her high school placement. After graduating from Niagara College’s Winery & Viticulture program in 2011, Jess took her skills abroad where she took part in a harvest in South Australia and in Tasmania the following year, with a Canadian vintage in between for good measure. Her passion for cool climate wines brought her back to Niagara, and it was not long before she joined the Tawse team to perform all of the laboratory analysis required to make delicious Bench wines.

After working closely with the winemakers for over four years, Jess took on the Assistant Winemaker role in 2018, and shortly after became Distiller as part of the team that pioneered the new spirits program at Tawse. 2020 brought about more big changes, as she earned the role of Winemaker for Tawse and Redstone Wineries.

Why We're Cool

Our winemaker Jessica Otting is a firm believer in terroir and works with a number of Niagara Chardonnay vineyards to showcase their unique flavour profiles. The soils vary widely, from the high limestone content of the Quarry Road Vineyard, to the clay and loam combination of the Robyn's Block Vineyard. Each block is picked by hand at its ideal ripeness, then hand sorted and whole cluster pressed with a pneumatic press. All of the Chardonnays are fermented with indigenous yeast in a judicious blend of new and old 228L and 500L French oak barrels and aged for 12 months on their lees. Once the oak maturation is complete, the wine rests in stainless steel tanks for about 6 months prior to bottling to allow wood integration and bright acid preservation.