Prince Edward County Wineries

Yesterday we took a trip to the new wineries in Prince Edward County (north shore of Lake Ontario, between Kingston and Toronto). I'd heard that there were a few start-up operations in the area, but I had no idea they had come so far, so fast. From only a couple of small operations five years ago, there are at least eight active and more talking about opening to the public within the next year or so.

Our first stop was The Grange of Prince Edward County Estate Winery, near the village of Hillier. They are currently selling their 2003 Riesling, Gamay, Gamay Noir, and Rosé, with some other wines due for release in the September-October timeframe.

The winery is located in a renovated and expanded 1830's barn. Most of the staff onsite during our visit appeared to be members of the owners' family, and some mild levels of disorganization showed that they are still coming to terms with the number of potential customers visiting the winery.

Briefly, we tried both Gamays and the Riesling and Chardonnay on this visit. We were not impressed by the Riesling, but took home a bottle of each of the others, and we plan to come back later in the year to sample their Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay Reserve releases.

Next on the tour was Huff Estates, near Bloomfield. The winery is significantly different in both appearance and attitude to most Ontario wineries we've visited: they are passionately embracing the modern approach to winemaking. The winery is set partially in-ground on a south-facing slope, with the vineyards surrounding the building. Unlike the heritage barn structure at the Grange, Huff Estates more resembles a modern art gallery in concrete and metal. They even have the County's first helipad!

The folks at Huff are promising some Bordeaux style wines later this year (specifically Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Meritage-style blends). Right at the moment, they only have their 2003 Riesling, Gamay, and Chardonnay available for sale.

In spite of the physical differences with the Grange, we again found that the Huff Riesling was less interesting to us, but that their Gamay and Chardonnay were well worth further tasting. We'll also be visiting Huff again later this year to sample their Bordeaux-style wines when they are released.

Third on the trip was the Black Prince Winery. Ironically, I'd heard the most about this winery because they hosted a jousting tournament with the Knights of Valour earlier this year. . .and I subconsciously expected a much larger operation. The winery store is a converted house just off the main street in Picton, and the vineyard is producing some, but not yet all, of their grapes. Some of their wines are produced from Niagara grapes, so they are not able to get VQA designation.

Among the wines currently available are a 2002 Baco Noir and 2003 Auxerois, Chambourcin, Vidal, Chardonnay, and Vidal Icewine.

The fourth stop of the day was the Waupoos Estates winery to the east of Picton along County Road 8.The winery has an on-site restaurant in addition to their wine tasting pavilion. Waupoos is one of the longer-established vineyards in Prince Edward County, with the earliest vines planted over ten years ago. The winery itself opened to the public in 2001.

Waupoos offers a wider range of wines than most of the other wineries we visited, including Gewüaut;rztraminer, Chardonnay, Geisenheim, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Seyval Blanc, Vidal and a white blended wine called Honeysuckle (the winemaker does not disclose the exact blend used for any of his blended wines). Red wines include Pinot Noir, St. Laurent, Baco Noir, Marechal Foch, Cabernet, Cabernet Gamay, and a blend called Pearl Noir. They also offer a Rosé and an Icewine.

Our final stop (before dinner, that is) was the County Cider Company. They have a breathtaking view of the lake from their hillside tasting pavilion. . .it's almost worth the climb up the hill just for the view alone. As the name implies, this has been an established cider producer for some time who have only recently started producing wines. This is such a new development for them that it isn't even mentioned on their website!

The small number of wines on offer included Riesling, Gamay, Gamay Zweigelt, and a Pinot Noir/Baco Noir blend called Prinyer's Cuvee. The tasting pavilion has a small café which serves light refreshment until mid-afternoon on a patio facing the lake. We were there too late to sample the food, but the cider was excellent and the wines certainly showed some promise.

We finished up our wine tour with dinner at Currah's Café in downtown Picton. The food was excellent, and they offer a good, not-too-expensive wine list featuring several VQA wines from around Ontario (the wine list is available on their website). To match our respective dishes (lamb and pork), we selected an excellent Thomas & Vaughan 2000 Meritage: a delightful wine that I hadn't tried before. A very tasty end to a pleasant day's drive.