The Rural Voice, 1982-12, Page 10A tour of
ONTARIO'S WINEMAKERS
by Rhea Hamilton
There is so much more to the world of
wines than learning how to decipher a
wine label. While the taste of a truly fine
wine can create a mood, it is the story
behind the wine that creates the excite-
ment.
We are fortunate, here in Ontario, to
have right in our midst some of the finest
winemakers and their notoriety is spread-
ing quickly as more and more palates
sample their wines.
We took a tour down to Niagara -on -
p" CELLN'
STORAGEO NG
TOTAL CAPACITY 50.000
Brights Winery at Niagara produces gallons of wine each year. Their cellar has
grown from one small room to a multiple of cellars housing barrels upon barrels of
wines.
PG. 10 THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1982
the -Lake to take a peek into the actual
wine -making busines. Our first visit was
to a small winery aptly named Chateau
Des Charmes.
Paul Bosc, master vintner, took. us on a
tour of the compact winery showing us
the pressing of the fall crop of Chardon -
nary grapes. There was a lot of excitement
as the newest crop was showing the
promise of being a fine wine. The sugar
content was among the highest that Paul
had ever seen. It is the culmination of
years of work and an ambitious plan for
making some of the finest wines to come
out of Canada.
It all started five years ago when Paul
teamed up with experienced grape grower
Vince Lenart and Roger Gordon, a
Niagara lawyer, to open the winery. With
years of experience behind him in the wine
districts of France and Algiers and a 15
year stint as master vintner for Chateau
Gai, Paul was determined that European
varieties of grapes, planted here in
Ontario, could produce a wine compar-
able to the imported counterparts.
A large majority of growers. select
North American varieties of grapes or
hybrids developed from crossing North
American varieties with European stock.
On the 60 acre estate, close to 55 acres
are planted with more than 22 European
varieties grafted into hardy North Ameri-
can root stalk. It has been a gamble that
so far has paid off with vines now
producing on the average 31/2 ton per acre
(depending on the variety).
With the aid of grants through the
National Research Council Paul has
embarked on a research program to delve
further into the growing and developing
of hardy European noble varieties of
vines. Dennis Dick, a viticulturalist and
Dr. John Paroschy, a specialist in winter
injury research, were on hand to tell us a
bit about the land and the vines stretched
about it.
The farm is naturally divided into four
soil types and the stock is carefully
watched to see which variety best survives
the winter.
With the aid of fifteen university
students this year, the vines are carefully