Matching style, variety and soil

20 years of style, variety and soil

This year marks 20 years since we drove across Canada from an established winemaking career in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia to acquire our piece of paradise in Gaspereau, Nova Scotia. Fallow farm land ready for us to plant the province’s first organic vineyard, and our decisions on wine style and variety are standing the test of time.

Time honoured traditions of old world wine regions dictate suitable varieties and wine styles for individual appellations and sub appellations, usually evolving from trial and error of matching them to intrinsically unique soils and microclimates. We made an informed decision, some might call it bold, in 2004 by drawing upon years of sparkling winemaking experience in the Okanagan Valley that the 30 acres in Gaspereau would produce world class sparkling wine. Our palette: uniquely well-drained ancient seabed gravels covered with 15-30 cm loamy top soil tilted 5% towards north west. The industry mantra at that time was “south slope” but I had been making wine from different slopes for years – south for hot-loving reds, north and east for whites, and quite often struggled with grapes planned for sparkling wine production that were ripening too fast, losing fruitiness and freshness. The slope direction seemed like a good fit and it was the soil, schist, sandstone and slate that sealed the idea of suitability for sparkling wine. Wine flavours are influenced by climate and grape variety, and soil comes in a close third. We anticipated minerality nuances, a proven wine characteristic in great wines of the world, and international judges are noticing.

Decanter World Wine Awards 2018, London, England – 92 points, Silver Medal for 2013 Prestige Brut Estate

Judges’ notes, "A floral, apple nose with chalky lemon and creamy pear on the refreshing, mineral palate." 

There was risk that the soil would not retain enough moisture compared to the typical rich clay-loam soils around us but even though the young vines struggled during establishment they grew deep roots for resilience to future climate extremes like drought. That coupled with our living soils encouraged with organic farming practice bodes well for climate change resilience. Roots are supported by colonies of fungus living symbiotically, helping water, nutrient....and flavour uptake.

Read more about Climate change resilience and organic farming

On our many visits to Nova Scotia to visit family before we moved back, we got to know the region’s signature grape variety, L’Acadie Blanc, and we’d talk long into the night about whether and how we could make it into a world-class sparkling wine. There wasn’t a bubble in the province at that time but we saw the potential – freshness, apple, citrus, moderate alcohol. Our second bold decision was initially planting 8 acres of exclusively L’Acadie Blanc for sparkling wine at a time when most of the region was planting multiple varieties for blending versatility and more selection of varietal wines. We foresaw traditional method sparkling wine to be the defining style for our region, in particular, L’Acadie Blanc cuvees.

There have been many milestones in the last 20 years that have proven our decisions,

• 2005 – established Nova Scotia’s first organic vineyard
• 2008 – opened sustainable winery with geothermal heating and cooling and insulated concrete construction
• 2008 – released Nova Scotia’s first traditional method sparkling
• 2008 – Nova Scotia’s first appassimento wines. First releases of Alchemy and Passito from our 5-year appassimento research project with Agriculture Canada and collaboration with Italian researchers.
• 2010 – gold and top scoring sparkling for 2007 Prestige Brut at 2010 National Wine Awards. A first for Nova Scotia.
• 2011 – silver medal for 2007 Prestige Brut at 2011 Effervescents du Monde (Dijon, France) First international sparkling award for Nova Scotia.
• 2015 – silver medal for 2010 Prestige Brut zero dosage at 2015 Effervescents du Monde.
• 2021 - Certified to European Biocyclic Vegan standard, the first farm and winery in North America. Read more about our vegan wines, Why we are Biocyclic Vegan
• 2023 – gold medal, 95 points for 2017 Prestige Brut Estate at 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards. First gold medal for Nova Scotia from Decanter, after earning many silver awards and 92-point designations for previous vintages.