PEI's new breed of vintners.
It was the slow pace of life that tempted the vintners to PEI from Ontario, and the perfect fruit-ripening slope of the hills that kept them—first John Rossignol and, later, Heather and Jaime Matos.
Both families fled the bustle and stress of urban life in search of a quieter, slower place where they could pursue their passions. “Living back in Toronto, my wife and I had a good business in the big city,” says John Rossignol, “but we really didn’t like being stuck in rush hour traffic all the time.” In 1990, the couple bought a property in PEI, sailed down the St. Lawrence, anchored off the coast and built a house and a barn. They fenced off some pasture and set some horses and chickens loose. “It’s hard to find a nicer place,” he says. John calls his move a “perfectly logical—or illogical—romantic notion.” The property happened to be perfect for growing hardy grapes, and Rossignol Estate Winery was born.
Heather and Jaime Matos were more methodical about their search for a location that met their requirements—affordable land with the right soil and slope in a climate suitable for viniculture—but like John Rossignol, they were also in retreat. “We had two businesses, and life was just total chaos,” says Heather. Jaime adds, “I’m over 50 and so is my wife. We were fed up with the Toronto system of rat racing.”
After scouting locations in the US and Europe, Heather and Jaime travelled to PEI. “Our friends told us we should go and visit the Maritimes because they would remind us so much of the Azores.” (Although they met and married in Canada, Jaime and Heather come from Pico, an island in the Azores, Portugal. Heather’s family emigrated when she was just five, but Jaime grew up there on his father’s vineyard.)
In 2004, they took their friends’ advice. “Absolutely fell in love with it,” Heather says of her new home. “There’s something different about PEI. It was like being back home. The people were so friendly. It’s almost like going back in time.”
As it is for all pioneers, the road ahead was unmapped, and the best strategy was to adapt to local conditions. For John Rossignol, that meant fermenting traditional Maritime berries and fruit—strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb—to get established as his newly planted grape vines grew.
His 2006 Blackberry Mead—it started as an experiment—won double gold in 2008 at the All Canadian Wine Championships (and in several successive years) and was also named the best fruit wine of the year in 2008. “It tastes both of honey and fruit, which gives it a unique complexity,” says John. When I recently met him, he was up to his knees in a wooden barrel full of blueberries at the second annual “Blueberry Stomp,” part of the Wine, Dine and Shine Festival at the Island’s month-long culinary celebration, Fall Flavours.
For Heather and Jaime Matos, pioneering Matos Winery & Vineyards meant calling on their highly regarded friend—Italian wine expert, enologist Giuseppe Meglioli. Together, they researched and planned, eventually determining the right root stock and the two best grape varieties for their plot of land in St. Catherines, just southwest of Charlottetown.
“With a short season,” says Jaime, “we decided to go with a Gamay Noir.” The Gamay variety can recover from a late spring frost by budding a second time, a trick beyond less hardy varieties like Merlot and Shiraz. Jaime and Heather planted 16,000 Gamay and Chardonnay vines that they imported from France in 2007. “In the case of the Chardonnay, it’s a very vigorous tree. You’d need a bomb to get rid of it,” he jokes.
Coping with climate
John Rossignol is an infinitely practical man who has learned winemaking through careful study, experimentation and observation. “It’s a creative process,” is how he puts it. Of making fruit wine, John says, “When we harvest the fruit, or when a strawberry farmer comes here with a pickup truck full of fruit, the sugar levels and acid levels are always different. We’re led to experiment.”
As for grapes, he says, “The ideal vine for us would be one that can withstand salt spray, cold weather and short seasons. There aren’t too many grapes that will do that.” Chardonnay comes close enough, and for a red, he relies on the hardy hybrid Marechal Foch vine.
From the back of a horse-drawn cart—rides are offered to visitors at the Wine, Dine and Shine Festival—it’s evident that John has planted his rows of vines relatively far apart. It’s part of his strategy to avoid fungal infection by encouraging that steady breeze off the Northumberland Strait up through the rows. So far, he has not had to spray fungicides or pesticides. “The slope,” says John, “also gives us the advantage of allowing cold weather or frost pockets to run off. We don’t have frost here until late October.”
Jaime Matos has a different strategy. His rows are planted on high trellises running north and south. “They’re high, so that when the sun comes up they never shade the next row, but as close as possible so they’re not all going to be beaten by the weather. The end row always gets the worst beating.” By planting rows close together, he gets fewer grapes per vine, but the fruit is of good quality.
Their growing strategies may differ, but both men are pleased with their results. John Rossignol says, “I personally like the l’Acadie Blanc—it’s a nice crisp white wine—and I like the Marechal Foch. These are two very good workhorse grapes for the Maritime region.”
For Jaime Matos, his pride is the Gamay-Noir, which recently won silver at the 2011 Canadian Wine Awards. “It’s a light wine, a little fruity, nicely aromatic and the acidity is controlled by the wine making process.” Heather reports that people are buying Jaime’s favourite by the case. “They love it because it’s a nice smooth red wine.” Jaime also makes a dry rosé that’s proven popular, and a non-oaked Chardonnay.
Heather says of her customers: “They were shocked that the Chardonnay was so good. They’re used to an oaked Chardonnay, so when they tasted this one, they found it very crisp, very light.”
Building an industry
Heather sells all the wine Jaime can make right now from the shop at their winery. John Rossignol also sells his on-site, and through the PEI Liquor Control Commission and its equivalent in Alberta. John says it was difficult to establish a beverage industry on the Island. “It was a lot more complicated than planting a few grapes. We had to enact a winery act and work with the provincial people to organize the whole thing. That took about two years.”
Now, John has established the PEI Vintners Association. He says with new growers, brewers and boutique liquor producers starting up, he’ll be knocking on a lot of doors in the off season.
There’s more to pioneering than creating a good wine, and John and Jaime are eager to take on the challenge. As Jaime puts it, “I’m not going to make a million dollars. It's a dream. Enjoy what you do, and this is life.”