On August 6th, 2002, James Warren esquire celebrated the 60th anniversary of his hatching on the shores of Poplar Lake. This page is posted in hopes that you will Email Jim in celebration of this monotonous event.
Jim, constantly fleeing advancing civilization, took a canoe and headed west, becoming well known as Monsewer James Lafoote, Voyageur, a legend to all France, where he is misremembered by some winery named Chateau Lafite - a simple screwup... Rumour has it that sometime in the 1700's he discovered that you could indeed make wine from fruit other than grapes, carefully hand-harvesting cranberries and apples and fermenting away (a glass of wine a day can really keep you alive a long long time!). Sometime after this he taught an immigrant named Schiller to plant grapes in Ontario. Thus surely fruit wines preceeded grape wines in Ontario!
More seriously, we have been conducting a number of tastings of top Bordeaux against Ontario red wines, many of them made by Jim over the years at Stoney Ridge or Daniel Lenko. These have been blind tastings, and the results are at: this website.
J is for juice, pressed ‘til the pips squeak
I is for iodine to flavour young Syrah
M is for more oak to mask malolactic mess-ups
W is for Winemaker of the Year 1996 (Ontario Wine Awards)
A is for apple because fruits can make wine too
R is for resveratrol (how do you think you made it to 60?)
R is for more resveratrol and for the Riesling you don’t make
E is for economies of scale, the smaller the scale the weirder the economics
N is for the number of wines you make each year, to the power of n
Happy Birthday, Jim. Life begins when you grow into your IQ.
Cheers, Tony Aspler.
Remember that Nature is balanced, Monsewer ... be sure to let your pointer hover over some of the pictures!
Jim Warren first came to Canada by accident. At one time, he was proconsul of Rome and personal winemaking consultant to Julius Caesar. Jim was put in charge of one of the boats crossing the English Channel. Julius taught Jim to teach Latin before Jim took the wrong turn at Land's End... Jim was unheard of until he entered Canada with some guy called Leif Ericsson a few years later down East, discovering Vinland and hangovers all at the same time.
Some time later a young man called Jacques Cartier arrived on the scene and taught Jim to teach French. In exchange, Jacques was told that no, he couldn't call it Ile de Bacchus, as that spot was located further west just south of Belleville. Jim was then taught the Canadian winemaking style by a local lad, one Hiawatha. At the left is his first homemade domestic wine, which, rumour has it, won best of class at the 1535 Amateur Winemakers of Canada competition...
Jim has become quite an avid fisherman, first learning to fish on a yacht called the Titanic a few years back. Although some have said he is dangerous in a small canoe, it seems to be larger craft that have trouble staying afloat when trying to contain the man. Let's say Jim is one who has trouble colouring within the lines (or staying in the middle of the boat!)... and rumour has it that son Marshall (left) is following in the footprints of the legend (he'll need seven league boots!).
Look at the picture of the little kid to the right with the huge fish, caught north of Peterborough on bass opening weekend in 2002... Jim is a huge fan of deerflies, snapping turtles and mosquitoes and the back woods, and is still known as Monsewer James Lafoote, last of the voyageurs (or is that boy of many jours?). Jim's wife, the good Lady Charlotte, certainly has her hands full!
In the last 70 or 80 years Jim's commercial wines have won far more than a decent share of awards, all over the world. (Until recently at a place called Rocky Hill or Outhouse Ridge or some such, lately at other spots.) 
Lately he has been specializing in making wine with two other guys - Ed Gurinskas and John Marynissen - and rumour has it that the next one will be the 3 Guys Geritol Noir, 2003... Recent scientific analysis has shown that Jim has been blending a few ml of Viagara 
into each bottle, which seems to make wine judges very happy...
A birthday card for JW
Dum fata sinunt, vivite laeti.
