Cottage Country Wine Festival
"Buckhorn, Ont. -- A recent trip to the Fiesta Buckhorn wine festival in cottage country provided a glimpse of Canadian growers bravely pushing the wine envelope against our savage winters.
Most have heard about the hardy dreamers playing pioneer and putting up edgy wineries in Prince Edward County, where it's far colder than Toronto.
But who would believe growing new clones of vines that can survive minus 30C winters in the Kawarthas, or north of Quebec city along the St. Lawrence River where minus 43C is the normal low point of the year?
To put this in perspective, prolonged bouts of minus 25C are enough to rock the existence of most vines, if not kill them right down to the roots, as we rediscovered in Niagara over the last two winters -- unless the vines are patiently buried below soil or a natural massive snow cover.
Now new varieties developed in Minnesota are being tested in experimental vineyards near Peterborough by self-styled "Little Fat Wino" Larry Paterson, the guiding light behind the Fiesta Buckhorn wine fest.
The vines were planted mostly in 2002 on the property of Peterborough medical officer of health, Dr. Garry Humphreys. These disease-resistant and winter-hardy vines may some day allow viticulture to spread into vast inhospitable regions across Canada.
"I want to make $8 or $10 blended wines from vines people can grow even up in Sudbury," says Paterson. In the same young test plot are pinot gris vines planted in 2000 that survived minus 30C last winter with no damage.
...snip..."