What an incredible start to the summer for both the vineyard and the overall winery operations. After nearly 20 years growing grapes in PEC, I’ve yet to see our vineyard in such great shape; Mark, Lou, and our amazing vineyard crew from Thailand have stayed one step ahead of Mother Nature. We’ve just finished leaf-plucking, exposing the fruit to the sun and we’re now only a few weeks away from green-harvesting (see video) approx. 30% of the fruit.
With summer temperatures rising, we think it’s high time we release our 2020 “Orange” Skin-Fermented Gewürztraminer. This white wine was fermented on the skins for 28 days to extract tannins, colour (a beautiful eye of the partridge pink hue), and the highly perfumed rose-petal notes synonymous with Gewürztraminer. Serve chilled, this is a great sipping wine, particularly for red wine drinkers who usually avoid whites but are looking for a refreshing chilled wine. Our inaugural 2017 vintage of this wine sold out almost immediately. Also delicious with cheese.
I’ve always believed Ontario can make some of the best Chardonnay in the world. For summer drinking we’ve assembled a diverse mixed 6-pack of our Chardonnays. Included in the pack are two bottles of our 2016 Niagara Chardonnay (17.5 JancisRobinson.com), two bottles of our 2017 County Chardonnay (my favourite County Chard. to date), and two bottles of our 2019 Chardonnay “Sans Soufre” (PEC fruit).
We’ve only made Chardonnay “Sans Soufre” once before in 2015. All our Chardonnays are unfiltered and have sulphur levels well below biodynamic and organic limits. Every few years when Mother Nature is shining on us, we bottle Chardonnay that has no added sulphites and is aptly named “Sans Soufre.” Simply a beautiful, mineral driven Burgundian-style Chardonnay from a magical year.
We feel honoured and privileged to have 40+ stone sculptures carved by Zimbabwean sculptor (and an amazing human) Chaka Chikodzi on display around the winery. His work is simply stunning, and once you meet him in person you will fully understand why his work is so beautiful. We invite you to come join us here on Saturday, August 7th from 1pm to 6pm where you’ll have the opportunity to meet Chaka in person and grab a glass of wine and stroll amongst the sculptures. The exhibition will remain here indefinitely, so no FearOfMissingOut if you can’t make it. We’re working on a special project with him to help build a school in Zimbabwe. More details about the special project to come after August 7th.
We hope you’ll make it out to the winery in beautiful Prince Edward County this summer. The County is fully open and looking forward to welcoming you. Our tasting bar, pizza oven, and John Bil Oyster Bar are open daily until 6pm. As always, if you can’t make it to the County, we’re happy to bring the County to your doorstep via our online store. We ship across Canada, including Quebec. Eating local tastes better when drinking local. Click here for home delivery directly from the winery.
Cheers from beautiful PEC,
Norm & The NHW Team