Vankleek Hill Vineyard
If you’re driving through the countryside near Vankleek Hill, you might be surprised to see rows of grape vines that seem to pop up out of nowhere.
When they happened upon the plot of land and the vines six years ago, Scott Lambert and Teresa Bressan saw potential – so much so that they bought the 55-acre property that is today the new Vankleek Hill Vineyard (VKH).
Although the original objective was to dig in and start a commercial vegetable garden, Lambert’s and Bressan’s plans evolved into a much larger undertaking: becoming vintners, despite the fact they originally had no intention of purchasing a vineyard.
Though the vines were neglected and in disrepair, the partners invested money and a lot of their own labour to refurbish the winemaking facilities and re-vamp and rebuild the vineyard.
“The original owner of Vankleek Hill Vineyard planted vines in 2007 and opened the winery around 2010. We purchased it in 2019 and spent two years cleaning up the vines and got them producing again,” says Lambert.
A fresh start
Having arrived from Saint-Lazare, southwest of Montreal, Lambert and Bressan were “shopping around,” and the possibilities posed by the Vankleek Hill terrain intrigued them: they liked the property, and more and more they then found themselves liking the idea of growing grapes and making wine.
Retaining the vineyard’s original name only – they developed new wine recipes and have made a full and clean break from the previous ownership, they stress – the pair work the vines on Dandy Road, which is about 10 minutes’ drive from the town centre.
They currently crop about four tons of grapes from five acres of vines which are hearty North American varietals – a trio of Frontenac grapes developed at the University of Minnesota – that can survive cold and frosty temperatures and thrive in the area’s clay-based, sandy-loam soils.
Since they purchased the vineyard, they have been, like farmers must be, unwavering in the face of climatic setbacks which have required resilience and persistence to overcome: shortly after taking over, they lost much of their crop to the vagaries of weather but salvaged about two tons the next harvest.
Wine as ‘‘project’’
Uniquely, while Lambert and Bressan have been making wine for a few years now, they have studiously pursued a “work-in-progress” approach to what they do.
That means that each year they make new and different wines – using 100% Ontario fruit – and tweak production techniques which are captured on the unpretentious yet elegant wine labels that began six years ago at “Project 01” with “Project 50” coming up …
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