August 20, 2018a higher budget than you normally would anywhere else,
because your labor is so much greater.” The burial process
requires wineries to hire more workers than vineyards of a
similar size elsewhere. “But qualitywise, it’s one of the best,”
he says. “It’s not that hard to make a brilliant wine out of these
grapes, as long as you get them in here and they’re sound.”
The winery of Keint-He, which is named after the Mohawks
of the Bay of Quinte, was partly funded by former Bank of
Montreal Vice Chairman Ron Rogers. It’s home to Prince
Edward County’s oldest pinot noir plantings—some of them a
ripe old 2 9 years of age. They’re attributed to Geof Heinricks,
a local winemaker and author ofA Fool and Forty Acres:
Conjuring a Vineyard Three Thousand Miles From Burgundy.
After extensive soil studies, he wrote that the county’s “great
dirt”—a cocktail of gravel, limestone, and granite—was perfectly
suited to the varietal. And as temperatures have warmed over
the past decades, the region’s microclimate is deemed perfect
for pinot noir and chardonnay plantings.
The increased attention to the wines is attracting more
tourists to Prince Edward County (population 2 4,735), which,
prior to the vines being planted, hadn’t changed much for cen-
turies. The county was created by Upper Canada’s founding
Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe in the 18th century.
United Empire Loyalist lags—which were lown by the sol-
diers loyal to the British crown who left America following
the Revolution in 1776—still ly outside the Victorian houses
that dot the landscape of spruces and irs.
Today the growing numbers of weekenders from Toronto
and Montreal have spurred local press to label the bucolic
region “the Hamptons of Canada,” but the crowd isn’t as
high-proile. (For that mansion vibe, hop a loat plane 140 miles
northwest to Muskoka.) Attractions lean more toward artisan
cafes than designer stores, and low-key outdoor inns serving
local beers and ciders with views over the lake rather than
corporate beneits and cocktail bars.
To keep up with demand from tourists and local restaurants,
Keint-He has increased production to about 5,000 cases a
year, up from 800 cases ive years ago, says Bryan Rogers, the
estate’s general manager. It has about 37 acres planted, up from
23 acres over the same period.
“People are coming here for that farm-to-table ofer—great
food, great wine, great scenery,” says Emily
Cowan, executive director of the Prince Edward
County Chamber of Tourism and Commerce.
The exact number is diicult for the chamber
to track; one barometer is the number of people
visiting Sandbanks Provincial Park, a string of
golden dunes stretching along the lake. Last
year about 750,000 people visited the park,
compared with 550,000 three years ago, says
Robin Reilly, the park superintendent.
That surge is creating opportunities for
hotel owners. In Wellington, the town closest
to some of the best vineyards, rates at the Drake
Devonshire Inn start at C$389 a night. The hotel
underwent an extensive renovation shortly after the owners of
the Toronto-based Drake Hotel bought it in 2012. The result is
a yuppie paradise complete with outdoor yoga classes, ping-
pong tables, and a sculpture garden.
In Picton, the county’s historic community, 26-year-old
entrepreneur Jordan Martin purchased the Merrill Inn, a
gabled manor house with 13 bedrooms on Main Street. He
rebranded it Merrill House and brought in art on consign-
ment, including a series of angular, modernist portraits from
local gallery Maison Depoivre. Chef Michael Sullivan has intro-
duced six-course tasting menus, serving a wagyu strip steak,
tea quail eggs, and Raspberry Point oysters, which Young pairs
with Prince Edward County wines.
The restaurant will be remodeled to make room for a
temperature-controlled cellar that, once completed at the
end of February, can house about 5,000 bottles. (Eventually
it may hold double that amount.) Half of the bottles will be
from county producers. “With this inlux of tourism, it’s rea-
sonable that an old country inn might become a boutique
luxury hotel with a standard of dining and service that can
rival any ive-star hotel in the world,” says Martin, who grew
up in nearby Belleville and consulted for the hotel company
Jumeirah Group LLC in Dubai.
He’d previously searched for properties associated with
wine tourism in Burgundy but found the challenge of helping
develop Prince Edward County’s reputation too enticing. “In
Burgundy, I don’t think one can be surrounded by this rapid
growth and young ambitious people willing to try out new
things. There really isn’t nearly the potential for what I’m
doing,” he says.
The county’s municipal rules stipulate that a winery can’t
be built too close to existing agricultural businesses, which
should prevent the local industry from becoming too com-
mercial, Young says. That suits residents ine. As the coun-
ty’s appeal soars, the region wants to retain the charm that
attracted pioneers to its shores in the irst place. Earlier this
year a real estate agent representing a consortium of investors
sat on a bench outside Exultet Estates winery for two days in
a row in an attempt to buy the property. “Couldn’t get rid of
him,” owner Spinosa says. “He said, ‘Name your price.’ And I
said, ‘You don’t even know what we’re doing here.’” 57Keint-He Winery
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