L'Acadie Vineyards Blog
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Matching style, variety and soil
20 years of style, variety and soil
This year marks 20 years since we drove across Canada from an established winemaking career in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia to acquire our piece of paradise in Gaspereau, Nova Scotia. Fallow farm land ready for us to plant the province’s first organic vineyard, and our decisions on wine style and variety are standing the test of time.
Time honoured traditions of old world wine regions dictate suitable varieties and wine styles for individual appellations and sub appellations, usually evolving from trial and error of matching them to intrinsically unique soils and microclimates. We made an informed decision, some might call it bold, in 2004 by drawing upon years of sparkling winemaking experience in the Okanagan Valley that the 30 acres in Gaspereau would produce world class sparkling wine. Our palette: uniquely well-drained ancient seabed gravels covered with 15-30 cm loamy top soil tilted 5% towards north west. The industry mantra at that time was “south slope” but I had been making wine from different slopes for years – south for hot-loving reds, north and east for whites, and quite often struggled with grapes planned for sparkling wine production that were ripening too fast, losing fruitiness and freshness. The slope direction seemed like a good fit and it was the soil, schist, sandstone and slate that sealed the idea of suitability for sparkling wine. Wine flavours are influenced by climate and grape variety, and soil comes in a close third. We anticipated minerality nuances, a proven wine characteristic in great wines of the world, and international judges are noticing.
Decanter World Wine Awards 2018, London, England – 92 points, Silver Medal for 2013 Prestige Brut Estate
Judges’ notes, "A floral, apple nose with chalky lemon and creamy pear on the refreshing, mineral palate."
There was risk that the soil would not retain enough moisture compared to the typical rich clay-loam soils around us but even though the young vines struggled during establishment they grew deep roots for resilience to future climate extremes like drought. That coupled with our living soils encouraged with organic farming practice bodes well for climate change resilience. Roots are supported by colonies of fungus living symbiotically, helping water, nutrient....and flavour uptake.
Read more about Climate change resilience and organic farming
On our many visits to Nova Scotia to visit family before we moved back, we got to know the region’s signature grape variety, L’Acadie Blanc, and we’d talk long into the night about whether and how we could make it into a world-class sparkling wine. There wasn’t a bubble in the province at that time but we saw the potential – freshness, apple, citrus, moderate alcohol. Our second bold decision was initially planting 8 acres of exclusively L’Acadie Blanc for sparkling wine at a time when most of the region was planting multiple varieties for blending versatility and more selection of varietal wines. We foresaw traditional method sparkling wine to be the defining style for our region, in particular, L’Acadie Blanc cuvees.
There have been many milestones in the last 20 years that have proven our decisions,
- 2005 – established Nova Scotia’s first organic vineyard
- 2008 – opened sustainable winery with geothermal heating and cooling and insulated concrete construction
- 2008 – released Nova Scotia’s first traditional method sparkling
- 2008 – Nova Scotia’s first appassimento wines. First releases of Alchemy and Passito from our 5-year appassimento research project with Agriculture Canada and collaboration with Italian researchers.
- 2010 – gold and top scoring sparkling for 2007 Prestige Brut at 2010 National Wine Awards. A first for Nova Scotia.
- 2011 – silver medal for 2007 Prestige Brut at 2011 Effervescents du Monde (Dijon, France) First international sparkling award for Nova Scotia.
- 2015 – silver medal for 2010 Prestige Brut zero dosage at 2015 Effervescents du Monde.
- 2021 - Certified to European Biocyclic Vegan standard, the first farm and winery in North America. Read more about our vegan wines, Why we are Biocyclic Vegan
- 2023 – gold medal, 95 points for 2017 Prestige Brut Estate at 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards. First gold medal for Nova Scotia from Decanter, after earning many silver awards and 92-point designations for previous vintages.

Climate change resilience and organic farming
We have long been supporters of Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network ACORN, and they have good information on their website - a small excerpt shared below.
Climate change affects vineyards with extreme events such as severe winter damage to vines in British Columbia for the past two years, polar vortex in Nova Scotia last year with similar damage, and droughts in other wine regions of the world. Organic farming builds resilience AND contributes to a solution, as ACORN describes so well.
A couple notes about our organic and vegan practices:
- living soils - symbiotic fungi expand root zone influence by 2-10x for more water and nutrient availability, read more
- regenerative agriculture - cover crops between vineyard rows create biodiversity and pull carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil, watch video about our cover crops
- livestock greenhouse gas generation - we are certified Biocyclic Vegan, no animal products from soil to glass, read more

Fungus for climate change resilience
The world of fungi is amazing. I always credit kombucha’s yeasty cloudy popularity to wine lovers’ rapid acceptance to similarly cloudy Petillant Naturel wines. And Hollywood’s portrayal of “mind-controlling” fungus in Last of Us has further vaulted fungus to rock star status, a sinister version in this case. Another fungus, a beneficial one, called mycorrhiza lives in soil and has a critical symbiotic relationship with roots to help vines access water and nutrients especially during drought and other extremes from climate change. This is a true rock star.
When plants made that difficult evolutionary step from a nutrient-rich marine environment to a relatively harsh soil home, they had to make an alliance with microbes in the soil to survive. Mycorrhizal fungi grows into root cells to access carbohydrates from the vine, and in exchange, root zone influence of the vine expands to 3-10 times with a complex network of fungus filaments. I call this microbial terroir. Water, nutrients and “flavours” in soil are more accessible for the vine.
Organic practices at our Gaspereau vineyard encourage this living soil, rather than the conventional approach of ignoring microbes and following a regime of feeding vines directly with readably accessible synthetic fertilizers. The microbes seem to know – decreasing their relationship with the roots, almost sensing that they are not needed to cycle nutrients for the vine. Same outcome with animal manures. Other practices that kill fungi are tilling excessively between vineyard rows rather than using a constant cover crop and using herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). We make plant-based compost teas, a veganic approach, to inoculate vines with beneficial fungi – crowding out disease organisms on leaves and further enhancing soil and roots. It's why we are Biocyclic Vegan
Strengthening our microbial terroir helps our vines be more resilient to climate change. Accessibility to nutrients and water is enhanced and that's especially important with extreme weather events.
Here's an article about research in Portugal,
The microbes that could protect grapevines from climate change

Earth Day- be a part of the solution
Earth Day: April 22, 2023
Atmospheric CO2: 420ppm
We all want to be part of the solution to help Mother Earth. If you were born in the 60’s, atmospheric CO2 was 320ppm, now it’s 420ppm. We are on the wrong path, as NASA describes in this dramatic graph.
L'Acadie Vineyards makes organic and vegan wines, from soil to glass, for people who care. Delicious healthful wine that you'll be proud to serve for memorable occasions knowing that you are part of the solution.
It's simple to get our wines to be a part of the solution today,
- Choose our organic wine – look for the Canada Organic symbol on the bottle, every one of our wines has it. It means rigorous inspections, transparency and traceability
- Buy at wine bars and restaurants, private wine stores, online, direct from our Gaspereau winery, and NSLC
- Enjoy our delicious organic wine with friends and family along with organic food. Share your experience to amplify your impact for change.
Here is the difference you’ll be making. When you purchase organic food like our organic vegan wine you are contributing to a greener planet.
- Grapes are one of the dirty dozen – 12 fruits and vegetables that are heavily sprayed with pesticides and you can avoid those residual pesticides in your wine by buying organic.
- Pesticides can contaminate groundwater and poison your community’s drinking water.
- Our vegan wines certified by Biocyclic Vegan International don’t use animal manures in growing grapes or the many animal ingredients commonly used for winemaking. Large scale livestock farming has been proven to generate 14% of greenhouse gases.
Make a difference today. Be a part of the solution for Mother Earth and enjoy delicious wine today. We've done the hard work so it's easier for you.
Order here