L'Acadie Vineyards Blog

Effervescents du Monde - Nova Scotia's first international sparkling awards

 

 

 

Effervescents du Monde is a prestigious competition of the best sparkling wines in the world and in 2011 and again in 2015 L'Acadie Vineyards turned heads by claiming silver medals for their Prestige Brut and the first international sparkling awards for Nova Scotia!

 

 

 

 

 

The 2007 and 2010 vintages of Prestige Brut that won at the competitions were superb and put Nova Scotia wine region on the sparkling wine map. Since then there have been continuous accolades and more awards for more recent vintages, namely multiple times at Decanter World Wine Awards in London where the 2017 Prestige Brut Estate won Gold and 95 points, the first Decanter gold medal for Nova Scotia, the highest level of quality achievement. 

 

 

The matrix of factors and decisions was deliberate to achieve this highest level of quality,

• Bruce Ewert earned similar wine awards when he was an experienced sparkling winemaker in the Okanagan Valley.
• Bruce and family indentified that L'Acadie Blanc was ideal for sparkling while on investigative trips to Nova Scotia and tasting still wine versions from Annapolis Valley wineries in the early 2000's before there was a bubble in the province. We were the first to release sparkling wine in 2008!
• L'Acadie Vineyards estate in Gaspereau was chosen for its rocky well-drained soil. Schist, sandstone, slate, and ancient seabed. In 2017 test holes revealed roots going deep, over 3 feet.
• Farming organically and now Biocyclic Vegan as well encourages a heathly living soil so terroir mineral characters are amplified
• Prestige Brut comes from the same estate block every year, traditional method sparkling with aging for 5 years in a underground tirage cellar.

 

 

20 Years - Milestones along our journey

This year, this month, marks 20 years since we drove across Canada from an established winemaking career in the Okanagan Valley to acquire our piece of paradise in Gaspereau, Nova Scotia. Each year on July 21 our family celebrates that coming-home milestone and next year our winery will be celebrating the formal establishment of L’Acadie Vineyards – 20 year anniversary of planting first vines in 2005.

Many milestones in the last 20 years, here are the highlights,

2005 – Established Nova Scotia’s first organic vineyard. Certified organic from inception.
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.
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 silver and 92 points for previous vintages.

 

Decanter- Canada Calling: The wines exciting the experts now

 

 

Proud to represent Nova Scotia wine in this Decanter article highlighting 15 Canadian wines that scored 95 points or more at the Decanter World Wine Awards earlier this year. Prestige Brut Estate 2017 award winning sparkling wine with an impressive 95 points and gold is the first ever Decanter gold for Nova Scotia wineries. It is an organic and vegan wine.

Learn more, or order 2017 Prestige Brut Estate

Read related blog about our big win Gold at Decanter world wine awards

Read Decanter article Canada calling: The wines exciting the experts now

Gold for Vintage Cuvee

 

Gold for Vintage Cuvee 92 points!

 

New release 2020 Vintage Cuveé recently won a gold award with 92 points from Wine Align, the National Wine Awards of Canada! This award marks the fourth year in a row of 90 points or more for our Vintage Cuvée and we are very proud of this long-time favourite.

 

Here's what the judges are saying:

"Surprising amount of fruit in this Blanc de Blancs based on L'Acadie Blanc with (13 percent) Seyval Blanc. Fine aromatic grip surrounds a mix of stone and also green fruit but what is most special here is the intensity of the bubble and fine purity of the lees. Would never see this as autolytic, oxidative or yeasty but only in terms of salty, marine airy excitement. Oysters are an ideal match. Drink 2023-2029."

~Michael Godel

 

"Fresh white floral aromatics with an umami lean on the nose. The wine communicates refreshment on the palate with bright, crunchy acidity. Tasty wine, not terribly complex. There is a lot of talk about hybrids these days with climate change and a great example of how the bar is being raised every vintage with these varieties."

~Jenna Briscoe

 

This top-selling Nova Scotian traditional method sparkling wine is a premium blend of organic Estate L'Acadie Blanc & Seyval Blanc. With characteristic aged brioche from 2 years on the lees, this organic wine displays fine bubbles from natural fermentation in the bottle. Crisp apple & juicy orange with lemon zest on the finish. Pairs well with our famous maritime seafood and as a celebration on its own!

Available for purchase at our Gaspereau winery wineshop & online, as well as at Bishop's Cellar, Harvest Wines, Liquid Assets & select NSLC stores.

Available by the glass in Wolfville at Juniper & Troy, and in Lunenburg at the Grand Banker & Old Fish Factory.

Cheers!

Prestige Brut in the news - CBC Info Morning

We chatted with Portia Clark on CBC Information Morning about our Gold medal win for Prestige Brut Estate at Decanter World Wine Awards. Listen to CBC Info Morning segment

Gold at Decanter World Wine Awards

We are proud to announce that Prestige Brut Estate 2017 was awarded Gold and 95 points at Decanter World Wine Awards in London this week. First-ever Decanter gold for Nova Scotia! It is the fourth consecutive vintage of Prestige Brut Estate to win awards at Decanter, adding to a prestigious list of international awards including early vintages winning at Effervescent du Monde in France.

Decanter:
"Canada is a cool climate region that knows a thing or two about the benefits of hybrid grape varieties, and for the first time a single varietal L’Acadie Blanc, a hybrid crossing of Cascade and Seyve-Villard, was awarded a Gold medal in its rendition as a sparkling wine for L’Acadie Vineyards, Prestige Brut 2017 from Gaspereau Valley in Nova Scotia. A noteworthy first-ever Gold for the region too."

Judges' comments:
"Pretty and attractive, with white fruit, honey melon, chalky green apple and lifted floral aromatics lead through to a palate of vibrant acidity, citrus curd and a fine, saline finish."

Bruce Ewert, winemaker, co-owner L'Acadie Vineyards:

“We bought our 30 acres of paradise in Gaspereau back in 2004 inspired by the potential for sparkling wine with its soil and location. It is very exciting to earn international awards for our organic vegan sparkling wines that are rooted over a metre deep into rocky well-drained living soils.”

This organic vegan wine is available direct from winery and website in late June. We are waiting for gold medal bottle stickers!

 

Guilt free Bubbly

 

Thanks Onboard Hospitality for featuring our Gaspereau winery in a sustainability article about international sparkling wine and our organic sparkling wine and recent vegan wine certification. Read Guilt Free Bubbly

 

Vegan, organic, geothermal, natural - L'Acadie Vineyards keeps it green - via Saltwire by Bill Spurr

Great article about our environmental efforts to produce organic and vegan wines!

"L’Acadie’s supplier of corks for its bottles of sparkling and still wines has calculated that the Gaspereau Valley winery was responsible for the sequestration of “a whopping” 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022 because it uses only natural cork."

Full story on Saltwire by Bill Spurr

Environmental benefits of using cork

 

Honoured to receive this award from Amorim Cork, our cork supplier. A whopping 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide sequestered from our use of cork in 2022!

We are proud to give you this honor and please feel free to share with your team or customers your carbon retention number! This number has been independently validated by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and/or Ernest and Young. The findings, are the only ones to date that underwent a multi-closure comparative peer review, indicating when considering sequestration by the ecosystem made feasible by the cyclic extraction of cork, a retention capacity up to 288 grams of CO2 is associated with every natural cork stopper and as much as 562 grams with a sparkling wine stopper, in stark contrast to the CO2 emissions to each plastic stopper (up to 14.8 g/sealant) and to aluminum caps (up to 37.2 g/cap). To find out more about the sustainability studies and on going efforts Amorim is making on your behalf please visit the following link here.

Canadian Sparkling, eh?

https://glassofbubbly.com/canadian-bubbly-eh/