L'Acadie Vineyards Blog

Lightening before the Thunder

Nova Scotia sparkling wine. If you haven't heard of it by now, you'll soon have your head turned as this specialized wine style catapults and rejuvenates Nova Scotia tourism. Yes, the word is out and wine enthusiasts from across Canada and beyond are poised to visit our wine region. They know that our superior cool climate can produce world class, awarded traditional method sparkling wine that rivals Champagne and that we have many producers carefully fermenting in their bottles and aging them on their sides as they wait for the right moment to pop the cork. Yes, you could say there is a "thunder" of cork popping, but did you know about the "lightening before the thunder"?

L'Acadie Vineyards is the birthplace of Nova Scotia sparkling wine, releasing the region's first traditional method sparklings in 2008. Many factors and years combined for this genesis - experienced British Columbia sparkling winemaker, ninth-generation Nova Scotia partner and discovering an arcadia of schist and ancient seabed. Read more. And international awards have validated the risks taken. Prestige Brut received a Gold and was Top Scoring Sparkling at the leading 2010 Canadian Wine Awards. Only three sparkling wines had ever achieved gold in the history of the competition. At the prestigious Effervescents du Monde competition in France, 2007 and 2010 Prestige Brut were awarded silver medals. Current release 2013 Prestige Brut, buy now, received 92 points at Decanter World Wine Awards in London, England. These international, national and regional awards and recognition have been significant in not only the success of L'Acadie Vineyards but also the enviable image, and thunder, that Nova Scotia enjoys today.

"Bruce Ewert released Nova Scotia’s first Champagne-method sparkling wine back in 2008. The local industry owes much to his foresight” -Beppi Crosariol, Globe and Mail

This 2020 season we are offering tastings by appointment, book now, to give a more intimate and safe experience. Consider booking a sparkling tasting on the crush pad outside and taste and learn why our Nova Scotia sparkling is so popular.

What is Clean Wine Anyways?

Social media is humming with the release of a self-declared “clean wine” from celebrity Cameron Diaz and her partner. The issue in the wine world is that if her wine is “clean” then what does that make all other wines? She exposes 70 ingredients that her wine doesn’t have – a vegan, organic rose and white wine grown in Spain and made in France.

First of all, thanks to Cameron Diaz for initiating conversation about organic wines and I want to share the story behind our clean wine. It’s not just marketing buzz, it’s about passion and knowledge to follow a difficult path of commitment, transparency and traceability that is certified by government-led inspections. I’ve been at this a long time, first making organic wine as a BC winemaker and now for my own winery in NS, the first in the province. We promote our wines simply for what they are – certified organic symbol on the label along with other geeky transparent information such as dosage amounts, and that they are appropriate for vegan diets. We also talk about reasons why we farm and make wine that way – environment, terroir flavours, health. So maybe we should change this marketing direction? Instead of just talking about the natural inputs used in organic production, maybe what we don’t use? Such as, no glyphosates aka the weed killer Roundup. And no systemic pesticides that protect the vine from within. The residual ends up in your wine, and contact pesticides can leave residual as well, even if you wash grapes prior to pressing, which is not common practice. And talk about the animal aspects of growing and making wine. Not only do we not use animal inputs in our wine but also none in our vineyards – vegan agriculture.

We also don’t talk about all the ingredients and practices that can go into making conventional wines: gelatin, gum arabic, sorbic acid and other preservatives, colour, tannins, nutrients to name a few are all added to wines around us. We have been following our clean wine path for a long time and our enlightened fans understand the hard work that goes into making quality organic wine. So thank you Cameron Diaz for initiating the dialogue.

What 2020 Looks Like at L'Acadie Vineyards

As we all embrace the new realities, I wanted to share with you our news and plans. More than ever we want you to know that you can trust our high quality organic wines that have the integrity and traceability of the Canada Organic symbol on each bottle.

Caitlin, our new vineyard manager, has been busy all winter pruning and tying, and her skills are showing with the growth we have had since budbreak. This milestone was a little late compared to normal but earlier than 2019, which had enough heat units to fully ripened grapes for sparkling and white wines. She has been getting to know our new grape hoe implement on the tractor as we cultivate and change our cover crop to manage our living soils and biodiversity.

Since March we have been bottling wines with social distancing and within our family bubble to maintain safety for our employees. I'm happy to report that 2019 Estate L'Acadie and Rose are on their way to the NSLC to fill the shelves again after being empty from the low crop of the 2018 frost-affected season. And there are many new exciting releases to announce on our social media channels later this year!

We have been offering curbside pickup by appointment and local deliveries during the pandemic to fulfill email and phone orders, and expect to expand to online sales with our new website. We are very excited about our web design and hope that you will enjoy the new features! Pickup and deliveries are now offered everyday 11-4pm.

Our reopening will follow Nova Scotia government requirements as they provide us with updates. Top consideration is the safety of our employees and family as well as yours.  Private crush pad tastings and purchasing will be by required appointment starting June 19 for limited group sizes, only one group at a time. lacadievineyardsappts  The tasting area will be sanitized, glassware will be washed to safe sanitizing temperatures and not handled before you pick up your tasting glass (no hand polishing this year).  Entry into the wineshop will be allowed soon, once we evaluate our initial opening and cautiously prepare to ensure safety.

You'll notice familiar faces at the winery this year with Mike, (Uncle) Ian, our children Michael and Sydney and newly hired Megan. Social distancing will be practiced and they'll pop on their masks as required. Please bring your own mask for additional safety.

We look forward to seeing you at the winery this season!

Stay safe,

Bruce, Pauline and family.