L'Acadie Vineyards Blog

Wine Library Releases

Library Releases

Aged wines from cool climates are ideal for exploring

 

Our wine library is extensive and delicious. We hold back bottles from every vintage and age them in ideal conditions for our own reference and for periodic library releases to wine club members and key wine accounts. Past releases include 10-year aged Estate L’Acadie to show off how these minerality-dominant dry organic wines age and develop, our cool climate consistently granting a seamless longevity statement every vintage, and 10-year aged appassimento reds with tannins and flavours of their youth developing into supple tannins with dried fruit and jammy directions, yes jammy, a descriptor usually reserved for hot climate reds. 2014 Estate L’Acadie and 2012 Passito are currently available at Peacock Wine Bar in Halifax. Traditional method sparklings tend to develop richer characters when aged on cork and we have 2007 Prestige Brut Estate planned for a release. Best way for updates is receiving our newsletter.

This year our Gaspereau winery will be releasing 2008 Alchemy from the library exclusively for wine club members. Alchemy was Nova Scotia's first appassimento Amarone-style red, a worthy style for our cool-climate region, and refers to early scientists, or alchemists, searching to transform ordinary metals into gold. We did 5 years of research with Italian researchers and Kentville Research Centre to hone our grape drying technique and our inaugural release of the 2006 vintage won gold at the All-Canadian Wine Championships, quite fitting. 2008 Alchemy is an exceptional red wine carefully aged on cork for 14 years after 2 years in barrel and boasts complex, developed flavours of black cherry, toasted oak, & licorice.

Sign up for wine clubs here

Biocyclic Vegan and Organic. Veganic

 

You may know that all of our wines are certified organic, but did you know that we are also certified Biocyclic Vegan?

In 2021, in addition to our long-standing organic certification, we became the first certified Biocyclic Vegan farm in North America. This progressive German-based organization has developed a rigorous & holistic standard to which we hold ourselves to. The Biocyclic Vegan ideology goes beyond most vegan certifications to include biodiversity, soil vitality, regenerative agriculture & social equity. We have been farming and winemaking veganically (vegan + organic) for quite some time and in 2021 found ourselves with a growing desire to seek certification to offer consumer transparency for our eco-conscious & plant-based fans. All the stars aligned when we discovered the Biocyclic Vegan standard!!

We love what they do, we love what we do, and we wouldn’t do it any other way. When you enjoy a glass of wine from L’Acadie Vineyards, you are guaranteed a certified organic & vegan wine, from soil to glass. 🌱🥂 

📸: Alex Douglas

#biocyclicvegan #veganic #vegan #veganwine #organic #organicwine #veganagriculture

Disgorging Vintage Cuvee

Economic impact of farm wineries in Nova Scotia

Cultivating a unique sense of place

L'Acadie Vineyards, as trailblazers in Nova Scotia's sparkling wine scene two decades ago, not only pioneered sparkling wine production and earned international accolades but also played a crucial role in developing our region's identity as a noteworthy wine destination. This success exemplifies the importance of farm wineries in cultivating a unique sense of place, fostering economic growth, and establishing Nova Scotia as a prominent player in the global wine industry. 

Read more about how farm wineries are growing Nova Scotia

 

Drink Less, Drink Better

 

January is a good month to reset, reflect, plan and develop new healthier habits. Many are aiming to drink less alcohol and being more mindful of choosing wines when we do enjoy a glass. Vegan and organic wines are a delicious positive choice for the environment and your health.

There is plenty of research and information on vegan and organic farming benefits to soil, groundwater, air quality and bigger picture climate change, as well as individual health. In Europe, government funding for agriculture in most countries is tiered based on sustainability, with organic agriculture on the top pedestal. Recent examples include the Spanish region, Penedès, requiring all wineries to be organic, and the Italian government ruling that biodynamic farming, a largely animal-based practice, is not as sustainable as organic.

Read blog Why we are biocyclic vegan

Read more DO Penedès: new rules and aiming for Spanish wine’s top-tier

Read more Biodynamic farming favoured by Sting sees bill blocked in Italy

Most wine regions in Canada have identified economic impact study benefits for choosing local wine. In Nova Scotia, a local bottle contributes $76.73 and an import only $16.57 – very dramatic reasons to buy local. We should extend studies like this to include health benefits of sustainable wine and put monetary value on consuming less pesticide residues in your glass, reversing climate change from less carbon emissions, healthier soils and cleaner water and air. Governments have identified rising health care costs associated with certain lifestyles and, much like European governments supporting organic farming, they offer incentives for healthier choices. A “Health Impact” study for organic vegan wine could help guide their programs.

Organic coupled with local is always better especially when your local wine region is a cool climate producing naturally moderate alcohol wines. Instead of reaching for an organic Malbec from Chile at 15% alcohol, try an organic sparkling wine from Nova Scotia at 11% alcohol. Make your Tuesday night wine or your Friday night wine a celebration of health.

Read about our Vintage Cuvee in Vine Routes article  6 favourite vegan and earth-friendly wines

 

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

Top 10 reasons to buy L'Acadie Vineyards wine

 

Top 10 reasons to buy L’Acadie Vineyards wine:

1. Supporting local keeps money in Nova Scotia.
2. Lower alcohol of cool climate wines is better for your health.
3. International and national wine awards. The first Nova Scotia winery to earn international awards for sparkling wine.
4. Wine quality and authenticity have always been our business model demonstrated by consistent 100% Nova Scotia grapes.
5. 100% organic wine with organic logo on all labels to assure traceability and transparency. Better terroir flavours and avoid pesticide and chemical residues in your glass.
6. Vegan wine certified to Biocyclic Vegan Standard guarantees no animal inputs soil to glass.
7. Organic and vegan vineyard practices protect soil, water and air quality to help save the planet.
8. Prices are competitive with conventional wines.
9. Convenient distribution with online, onsite retail, NSLC, private wine stores.
10. Geothermal winery since inception for environmentally-friendly heating, cooling and hot water.

World Soil Day

World Soil Day - December 5, 2023

 

Happy World Soil Day. Why have a day dedicated to something as common and seemingly mundane as dirt? 95% of our food comes from it - it’s as important as sun and water. The United Nations has chosen a soil and water theme this year to showcase that healthy soil is a natural filter to hold and purify water as it makes its way into our drinking water. There is a symbiosis between soil management, microorganisms, water and soil structure that is critical for life and organic and vegan farming is the best way to sustain it.

Compaction, erosion, pesticides and more contribute to soil degradation and climate change is accelerating impacts. Human activity has to change to preserve soil.

Some our organic viticulture and vegan farming practices that sustain our soil:

• Soil structure – humus is decayed plant and animal matter and helps soil retain moisture, think of forest floor soil. Vegan farming doesn’t use animal manures, only plant-based composts are used to increase humus levels. We are certified to the Biocyclic Vegan Standard. Animal manures can contaminate water systems because they are added in early spring to allow enough time to become readily available to plants, very often leaching through the soils to water aquifers.
• Regenerative agriculture – one of organic farming pillars is keeping bare soils protected with cover crops. Winter wheat, fallow fields of clover and constant perennial plants between vineyard rows are examples. Combined with minimal tillage, soil retains and absorbs carbon, is more resistant to erosion and delicate microorganisms are preserved.
• Living soil – when plants made their evolutionary step from nutrient-rich marine environments to terrestrial they had to make alliances with soil microorganisms. Mycorrhizal fungi, for example, can increase a plant’s root zone influence by 10x with its filamentous network. Benefits of a living soil include climate change resilience, better terroir flavours for organic wine, healthy plants, biodiversity and less nutrient additions. Plant-based composts from grape pomace are teeming with microorganisms, inoculating the soil and vines. Our living soils are then preserved with minimal tillage, cover crops and not using pesticides. 

Watch this video Making Compost Tea.

Sparkling Wine Club

Wine clubs are for wine enthusiasts that want to have access to special wines. Sparkling club members get two gold medal wines, two pre-release wines and two rose sparklers.

 

 

Our vineyard supervisor, Chris, explains our organic and vegan practices

We have been an organic winery from inception and certified vegan vineyard and winery since 2021, although our vegan winemaking goes way back. Biocyclic Vegan is our certifier from soil to glass and our vegan wines from our Gaspereau winery have been turning heads and winning national and international awards for over a decade.

As our vineyard supervisor, Chris, notes in this superb video, vegan vineyards do not use animal manures and instead management nutrients with composted grape pomace from harvest. It nourishes our living soils with organic matter teeming with mycorrhizal fungi that sequester carbon and does not pollute water systems like animal manures. Biodiversity and regenerative agriculture aspects are discussed as well.

Related blogs,

Why we are Vegan

First Biocyclic Vegan winery and farm in North America