It’s an inventive take on appassimento, the
ancient process of winemaking popularized in grape-growing regions around
Venice. But here in Norfolk County, on the shores of Lake Erie, the sight of
grapes shrivelling in white climate-controlled sheds is so peculiar that a
visitor half expects to see a gondola floating by in nearby Port Dover.Have you
ever wondered about the mold
making process?
“It’s very unusual, no question” says Mike McArthur, as we tour his Burning Kiln Winery on Front Rd. “But the kiln idea was almost an immediate connection for us. We just knew this was the way to go.”
Nobody starts a winery in Ontario to get rich. Even if you do everything right, everything could go wrong. The competition is fierce globally. The obstacles are agonizing locally. The costs are huge and the margins slim. It could take years — if ever — to recoup your seven-figure investment.
But just two years after its first harvest, Burning Kiln has managed to bottle this conventional wisdom and toss it out a barn window. In an industry that is often more gruelling hobby than lucrative business, Burning Kiln is rewriting the rules of viticulture, creating dazzling wines that are selling out, racking up awards and raising eyebrows across the oenophile world.
And as of last Saturday, consumers can buy Burning Kiln wine at the LCBO. So if you want to know why the 2010 Strip Room, a Bordeaux blend, is the official red wine inside the Ontario Legislative Assembly or why the winery was just recognized with a Premier’s Award For Agri-Food Innovation and Excellence, you can do so without typing “Norfolk County” into your GPS.
“Five years ago, people said, ‘You will never sell a $50 bottle of wine,’ ” says McArthur, referring to his Kiln Hanger, a full-bodied red. “Well, we do and we don’t have any problems doing it.”
When McArthur and his partners started Burning Kiln, they realized the winery needed a hook. Ontario’s South Coast,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. after all, was a long way from the province’s recognized viticultural areas: Niagara Escarpment, Prince Edward County, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Pelee Island.
“The market is so competitive that you have to have a gimmick,” says George Taber, a wine historian and author of A Toast to Bargain Wines. “And the gimmick is innovation — something you are doing that nobody else is doing.”
This need to innovate comes at a time when wine quality is at an all-time high.
“When I was a young kid, there were really bad wines that adults drank,” says Elliott Morss, a former professor and economist who writes about addictive products. “You know, the sparkling rosés, the Chianti in the straw bottle. The most fundamental thing that’s happened worldwide is that all wines are good. So what you are seeing now is the rise of individual preferences.”
As Burning Kiln discovered, the appassimento process — the time-honoured technique of drying the grapes before pressing, which increases sugar content while intensifying flavour and aroma — has mass appeal. But using kilns was mereThe TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility.ly the final stage in a meticulously planned operation that could serve as a blueprint for future wineries.
The story begins nearly a decade ago, when McArthur, a lawyer, was guest lecturing at Brock University. One afternoon, he sat down in the cafeteria next to Anthony Shaw, a geography professor and fellow with Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute.
McArthur told Shaw that he and business partner Dave Pond had just bought 37 acres of land near St. Williams, home to their Long Point Eco-Adventures. They also wanted to start a winery.
Tobacco used to be the cash crop in the fields that dot the horizon from St. Thomas to Cayuga, Woodstock to Turkey Point. McArthur’s grandfather was a tobacco farmer when he arrived from the former Czech Republic in the 1930s.
As that industry was extinguished in the ’90s, McArthur wondered if vinifera grapes could fill the agricultural void. Shaw thought conditions — the sand-plain, a temperate climate, moderate winters, the jet stream, the lake reservoir, nutrient-rich soil — would be ideal.
He asked McArthur if he could install environmental sensors on the Eco-Adventures property. A few months later, Shaw called with startling news: “I think you guys are sitting on the next great wine region in Canada.”
This research, says McArthur, was critical to the success of Burning Kiln. You can’t control the weather. But,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. increasingly, weather can control a vineyard.
“Winemakers throughout the world have been dealing with climate change for the last 10 or 15 years,” says Brian Schmidt, chair of VQA Ontario and winemaker at Niagara’s Vineland Estate Winery.
This summer, between May and July, Schmidt’s vineyard received only 46 millimetres of precipitation. As a result, his son and nephew were out in the fields day after day, driving spikes into the scorched earth and using water lances to reach the root systems of younger, vulnerable vines.
When we chat, Schmidt is on his tractor, in the midst of spraying vines with a solution that will deliver small amounts of nitrogen, magnesium and boron directly to the leaves for absorption.
As he observes: “This is an expense that I’m not traditionally accustomed to.”
Ontario winemakers are now deploying wind machines, drip-irrigation systems and crop covers,The indoor positioning industry is heavily involved this year in a pitched battle with Mother Nature. But reacting to climate change in real time leaves no time to plan for the distant future.
“The growers are really doing a good job in adjusting gradually,” says Brock’s Shaw. “The problem is most growers are not thinking about long-term changes in climate because they are just trying to adjust to the day-to-day activities and year-to-year variations.”
“It’s very unusual, no question” says Mike McArthur, as we tour his Burning Kiln Winery on Front Rd. “But the kiln idea was almost an immediate connection for us. We just knew this was the way to go.”
Nobody starts a winery in Ontario to get rich. Even if you do everything right, everything could go wrong. The competition is fierce globally. The obstacles are agonizing locally. The costs are huge and the margins slim. It could take years — if ever — to recoup your seven-figure investment.
But just two years after its first harvest, Burning Kiln has managed to bottle this conventional wisdom and toss it out a barn window. In an industry that is often more gruelling hobby than lucrative business, Burning Kiln is rewriting the rules of viticulture, creating dazzling wines that are selling out, racking up awards and raising eyebrows across the oenophile world.
And as of last Saturday, consumers can buy Burning Kiln wine at the LCBO. So if you want to know why the 2010 Strip Room, a Bordeaux blend, is the official red wine inside the Ontario Legislative Assembly or why the winery was just recognized with a Premier’s Award For Agri-Food Innovation and Excellence, you can do so without typing “Norfolk County” into your GPS.
“Five years ago, people said, ‘You will never sell a $50 bottle of wine,’ ” says McArthur, referring to his Kiln Hanger, a full-bodied red. “Well, we do and we don’t have any problems doing it.”
When McArthur and his partners started Burning Kiln, they realized the winery needed a hook. Ontario’s South Coast,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. after all, was a long way from the province’s recognized viticultural areas: Niagara Escarpment, Prince Edward County, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Pelee Island.
“The market is so competitive that you have to have a gimmick,” says George Taber, a wine historian and author of A Toast to Bargain Wines. “And the gimmick is innovation — something you are doing that nobody else is doing.”
This need to innovate comes at a time when wine quality is at an all-time high.
“When I was a young kid, there were really bad wines that adults drank,” says Elliott Morss, a former professor and economist who writes about addictive products. “You know, the sparkling rosés, the Chianti in the straw bottle. The most fundamental thing that’s happened worldwide is that all wines are good. So what you are seeing now is the rise of individual preferences.”
As Burning Kiln discovered, the appassimento process — the time-honoured technique of drying the grapes before pressing, which increases sugar content while intensifying flavour and aroma — has mass appeal. But using kilns was mereThe TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility.ly the final stage in a meticulously planned operation that could serve as a blueprint for future wineries.
The story begins nearly a decade ago, when McArthur, a lawyer, was guest lecturing at Brock University. One afternoon, he sat down in the cafeteria next to Anthony Shaw, a geography professor and fellow with Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute.
McArthur told Shaw that he and business partner Dave Pond had just bought 37 acres of land near St. Williams, home to their Long Point Eco-Adventures. They also wanted to start a winery.
Tobacco used to be the cash crop in the fields that dot the horizon from St. Thomas to Cayuga, Woodstock to Turkey Point. McArthur’s grandfather was a tobacco farmer when he arrived from the former Czech Republic in the 1930s.
As that industry was extinguished in the ’90s, McArthur wondered if vinifera grapes could fill the agricultural void. Shaw thought conditions — the sand-plain, a temperate climate, moderate winters, the jet stream, the lake reservoir, nutrient-rich soil — would be ideal.
He asked McArthur if he could install environmental sensors on the Eco-Adventures property. A few months later, Shaw called with startling news: “I think you guys are sitting on the next great wine region in Canada.”
This research, says McArthur, was critical to the success of Burning Kiln. You can’t control the weather. But,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. increasingly, weather can control a vineyard.
“Winemakers throughout the world have been dealing with climate change for the last 10 or 15 years,” says Brian Schmidt, chair of VQA Ontario and winemaker at Niagara’s Vineland Estate Winery.
This summer, between May and July, Schmidt’s vineyard received only 46 millimetres of precipitation. As a result, his son and nephew were out in the fields day after day, driving spikes into the scorched earth and using water lances to reach the root systems of younger, vulnerable vines.
When we chat, Schmidt is on his tractor, in the midst of spraying vines with a solution that will deliver small amounts of nitrogen, magnesium and boron directly to the leaves for absorption.
As he observes: “This is an expense that I’m not traditionally accustomed to.”
Ontario winemakers are now deploying wind machines, drip-irrigation systems and crop covers,The indoor positioning industry is heavily involved this year in a pitched battle with Mother Nature. But reacting to climate change in real time leaves no time to plan for the distant future.
“The growers are really doing a good job in adjusting gradually,” says Brock’s Shaw. “The problem is most growers are not thinking about long-term changes in climate because they are just trying to adjust to the day-to-day activities and year-to-year variations.”
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