Les
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Close to By Chadsey’s Cairns is Sandbanks Winery, whose owner, Catherine Langlois, has a lineage that goes as deep as any in Canada’s wine history. In 1535, the French explorer Samuel Champlain came upon an island in the St Lawrence River, and discovered wild grapes growing on it. He named the island Île de Bacchus, after the Roman god of wine, but later changed it to Île d’Orléans, in honour of his patron, the Duke of Orléans.

Catherine Langlois was born on the Île d’Orléans, and her journey upstream, from Champlain’s island of grapes to her vineyard in Comté de Prince Edward, took her first to Montréal and then Burgundy. She started her career in hotel management in Montréal, but in 1994 won a bursary to study and work in the wine industry in Burgundy. When she returned to Canada she imagined getting a job working in the cellar of a winery in Niagara. When she was offered a sales position in Ottawa for a large Ontario winery, however, she took it, partly because Ottawa is bilingual.

As Langlois learned more about Ontario wines and heard about the vines being planted in Comté de Prince Edward, less than three hours’ drive from Ottawa, she began to look for a suitable location for a vineyard. In 1999, she bought land near the shore just west of Wellington, and she and her family moved to the County the next year. They built a house and planted 2.5 hectares (6 acres) of vines: mostly Vidal, Baco Noir, Riesling and Cabernet Franc, as well as some Geisenheim, Pinot Noir, and Maréchal Foch.

Sandbanks Winery’s vines are planted on a south-facing within sight of Lake Ontario, which moderates the temperature during the year. They are rooted in soil made up of well-drained clay and limestone rock. Catherine Langlois says she has worked hard with her land, and is very happy with it so far. She buries her vinifera vines only, and says the key is getting them out in spring as early as possible. Being so close to the lake, her vines are at minimal risk of late frosts.

She made her first vintage in 2003, using only Sandbanks’s own grapes. In principle, she wants to make wine exclusively from her own fruit, although she did buy a little Chardonnay in 2004. That year, Sandbanks produced nearly 300 cases, and in 2005 it produced nearly 500. As for how much she plans to make, Langlois says it depends on the weather and the yield each year. Since she started, the climate has been erratic and, she says very reasonably, "We’re not sure how a real crop looks like in Comté de Prince Edward."

Langlois sold her first vintages only to restaurants, especially in Ottawa, but in 2006 she obtained a retail licence. It’s not that she has had any trouble selling her wine: it has readily sold out. In fact, she says, "We were looking at the Cabernet Franc the other day, and I said, ‘I don’t want to sell any more. I want to be able to drink some of it all winter long’."

Astrid Young
Reprinted from The Harvest Table, Spring 2006

Travelling east on the Loyalist Parkway, and tucked neatly beside By Chadsey's Cairns Winery, a six-acre vineyard is coming to maturity. With a spectacular view of Lake Ontario, the rows ramp gently southward, overlooked by a stately and bright residence, which not only houses grower-winemaker Catherine Langlois and her family, but actually conceals a tiny boutique winery below! Sandbanks Estate Winery itself is no guarded secret: its VQA offerings are already available in various restaurants throughout the region. Two wines from the 2004 vintage, a Baco Noir and an Unfiltered Cabernet Franc, have impressed the wine-savvy Opimian Society enough to have garnered a 'gold standing' in each of their respective categories, red hybrid and cabernet.

Some may know Langlois as the eastern Ontario face of Pelee Island wines, but becoming rooted in the County has been her goal all along.

"I moved to the County to achieve balance in my life," she says, as we taste her lively, juicy wines. Looking over the vineyard as the setting sun paints the sky overhead, her objective seems realized.

Unlike Norman Hardie and Rosehall Run, (whose focus is the reputedly fickle Pinot Noir and its affinity to a cooler season), Sandbanks focuses on wines that best reflect Comté de Prince Edward's hot and dry summers and rich limestone soils. Cabernet Franc, Vidal, a zesty dry Riesling and early ripening Baco Noir represent the Estate bottlings. A beautifully balanced Niagara Chardonnay rounds out the package. All are value priced at under fifteen dollars, with the exception of the Cab Franc at nineteen ninety-five.

Just between us wineaux, there might be a late harvest bottling in the future - the site is a perfect proximity moisture-wise for a yummy spot of noble rot!

Cellar space may become a premium here however. 'The current case production is only three hundred fifty cases, but the goal is fifteen hundred. Langlois may have to extend her staircase-long commute to another winery structure ... but for now, we should feel perfectly welcome in her home, cooling off with a quaff in the beautiful terra-cotta tasting area, feeling the fresh breeze off the lake.

Astrid Young is a Sommelier, Master of Wine Candidate and all around Wineaux currently living in Comté de Prince Edward. Check out her website at www.Bonvinavendre.com