Global Flavours
With help from Canadian photographer Jaime Kowal, Shannon Harley explores Canada’s up-and-coming wine region and discovers there’s more to it than just top drops.
Discover Canada’s new wine region.
GET OUT OF TOWN
Wbeachesait,ait,what?WineriesinCanada?Andwhitesandbeaches? Welcome to Prince Edward County, or ‘The County’ as it is known to locals, Canada’s spanking new destination calling lovers of wine crawls and wilderness. Located in the east of the country, about two hours drive from Toronto, The County is technically an island in the expanse of Lake Ontario, where empty white sand beaches, bookended with grassy dunes and waters that illuminate turquoise in the summer light, stretch as far as the eye can see. If we must get superlative, this stunning landscape is also the world’s largest freshwater sandbar and dune system. Inland, low undulating hills are stitched with seams of vines and those iconic North American barn-red barns (yes, it’s a colour), while charming towns maintain the ambling pace of yesteryear, offering mod farm-to-table dining and upcycled rural retreats.
And it’s not just for fairweather travellers, either. In summer, The County has a similar appeal to an Aussie beach holiday – the waterfront fifills with sun-kissed bodies sprawled under colourful umbrellas, the water bears the silver trails of boat activity, tents bubble in the wooded camping grounds like mushrooms after the rain, and music festivals take over the sleepy towns where farm-to-table restaurants and brew-pubs make for a casual dining scene. In winter, however, there’s the call of ice fifishing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, while the perennial appeal is The County’s
45 or so wineries that produce excellent local pinot noir and chardonnay, at the same time as staking it on the wine-tripping map.
There are three major towns, Picton, Bloomfifield and Wellington, dotted among all that provincial park and wine country, and while it would only take you an hour to cross The County from end to end, there’s no need to rush when you’re on island time.
“JUST A FEW HOURS FROM TORONTO, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY IS A HOLIDAY TREASURE TROVE.”
PICTON
iT he The largest town in The County is nestled on the protected bend of waterfront that is Picton Harbour, with a charming main street where the road is wide and the traffic is slow. There are cafes, bars, galleries and boutiques to peruse on Main Street, while further beyond, Sandbanks Provincial Park is where you can find those sparkling beaches. McCauley Mountain is the place for hiking, mountain biking, cross country skiing and snowshoeing with bird’s-eye views over the harbour. Visit
Agrarian Market before you set off to stock up on provisions, from local produce to freshly baked pastries – don’t miss the butter tarts.
Say ‘coffee’ and locals will point you to
Beacon Bike + Brew – a café-cum-bikeshop concept much like Rapha – where the overnight French toast with pistachios and local Nyman Farms maple syrup is as good as the coffee. At the time of writing, a bricks-and-mortar bake-house from cult local food truck Picnic PEC is in the works on Main Street.
The brunch at Yum Club, where the iconic shawarma boxes are an eclectic Asian-Middle-Eastern-Canadian mash-up, comes in the form of peanut noodles topped with chicken or chickpea shawarma, or shawarma poutine – its riff on Canada’s national dish of hot chips topped with cheese curds and gravy. Wholesome vegan and vegetarian options abound. For dinner, swing by no-reservations Stella’s Eatery, a smart-casual, youthful wine bar with just 33 seats where chef Leah Marshall Hannon’s menu is inspired by the food her great grandmother cooked and the bounty of produce from the region. That might be an elegant plate of seared trout with zucchini ribbons and garlic scapes, saucy mussels with turnip greens and dill pesto, a hearty combo of wild boar and venison meatballs with garlic bread or a slice of retro molasses cookie cream pie.
While wine may be the obvious drink of choice given the region’s booming viticulture industry, that hasn’t stopped the craft beer scene from putting up a fifight. The atmosphere at Parsons Brewing
Company is festival-like; this family friendly craft brewery is set in a fifield full of party games, with plenty of beers on tap, Mexican food, a bottle shop and live music on weekends. Lake on the Mountain Brewing Company is a small-batch brewery offering a bottle shop, beer garden, tap room and great merch, while
Prince Eddy’s Brewing Co is the spot for beer dorks with a two-storey tasting room that overlooks a state-of-the-art brewhouse. There’s table tennis and a volleyball net, too.
Stay at The Ferg, a beautifully restored 1840s heritage home with three separate self-contained suites. Co-owned by Canadian locals Anna Hardwick and Jaime Kowal (the photographer who played tour guide and shot this story in between swims and craft beer), the home is inspired by the beauty and simplicity of Scandinavian farmhouses and the concept of hygge, the Scandi philosophy of cosiness.
“We’ve embodied the principles of calm, warmth and a bit of whimsy at The Ferg. She’s rich with history, and so are all of her furnishings,” says Kowal, who sourced antiques with Hardwick from across The County.
All accommodation comes with fully equipped kitchens, but if you master the art of hygge and can’t leave your cosy surrounds, you can order in breakfast from
The Vic Cafe and have it delivered straight to your door, or patio, or rug in the garden.
BLOOMFIELD
Founded in the late 1700s, Bloomfield was the epicentre of Prince Edward County’s Quaker community. Remnants of the millsvillage’svillage’swool,flourandsawmills, canneries and cheese factories hark back to its working roots, and today this agricultural heritage is translated in a serious farm-to-table movement.
Bloomfifield Public House is a chilled neighbourhood spot with city smarts when it comes to the all-day menu of modCanadian plates. All charcuterie is butchered and made in house, as is the cultured butter served with the housebaked bread that dangerously comes by the loaf. Produce is sourced hyper-locally, too, with farmers name-dropped on the menu. Come by for a coffee and a slice of (ah-ha moment) carrot cake, stay for a Negroni, a dozen oysters and fifinish it off with some fried chicken with slaw and house pickles.
Flame + Smith is a sustainably-focused restaurant that masters the art of cooking over fifire – specififically, on a custom-made Argentinian grill that is at the heart of the
open kitchen. Oysters, bread and butter
– a regular first act in The County – are followed by the likes of bavette steak with charred radicchio, and even a dessert of burnt Basque cheesecake is a lesson in the art of playing with fire. And all this in a cosy farmhouse interior.
Kowal and Hardwick recommend
The Agrarian Bistro and bar: “Hands down one of our favourite places for a farm-to-table meal in the area” – where the late-night menu is not just for cocktails. Try the halibut sliders or artery-clogging poutine with your glass of local sour beer or craft cider.
Antique hunters should swing by the brilliantly named Dead People’s Stuff or
MacCool’s Re-use, while The County Collective features artists with studio stores and hands-on workshops, and
The Local Store is a one-stop-shop for a rainy day when you need coffee, produce, homewares, antiques, and entertainment for the kids in a sprawling repurposed grain barn in the middle of the countryside.
If you book into one place only, make it Angeline’s Inn, a family run boutique stay that has recently been taken over by the next gen. Celebrated designer Alex Fida and his sister Melanie are steering the property, which consists of self-contained villas, a Victorian-era homestead and 1950s motel, into the 21st century with their quirky design and savvy brand of hospitality. Each room has a unique fifit-out, from the economy of The Walter motel rooms to the kitsch luxury of the self-contained homes.
WELLINGTON
tWeWemayhavetheto Drake Devonshire thank for the rise of Prince Edward County; while the wineries have been operating for about 20 years or so, the opening of this smart lakeside boutique hotel fifive years ago whipped the style cognoscenti into a frenzy and established The County as a destination worth exploring. Like its big sister in Toronto, there’s a destination bar and buzzy day-to-night restaurant, rotating events program and art installations by an in-house curator, and if you like the Parker and Ace hotels, this eccentric farmhouse will be right up your alley. Rooms have a poppy, mod-Scandi aesthetic with pitched timber roofs, open fifireplaces, sleek Mid-century furniture and flfloor-to-ceiling views of the lake. Ingredients are sourced from local farmers and vintners, whether you’re brunching on brisket tostadas and buttermilk pancakes, or snacking on a pea-and-sunflflower fritter at lunch with a glass of local Huff Estates rosé on the lakeside patio.
Around town, energise with coffee and pastries from Enid Grace Cafe, and peruse gifts and plants at the highly curated The Parlour Studio next door, then on to Midtown Brewing Company for beers and burgers, La Condesa for margaritas and tacos, Oak Clothing
“for the country hipster in us all,” says Kowal, and revamped general store
The General for ‘coffee, gifts and goods’ and their famous ‘brunchwich’ – smoked salmon, egg and slaw on a muffifin.
WINE TRAIL
Jaime Kowal and Anna Hardwick share their top picks of the 45+ wineries in The County, which has its own VQA appellation of origin.
Rosehall Run is one of Prince Edward County’s original wineries, and founder Dan Sullivan one of the region’s pioneering vintners. Planted on a former tomato farm, the rocky limestone soil and microclimate proved to be better for cool-weather grapes such as pinot noir and chardonnay than tomatoes, and what a fortuitous change of circumstance that has proven to be. Grange, another founding winery, offers wicker picnic lunch baskets and scenic wine tastings among the vines on their winsome property. “On our farm, and in our vineyards, we let the land be everything that it is supposed to be: thriving, wild, and perfectly imperfect. We believe that winemaking is a powerful connection to time and place,” says Caroline Granger, who runs the winery with her daughter Maggie.
For lovers of bubbles, Hinterland Wine
Company is Canada’s only winery dedicated entirely to fizz. They recently collaborated on L’Imparfait Négociant with Montreal restaurant Joe Beef, and have an Ancestral range that includes the Lacus 2017 pet-nat, a dry natural sparkling made with pinot noir and gamay. Winemaker Mackenzie Brisbois is another mover and shaker in The County’s natural wine scene, creating old-world, low-intervention orange and pet-nat wines at small-batch craft winery Trail Estates.
You’ll find Huff Estates wines on drinks menus across The County, but a visit to its vineyard is worth the trip to experience the Oeno Gallery sculpture garden. The same goes for the ridiculously scenic
Waupoos Estates Winery, a lush parcel of vines fluttering by the lake. While you’re in the neighbourhood, check in to Cressy
House on acclaimed Toronto restaurateur Grant van Gameren’s waterfront property. You and 13 friends can have the pictureperfect farmhouse, lavender garden, vineyard and orchard all to yourselves.