View of the Montreal skyline from Parc Jean-Drapeau.
When I told friends and family that we were travelling to Quebec, to share the driving and tasting along the region’s Routes des Vins (‘wine routes’), they looked surprised. Wine in Quebec? Who knew? Even the perplexed Canadian immigration officer suggested we should have visited France instead!
Yet in the French-speaking La Belle Province, proud of its roots and joie de vivre, it’s perhaps unsurprising that wineries (‘vignobles’ locally) have been blossoming over the past 45 years – as have the resulting wine routes to tour by car, bike, taxi or on foot (depending how much you want to taste). Dunham in the Eastern Townships (Cantons-de-l’Est) southeast of Montreal was the birthplace of wine-growing in Quebec in 1979 – although it wasn’t until 1985 that winemakers could legally sell their wine. The Conseil des vins du Québec now lists nine wine-growing regions with 165 wineries producing more than three million bottles annually from at least 80 grape varieties, mainly hybrids, but increasingly Vitis vinifera.
The recent boom has coincided with climate change and consequent warming temperatures in a region formerly more famous for Icewine. While Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and Niagara, southern Ontario, are typically most associated with vineyards in Canada, Quebec now boasts one of the country’s fastest-growing wine-producing areas. Quantity isn’t everything, though, and if it’s quality you’re after, then you’ll definitely find it in Québécois boutique wineries, many of which are just a joy to behold. Quebec’s winemakers are enterprising and experimental, combining traditional and modern techniques and more readily embracing an organic approach.
The Abbaye de St-Benoît-du-Lac on the western shore of lake Memphrémagog in the Eastern Townships. Credit: Mathieu Dupuis
Sleepy villages
Heading east of Montreal through Montérégie, within 30 minutes the roads become tranquil and villages sleepy, with both wildlife and vineyards easier to spot. At our first stop, Vignoble Mas des Patriotes, France Cliche has almost single-handedly developed her certified-organic winery from scratch, without any previous wine-growing experience. Her 6ha of vines are all hand-planted, -protected and -picked – no mean feat in a region of extreme-cold winters.
Having overcome hurdles such as frost, mildew and greedy starlings, Cliche is one of the region’s few female vintners, with her white, rosé and red wines winning medals. Like most Quebec winemakers, she has found hybrid grape varieties (Frontenac, Lucie Kuhlmann, Louise Swenson, St-Pépin) to be robust, but also grows hardy vinifera varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Merlot, with the recent addition of Chenin Blanc inspired by a South African holiday.
The quaint town of Dunham, in the Brome-Missisquoi valley, is an idyllic base for exploring the surrounding vineyards, cider houses, wine museums, microbreweries and gourmet restaurants, many of which are farm-to-table.
A must-visit is one of the area’s original vignobles – l’Orpailleur, launched in 1982 by four partners, including winemaker Charles-Henri de Coussergues, who learned his craft from his father in the south of France.
Today, the partners and younger family members are just as immersed in the now-extensive winery, popular for its guided tours, viticulture museum and workshop (known as an ‘économusée’), restaurant, lessons in sabrage (the art of opening sparkling wine bottles with a blade) and 14 excellent wines, such as the unique, fortified La Part des Anges (‘Angels’ Share’), which matures and evaporates over at least six years in demijohns outside – it’s reminiscent of Christmas in a glass. An outdoor, self-guided trail with 27 information panels reveals innovations such as wind turbines, hilling-up (burying the base of the vines) and covering with sheets of protective material to guard against…
Source : https://www.decanter.com/wine/wine-regions/explore-the-wine-routes-of-quebec-546629/
