Nova Scotia organic winemaker goes out on a vine By Melanie Franner
B
was awarded a silver medal in
and Nova Scotia has a cool climate
2011 at Effervescents du Monde,
tempered by the Atlantic Ocean,
an international sparkling wine
making it an ideal location for
taken him across Canada, California,
competition held in France. And
sparkling winemaking.
and Australia. But leaving behind a
again for 2010 Prestige Brut Estate at
highly-successful career to start his
the 2015 Effervescents du Monde.
ruce Ewert has a lot of experience in the winemaking business. His profession has
own small, organic winery in Nova Scotia was certainly going out on a limb. “It was a pretty gutsy move to leave an established career to relocate to Nova Scotia and start producing sparkling wines,” says Ewert, owner and
to visit family,” says Ewert. “We
“Winning that award made us think
tasted a lot of the still wines
we were on the right track,” says
produced here and thought we could
Ewert. “It’s pretty humbling to be able
make a good sparkling one.”
to benchmark against the big guys.”
Finding the right property took some
“O” is for Organic
time but eventually Ewert and his
Ewert and his wife, Pauline Scott,
wife settled on a ribbon of soil with
opted to locate their winery in
very good drainage, an unusual find
Nova Scotia’s Gaspereau Valley
in Nova Scotia where most of the soil
That gutsy move has translated
for two main reasons. Scott comes
is clay. The two purchased 30 acres
into unqualified success. L’Acadie
from a farming family spanning
in 2004 and thus, L’Acadie Vineyards
Vineyards’ 2007 Prestige Brut
nine generations in the province,
came into being.
winemaker, L’Acadie Vineyards. “No one had done it yet. We were the first.”
6
“We came out here a lot on vacations
Perfectly lined organic vines at L’Acadie Vineyards in Nova Scotia.
