But this isn't Bordeaux or Tuscany or even the Niagara peninsula.
It's Essex County, where the north shore of Lake Erie has become home to a fast-growing cluster of wineries that are working hard to gain recognition with both wine connoisseurs and casual travelers looking for a new destination.
Colio, Pelee Island and D'Angelo are well-established Essex wineries familiar to consumers.
But in recent years the number of wineries in Canada's southernmost peninsula has soared to 15 with several more set to open soon.
Most of the new wineries are small family operations where the people behind the counter are often the ones who pruned the vines and bottled the wine.
Although Niagara has been Ontario's dominant wine region for decades, Essex was Canada's first wine-growing region with the first commercial vineyard established on Pelee Island in 1866.
Now that the old industry is undergoing a revival in Essex, the wine makers are reaching out to draw more visitors from London, Sarnia and even the Greater Toronto Area.
"Our growing seasons and soils are different from Niagara. We want people to come down here, bring their kids and enjoy our great wines and the region," said Tom O'Brien, head of the Southwestern Ontario Vintners Association and owner of Cooper's Hawk, the latest winery to open in the county.
The new Essex wineries are far more than small shops. Many feature elegant tasting rooms, tours, indoor and outdoor venues for weddings and other events, playgrounds, ponds, patios and picnic grounds.
"You can't make money just selling wine. You have to be a destination. Making wine is fairly easy. Selling is the hard part," O'Brien said.
The south coast of Essex and Chatham Kent is on the same latitude as Europe's finest wine regions and all the extra heat and sun allow for an earlier harvest and give the wines a unique flavour.
From the London area, Highway #3, also known as Talbot Trail, provides a quiet, scenic route directly to Essex wineries with Smith and Wilson Estate Wines along the way near Blenhiem.
The Essex county roads are marked with Wine Route signs to help guide visitors. On Thursday the annual Shores of Erie International Wine Festival kicks off at Fort Malden in Amherstburg. The four-day festival features 18 wineries and 30 restaurants. Monthly bike tours of the wineries are available through the summer and fall through windsoreats.com. When you're not sipping wine Essex County boasts some great beaches, a bevy of roadside fruit and vegetable stands, the natural beauty of Point Pelee and Pelee Island and local attractions such as Colasanti's Tropical Gardens.
The county is dotted with more than a dozen B&Bs and historic inns such as Seacliffe Inn in Leamington and Kings Hotel Inn in Kingsville.
If you want a change of pace after a day in the country, Caesar's Windsor is just a short drive away offering Las Vegas gaming and glamour, world-class entertainment and sumptuous dining at Nero's Steakhouse.
The combination of attractions boost the confidence of people like Fabio Muscedere, who gave up a corporate career to help establish his family's winery.
He said Essex County has the right climate and the tradition to become a major wine-producing region and he believes it will continue to grow.
"It's coming along. If this region hits 25 wineries, that's a good number. Then people would say 'I've got to go check that out.'"
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Cooper�s Hawk Vineyards
1425 Iler Road, Harrow
www.coopershawkvineyards.com
Opened: 2011
Proprietors: Tom and Katy O�Brien and family
The newest winery in Essex is still a work in progress but has already produced its first vintages.
The winery is a retirement project for Tom O�Brien, a former PricewaterhouseCoopers executive. A temporary outlet is open and the main building is almost completed. The grounds feature Carolinian trees, ponds and wetlands, a small amphitheatre and a playground. Solar panels will help power the whole operation.
The retail area will feature a �hawk tower� a nod to the Cooper�s Hawk that fly over the winery and guard the grapes from other birds.
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Viewpointe Estate Winery
151 County Rd. 50 E. Harrow,
www.viewpointewinery.com
Opened: 2006
Proprietors: Dennis and John Fancsy
Viewpointe lives up to its name with a panoramic vista of Lake Erie. Brothers Stephen and John Fancsy sold their share in a family auto parts business to launch the winery which is supplied by three vineyards. The main complex is modeled on a historic hotel and casino in Kingsville built by whiskey magnate Hiram Walker with rooms for meetings and wedding finished using local woods. The lakeside patio is ideal for lunch. Try the sangria made with the 2006 Auxerrois VQA vintage.
�The north shore was missing a destination winery. We believe with this level of investment we can draw people to the region,� John Fancsy said.
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Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery
7258 County Rd. 50 W. Harrow
www.sprucewoodshores.com
Opened: 2007
Proprietors: Gordon and Hannah Mitchell and family.
Sprucewood Shores is another winery with a great view of Lake Erie. The elegant chateau-style winery building overlooks the landscaped grounds. Visitors can pick up a $25 picnic basket packed with cheese, deli meats, antipasto, fruit and a baguette and enjoy the view from the patio or beach.
The winery fulfills a long-held dream for Gord Mitchell, a former Chrysler Canada executive who bought the 52-acre lakeside farm almost 40 years ago with the intention of establishing a vineyard. Sprucewood Shores Lady in Red wine will hit 60 LCBO stores in the VQA section later this month.
All four Mitchell children help out with the winery. Stephen Mitchell, a former automotive engineer, is now Sprucewood�s director of sales.
�I got into something a little more quiet. It�s a lot more work but a lot more fun,� Mitchell said.
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Black Bear Farms Estate Winery
1137 County Rd. 20 W., Kingsville
www.blackbearfarms.ca
Opened: 2008
Proprietors: Jerome, Madeline and William Rondelez
Just about anything grows well in the rich soils and warm climate of Essex County. That created an interesting problem for the Rondelez family who had a surplus of berries and other fruit on their farm. �What do you with it? You make wine!� said William Rondelez, the family�s head winemaker.
Black Bear is the only winery in the region to make fruit wines exclusively and the selection includes strawberry, blueberry raspberry, peach, plum, black current, elderberry and gooseberry.
The farm has 50 acres of berries in production as well as orchard fruit. It�s all picked by hand and then frozen, crushed and fermented.
Rondelez said most fruit wines are not sweet, contrary to popular myth and provide an alternative to grape wines.
�The wines have a nice dry finish. It�s a nice change,� Rondelez said.
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Muscedere Vineyards
7457 County Rd. 18, R.R. 4, Harrow,
www.muscederevineyards.com
Opened: 2006
Proprietors: The Muscedere family
Muscedere Vineyards is a big comfortable country home with a great little family winery tucked inside.
Mario and Pat Muscedere (pronounced Moo-shed-er-ray) live in the house and their four grown children tend the surrounding vineyards and make the wine.
Visitors can sit outside under the covered patio and lunch on one of Pat�s wood-fired pizzas.
Fabio Muscedere worked as a manager for Gillette in Boston before coming back home to help establish the winery. He recalls frequent family trips to Italy where his grandfather managed vineyards. The Muscederes all work together, including the annual mid-winter harvest of ice wine grapes, completed in the middle of the night.
�We will always be small but we will always be focused on quality,� Fabio said.
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Aleksander Estate Winery
1542 County Rd. 34, Ruthven
www.aleksanderestate.com
Founded: 2003
Proprietor: Alex Bemben and family
After 25 years working in the wine industry in Europe and Canada, Alexsander Bemben decided to strike out on his own.
Bemben, an emigrant from Poland, not only tends the vineyards, he also made fabricated many of the tanks and wine-making equipment.
It�s a true family operation with his son, Lukasz and son-in-law, Mark pitching in at the winery, and his wife, Genny doing the books. Daughter Izabela, a graduate of Brock University�s viticulture program also helps out.
Aleksander Estate Winery produces grape wines and some fruit wines. Bemben is especially proud of his Chambourcin VQA, an award-winning medium-bodied red made from grapes not easy to grow in Canadian climates.
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Other Essex and area wineries
Colio Estate Wines www.coliowinery.com
Erie Shore Vineyard www.erieshore.ca
Mastronardi Estate Winery www.mastronardiwines.com
Pelee Island Winery www.peleeisland.com
Sanson Estate Winery www.sansonestatewinery.com
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery www.colchesterridge.com
D�Angelo Vineyards Estate Winery www.dangelowinery.com
Smith & Wilson Estate Wines www.smithandwilsonestatewines.ca
Wagner Orchards & Estate Winery www.wagnerorchards.com
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Shores of Erie Wine Festival www.soewinefestival.com
Cycle tours windsoreats.com/wineride/
Tourist info www.visitwindsoressex.com
E-mail hank.daniszewski@sunmedia.ca, or follow HankatLFPress on Twitter.
