Our Vineyard & Orchard
“We want our guests to feel part of the growth and ongoing education at our winery. Sipping tasty cider & wine is one thing, but understanding why it’s special to our location - that is a story we want to share.”
Over the years, customizing the vineyard at the Hounds of Erie Winery has been an ongoing passion project. Choosing the location for a quality winery is no small task. Elements of consideration included climate and weather patterns, proximity to fresh water, soil consistency, and the most important – the type of vines that will bear the most successful fruit for our location.
All these factors considered led our family to beautiful Clear Creek, Ontario. The winery benefits from the Lake Erie Macro-climate being only 2.5 km away from the water. This means cool summer breezes and mild winter weather.
In 2012, we started by planting a small test vineyard that consisted of four French vinifera varieties and a handful of table apple varieties. Fast forward to today, and we have changed our focus to specializing in modern hybrid grape varieties known for their high-quality output, as well as their disease and cold resistance, allowing us to employ an organic approach to grape farming
"Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, and everyday more civilized." ~ Andre Simon
Due to the orientation of Lake Erie, our sub-appellation is known for constant higher than average westerly winds. This natural air-movement helps to reduce disease pressure in the vineyard. The winery site has a unique soil profile with 40-100 cm of sandy-loam textures over silty clay loam till. This profile enables the vines the benefit of having good drainage while maintaining access to ground water and rich clay-till minerals. This has proven very useful during droughts such as those experienced in 2016 and 2020.
Making our winery as fruitful as possible has led us to think outside of the box. Unlike other wineries, we have adopted a 6.5’ trellis system. Since our soil is highly vigorous, we knew we needed a design that allows the vines to evenly spread out their growth energy and maximize sunlight exposure for even ripening.
In choosing the proper grape it was obvious that there were hundreds of choices, being specific to the unique location we started with a few and have steadily expanded ½ an acre or more per year
The vineyard consists of a little over 5 acres of modern cold-climate hybrid grapes chosen for their superior taste and quality, cold hardiness, and disease resistance. To date, the vineyard consists of the following grape varieties:
Reds
Marquette, Petite Pearl, Crimson Pearl, and Veritage
Whites
Frontenac Blanc, L’acadie Blanc, St. Cliche, Petite Louise (an estate created variety) and Itasca
