This Prince Edward County winery makes excellent wines

If you like wine and haven’t been there yet Huff Estates Winery in Prince Edward County, ga. Taste. Take in some art. Have pizza. And go home with some excellent bottles.

About two and a half hours east of Toronto, in Bloomfield, Ontario, Frenchman Frédéric Picard makes sparkling fresh whites, dry rosés, and elegant reds at Huff Estates. In fact, this year marks his 21st vintage there – so he knows a thing or two about winemaking in the province.

“The county is hard to make wine,” says Picard in his French accent. “But when all the elements come together – the weather, the flowering, the harvest and all the elements – you’re very proud of that wine, because it’s a great wine. Maybe not everyone will like it. But it’s a great wine.”

This honesty is refreshing. He touches on something industry insiders know, namely that personal taste plays a role in the appreciation of wine.

Great wine is clean, balanced, concentrated, complex and long. It is a correct expression of its grape variety and place. But to like it, you also have to like the style. If you like sun-drenched, sweet-centered reds and whites from warm climates like California and Australia, you may not like the dry, elegant reds and whites that come from the county’s cool climate. They may taste too lean and linear for your liking. But if you like cool climate wine, you might fall head over heels with what Picard is bottling.

Are 2021 Huff’s Corner Pinot Noir, VQA Prince Edward County ($45) is graceful and quenching, complex and savory — a fascinating wine. Astute tasters may find dark cherries, smoked meats, black peppercorns and walnut flesh on the nose before the entry flows in with a veil-like dance of flavours. Suggestions of red plum and dark cherry, a hint of olive, coffee, charcuterie rise and fade before a final hint of tea leaf unfolds in the finish. Such an intriguing, bone-dry Pinot Noir. Rating: 92

The 2022 Huff Estates Buried Vine Pinot Gris, VQA Prince Edward County ($25) swirls with a cool mineral scent along with apricot, pear and a hint of mandarin zest. The attack is crisp and tingly fresh with that classic county winey verticality. It offers instant refreshment with an invigorating acidity that scores the dry, citrusy pear center, while a gritty depth lingers in the clay-salty finish. Rating: 93

Are 2021 Huff Estates Catharine’s Chardonnay, VQA Prince Edward County ($35) Spent 14 months in French oak and is immersive. It draws you in with its quiet scent of smoky flint, orange and pomelo – all subtle, wispy. Then it slides into a tasting light, vibrant and luminous with notes of flinty citrus that seem to spiral and leave a slight hint of pencil shavings and burnt almond. This dry, delicate expression of County Chardonnay is a gem. Rating: 92

Picard explains: “The climate here is so cold that we have to bury our vines in winter. It is such a challenge to keep the vines alive through the winter. Then in the summer we have so many things, like heat waves, that can hinder the ripening of the fruit. But if you make a wine here and it is good, then that is very special.”

Picard was born in Paris, lived in a small village in Burgundy called Semur-en-Auxois between Dijon and Chablis and studied wine in the town of Beaune. His plan was not always to make wine in Canada.

“I would buy a vineyard in the south of France,” says Picard. “I studied wine and worked in Burgundy for a small vineyard. Then I traveled to California, South Africa, Italy and Chile to work some crops. But I didn’t find a vineyard I wanted to buy. So I went to Canada and met a woman.”

Ah. So there it is. He was lured by the love of a Canadian who is now his wife. Picard then began working at Huff Estates Winery, located at 2274 Prince Edward County Rd. 1 in 2002.

“I said I would stay for five years,” he says with a small smile. “And I’ve been here for 20.” Picard is now a proud Canadian citizen. He says he really likes Canadians and the challenge of working in the province.

Huff Estates, like many wineries in Prince Edward County, also makes wine from fruit purchased in Niagara. Huff Estates wine made from county fruit is labeled VQA Prince Edward County, while those made from Niagara fruit are labeled VQA Ontario.

The must-try VQA Ontario wine is the 2022 Huff Estates Getaway Rosé ($22). This pure Cabernet Franc rosé opens with invigorating aromas of sour, wild, semi-ripe strawberries, then slides in with more of the same, interspersed with hints of undergrowth, rose, violet and pink grapefruit. The balance is impeccable – crunchy but not stark, dry but not austere, juicy but not fruity. In this bottle you will discover elegance, lightness and versatility – especially at the table. Rating: 92

Huff Estate makes delicious bottles. So go there for the wine, but stay for wood oven pizza. And waddle through the Oeno art gallery and sculpture garden just steps from the winery. All three are worth it.

If you want to stay longer, book a night at the onsite Huff Estates Inn with comfortable rooms ranging from $249 to $649 from May through October. There’s even a fire pit on the property for that late night glass of wine under the moonlight.

Your summer bucket list just got more interesting.

Toronto Star reader offer

When you visit the Huff Estates winery, ask about the Toronto Star Tasting Flight which is now available for $15. Readers can also purchase all four bottles featured in this story for the reduced rate of $125 tax included with free shipping all over Ontario here.

Carolyn Evans Hammond is a Toronto-based wine writer and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Wineries sponsor segments in her YouTube series, but don’t select the wines she reviews. Her opinion is her own opinion. Prices subject to change. Reach her via email: carolyn@carolynevanshammond.com

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