Having a blast on your Prince Edward County wine tour and don’t want it to end?

Guess what: it doesn’t have to.

Head east on the Glenora ferry and you’ll find yourself on the eastern edge of the region known as the Bay of Quinte—essentially, the other side of the body of water that separates the County from the rest of Ontario. On this section of the Loyalist Parkway heading eastbound toward Kingston, a microregion for Ontario wine is emerging and creative ideas are being hatched.

Here’s a look at the wineries you’ll encounter there now, in the order you’ll find them as you get off the ferry and drive east. One had only just officially opened when we dropped in this past Victoria Day long weekend and at least one more is due to open before the end of the summer. It’s a safe bet that others won’t be far behind.

Longrid Winery
10941 Loyalist Pkwy., Adolphustown

This winery is brand new for 2022—the roadside sign hadn’t even been hung yet when we visited in mid-May! It’s a mother-daughter operation where the grapes are hand-picked across 15 acres of vines, the realization of a dream for this family who arrived in Canada from China in 2015. Their wines present in semi-sweet, fruit-forward style, perfect for easy summer patio sipping. Their 2021 Fruit Feast ($19.95) is made with Geisenheim, a cold-climate hybrid grape of Riesling and Chancellor, and features intense flavours of passion fruit and orange blossom. The 2021 Gewurztraminer ($19.95) is drier and more traditional in style with strong floral notes and lychee flavours. Especially intriguing is the 2021 Midsummer Night ($16.95 for 375 mL), which uses Frontenac Gris grapes to produce an orange wine (a white wine where the skins are left in contact with the juice). The result here is a wine nearly equivalent in sweetness to a late harvest with unmistakeable flavours of strawberry and caramel. These casual, easy sippers will be big hits on hot summer nights.

Bergeron Estate Winery
9656 Loyalist Pkwy., Bath

Continue east along Loyalist Parkway, and the next winery you’ll encounter is Bergeron Estate. The vines here were planted in 2004, making this the longest-established commercial vineyard on this small peninsula south of Napanee. Bergeron’s lighter reds are particularly well done, especially given this area’s more northerly climate. The 2021 Gamay noir ($24.95) is properly light while featuring definitive raspberry and black pepper flavours. In the 2020 Cabernet Franc ($25.95), red berries mingle with green pepper to create a highly traditional and refined example of this underrated red that loves to grow in Ontario. On the cider front, Bergeron’s Cole Point Cider is exceptional: finished in a scrumpy style with some cloudiness, the mix of apples and local haskap berries has both depth and bite and is unique and incredibly refreshing. Want to linger a little longer? There’s an AirBnB at the front of the building, where you can stay overnight among the winery’s 10 acres of vineyard while enjoying wood-fired pizza and a complimentary tasting.

Thirty-three Vines 
9261 Loyalist Pkwy., Napanee

Named after Ontario Highway 33, the provincial designation for the Loyalist Parkway, this winery has an interesting back story. It was open and producing wines between 2011 and 2014, at which point the previous owner stopped maintaining it and the vines fell into neglect. The Dunn family purchased the winery in the spring of 2019 and is offering up those early vintages in a new, rustic tasting room set inside the property’s big red barn. Meanwhile, the vines that grow Riesling, Baco noir, Pinot noir, Cabernet Franc, Marquette, and more are being gently nudged back into production. We sampled the 2013 Chardonnay ($38.00), which presents in a somewhat untraditional style with a citrus nose, lemon and peach flavours, and a touch of toasted coconut imparted by a gentle touch of oak. The 2011 Cabernet Franc ($42.00) is drinking beautifully right now with layers of green pepper and spice, tea, and hints of blackcurrant. It will be very interesting to see what comes off these vines when they start producing new vintages later this year.

Steph is a successful, established freelance writer and has been a wine aficionado for more than two decades. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.
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