BY SARA KEDDY

editor@berwickregister.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Has he tried the new Windermere wine? “Many bottles – oh, yes,” says grape grower Jim Gray.

It’s his grapes in the first bottling of KW 94-2 - a Nova Scotian-bred grape, grown in Windermere, bottled by Jost and sold exclusively in the province.

“It’s a unique Nova Scotia product, from the vine itself, grown here in the Valley, and Hans Christian Jost thought it would be a good idea to bottle.”

The variety comes from a 1988 crossing made at the Kentville Research Station in Dr. Andrew Jamieson’s program.

“From that, there were several hundred varieties,” Gray said. “Some were planted, you see what’s vigourous and what’s terrible, and start propagating the few they thought could make good wine. You have no clue when you start and it could be 10 or 12 years before you make a selection.”

Gray planted an acre-and-a-half of KW 94-2, one of the largest plantings of this variety anywhere. This season will mark its fifth year growing, and last year’s vines produced 400 litres of wine from a half-tonne of grapes.

“The vines are lovely - fairly disease resistant, a vigourous vine that grows on a unique lyre lattice for lots of sun exposure for flavinoids and colour - and it produces a nice wine.

“When I first tasted it I thought of turkey gravy - that smooth, velvety feel. It goes well with roasted chicken and turkey or that chicken with the beer can up its butt,” Gray says.

A more refined assessment describes the wine as “reminiscent of Chardonnay... moderately full on the palate with a nice buttery finish.”

You can try it by the glass at Berwick’s Union Street Cafe and Kellocks, but you better do it soon.

Limited bottling

“It’s a limited bottling,” says Jeff Moody at Berwick’s Nova Scotia Liquor Commission.

Moody lives in Windermere and knew the wine had been released. He called the provincial distributing centre for a long time, before 28 cases finally landed in Berwick.

“They asked me how many I wanted, and I send, ‘Send ‘em all’,” Moody says. After one in-store tasting and a week of sales, the store had just half the cases left. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said.

The wine is called “Windermere” and the label has a nice write-up of Jim Gray’s vineyard. While his crop has been sold for bulk juices in past years and he has made his own wine at home, this professional bottling is special.

“I’ve heard from everyone: a garden club, neighbours, people who’ve lived here,” Gray says. “It’s exciting.”

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High-tech to great taste at Atlantic wine event

Fine wine lovers will want to check out the Atlantic Canada Wine Symposium in Greenwich June 8-10.

This event will provide an opportunity to learn and gain skills to grow the fruit and create excellent and distinctive wines in the Atlantic climate. National and international professionals will speak, present and be on hand to answer questions and lead discussions with symposium participants.

Following a similar event in 2004, this symposium is presented by the Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia, the Wineries Association of Nova Scotia, Agri-Futures Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture.

A trade show of goods and services available in the industry, vineyard and winery tours, a plated lunch with paired wines, tastings and technical sessions will wrap up with a gala dinner highlighting courses from the four Atlantic provinces, paired with appropriate wines.

WEBLINKS: winens.com