New vine growers’ association seeks to put Pontiac on the wine-making map
Charles Dickson
Bristol June 29, 2023
Cynthia Case and Frederic Gagnon are putting down roots in the Pontiac – grape vine roots that is.
Last Thursday afternoon, the couple hosted an event at their farm Domaine de la Belle et Le Gentleman to celebrate the planting of their first grape vines on their Bristol farm and to announce the creation of the Pontiac Vineyards Association.
Fred came to the Pontiac 21 years ago to work as a police officer and met his wife, Cynthia, who is from Aylmer.
“Twenty-one years after, we really love the place. We have a deep attachment with the Pontiac. It is the most beautiful place,” said Gagnon.
Gagnon and Case were joined in the event by grape growers from across the Pontiac who together are forming the Pontiac Vineyards Association to help put the Pontiac on the wine-making map.
“We have a lot of different purposes in organizing this group,” said Gagnon.
“Everyone has something to gain from it. For some it is about marketing. For others it is more about learning from each other,” he said.
“For us, who are just starting, learning from others is important. But it is also to help the Pontiac become recognized as an area for wine making,” he said, explaining that the Outaouais doesn’t appear anywhere on any Quebec wine-making maps.
“We want people to know we exist and that we make very good wine.”
Joining the celebration were Pontiac MP Sophie Chatel, Pontiac Warden Jane Toller and Bristol Mayor Brent Orr, each of whom planted a vine to help launch this year’s planting season.
In her comments to the gathering, Case thanked the MRC Pontiac for an economic development grant to assist in launching the wine-growing operation.
Shanna Armstrong, a member of MRC Pontiac’s economic development team working with the agriculture sector, says the goal of this sort of funding is to help revitalize the Pontiac by offering new services and adding to what is already here.
“As you add more, it adds more offer to the region, it gives people more of a reason to come visit the Pontiac,” Armstrong told THE EQUITY.
“It’s really about attracting new people and retaining the residents we currently have,” she said.
Armstrong took the opportunity to mention that the MRC has just issued a new call for proposals that will be open until August 25 “for anyone looking at projects they think might help with revitalization,” as she put it.
Trefor and Karri Munn-Venn operate Leystone Farms near Luskville which is one of eight to ten vineyards in the Pontiac area.
“We created the association to help champion the success of vineyards that are producing for commercial production,” said Munn-Venn. “Mutual support is a big part of it. Marketing and outreach will be part of it as well,” he said, “People don’t realize how much production is actually happening in the region.”
Martin Dandenault has a winery on Cregheur Road in the Municipality of Pontiac. He has been there since 2005, planted grapes in 2010 and started making wine four years ago.
“The advantage of being a member of this group is to support one another,” said Dandenault.
“Wineries are operating at different levels, and we’ve got experience, so we can help out people who are starting their wineries,” he said.
Guests had a choice of Pontiac-grown white, red and rosé wines with which to raise a glass in the toast proposed by Scott Judd of the Little Red Wagon Winery to the promising future of Pontiac’s burgeoning wine industry.
