Rossignol Estate Winery -
A Taste for Perfection

Overlooking the Northumberland Strait, Rossignol Winery is beautifully located on spacious land filled with plenty of fruitful grapevines.

In 1990, John Rossignol left Ontario to build a house in Little Sands, Prince Edward Island, which is now known as the Rossignol Winery. At first there was uncertainty about which career John wanted to take, as his career in Ontario, if continued here, would involve traveling to many different plants across the Maritimes. John was in no hurry to pursue that option because he would then be spending most of his time on the road. So while deciding on his career choice, John began making his own wine.

Wine making, to John's surprise, brought out creative energy in him. John found himself able to experiment with different methods, as well as creating new mixtures of grapes and other fruit into wonderful tasting wine. Not only was this hobby fun, John would be the first commercial winery on the Island; and so began Rossignol Winery.

John's experience in Ontario, plus the newly found knowledge from starting his hobby on the Island, was a good base from which to grow. His experience at his previous position in Ontario brought John knowledge about the building and equipment he would need. John also had learned about the criteria that must be met for the health departments. With a little more research into commercial wineries, John was ready.

The Prince Edward Island government took one year to put the regulations in place for winery operation. It was in 1994 when more plants were added to those John had already established from his hobby. That summer he saw his first product, which was non-grape wines from frozen fruit harvested the previous year while awaiting the license to come through. That fall he saw the bottling of his first grape table wines.

At the Nova Scotia Taster's Choice Awards in 1997, Rossignol Winery compared to the competition by soaring above them and taking first place for Pinot Noir and Strawberry-Rhubarb. As well as honours in Prince Edward Island, Rossignol Winery demonstrated its commitment to quality products by taking home two silver medals in the Intervin International Awards for Wine Achievement from North America's 1997 International Wine Competition in Buffalo and New York for its Seyval Blanc and Marechal Foch.

In light of the winery's impressive successes at these prestigious competitions, Rossignol is now looking at marketing his wine across Canada. While sending products off the Island is common for a lot of Island businesses, Rossignol ran into several out-dated laws that prevented him from moving his wines across the strait. "We weren't allowed to ship any wine off the Island because of regulations that were left over from the prohibition days," says Rossignol. Fortunately, the regulations were recently revised, allowing Rossignol wines to be shipped directly off Island.

Rossignol Winery refrains from using pesticides, operating as an ecologically friendly vineyard in strip-crop fashion. Their grapes are grown with ample green space between the rows and with the nearby Northumberland Strait, a fresh breeze is never too far away. These two things help the vineyard to stay fungus-free.

John Rossignol has evolved wine making even further. With the failed tobacco growing industry on the Island, there is an abundance of unused greenhouse space. So John set to growing the more fragile grapes in them. With about a hectare of grapes too tender to usually be grown on the Island, John has been able to produce Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Chardonnay varieties. Although highly untraditional and being the only greenhouse grapes in Canada that he knows of, the products are a success as the wines have come to taste clean and traditional.

Rossignol Winery also uses pure oak barrels, not oak chip or oak seasonings, just 100% oak. This adds a traditional flavour to the premium reds, as well as a unique flavour to Rossignol's Haneveldt Apple Cider. John testifies that oak barrels do make a difference. With traditional barrel aging, some of the wine evaporates through the porous wood, intensifying the fruit at the same time as absorbing the oak flavour.

Aside from the successful grape wines, the fruit wines are also part of John Rossignol's successes:
"Fruit wines are really the true regional product for the Maritimes and Eastern Seaboard. So we are trying to raise the profile of fruit wines by winning medals with both fruit and table wines, just to establish in the eye of the consumer that the fruit wines are a quality item."

The winery has a 45,000-bottle capacity and produces a variety of premium fruit and table wines, which are made from local produce. The Rossignol Winery itself has approximately seven acres planted outdoors and two acres planted in greenhouses. Their fruit wines include Strawberry, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Apple, Raspberry, Cranberry and Blueberry and they also produce several white and red table wines, such as barrel aged Haneveldt Cider, Pinot Cabernet, and Chardonnay.

Having such an open mind for experimenting and an acute palate, John Rossignol will definitely continue to bring Rossignol Winery to the top of the list.

Cheers and Good Health,
An Interested Wine Taster.