GRANDE LIGNE ROAD, Que. – On a sunny fall day the pickers are peering through leaves reaching for the last clusters of grapes. It is hard to imagine the winter chill that will soon shiver the woody vines to their roots.
“Try one,” urges Victor Dietrich-Jooss, referring to the purple and green fruits hanging among the hip-high rows of trellised vines. My bite yields a rich sweetness, more luscious than the average table grape.
Even though this vineyard is one of the oldest on Quebec’s popular grape tourist route, Victor and his wife Christiane did not plant any grapes until 1987, the year after they arrived in Canada.
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Victor’s family in the Alsace region of France, on the German border, runs three vineyards, a tradition that began with his grandfather. When he moved to the farming region of Iberville, a half hour south of Montreal, he decided to recreate the life. Of the 44 wine grape varieties he planted, about a dozen are successful, usually European varieties crossed with a North American strain to create a hardier vine.
Dietrich-Jooss wines have won awards at various North American and international shows. No golds, mainly bronzes and silvers. But Victor said it is better to come third at a world competition than to win a provincial one.
“Every year it’s necessary to enter our wines in contests because people ask the question ‘is Quebec wine good?’ If we win, then the people know we have good wines,” Victor says in his softly accented English.
The wine itself, rolled over the tongue at the obligatory tasting, is full and velvety, not sour.
Part of the skill in creating and blending wine came from Victor’s childhood immersion and his attendance at a French wine school. But he also credits the character that the Quebec soil and climate build into the grapes, something he says differs from farm to farm.
There are 28 vineyards in Quebec and most are clustered on the South Shore, a convenient drive from Montreal for tourists. The vineyard owners have banded together to produce a map and arranged with the district’s hotels and restaurants to package up the vineyard tour. Last year about 11,000 people visited the Dietrich-Jooss vineyard. Most were from Quebec but there were also bus tours of Europeans, Americans and from neighboring Ontario and New Brunswick.
The Dietrich-Joosses have 86 acres of land with 11 of it in vines. When they started, they also grew corn and fed veal calves to make money. Christiane also drove a school bus.
While they still grow corn, much of their effort is on the vineyard. They do most of the work, hiring neighbors as pickers and pruners, and two students, one their daughter, now a college student, to assist with the summer tourist period.
A tour ends with the tasting room but before the final stop it leads visitors past stainless steel fermentation vats, oak barrels used to mature some of the wine, the grape press that handles two tonnes at a time, the rows of vines with signs labeling the different varieties. But the one feature that brings ” enthousiasme” to all Quebec visitors, says Victor, is the machine that looks like a snow plow. This tilling tool is unique to the province’s vineyards. Because the temperature gets so cold in the winter (-26 C last winter was a good day, he said), the vines must be covered with 30 centimetres of soil each December and uncovered again in April.
“We must do in six months here what Ontario growers have 11 months.”
Fast maturing varieties needed
The colder climate in Quebec also means the varieties that require more than 120 frost-free days can’t survive. Others grow but have a shorter life span or yield fewer grapes.
This spring was cold so all the vineyards had a slower start, but the mellow long autumn has helped. Dietrich-Jooss produced 25,000 bottles last year, a third of it in reds and rosŽs. There was plenty of it, but it was only of medium quality, says Victor. This year production will be down about a third, but the grapes are loaded with sugar, which means better quality.
Victor plans to switch from white wines to red, following his own and the Quebec peoples’ tastes. He hopes researchers develop hardier varieties so he can keep up with consumer tastes. Next spring he will grow his own cuttings in a greenhouse on his property instead of buying them from Ontario and Nova Scotia nurseries.
By Quebec law he can only sell on the farm – an odd restriction in a province where wine is available at grocery stores. Victor shrugs and says something about the “administrative climate.”
He also has another niche market in ice wines. Canadian vintners are known throughout the world for quality ice wines, a silver lining to severe winters. This vintage is made from grapes picked in late December, pressed at -8 C to extract the sugar and acid elements. It makes a thick, sweet and expensive wine.
“We know we have a specialty that is not possible in California, in Australia or in France,” said Victor.
