Harwood's in-the-vineyard tasting room is
open Fri, Sat, Sun 11 to 5**
18908 Loyalist Parkway (Hwy 33), Hillier,
Ontario K0K2J0
Latitude. 43.97041, Longitude. -77.47007
15 minutes south of the 401
Wooler Rd. exit
**Also open by appointment, and on
days that it's just too nice to be
closed!
"With soils uncannily similar to
Burgundy's
Côte d'Or, Pinot from the County could
be
Canada's next great wine success story."
James Chatto, Senior Editor - Food &
Drink
The Solar-Powered Winery
We won't blame
you if you're skeptical at first sight of our modest
solar panel array. And if you wonder where
we've hidden the power lines to the road which is
several hundred meters away...but, there aren't any.
Both our vines and our winery are powered by the
sun.
Seeing our towering
6-tonne electric grape press may make you wonder
even more. We have
customer WI-FI, lights, music, (darned)
computers, printers, refrigeration,
fans, extensive lab equipment, a dishwasher, pumps,
bottling equipment, hot water, humidifiers,
(sometimes) air conditioners, and endless
other gadgets all powered by the strange
relationship between packets of light called photons
and photovoltaic cells. Truly, a miracle.
Ok, we've
had to learn to pay attention to our power
consumption, but not oppressively so. In fact,
it's almost never an issue except at peak
consumption times, such as harvest when big machines
are running non-stop for hours and hours.
Our modest solar
array just sits there churning out electricity day
in and day out. No vibrations. No
flutter. No noise. No Hydro bill.
Yes, we're
proponents. We feel strongly that it makes the
most sense to generate electricity at the location
where it will be used rather than to truck it down
miles and miles of wires with their mammoth associated
losses. We think the sun could power Ontario
at a fraction of the cost of other (such as wind)
technologies.
We feel
very strongly about this.
If you
also find this concept interesting and are wondering
where to start, we'd offer the following advice.
Lease the equipment (we use
National Leasing). They may not be the only
ones, but they've shown that they're interested in
solar power. If you don't have an on-site
electrical engineer (we're lucky, we have two), buy
an equipment package from a reputable firm, and be
sure to check their references (ask for three
current references and three from more than a year
ago.)
Don't be shy.
Call us if we can help you through the early stages
of your decision-making process. We can't be
your consultants, but we can surely be your allies
in the beginning.
One thing you can be
sure of, you won't be affected if the power goes out
for three-days again. You'll always
have power.
People grow the grapes and make
the wines at Harwood.
We love to talk about what we
do, so we may not be the
quickest stop on your wine tour.
Our Tasting
Room is right inside the working
winery were all our wines are
made by hand in the old-world
tradition. There's always plenty
of action as the
Winemakers, Cellar Manager,
Vineyard Manager, Tasting Room
Hosts...any and all...go
about their daily tasks,
right on the other side of the
counter.
You'll see where the grapes are
grown, watch our wines being
made and get to know the people
who make them. We heat with
wood, so we may just be one of
your coziest stops this
fall and winter.
Lauren joined
Harwood as Winemaker
and Vineyard Manager
on May 10, 2011,
bringing a strong
professional
reputation and
winemaking talent
honed across a path
from Prince Edward
County to New
Zealand.
Lauren has a formal
education in the
arts and sciences of
viniculture and
viticulture, earned
at the same school
in Niagara where so
many well-known
Winemakers have
launched. But, more
important than the
training is her
natural feeling for
the vines and the
thousands of
mysterious,
seemingly mystical
steps that will turn
them into wine.
She is a natural.
Not every Winemaker
is also the Vineyard
Boss. They're two
extremely complex
disciplines that
often seem to pull
in opposite
directions. In the
few wineries where
the Winemaker calls
the shots from start
to finish, the
results are
generally
outstanding. We're
seeing that at
Harwood.
True,
some of what Lauren
brings won't be
clear to spot for a
while yet.
Winemaking is a long
and slow procession,
often taking two or
three years, or
more.
One thing it'll be
easy to see right
away, though, is the
energy Lauren brings
to Harwood's sense
of adventure. We're
already talking
about inventing some
new winery
experiences ...
growing grapes that
have never been
tried in The County
... making more
wines that everybody
says are
"impossible".
And wait until you
try her Marquesa and
Merlot!
Our House Chef
Kerry Wicks
Kerry is a wine
aficionado and
life-long foodie.
You'll find many
wine pairing tips
and recipe cards in
Harwood's Tasting
Room that were
created by Kerry and
Judy Harwood. In
fact, they've
co-authored a
popular 'living'
cookbook
Kerry
Wicks
- House
Chef -
Harwood
Estate
Vineyards
You'll find some of
Kerry and Judy's
most recent pairings
and their personal favourite recipes on
the Wine with Food
Pairings page of
this website--a page
that gets a lot of
visits every day.
You'll usually meet
Kerry in our Tasting
room on the
weekends. She
divides the rest of
the week between her
two other full-time
jobs: she's
Harwood's tireless
president, looking
after the complex
business management
of a vineyard and
winery, and the
president of
Mediastats,
the oldest
continuously
operating media data,
research, and
broadcast
engineering firm in
Canada.
Kerry
takes care of all
our special events,
organized tours,
parties, and
weddings. Somehow,
she also finds time
to be our on-site
Chef for weekend
Wine & Food
Pairings. Kerry is
scouting-out the
finest cheeses of
Ontario and Québec,
and, as she finds
them, we're making
them available,
pre-packaged in the
Tasting Room. Yes,
she'd be thrilled to
know about your
favourites.
Don and Judy
Harwood
You may recall from
our 'Our Vineyards'
page that we often
hear visitors say
"Someday I'd like to
have a vineyard."
Don and Judy said
that too back in
1963 on the day they
returned to Ottawa
from a 3-year
circumnavigation of
the world...on a
Vespa motor scooter.
Judy &
Don
Harwood
- 1963 -
Somewhere
in the
world
They rode the Vespa
everywhere there was
land, and that
included the great
wine regions, the
names of which are
still inscribed on
the Vespa's fenders.
It took a few years
and careers in the
Research and TV
Ratings industry to
get to their dream
destination, but at
70 and 79 they
finally arrived.
These
days,
if you ask them what
they have planned,
they'll tell you
there are places
they want to visit,
cultures they want
to learn more about,
foods they want to
savour, and wines
they want to taste.
They'll also tell
you that they're
very excited to see
the rapid rise of
Prince Edward County
and pleased to see
it take its place
with the other fine
wine regions they
visited 'a few years
ago' on their Vespa.
Our
Environmentalist
Natachia Bond
Natachia is a
graduate in
Environmental
Studies from Queens
University. She
brings a lot of
useful knowledge to
the winery, where
we're always looking
for ways to
reduce environmental
impact in every
aspect. She has
created our Food
Safety and
Traceability Data
System, as well as
our Environmental
Farm Plan.
Natachia
Bond
-
Environmentalist
-
Harwood
Estate
Vineyards
Natachia is also
Harwood's Supervisor
for Health and
Safety. Fortunately
for all of us, she
takes that job very
seriously, too.
Like
everyone in a small
winery, you'll find
her
at one minute
involved in the wine
making process, at
another minute
helping to move a
pallet of boxes, and
yet another time
working with a
bottling team, or
even decorating the
winery signs with
balloons. Very
often, you'll find
her in the Tasting
Room as a personable
and informed host
and guide to
Harwood's rapidly
growing family of
fine wines. BTW,
Natachia used to
work for the
Ministry of
Agriculture as a
vineyard scout, so
if you want to know
anything about
bugs...
Our Associate
Winemaker John
Rode
John is out standing in his field. He's is our card-carrying farmer who began life milking cows, slinging hay, and doing all those fun jobs kids get to do when they grow up in agriculture. He's Harwood's Operations Manager, so it's not uncommon to see him covered in dust with a shovel in one hand and a hammer in the other.
He's also the
engineer behind our
collection of solar
electricity
generating
mechanisms, keeping
a large amount of
energy flowing from
a relatively modest
panel array at the
winery, and
supplying power all
over the property
via smaller panels.
In fact, two
university
engineering
departments have
studied Harwood's
installation with
keen interest.
As Associate
Winemaker, John also
does the day-to-day
winemaking tasks,
along with Lauren,
Craig, and Natachia.
"This is a great
team," says John.
"It's a whole group
of people who really
enjoy making wine,
and have an
outrageous
amount of fun doing
it."
