A third, and potentially the most lucrative, market is developing a high-end, ultra-premium product. Marysburgh enjoys a cool-climate, short-season microclimate, moderated by the surrounding lake. The heavy lime content in the pure, abundant water nurtures the vines, and specialized viticulture techniques, including low training and mounding with earth in the fall, help the vines survive the harsh winters. The only comparable terroirs are found in Burgundy, in a small part of Oregon, and in the uplands of New Zealand. In these areas, it is virtually impossible to buy even established vineyard acreage, let alone suitable land to plant. Experts believe that the Marysburgh terrain, while unsuitable for soft, fruity, warm reds, is ideal for the more elegant, balanced European-style vintages, especially Burgundy, Riesling and Pinot Noir. The limestone-induced textural finesse of this area is equaled only in potential by select areas of northern France. The long slopes to the Bay permit the cold air to flow downhill and away from the vines in the shoulder seasons, instead of puddling in hollows and nipping the buds. On this side of the County, the moderating lake effect is such that the bay itself does not freeze over. The southern exposure maximizes the amount of sunlight available to the plant, dispelling disease-causing moisture. The constant, light breeze also promotes the health of the vines, whisking away rain and dew from the leaves. The deep, shaley, mineral-rich soil supplies the earthy context and complex nutrients required to produce a rich, challenging and distinctive bouquet. Gordon Stimmell, wine writer for the Toronto Star, claims “the best wines [produced in the County] are dry vidals and rieslings, with a lovely minerally citrus component.”

David Lawrason, writing for Wine Access, describes the region as “a large limestone bed rising out of the lake with unique, varied, often thickly-graveled soils rivaling the best in the Burgundy…Waupoos features a sheltered, south-facing limestone slope above the water’s edge – looking to me to be the best textbook site I’ve seen in Ontario.” As Lawrason mentions, there are many distinctive soil types (experts estimate fifteen distinct composites), each suitable to a different cultivar. Furthermore, because of these differences and because the vineyards are interspersed among farms, orchards, cultural attractions and residences, the monotony of mile after mile of vineyards planted to the same grape (a flaw in the Niagara region, as well as in the Napa and Sonoma valleys) is avoided, as is the potential of contagious disease in the vines. Martin Gemmrich, an oenologist trained at Geisenheim in Germany, asserts that Niagara vines are wiped out by cold or disease once every decade. The climate in Marysburgh is colder in winter, but the other mitigating factors promise a much better chance of success. Additionally, the moraine left by the glacier provides a sponge-like ability to suck up water, as is evidenced by the artesian Lake on the Mountain, 180 feet above lake level and invisibly fed with cold, crystal, adamantinely-hard water. Thus, irrigating the vineyards when necessary is eminently feasible.

Ed Neuser and Rita Kaimins, who own Waupoos Estate Winery, bought a 100-acre apple farm in 1983 in Waupoos. They have developed twenty acres of it into a vineyard, with fourteen varietals, and have ten thousand visitors a month to their restaurant and wine-tasting facility. Vida Zalnieriunas and Richard Johnson opened By Chadsey’s Cairns Winery in 2003, saying, “It’s become a gold rush as word leaked to the outside world.” Others hurrying to take advantage of the available prime sites include global sommelier Norman Hardy, restaurateurs Jamie Kennedy, Michael Sullivan and Michael Porter, the Opimium Society’s John Sambrook, IMAX film producer James Lahti, wine writer Dick Singer, and County native Lanny Huff. Prime land, now virtually unobtainable at any price in New Zealand and Burgundy, has increased five fold in price in Marysburgh, and more for excellent sites with water views. Prices increase by fifty percent a year, as more cognoscenti tweak to the potential of the investment opportunity.

In Niagara on the Lake, with a more moderate climate but less distinguished terroir, prices for even an acre of plantable land are skyhigh, but even so, realtors in this area are hard put to find any land available currently to be purchased. However, realtors in this area confirm that there was no land currently available to be purchased. Most of the large vineyards had secured long-term contracts on all available suitable land.
Those focusing on the premium market in Marysburgh and the County are able to take advantage of much smaller acreages. In 2002, 150 acres were under vine in the County; by 2005, it is estimated that there will be 2000 acres. The best land is going fast and the prices continue to escalate. Some vineyards are as large as 150 acres; others are specialty crops of as small as two acres. The extraordinary potential of the terroir has attracted as investors what Lawrason describes as the “pinot noir crowd – esoteric, cerebral and passionate people”, and as end consumers what the marketing committee for Prince Edward County Winegrowers Association calls “the fanatical tiny cohort of pinotphiles who set upon us, pressing money into our calloused, bleeding paws”.

A final point for a new investor in the Maryburgh properties seeking a premium market comes from an understanding of the wine marketing board’s operations, which establish a brix suggested price for grapes. Once a reputation for high-quality grapes is established, the grower is no longer restricted to this suggested but not mandatory price structure, and the grower may find himself in the enviable position of having a waiting list for his product, and even a bidding war to acquire his select grapes.

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