Photo: Brian Yungblut
Henry of Pelham
Celebrates
30 Years
Pioneering sustainability initiatives
since the early 2000s
A well-known name in Niagara, Henry of Pelham celebrated
its 30th vintage in 2018. The winery was named after the
owners’ great-great-grandfather, who, tongue-in-cheek,
called himself Henry of Pelham, a reference to the 18th century
British Prime Minister of the same name. Henry founded a tavern
and grew grapes on his land in Niagara, with his nickname perhaps
poking fun at the real Pelham, who was well-known for his laws
restricting the sale of alcohol in the period!
While the land had been used to grow grapes during the
first couple of generations of the Speck family’s ownership, 1984
heralded a shift. Concord grapes were replaced by Vitis vinifera
across the entire estate, and a few years later, in 1988, Henry of
Pelham produced its first vintage. Today, brothers Paul, Matthew
and Daniel run the winery, after spending summers there as boys
in the 1980s planting the vines that grow there now. The win-ery
is known for classic Niagara varietals, such as Baco Noir and
Pinot Noir, as well as Chardonnay and Riesling, vines the brothers
planted themselves.
Henry of Pelham has pioneered sustainability initiatives since
the early 2000s, through efforts including wetland restoration and
the creation of wildlife corridors. Inside the winery, they employ
energy efficiency and water conservation practices, ensuring their
sustainability credentials extend to both vineyard and winery.
Always at the forefront of change and innovation, the winery
is one of the founders of the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) sys-tem.
Now the winery is piloting new technology that uses solar-powered
devices with GPS locators and a connection to the wire-less
Internet of Things (IoT) service to conduct remote monitoring
of the temperature of their vineyards. Equipped with this data, they
aim to be in a better position to warm their vines when frost hits,
to prevent damage to their grape buds. Looking ahead to 2019, they
are expanding production capacity with a new building and a state
of the art bottling line. n
To find out more about Henry of Pelham,
visit https://henryofpelham.com/.
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