W I N E RY P R O F I L E
Photo courtesy of jolenecormierphotography
Photo courtesy of benchampouxphotography Left to right: Zach, Zeitlhofer, Jeff and Janet, with winery dog Magnum
Zach giving a behind the scenes winery tour and explanation of traditional
method sparkling wine production
The team also makes grape-based
wines made from hybrid grapes, includ-ing
l’Acadie Blanc, Marquette, Frontenac
and Osceola Muscat, which are all
hardy enough to survive the province’s
harsh winters.
The top-selling grape-based wines are
currently the reds, but down the road, that
may change, Zach says. The family has
been particularly excited about the wines
made from Osceola Muscat and is looking
forward to exploring the grape’s potential
further. “We think it is the future of white
winemaking in New Brunswick,” Zach said.
“Everyone knows what Chardonnay grapes
can do, but not everyone knows yet what
these other grapes are capable of doing.
“That’s why we developed a new Terroir
Series of wines to explore what these
new varieties are capable of making and
exploring our region’s place in the world
of wine. For instance, we made seven dif-ferent
Marquette varietal wines this year
from a traditional method sparkling rosé
to a full bodied merlot style and every style
in between. We need to catch up on hun-dreds
or thousands of years of head start
that other varieties and wine regions have
on us, and this is how we’ll do it.”
One of their newest lines, Lodestone,
features multi-grape blends and riffs on
the winery’s magnetic theme, referring to
naturally magnetized iron that was the
basis for the world’s first compasses.
They currently grow five acres of
grapes and a couple of acres of strawber-ries
and rhubarb and source the rest of
their fruit – including an additional 30
acres of grapes – within an hour drive
of the winery. Over the last few years,
several new entrant grape growers have
planted sizeable vineyards which has real-ly
helped prove the concept of growing
quality grapes and they now source from
an additional 30 acres.
For the past few years, the winery
team has also been developing a sparkling
fruit wine made in the traditional method
(similar to Champagne). They spent time
researching the process in Niagara, Ont.,
as well as Italy and England. This year,
they’re starting to share the results of that
research with their customers.
“We are releasing a rhubarb pet nat – a
naturally fermented sparkling wine – and
then a traditional-method sparkling wild
blueberry wine,” said Zach. “Wild blueber-ries
are New Brunswick’s most important
fruit crop, so we’re making the highest
quality wine possible from them. It’s very
much like a dry Lambrusco,” a reference to
Italy’s dry red sparkling wine.
“And we recently bought a little over 20
acres right next to us on a gorgeous south-facing
slope within the Moncton city lim-its,”
Zach said. Also this year, they’re plan-ning
to open a newly expanded winery
facility. “We’re future-proofing it. It’s highly
insulated and down the road, we will
have the capability to allow for solar and
geothermal systems that are beyond our
reach financially right now.”
Environmentally friendly practices
are important to the winery team, who get
creative in using what some would con-sider
waste. Leftover grape pomace, for
instance, goes to a neighbouring farmer
who feeds it to his pigs, “and then we get
delicious pork from the deal, which we use
for some of the events we host,” Zach said.
The grape seeds caught in the red
wine fermenter go to a local coffee roaster,
who then roasts and grinds them for use
in the winery kitchen. “They have a choco-late,
spicy quality to them,” Zach said.
The team has even reached out to
partner with nearby breweries. CAVOK
Brewing Co., located in Dieppe, N.B., cre-ated
the Magnetic Hill Red Grapes, an ale
made with some of the winery’s leftover
skins. Similarly, Moncton’s Tide & Boar
Brewing created the Farmhouse Sour, a
sour ale conditioned on leftover skins.
Like most wineries in the world, 2020
and 2021 have not been typical, thanks
to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Since it
began, Magnetic Hill has relied heavily on
out-of-province visitors for sales and stays
at its luxurious on-site bed and breakfast.
However, as of press time, the
pandemic had put a temporary stop to
B&B visitors, and tourists from outside
of the Atlantic bubble – New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and
Newfoundland and Labrador – have been
discouraged from crossing the border
to visit.
“Eighty per cent of our visitors pre-
Covid-19 were from other parts of Canada,
Europe, or the U.S. To lose 80 per cent of
our customers was devastating and scary,”
Zach said. “The silver lining was that we’ve
stayed in business. We’ve paid our bills
and it started our movement to grow the
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