Vines of the Past

Maritimers tend to think of vineyards as recent additions to our landscape. It is true that wine grapes have only been grown in significant quantities in Eastern Canada in the past few decades, but grapes have been grown on a smaller scale here for nearly 400 years. First Nations people and early European settlers probably gathered wild grapes especially in the St. John River Valley of New Brunswick, where wild vines are more common than the rest of the Maritimes. The first intentionally planted vineyard, however, dates back to 1633 or 1644 at the French colony of LaHave on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, making it one of the first vineyards in North America. Here, the commander of the colony, Isaac de Razilly, planted a vineyard from vine cuttings brought from France. In 1634 he wrote to his friend in France, historian Marc Lescarbot, to say his vineyard was doing well. However, the success was short-lived as de Razilly died the following year and the colony was all but abandoned.

Reports of another vineyard by an early French colonist, Louis Hébert, at Bear River appear to be based on inaccurate information. Hebert gathered some vine cuttings in New England with the intention of planting them at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal) in 1606, but the vines were forgotten onshore. By 1611, the date that Hebert was supposed to have planted the vineyard, he was back in France, possibly preparing for his eventual emigration to Montreal in 1617.

The Acadians are reported to have planted vines in the Annapolis Valley but there is little historical information on this. The first real attempt at growing vines by English settlers came in the early 1800s when Charles Prescott imported vines to his property at Starr’s Point, near Wolfville. In the following half century, grape vines for eating rather than making wine were grown throughout the Annapolis Valley, South Shore and in Halifax. Commercial quantities of grapes were grown near Bridgewater and Wolfville. The types of grapes grown were those popular in New England such as the varieties dianna, concord, black hamburg and delaware. I can remember my grandmother telling me about vines on her family farm in the 1920s that were probably example dianna vines producing pale pink, intensely aromatic grapes in mid-October. At the end of the century, county fairs in Nova Scotia regularly gave out prizes for the best quality grapes.

In the last three decades, as the evidence of these heritage vines has gradually faded away, forward-thinking farmers started a new tradition of vine growing in the Maritimes.

Many of these 19th-century vines can still be found around old farms in southwestern Nova Scotia. One of these old vines has invaded an apple tree on my farm on the LaHave River, towering over the French grape vines that I planted in my vineyard a century later. The fruit of this vine provides a change for my kids when they get tired of eating chardonnay grapes in the fall. The most interesting example of these 19th-century vines is found in the Miller Point Peace Park just south of Bridgewater along the LaHave River. A farm dating from about 1850 once stood on a point of land within the park. Today, all traces of the farm are gone except for a grape vine, now 150 years old. The forest has grown up around the vine, which drapes its leaves over maple and poplar trees. A leaf from this vine has been used to identify it as the variety delaware, common in New England a century and a half ago. The age of this vine makes it a good candidate for the oldest living vine in Canada.

In the last three decades, as the evidence of these heritage vines has gradually faded away, forward-thinking farmers started a new tradition of vine growing in the Maritimes. The renaissance started first in the Annapolis Valley and the Malagash Peninsula in Nova Scotia. Vineyards then spread to the Gaspereau Valley, LaHave River Valley and Bear River Valley in Nova Scotia, southeastern New Brunswick and eastern Prince Edward Island. New vineyards planted with vines from Germany and France have been augmented with winter-hardy varieties bred in Ontario and right here in Nova Scotia. The goal is now wine instead of table grapes but the players are the same: vine, climate and farmers. Like everything else in the Maritimes, the roots of grape growing go back a long way. •