…not counting the time I went to Sandbanks when I was a kid.

The year was 2000.  My partner, Dan Sullivan, and I ran a successful home improvement business in Scarborough where I grew up. Several years before, we had visited France and Dan, in particular, enjoyed touring the wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, speaking with the small producers about their craft and tasting our way through France. Much of Dan’s passion and inspiration for winemaking came from that trip. On the day we visited the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine region in Provence, I was struck by the soil in which the grape vines were flourishing. Large rocks were strewn throughout the thick clay. It didn’t look like anything could grow there, let alone some of the finest wines in the world.

Dan’s hobby continued to escalate. He was honoured with several amateur winemaking awards, but, more importantly, most everyone who tasted his wine wanted to know where they could purchase it and enjoy more. It was Dan’s belief that in order to make the wine he was truly capable of producing, he would have to grow and nurture the grapes himself. With an offer to invest from my sister and her husband, Cindy and Cam Reston, Dan set out to find a suitable site to grow grapes.

So, off to the Niagara region we went. As it turns out, it was at a bed & breakfast in Niagara-on-the-Lake that I heard about Prince Edward County. The breakfast conversation was something like, “Did you know they’re now growing grapes in Prince Edward County?…” I returned home and located the County on a map. I had no idea that it was even there. Then I turned to Dan and said, “Did you know they are planting grapes in Prince Edward County?” Dan replied, that he had heard something and that he would check it out.

A week or so later, we set out on our first trip to the County. When we exited off the highway at Wooler Road, I was immediately struck by how full of nothingness the County was - no chain retailers, no Tim Hortons, no condos, no hotels, no traffic-just farmland for as far as the eye could see. I was beginning to think this was going to be a stupid idea as we headed along Highway 33, looking for Greer Road.

We were met by Mike Peddlesden who had kindly agreed to show us what he was up to on Greer Road at Peddlesden Wines (now Casa-Dea Vineyards). While Dan and Mike talked about soil samples and grape growing in the County, I looked down and was immediately struck by the ground beneath me. It was strewn with big rocks and chunky clay - not what you would expect anything to grow in! I turned to Dan and he was thinking the same thing. The following month, we purchased the farm next to Mike’s and began to plant that spring.