Birchwood
Estate Wines was established in May of 2000 and is committed to producing
high quality affordable wines from top quality Ontario grapes. Chevonn
Digby is the Store Manager. Birchwood is wholly owned and operated
by Diamond Estate Wines, of which Murray Marshall is President and
Andrew Green is Vice President.
Wine Making is
contracted to the award-winning staff at Lakeview
Cellars (just up the road on Cherry Avenue) and production has
increased from 3,000 to 5,000 cases. Birchwood is now being sold at
the LCBO, selected restaurannts and in duty free stores across Canada.
Birchwood offers consistent, interesting small volume wines of high
quality and the wines are now featured in white tablecloth, opinion-leading
restaurants in Toronto, Ottawa and Niagara, such as the CN Tower,
Baton Rouge and Sassafras.
Recent expansions
include a new friendly website,a planting of Cabernet Sauvignon at
the front of our property, and a new parking lot has been added to
accommodate our growing number of visitors.
Birchwood's
vineyards include vines that are over 15 years old and we produce
wines from both vinefera and hybrid grape varietals. The soils have
a clay base with some gravel and no irrigation takes place. At our
location, the warm air from Lake Ontario comes inland and cycles back
towards the lake after having hit the Niagara Escarpment a few kilometers
inland. This gives Birchwood a fairly constant supply of warmer air,
which helps evaporate any excess moisture and foces the roots to go
deeper into the soil to anchor the vinew.
We produce cleaner
and more traditional wine styles - crisp, fruity, unoaked or lightly
oaked whites and medium to full bodied moderately oaked reds. We
strive to exhibit the great fruit that goes into our wines. The
current list of wines can be seen by clicking
here.
Birchwood is a
member of the Vintners Quality Alliance, the legislative authority
which regulates the production of quality wines carrying the VQA logo.
Similar to the AOC and DOC appellation systems in Europe, VQA regulations
must be followed in order to place the VQA logo on each bottle.
All VQA wines
must be made entirely from 100% Ontario grapes grown in the designanted
viticultural areas. These regulations specify the grape varietals
and content, yields during harvest, sugar measurements and a wide
variety of other technical matters that must be followed before the
wine is submitted to the independent VQA tasting panel.
Tastings
are encouraged as we feel it is important to share our wines with
you. The retail store and tasting room are open year round. We feature
local crafts and products whenever possible. To see what we have planned
for the upcoming months, please have a look at the events listings
page of this site.
We also participate
each year in the Niagara Wine Festival (formerly the Niagara Grape
& Wine Festival), Fiesta Buckhorn, the Burlington Wine & Food
Expo, Toronto Wine and Cheese and a number of local events.
Private
Labels - we offer you our ability to have a private label done for
your wines. These really help capture the moment of a special occasion.
Free delivery where applicable.
We are close to
the Bruce Trail, the southern Lake Ontario shore line, the Niagara
Heritage Trail and a number of other eco-tourism and agri-tourism
destinations, such as the local fruit and vegetable markets and pick
your own fruit orchards. We are also en route to picturesque Niagara
Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake (home of the Shaw Festival) and Casino
Niagara.
So much to choose
from! Look for our sign off the QEW at the top end of our property
and drop in!
Click
here for the Birchwood Estate Wines Wine List
Click
here for directions to Birchwood Estate
Click
here to visit Birchwood Estate's own website
4679 Cherry Ave.,
Beamsville, Ontario
Phone: 905-562-VINE (8463)
E-mail: [email protected]
