Morning Visit to Exultet

The following morning we went to visit Exultet Estates. When we entered the winery, we were warmly greeted by Gerry and his two sons, Mario and Joseph. Gerry invited us into his winery and showed us the equipment he uses and said that he is learning how to make wine from his sons. This is really a family effort and it was apparent that Mario and Joseph enjoyed being with their father. Mario, who is eleven years old, already has aspirations of being an enologist. It's wonderful to see the beginnings of a family tradition in

the making. As we got to talking, we learned that in a former life, Gerry was a pharmacologist! He lead us into his barrel room, which was originally a cheesemaking barn and gave us barrel tastings of his Pinot Noir. The clarity of the Pinot was amazing. There were still a lot of tannins, indicative of the aging potential of the Pinot. Mario showed me the fossils that he and Joseph found in the vineyard---this is limestone based terroir, alright! Gerry's 2009 Chardonnay won the Ontario Gold Medal in 2011 and unfortunately for us, it was sold out. We did a tasting of Gerry's bottled wines and purchased a 2010 Blessed Chardonnay, 2010 Beloved Pinot Noir, 2009 Pinot Noir PEC, and his icewine. The time was advancing to the noon hour and Lia came in to call the boys for lunch, it was Joseph's birthday! Before we left, Mario and Joseph gave us a surprise that I will feature in a future blogpost, so stay tuned!