Visit to Carriage House Cooperage

After our visit to Exultet, we drove to Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company, located east of Waupoos on a fork of Prince Edward County. There we ran into the couple with whom we shared our B & B with, Marina and Manoush. The cheeses we tasted were excellent and just the thing we needed for a little sustenance to tide us over for more tastings. Our next destination was 66 Gilead, a distillery that was recommended to us by Kathleen, our B & B hostess. When we arrived, there was a sign on the door that said, "Back in 5 minutes" and as we looked around the place, we saw a sign that said, "Carriage House Cooperage". Wow, we thought, how convenient, a cooperage, let's check it out.

We ran into Pete, who gave us a friendly wave and said, "Come on in" and gave us a tour of his cooperage. He mentioned that he sources Canadian oak and ages it outdoors for 4 years. Pete said that most of the oak that he gets is at least 170 years old and some of the oak can be 380 years old. Pete makes his oak barrels for many of the wineries located on Prince Edward County and he mentioned that he had an order to fill for Closson Chase. Pete also mentioned that the distillary, 66 Gilead also uses his barrels and that Sophia was really pleased with the outcome of one of the barrels. We thanked Pete for taking time off from his barrel making to talk with us and then walked over to 66 Gilead.