Wineries and Wine Country of Nova Scotia

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

The coloured photographs of wine country, wine people, and wineries in
this slim, large-format volume are enchanting. They occupy more than
half the space in a publication that is bound like a book but sized like
a magazine, with a print-to-photograph ratio typical of many modern
magazines. Each of the eight wine and one fruit-wine establishments is
given a chapter, with additional chapters on Nova Scotia grapes and
tastes, the distillery and breweries, restaurants and inns, and a list
of limited releases.

Visiting each of the sites would require an itinerary covering much of
Nova Scotia, beginning perhaps with the Jost Vineyards on the south side
of the Northumberland Strait, and the Rossignol Estate Winery on the
P.E.I. side (via a pleasant trip on the Wood Island ferry). Four—
Blomidon, Gaspereau, Grand Pré, and Ste. Famille—are clustered on the
south side of the Minas Basin, and might precede a visit to Bear River,
near Digby and the Annapolis Basin. Then one might travel across the
peninsula to Petite Riviиre and the Lunenburg County Fruit Winery on
the Atlantic. Following that, the intrepid could proceed to Halifax for
some real beer and on to Cape Breton to nose malt whisky at Glenora.

Sean Wood’s tasting notes are judicious and voluminous. They are
particularly useful in an area where hybrid varieties still dominate the
vineyards. They encourage the traveller to be adventurous.

Wineries and Wine Country of Nova Scotia is a book that shows well on
the coffee table, but has utilitarian value in the field.