The Caldwell First Nations food adviser Bill Alexander, left, and wine adviser Dan Peltier inspect grapes during the September harvest.Sometimes the most inspired ideas are sparked by a chance discovery, which is exactly how Ontario’s Caldwell First Nation got into the wine-making business.
The first vintage will be bottled in the spring at Cooper’s Hawk under the Caldwell Three Fires label and sold to the public at the band’s new Three Fires restaurant when it opens in May in Leamington, south of Windsor. Those first wines will be barrel-fermented chardonnay, riesling and an amber or orange wine developed from a chardonnay musqué grape.
Besides purchasing the vineyard and 80 hectares for a reserve, the Caldwells bought a nearby restaurant and marina just outside Point Pelee National Park near Leamington.Cole says the winery, restaurant and marina will form the nucleus of cultural development based on experiential tourism, which brings visitors into contact with places and the people who live there, to better understand the “essence” of those places.
Alexander says statistics show one in three international travellers to Canada ask where they can find an authentic Indigenous cultural experience. He believes the Caldwell Nation can share their story, through their cuisine, with both non-Indigenous and Indigenous clients. “Food used to be something you ate on the way to where you were going. Now it is often an important part of the attraction itself,” he says.