Vignoble des Négondos
My husband and I fell in love with the area west of Montreal years ago, and return when we can to the Parc National d’Oka, the Québecois provincial park. We anticipate boarding the car ferry in Hudson to cross the Ottawa River to the little town of Oka, with its view of the park’s white sand beach, and the mountains rising up in the distance. A few years ago, we drove on a wine tour in the area, and discovered the excellent wines of the Vignoble des Négondos, the first organic vineyard in Québec. Intriguingly, the story of the vineyard is tied to events that took place decades ago.
The 1960’s were heady times in Québec. The Montreal World Exposition in 1967 attracted 50 million visitors, and with 62 countries participating, garnered international attention for the region. Among other radical policy changes, the “Quiet Revolution” of Jean Lesage’s administration secularized the school system, which had been administered by the Catholic Church since the 18th century in New France. In the low mountains west of Montreal, outside forces would change the lives of the farmers of the glacial landscape, whose children rarely attended school beyond the 6th grade, even more radically.
Québec leadership decided to build a new international airport to accommodate what it projected to be a burgeoning demand for air travel, and consequently, in March of 1969, the government expropriated almost 250 square miles of farmland, an area larger than the city of Montreal. Three thousand residents were relocated against their will, leaving behind generations-old farms that had been wrested from the rocky land.
Construction of the Mirabel Airport began in 1970, but only 20% of the expropriated land was used for the facility itself. The planned industrial development zone overlooking the Lac des Deux Montaignes never materialized, and the road and high-speed rail links to the airport also failed to be funded. As economic conditions took a turn for the worse, the project became a white elephant, receiving only cargo planes.
Last summer we returned to the Vignoble des Négondos, and there Carole Desrochers, the charming owner, related the history of her establishment. Carole had enjoyed vacationing in the Mirabel area, and in 1993 she decided to leave Montreal and her career in social work to establish an organic vineyard on several acres of abandoned farmland that she purchased in the Basses-Laurentides.
The well-drained terroir is chalky and the microclimate relatively warm in St. Benoît, high above the Lac des Deux Montaignes. First planted in 1995, the Vignoble des Négondos now consists of 10,000 vines from which Carole and her partner Mario Plante develop and create their eight varieties of white, rosé and red wines. Asked why she began this venture, she answers that she has a passion “with a capital P” for wine.
Carole and Mario traveled to France to educate themselves about viniculture, and Négondos is a family affair, engaging their three children as well. The cold winters of Québec limit the grape-growing season to six months, from mid-April to mid-October. Desrochers and Plante have chosen grapes that are resistant to disease and suitable to the northerly climate, from which they produce 10,000 bottles of wine a year.
The varieties include hardy French-American hybrids like Seyval and the Riesling-like Geisenheim, and the native Cayuga, which are blended into dry white wines, as well as the hybrids Marechal Foch and Dechaunac which are formed into dry reds. All vintages are grown and produced on the property: Opalinois, a fortified white wine noted as especially good with raw oysters or goat cheese; Orélie, named after Carole’s daughter, a golden blend of Seyval and Cambaudière grapes aged in oak barrels; Cuvée Saint-Vincent, a “perfect companion to a grilled fish,” crafted from Cayuga, Geisenheim and Vidal varieties; Rosois, a silver medal winner dry rosé with wild strawberry aromas that we found to be a perfect summertime aperitif; Le Suroît, a Maréchal Foch-Dechaunac fruit-forward red blend recommended with meats and Italian dishes; and Le Chenaie, a dry red wine aged in oak. Négonodos also offers a fortified red, Nirvana, as well as their ice wine, Frisson, made from Vidal and Kgray grapes.
While the fierce northern winters can be challenging, they can also help organic growers: prevention is the key. Phyloxera and associated fungi succumb to the cold temperatures, but covering the vines with hilled dirt and tarps allows the roots to survive. The good insects eat the harmful ones, and the vintners spread lime and copper sulfate to control other pests. Birds can be a problem during the harvest season, and Carole and Mario employ an air cannon, cassettes of bird distress-calls and netting to prevent losses to the crop. The biodiversity of the isolated vineyard functions to create an equilibrium in the natural struggle between cultivator and potential pests.
The Vignoble des Négondos has two tractors, and during the harvest some fifteen people, including the family, seasonal help and volunteers, work for around ten days to bring in the grapes. The crop is loaded into the crusher, a German press that Desrochers and Plante purchased second-hand; a grant is in the works to obtain a bottling machine for their operation.
In the chilly wintertime, the partners taste and blend to create their new vintages. The vineyard sells its wines to restaurants in Montreal, at open-air expositions in season, and from their tasting room to individuals. Carole Desrochers is optimistic about the future of the enterprise, noting faithful customers “who drink nothing but organic.” We wish them well, as creative entrepreneurs and careful stewards of the land, with a Passion for wine.