Cuvée Madeline Cabernet Franc VQA by Pearl Morissette 2017

High demand and short supply has become the norm for Pearl Morissette, whose skyrocketing fame knows no bounds. Burgundy trained François Morissette is on our list of top-shelf Canadian producers who consistently deliver some of the most gorgeous wines imaginable. They are uncompromising wines of terroir that easily transcend the boundaries of the Niagara Peninsula.

François’ career in wine began in his early 20s when he spent a year working for Domaine Alain Gras in Saint-Romain, learning about the traditional winemaking methods of the region. Once he moved back to Quebec, he worked towards becoming a sommelier and spent the rest of the 1990s building some of the most ambitious wine lists in both Quebec and Ontario.

In 2000, the call of the vines was to loud to ignore and he moved back to France to pursue winemaking full-time, working for some of the most famous producers in the Côte d’Or including Frédéric Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny, Christian Gouges of Domaine Henri Gouges in Nuits-Saint-Georges and Domaine Roulot in Meursault.  After 7 years in Burgundy, he returned to Canada with an eye to make his own wine using the knowledge he gained abroad, and it wasn’t long before he found a partner (Mel Pearl, a developer in Toronto) with whom to make it all happen.

The estate now owns two vineyards: the 19th Street Vineyard in the Twenty Mile Beach VQA and the home vineyard which is next to the winery, that is part of the Creek Shore VQA.