A local winery, Potter Settlement Wines in Tweed, won silver in January for their wine entries at the San Francisco International Wine Competition out of thousands of wine submissions from around the world. But one of the winners stands out: Maple Noir – a wine that former Tweed Heritage Center curator, the late Evan Morton worked on with Potter Settlement’s owner, Sandor Johnson.

“This is Tweed’s history in a glass,” smiles Johnson. “A fine tribute to Evan for his guidance getting this from historical archives to today’s award.”

Johnson is referring to the historical fact that explorer Samuel de Champlain investigated the Tweed area during his winter voyage of 1615.

“Champlain’s astrolabe coordinates say that he passed through the Tweed area in 1615,” Morton wrote to Johnson in an email dating back to 2011. “Iroquois oral history says that he did indeed winter with the Indigenous and they traded goods and maple sugar on Sugar Island near Stoco Lake, but that has been challenged by some authorities.”

‘Challenged or not, Johnson felt it important to tell this story through his wines. “Champlain’s coordinates don’t lie,” Johnson says. “It’s a fact that one of the world’s most famous explorers came through our town. It was a friendly, peaceful Columbian Exchange between the Indigenous and the Europeans. And one of the earliest examples of a European tasting maple sugar, right here in our backyard.”

“This is a positive story between our two peoples,” Johnson continues. “We should be celebrating this.”

So Johnson added local maple sugar, made the old-fashioned way, to sweeten a red wine called Frontenac Noir, a grape that was first pioneered to Canada right in Tweed.

“It tastes like cherries soaked in maple syrup, “Johnson smiles. “It’s gorgeous!” The 70 wine judges in San Francisco, California also felt the same, adorning this vintage with its first international wine medal.

“I’m happy to tell this story through my wine and celebrate this win for my community, but we need to do more,” Johnson says. “Why we don’t have a historical plaque on Sugar Island and aren’t on the Champlain Trail to attract tourism is beyond me. Sad fact is most people around here simply have no idea.”

Johnson brought this to the attention of Hastings County and Mayor DeGenova. “I know our local governments have their hands full with the day-to-day economic challenges of roads, sewage and waste management; but a little nod to important history by a small investment in a simple plaque goes a long way for local pride and tourism.”

“The cost for a historical plaque is $2,500,” says Andrew Redden, Economic & Tourism Development Manager for Hastings County. “Perhaps the Historical Society might include it in a future rollout.”

Johnson had other obstacles to overcome, particularly Ontario’s Wine Authority, the VQA. They said that they wouldn’t VQA this wine because it wasn’t sweetened with “natural sugar” and told him that he could only sell this as a “non-VQA fruit wine.”

The VQA’s motto is “Taste the Place,” Johnson shakes his head. “Which is hypocrisy. This is a wine of place and there’s nothing more Canadian than maple sugar. It’s also an example of how bureaucracy can suffocate culinary expression.”

Ontario’s wine authority will only VQA wines that are balanced with white, cane sugar, which is the same rule in California, France, Italy – and here in Ontario. “But here’s the thing,” Johnson says. “I don’t want to be California or France. I want to be Canada. Distilleries can add maple sugar to whiskey or other beverages, but we’re not allowed to add it to wine.”

The VQA responded to this by providing Potter Settlement with a document for the winery to submit requesting a change in legislation to allow maple sugar to be used to balance wine.

“This is very timely,” Johnson says. “The USA is talking about annexing Canada and our Prime Minister was on CNN saying, “what defines us as Canadians is simply not being American.” Well, there’s a lot more to us than that. And this is a great example of how we are clearly in our own way. Our inter-provincial trade, for example, is worse than our international trade. That’s why you can’t even find a bottle of B.C. wine in the LCBO. How about let us define what it means to be Canadian, and what is a Canadian wine, and not our bureaucracies with their Byzantine over-regulation.”

Johnson finally adds, “We’ll definitely pursue this legislation amendment with other wineries. In the meantime, we’ll continue to win medals abroad for this wine that sadly isn’t recognised by our own Province. This is such a unique nod to the important history of our area and an award of this magnitude is is something to be celebrated for Tweed and Canada.”

Our Maple Noir wine can be purchased along with our other fine wines. Minimum order is 6 mixed bottles.