If you’ve been following my blog over the past few months, you might recall that I enjoyed a nice bottle of All Day Rosé from Huff Estates, on the house.
When my best friend and I decided to visit Prince Edward County over the weekend, I was overjoyed to pop into their winery!
Huff Estates Winery is one of the oldest and largest wineries in the area, having opened in 2004. It is owned by Lanny and Catharine Huff, who were born and raised in the County, and the head winemaker is from Burgundy, France.
The winery itself is in an impressive, modern building, with indoor tasting rooms. On the estate, there is an inn for guests, as well an art gallery and sculpture garden with quirky pieces nestled amongst the vines. The also have a restaurant and a patio — with a wood burning pizza oven! But more on that later. First, I’m going to talk about the wine tasting.
What I liked about the tasting room here is that it felt more like an actual wine bar and less like a store. Wine tasting includes a flight of 3 wines for $8 or single taste for $3. They also offer tours at 11am, starting at $5 per person ($8 if you include tasting).
We opted for the 3-wine flight. We followed their suggestion of starting with the lightest wines (whites, rosés, and sparkling) before moving on to reds. It was crazy hot out and I was also in a celebratory mood (it was Canada Day after all!), so I stuck with sparking and white wine from their Elite wine menu.
The first wine I tried was Cuvée Peter F Huff. Named after the late son of the Huff Estates owners, this bubbly starts off like a crisp apple tart before giving way to stone fruits and citrus. It’s an enjoyable sparkling wine with the right amount of bubble. This wine was the first traditional method fizz from Prince Edward County. I was not surprised to learn that it has won multiple awards. I can see this going well with seafood and salad. Overall, it’s a great one!
Next up was Cuvée Janine. Made with pinot noir grapes, this wine is on the drier side of the rosé spectrum, with a nice sour cherry flavour. The colour of it is gorgeous, more reddish orange than pink. I found that it was more effervescent than full on bubble. It’s another great wine and would pair well with hors d’oeuvres.
Finally, the last wine I tried was their Chardonnay. The wine was actually slightly darker than in the photo. The grapes in PEC are grown on limestone and the wines often carry a distinctive minerality of the region (some of them get really funky). This unoaked Chardonnay is surprisingly buttery, with flavours of fresh apple and citrus peel that compliment the minerality. I could see this pairing really well with white sauce pasta and chicken.
Out of all the wines I tried, I really enjoyed the first one the most. I ended up bringing home a bottle of it, as well as a bottle of Merlot for a friend (their request).
After the wine tasting, we headed out the the patio for dinner and drinks. While everything on the menu sounded delicious, we were tantalized by the smell of the wood burning pizza oven. Among the grapes, with wine in hand, we could watch our orders being prepared. It was blissful.
I ordered a Funghi pizza, with garlic confit, wild mushroom, portobellos, caramelized onions, fresh parsley and thyme, and balsamic reduction. I followed the wine pairing recommendation and had the Pinot Gris.
My friend ordered the Winemaker’s Fave, with fresh tomato sauce, garlic, mozzarella, prosciutto, black olives, and fresh basil. She also had the suggested wine pairing, Rosé.
The pizzas were DELICIOUS. And the wine pairings sublime. I would absolutely go back, even if it was just to hang out on the patio with the same meal.
Overall, I highly recommend visiting Huff Estates Winery if you’re in PEC. In addition to great wines, there are a lot of things you can explore, see, and taste on the Estate. We were only there for a couple of hours, but you can easily spend a day here.
Cheers to a fantastic visit!
