Sampling Wineries in New Brunswick- Part 2

by Keith and Heather Nicol    

    We started part 2 of our New Brunswick winery tour at Magnetic Hill Winery (http://www.magnetichillwinery.com/) located on the outskirts of Moncton, New Brunswick. Here Janet and Jeff Everett have a great location overlooking the city and they have been restoring a 1867 house at the same time that they have been developing their winery. Virtually all of their wines are fruit wines from fruit that is either grown on their property or within a short distance from Moncton. They opened in 2005 and now have 14 wines. Janet told us that they are probably best known for their rhubarb wines and that they had just finished picking 5200 lbs of rhubarb for their next batch!  Janet also told us that they have been developing their dessert wines and a new one involves putting chocolate covered quinoa in a sweet maple wine.  “We are always looking for different experiences in wines and we also have “apple pie in a bottle” – a delicious combination of pear, apple and spices. It is one of our most popular dessert wines” she told us. One of their latest projects has been to add 2 rooms to their restored house to create a heritage style bed and breakfast. Our comfortable room had a large attached bathroom and breakfast consisted scrumptious waffles with fresh fruit. Moncton is a great place to spend a few days since it has 2 national parks in close proximity as well as lots to do locally including a large zoo, new casino, many kilometers of walking trails, a huge water park and of course Magnetic Hill. See http://tourism.moncton.ca/SplashPages/TourismIndex.htm for more information on Moncton.

Janet Everett at the tasting bar

The winery and bed and breakfast are in a 1867 restored house!

      The next day (Wednesday June 19) we visited Belliveau Orchards (http://www.vergerbelliveauorchard.ca/) which produces 12 fruit wines. We met the owner Robert Brougeois who told us they have been operating since 1999. He said that their pear wine had won many awards and that their wild blueberry wine was probably their most popular . “Many of our fruit wines are dry since I always like to produce a wine that people can drink eat with their meal.” Robert added. He told us that they are now selling to the New Brunswick liquor stores and that their sales had gone way up. Belliveau Orchards also sells fruit juice and apples and other produce in season.     

Belliveau Orchard produces 12 fruit wines