TRANSCRIPT

Interview with John Hall, President and C.E.O. Kittling Ridge Estate Wines and Spirits - John Explains The Grimsby Wines Farm and Parkdale Wines


It was called Parkdale Wines and it was located in Etobicoke, I started out as a winemaker for them. And we had a 250 acre farm up in Grimsby up on old Number 8 highway called the Parkdale fruit farm. And that farm grew grapes, and what we did at the time with that farm, its primary use was to show growers that they could grow certain grape varieties in the peninsula, because at one time the grape varieties that were grown in the peninsula were labrusca grapes, labrusca being a variety of grape that has originated in North America and the finer wines or table wines were being made out of the variety of grape that grows in Europe. So we used to import some of these grape vines to prove to grape growers in this area that we could certainly grow vinifera grape varieties, and that's where I was familiar with different grape varieties, and the vineyards and the growing of grapes in the Grimsby area.