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Pelee Island Winery and Vineyards PosterCirca 1895
Pelee Island, Ontario
Credits:Pelee Island Heritage Museum
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Wine Recipe from 18985 July 1898
Pelee Island, Ontario
Credits:Pelee Island Heritage Museum
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Wine and CheeseFrom that serendipitous meeting of Thaddeus Smith and J.S. Hamilton, in the year 1873, that brought about a partnership that would serve up Pelee Island wines to the world. It was the business acumen of J.S. Hamilton that made known to the public far and wide the merits of Pelee wine. Only five years after their partnership, the wine made at Vin Villa was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, France. It was even said that the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, approved of said wines. The Amherstburg Echo trumpeted the further accomplishments of Pelee wine in 1882:
"With their usual enterprise J.S. Hamilton & Company, of Brantford, made an extensive exhibit at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition of the Pelee Island wines for which they are sole agents for Canada. They were awarded three prizes and a bronze medal for the best assortment of wines from grapes of Canadian growth. This makes seven medals awarded to Pelee Island wines since 1878."
Throughout the 1880's, J.S. Hamilton, Dunlop and Company entered and displayed wines made on Pelee into competitions around the world: Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London, England in 1886; Toronto Industrial Exhibit in 1886 & 1889 and the Edinborough International Exhibit in 1890. These displays and entries would feature the many wines in production, i.e. Dry Catawba, Sweet Catawba, St. Emilion, Isabella and St. Augustine Sacramental wine. It would be at the Great Exhibition of 1891in Jamaica that Pelee Island wines would be awarded the gold medal. J.S. Hamilton, after this lauding, would acquire agents for his company to promote his products throughout the West Indies.
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Pelee Island Winery exhibit at the Paris Exhibition in 19001900
Paris, France
Credits:The Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature; Vol. XV, May,1900 to Oct. 1900; page 399: Ontario Publishing Co.
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At the Chicago Fair of 1893, there were many Canadian wines entered. The Evening Record reported on the praise and celebration of these wine, many of which were made from Pelee grapes:"When one learns that there are already thousands of acres of vineyards in Canada and millions of dollars capital in the Dominion invested in this industry, the fine display by the wine makers of the Niagara Peninsula, as well as those in that still more favoured section of Ontario, the extreme southern point of Canadian soil - Pelee Island in Lake Erie - with its equable and long extended summer season, is not only what might be properly buy would warrant an ever more representative exhibition of our country's capabilities in this line.
The most interesting items of the exhibit are two brands of Cognac made by P. Beneteau of Windsor, Ontario. Experts declare that this Canadian brandy is of the finest quality. Being the only known commercial product in Canada of this highest form of the art of wine making it is gratifying to learn that an extensive trade has grown up, the sales in Chicago already being most considerable. The Niagara Falls Wine Company, T.G. Bright & Company, Toronto proprietors, show native wines of Catawba, Niagara and Concord extraction. Another creditable contribution is from E. Girardot & Company of Sandwich, Ontario. They have on the shelves of the trophy, clarets of the vitage of the 1890 and 1892, Catawbas of 1890, and samples of sweet Burgundy and Sauterne. Charles Montreuil of Walkerville, Ontario exhibits his brands of Old Victory and St. Cecily...The Pelee Island Wine Company of Pelee Island and Brantford made a good show of their manufactures.
In 1893, the Vin Villa vineyards brought over an expert in the making of Champagne from Epernay, France. The following year's vintage would come to be known as L'Empereur Ch
ampagne, the first champagne to be made in Canada. A grand display, in the Canadian Pavilion, of L'Empereur Champagne of the Pelee Island Winery at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 can be seen in the pages of the Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature from that year.
The combination of the quality of grapes and wines made on Pelee with the tenacious marketing campaigns by J.S. Hamilton not only made Pelee Island Winery a Canadian leader in the Wine Industry but put it on the world stage as a grape growing and wine making center.
Sources:
The Vinedressers, Ron Tiessen, Pelee Island Heritage Center, 1997
Amherstburg Echo,Oct. 6, 1882,
Evening Record, July 6, 1893
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J.S. Hamilton Bottle of CognacCirca 1895
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Terry Matz Collection
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List of wines produced for the Pelee Island Winery, 18888 June 1888
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
In an Advertisement placed in the Brantford Daily Courier of 1888, a detailed list was given as to the products offered up by the Pelee Island Winery and Compand:
Dry Catawba is a fine, light, dry dinner wine of fine bouquet, and closely resembling the Sauterne of France and Rhine Wine of Germany.
Sweet Catawba - a choice, sweet, Champagne in flavoured wine, same quality of wine as sparkling wines are made from.
Isabella - a delicious golden-coloured wine, very choice, delicate in flavour, similar to Sicilian wines.
St. Emilion - a red wine, stout, rich and full bodied, made from the Virginia Seedling and Catawba grapes.
St. Augustine - a dark, sweet, red wine, produced from the Concord and Catawba grapes, especially suitable for church purposes.
Claret - a dry, heavy, red wine, produced from the Virginia Seedling grape, a great favourite.
Delaware - a choice light, dry dinner wine. The price asked for the about wines $1.50 per gallon in 5 gallon lots, $1.25 per gallon in barrel lots, or one dozen quarts at $4.50.
Pelee Island Port is a sweet red wine, the product of the Concorde grape. It sells for $1.40 per gallon in 5 gallon lots. Old wines, vintage 1882, are available: Extra Old Canadian Port, Old Concord, and Virginia Seedling Claret. The price is $6.00 for one case of twelve quarts.
Credits:Brantford Daily Courier
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Bottles of St. Augustine WineCirca 1890s
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Terry Matz Collection
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E.G. Scovil Wine JugCirca 1890s
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Terry Matz Collection
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Advertisement for L'Empereur Champagne17 August 1898
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Brantford Expositor
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Bottle of L'Empereur ChampagneCirca 1895-1900
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Terry Matz Collection
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