Just outside Montreal is a unique region in the province of Quebec called the Eastern Townships. Located around 45 minutes southeast of Montreal, several hours from the city of Quebec, and bordering Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the Eastern Townships offer many activities for travelers to experience in any season.
The area is also known as Estrie, a toponym adopted in 1981. It is also identified as “Cantons-de-l’Est”, which was a name used by the first settlers of the area in the 16th century. The area was formed after the American Revolution, when the British gave loyalists fleeing the United States a safe haven. Today, the Eastern Townships area consists of the following sub-regions: Sherbrooke, Granby-Bromont, Brome-Missisquoi, Val Saint-François, Memphrémagog, Coaticook, Asbestos, Haut Saint-François, and Mégantic.
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Kava Tours
The charm of the pastoral countryside, spattered with old villages, apple orchards, maple shacks, and vineyards, is a popular destination for New Englanders. For the wine and spirits enthusiast, there are many wineries and cider houses to visit. If you are visiting Montreal, it is well worth adding a day to visit the Eastern Townships.
The ideal way to capture the area’s beauty and sights is to take a tour. Kava Tours is highly recommended. Kava offers both self-guided picnic lunch tours and private guided tours. Tour guide and owner Benoit Hébert leads you through the best of the three wine regions of the Eastern Townships: Dunham, the birthplace of Quebec’s wineries, Bromont, and Rougemont (Montérégie), known for its cider producers.
Vignoble Les Pervenches
A day visiting the wineries of the Eastern Townships should include a variety of wineries and cider producers. Our visit to the region began in the Brome-Missisquoi region at a boutique family-run winery called Vignoble Les Pervenches. Owners Michael Marler and Veronique Hupin take pride in their 3-hectare vineyard, which they farm using both organic and biodynamic principles. They are certified organic by Écocert.
Veronique is very modest about showing off the excellent selection of wines on offer. Michael went to Mike McGill University, majoring in farming. While at the University, he went abroad to study agriculture at the Superior Purpan School of Agriculture in the South of France. It was here that Michael’s passion for wine developed. You might say Veronique is the marketing and finance part of this team, as she got her MBA at HEC Montreal and then worked at Nortel before the couple started their winery. Although Les Pervenches makes both reds and whites, the primary focus is on Chardonnay. They are one of the only producers utilizing this varietal in the Eastern Townships.
Vignoble Domaine Des Côtes d’Arboise
Our second stop was at the oldest winery in the Eastern Townships, Vignoble Domaine des Côtes d’Arboise in the Dunham region. Established in 1980, this is the perfect spot for a picnic because not only are you in the vineyards, you are also in a sculpture garden. This picturesque spot is an ideal setting for enjoying the wines, basking in the sun, and picnicking. The winery’s portfolio includes hybrid and vinifera wines, as well as cider.
This post is an excerpt from an article I published in FWT Magazine.