Bottle shop is open for online orders, Phone orders and curbside pickup.
About Us
We are a small boutique farm winery located on one the busiest winery roads in Prince Edward County. Known as the 'golden mile' Closson Road is where we call home and raise our family. We would like to invite you all to experience our little part of the world. Gravelhill Vineyards takes pride in being a family winery and the minute you walk into our tasting room it’s very apparent. You’ll always be greeted with a warm welcoming smile and an unassuming approach to wine tasting.
Meet the team
Chris Karja
Michelle Karja
Chris Karja
Owner,
Winemaker,
Vineyard Manager
Michelle Karja
Michelle Karja
Michelle Karja
Owner,
Admin,
Harvest help
A bit of info about our vineyards...
Here on our Closson Road farm in Prince Edward County we have 6 acres of vinifra and hybrid grape cultivars planted on rocky Hillier Clay Loam soil mixed with glacier till.
We knew that growing grapes in Hillier, Prince Edward County, Ontario would be a challenging task, cold winters and late spring frosts followed by summer droughts. Challenged by Mother nature and conventional thinking we decided to move forward with our next life project.
Be the hero of your own story, be different! Because we believe that different is good and people come to our beautiful area to experience something different!
After much research we decided to plant cool climate and cold hardy grape varieties such as Frontenac Noir, Marachel Fosh, Gamay Noir, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir for our red varietals and Vidal Blanc and Frontenac Blanc for our white varietals. These types of grapes would allow us to deal with the temperature swings that cause damage in the coldest part of the winter. A few of our varieties still need to be buried in the winter to protect the buds from extreme cold. To accomplish this burying we use a plow on our grape hoe to pile dirt over a pre-selected grape cane that is tied to a wire on the ground. In the spring we then un-bury the cane and tie it to a wire 20” from the ground. From this the buds burst to life and surrender their bounty of grapes so that we can make our delicious wines. Of course there is lot stuff occurring in the middle of all that which makes us very busy farmers.
We utilize our sheep workers at various times of the season in order to help us 'give back' to the land naturally and assist in weeding.
Someone once said “Wine is made in the vineyard not the winery”, true enough! A good farmer grows good grapes and that is what you need to make great wines. Starting with quality fruit is an essential part to making quality wines and making quality wines is our passion.
