IN THE BEGINNING

Pauline was brought up in Trenton, Ontario from 1952 to 1959. As a result, she was familiar with the beautiful sandy beaches near Picton, in Prince Edward County. Each summer, in the early 1980's, we rented a cottage for 2 weeks on the south east shore of the County in an area known as Waupoos. One year, the property next door came up for sale - 98 acres, an 8-bedroom farm house and 5 cottages on the water. The land was planted with apple trees on a gentle south facing slope. Gilbert thought that, if we had been ready to retire, it would have been the perfect spot to grow vines for wine. That was the beginning of the dream to have a vineyard, one day. In 2001, the first winery in Prince Edward County opened two properties down the road from the one we had seen.

Well, now we are retired. Pauline took an early "release" in 1996; Gilbert left on the American Independence Day - July 4, 2003.

But, we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves. During the summer of 2000, we traveled to Niagara wine area, on a scouting trip. Not only was there not much suitable land left, anything available was very expensive. On the way home, we stopped in Prince Edward County and spoke with the owners of the upcoming Waupoos Estates Winery. To make a long story short, in November 2002, after attending a seminar on starting a winery, we toured suitable properties with a realtor in the western part of the County. During that trip, we found our 11 acres, here, just south of the village of Consecon, and purchased it in December of that year.

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