Things have started to get real for the family behind Sons and Daughters Winery in Pelham. Founded in 2018 by brothers Anthony and Geoff Hall, the pair, along with manager Dan Sherrington – who also happens to be the Hall boys’ brother-in-law – knew it would take a long time for the business to get off the ground. The winery’s name reflects the two brothers’ children – Geoff’s three sons and Anthony’s three daughters.
It’s now 2024 and there are plenty of signs of physical progress. Work is continuing of the winery building/event and tasting space at the Effingham Road property, so after its soft opening a couple of weeks ago, tasting, and other events have been held outside in a courtyard surrounded by a picket fence and flowers. On this day, all is quiet except for the squeal of a buzzsaw.
“We found that in the two weekends we've been open, these fill up pretty quickly,” Anthony Hall said, pointing out an array of green six-seat picnic tables. “We're building a few others that are a little bit smaller to accommodate smaller groups.”
Such is the way for a business that is still taking root, much like the winery’s vineyards on Effingham Street and Tice Road.
The six wines on offer include three reds – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Baco Noir. For white wine fans, there is a Riesling in both regular and sparking varieties. There is also a Rosé on offer.
The rose is something unique, Anthony said, utilizing Chambourcin grapes.
“It’s a red grape to begin with, but we just press it, we harvest it,” he said. “We press it right away, and then just take the juice off so it's got that tint from the from the skins. then we ferment it like a like a typical white grape.”
It’s a grape that is not widely used but one they have found success with.
“We planted it, and it grows fairly well,” he said. “We experimented a little bit in that first year, 2020, we made some Rosés with it, and we're like, this turned out well, so we did that again and again and again.”
He said work is progressing at the site and a grand opening will probably be held next spring.
The interior space could be ready “in the near future,” Anthony said. “But being so late in the season, we may not kick it off until next year.”
Geoff agreed.
“It'll take time. It's not like, you know, you don’t pop up your winery overnight and you got everything going,” he said. “It's a slow process. It's been six years getting here.”
Built on the Fonthill Kame – a large hill made up of layers of sand and rocks deposited by retreating glaciers – Geoff Hall said the unusual location for the winery has been a draw. There is a sign at the site, explaining what a kame is.
“It’s something that's very interesting to many of our visitors,” he said. “The way that the soil layered.”
It’s a fact that is not lost on the brothers. Inside, there is a string artwork that shows the layers of a kame itself, with different coloured string representing layers of rock and sand.
And as it turns out, the kame – which is six kilometres long east to west and runs three kilometres north to south – has played a big role in helping make it an area ripe for grape growing by sheltering the area from winds coming from the southwest.
When the work is done, there will be more than wine on offer. Guests will be able to dine on wood-fired pizza, charcuterie, and espresso coffee among other things.
Anthony referred to Sherrington as “the coffee guy” who will be looking after guests who may want something a little different.
“We're just doing wine currently, but it will be part of things once the building's ready,” Sherrington said.
But before anything else, there is the wine. The brothers are currently tending to their grape crop, making sure everything is in order.
“We do everything by hand, so there's a lot of labor involved in that,” Anthony said. “Everything's off and picked by hand, which is a lot of work.”
That includes pruning at the start of the season to leaf removal cluster thinning. The latter involves the deliberate dropping of some fruit, Anthony said, to “allow the vine to put more energy into the remaining fruit.”
Some of the Riesling grapes will be saved and harvested in the winter as the brothers are going use to create their own icewine if all goes according to plan.
More information on Sons and Daughters Winery can be found at sonsdaughterswinery.com
