The Roost is a family owned and run winery in the Blue Mountains. We grow, make and serve seriously good cold climate wine for unserious occasions. 

So now you can have another one-of-a-kind bottle for your Wine Club friends that want to sniff, swirl, and sniff again. As well for your post-work glass or festive long-table lunch. 

Our wines are sustainably farmed, hand-made, small-batch, and minimal intervention. This way, every bottle is enlivened with our well-nurtured fruit that’s imbued with the nuances of our local terroir. The woolly winters, clay loam, the abundant ecosystem.  

And if you visit us, you can try this wine, along with a charcuterie and cheese board, in our 19th century barn that overlooks the Beaver Valley. 

Anyway, that’s the short story. If you want to tell a better one as you pour our wine to your friends around the dinner table, read below. 

Our Story

A winery on the fringes dedicated to pushing the boundaries of cold climate wines.

Few winemakers have braved the woolly setting of The Blue Mountains. So when we relocated from the UK to our family’s property here to start a winery and a family (hence, the name The Roost), we faced challenges. 

For one, regular European grape varieties don’t grow well in the freezing conditions. But, having dined around the culinary diverse London, England, we developed an appreciation for food and wine that bucked the norm. 

So, when we began the process of creating The Roost, we decided to turn the challenging climate into a strength. 

Amazing new cold climate varietals

We consulted Canada’s premier wine creators and researched famous cold climate regions in France, Germany and others peppered around Europe. 

Eventually, we stumbled upon several incredible varietals that naturally thrived in the local extreme temperatures and the clay loam of the Niagara Escarpment.

Sustainable viticulture

This meant we didn’t have to resort to heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and other interventions to keep the fruit healthy. Instead, the vines could flourish naturally. 

After all, as is the case with other premium producers, the viticultural philosophy was to work with the land, instead of making the land work for us. We maintained the vines using sustainable farming practices—no unnecessary chemicals or fertilizers. 

Local, small-batch, hand-made

In 2013, we planted the first vines. In 2016, we hand-harvested the fruit for the first vintage and, in the winery, used minimal-intervention techniques to showcase the fruit’s unique expression of the terroir, as well as keep out any unnecessary nasties.

The result was small-batch wines that were bright, fresh, invigorating, approachable, edgy, creative, clean, and very balanced. Or, in other words, an authentic expression of the Blue Mountains.  

Our 19th-century barn

To provide a setting that matched the wines, we renovated a 19th-century barn that was disassembled from a property two hours south and reconstructed on the farm in the early 2000s. 

Among the charming industrial beams, friendly staff and blooming garden, people could now enjoy the wine with a cheese board overlooking the vineyard and the spectacular setting. Isn’t that nice?

A new standard of cold climate wines

Over time, we have grown into what is now considered as one of the area's premier wineries. (That’s what the experts say, anyway). In fact, in the Canadian wine world, we’re considered innovators in cold climate wines. 

Yet, we’ve decided to keep things small and local. After all, smaller fruit is often more concentrated and flavoursome which makes wine more interesting and nuanced. At The Roost, we like to be the same. 

Today, the wine and the winery are a go-to among circles of critics, locals, and wine buffs who want to step outside the norm and, in the striking surrounds of the Blue Mountains, have a one-of-a-kind cold climate wine experience.