The Winery Bear River Vineyards of Nova Scotia

Discovering the wine region of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s maritime provinces, located halfway between the equator and the North Pole. While the region is not as famous for its wines as Ontario and British Columbia, there is a flourishing wine industry based largely on Sparkling wines and crisp white wines made from Grape varieties such as Vidal, Seyval Blanc, and the province's signature L'Arcadie Blanc variety. Nova Scotia is surrounded by three bodies of water, with the Atlantic Ocean to the South, the Bay of Fundy in the northwest and the Gulf of St Lawrence in the north. If it were an island it would be around the same area as Tasmania and almost the same relative latitude.

Vineyards in the province are never more than 20 kilometers (12. 5 mi) from the ocean and benefit from Long fall seasons, allowing the grapes Ample time to mature in the cool Climate. Despite the peninsula’s location and proximity to the ocean, Nova Scotia’s climate is more continental than maritime. Northern Nova Scotia experiences greater temperature variation than the south as the Gulf of St Lawrence has shallower waters than the Atlantic Ocean and as such is more variable in temperature.

While ice build-up on the Gulf is common in winter, Nova Scotia's summers are some of the warmest in the country. There are four major wine-producing sub-regions in Nova Scotia. From north to south they are the Malagash Peninsula, Annapolis Valley, LaHave River Valley and Bear River Valley. The Annapolis Valley, which runs parallel to the Bay of Fundy on the north-west coast of the region, is home to Nova Scotia's one official appellation, the evocatively-named Tidal Bay.