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Sustainability

An early advocate for sustainable practices, Closson Chase uses centuries-old European traditions to create world-class wines

Winery

We’re proud to preserve a small piece of the County by restoring and repurposing historic structures like the century-old Purple Barn and Hillier church. Originally built in 1840 then reconstructed in 1947, the church served the community until 1969. Nearly forty years later, Closson Chase relocated the structure and commissioned artist Helga Boelen to redesign the now-iconic roof in the style of Burgundy’s ‘Hospices de Beaune’.

We work with chef and restaurant partners that favour local ingredients in their menus for our regular offerings and special events. Our gardens are irrigated with rainwater captured at the Purple Barn, and all water usage will soon be optimized with a flow meter.

Vineyard

Our 35-acre estate vineyard uses low intervention small-scale farming practices, favouring hand labour over mechanization. We use captured rainwater for our spray program, only applying commercial fungicides when necessary and we never use copper or any other heavy metal sprays in our vineyards.

The majority of our fruit is sourced from our own property and nearby vineyards. We exclusively use Ontario-grown grapes, and work with local suppliers to minimize our carbon footprint and improve our wine quality.

Soil health is carefully maintained through cover crops planted in each row. These cover crops rejuvenate the vineyard by creating a living biosphere for beneficial soil microbes. Vine cuttings are mulched back into the rows to build up organic matter and fortify the soil.

Cellar

The Ridge facility is designed for a gravity flow system, eliminating the use of mechanical pumps for our free run juice. The barrel cellar is housed in an underground geothermal concrete structure with natural temperature regulation.

Our cellar is free of harsh chemicals like caustic and bleach, instead using steam cleaning and potassium oxide for sanitizing. We’re also moving towards more sustainable packaging with all of our wines being bottled under screw cap, eliminating the need for plastic wine capsules.

All winemaking is done with minimal interventions, with as few additions and movements to the wine as possible. This maintains the integrity of the wine, while also reducing the use of mechanical equipment in the cellar.