Château Canet: From Languedoc-Roussillon to Prince Edward County

By Colette Martin, Opimian Area Representative, Ottawa Chapter and Eastern Ontario

Travel has always been a fundamental passion of my husband’s and mine.  It’s what connected us then and remains something we endeavour to do whenever the opportunity presents. As time went on, we discovered a shared interest in wine and this began to influence our travel choices.  Over the years, we’ve been to Italy, California, New Zealand, South Africa, France and locally here in Ontario: Niagara and Prince Edward County

When we were planning our trip to France last year and thanks to Opimian’s membership perk of being able to visit producers of top-quality wine via the Member Experience program, we formulated an itinerary of exceptional wineries to visit with ease. After a couple of days in Paris and a few days in Saint-Emilion we made our way south to the Languedoc-Roussillon region where we rented a small apartment in Narbonnne Plage.  A few days, wineries, and a tour of the medieval city of Carcassonne later, we arrived at Chateau Canet.

Chateau Canet is an impressive property.  Standing on grounds, gazing at the old, beautiful buildings, you feel as though you’re standing in history.  Sitting on the middle part of a gently sloping hill, surrounded on all sides by vines save for one patch in front of the main building where there sits an olive grove.  In addition to crafting an array of wines to suit the more discerning of tastes and pocketbooks, they also produce small-batch, high-quality olive oil and olives. The olives were delicious and unique in that they had a slight hint of vanilla and almond nuttiness to them.  Sadly, they did not last long enough to make the trip back to Canada.  The oil, on the other hand did, and we served it as part of our reception during our Prince Edward County Weekend Event. 

Winemaking Facilities Tour

Upon concluding a self-guided tour around the property, we met up with Victoria and proceeded to tour the winemaking facilities and tasting the (fermented) fruits of their labour(s), a hardship like no other. Chateau Canet is a vine to bottle capable winery.  During our tour Victoria took us through each area, from de-stemming, pressing, fermenting ageing and finally the bottling plant.

We had the privilege of tasting a variety of wines at all different stages. Some were drawn directly from stainless steel tanks, egg-shaped plastic tanks and concrete. We also tasted from the barrel in the ageing room using a wine thief, where we had a little fun experimenting with blending.  Our tour finished in the main building with a glass of the Chateau Canet Minervois. Absolutely perfect!

An Evening with Victoria

That evening, in The Waring Hall, we had the opportunity to taste a selection of nine Canet wines including a vertical tasting of the Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon Special Oak Reserve from 2014, 2015 and 2017.  We sat down to a five-course gourmet meal prepared with the wines in mind, in fact the “palette cleanser” was a sorbet infused with Chateau Canet Syrah and was a hit. It took some finagling, but I was finally able to get the recipe from the chef. Victoria walked us through each wine and told its story, she spoke about what goes on in the vineyards, the vinification, how the wines get their names and through it all you sense the passion and get a glimpse of what this endeavour means to her and her entire family.  It was a wonderful evening and an extraordinary experience.

On the outset, we visited a supplier at Chateau Canet.  At the conclusion of our time there, we left friends; in fact, as we left and many times thereafter, my husband said our visit to Chateau Canet felt much like a visit home. France is a dreadful place… to leave.  Luckily, it’s not too far away and we’ve already booked our tickets to go back in Oct 2019 and are looking forward to spending more time at Chateau Canet with Victoria and Floris.

Favourite Pick for this Cellar Offering?

When asked to pick a favourite from the current Cellar offering, my first thought was “pick them all”.  For those of you who were in PEC, you had the unique advantage of tasting the Victoria Chardonnay, 2018 which is the same vintage as what is in the C269 and it is truly fantastic. However, the day after our visit to the Chateau, we headed down to the beach and toasted with a glass of Fines Bulles de Canet while watching the waves of the Mediterranean lap up at our feet, so it will remain a favourite in my memory of our visit to Chateau Canet and a staple in our cellar.