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Rossignol’s Estate Winery wins six awards

Winning six medals at the All
Canadian Wine Championship in Windsor, Ontario, last spring was a great
way for John Rossignol to celebrate his 10th anniversary since the
doors opened on his winery in Little Sand’s, Prince Edward Island.

Celebrating 10 years since the doors opened at Rossignol’s Estate Winery by adding six medals to a list of many is a great 10th anniversary gift for the winery’s owner, John Rossignol. The All Canadian Wine Championships were held recently in Windsor, Ontario, and Rossignol’s Island wines picked up six medals. Photo by Kathy Birt.

Winning six medals at the All Canadian Wine Championship in Windsor, Ontario, last spring was a great way for John Rossignol to celebrate his 10th anniversary since the doors opened on his winery in Little Sand’s, Prince Edward Island.

Rossignol, the owner and operator of the winery, says although he has won numerous awards over the years, he has never won that many in a single competition.

“I enjoyed making wine as a hobby, and that personal interest has grown into a passion,” he said.

It’s a passion that has become his livelihood and a means of putting P.E.I. on the winemaking map.

“I feel P.E.I. was accurately represented (at the championship). It was a good cross-section and we’ve established awards for both our traditional table wine and fruit wines.”

And those winning wines included best-of-class for his maple wine and Isle St. Jean red hybrid blend, gold for his blackberry mead, silver for a Seyval Blanc Hybrid white table wine, as well as silver for the Isle St. Jean white hybrid blend and bronze for his Valiant Jubilee.

Rossignol believes the secret to his success in operating a winery on an island that sees six months (or more) of winter a year is that he keeps his business small and caters to small Island businesses for the ingredients in the 14 wines that make up his portfolio.

“Right from the beginning, I’ve used Island products and made wine to represent P.E.I.,” he said.

Those products include blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, maple syrup and P.E.I. honey. “We deal with farmers all over the Island (for fruit and honey) and the maple syrup comes from the P.E.I. Maple Syrup Factory.”