Robert Bell's

Wines of Canada

Since 1992

The Roost Wine Company

415763 10th Line, RR1
The Blue Mountains, ON
N0H 1J0

Located on a picturesque hilltop in the heart of the Blue Mountains,near Ravenna, Ontario with stunning views of Georgian Bay and only 20 minutes from Collingwood and Thornbury. The Roost is about bringing friends and family together in a beautiful and relaxing setting, allowing them to dream away an afternoon or evening - accompanied by a glass of wine of course! The winery is the fulfillment of a dream for husband-and-wife team Michael and Jessica Maish. Together the pair do everything from tending the vines to making the wine.

Jessica and Mike studied Enology and Viticulture, respectively, at Washington State University.

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. The Roost is 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.

The first vines were planted in 2013In 2016, they 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.

" In fact, in the Canadian wine world, we’re considered innovators in cold climate wines."

The Maish 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.

The Roost wines have been awarded numerous medals from the All Canadian Wine Championships and Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.

The Roost flagship wine is the Marquette. It is an inter-species hybrid red wine grape variety, developed at the University of Minnesota.

L'Acadie is a grape very well suited to the cooler climate of Southern Georgian Bay. Originally developed in Vineland, Ontario, it prefers cooler ripening temperatures so can be found in lots of Canada's cooler regions, most notable Nova Scotia. The Roost has one of several plantings in the area.

Frontenac Blanc is a relatively new grape, even in the world of cold-climate vines. It's said to be cold-resistant to -40C and has natural resistance to the majority of diseases that can damage grapes. As a result, The Roost able to grow it with minimal intervention in the vineyard.

Located north of Toronto on Lake Huron's east side you will find Georgian Bay. Often referred to as the sixth Great Lake, Georgian Bay features more than 30,000 islands and 2,000 kilometers of shoreline. The area includes Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Beaver Valley & Saga Beach. Three wineries are emerging from this new region, Coffin Ridge, halfway between Meaford and Owen Sound, has been selling wine for a few years now. Carrick Wines, further to the west on Highway 9 between Walkerton and Mildmay, is located on the rolling hills inland from Lake Huron and has been selling wine since 2010. Georgian Hills Vineyards, a few kilometres south of Thornbury, opened its doors to ... the public in summer, 2011

This is a true cold climate wine region with long warm summers but cold winters requiring hardy grape varietals such as L'Acadie Blanc, Geisenheim 318, Frontenac Gris, La Crescent, Prairie Star, and Auxerrois for white and Marquette, Baco Noir, Marechal Foch, Leon Millot Frontenac, and Pinot Noir the reds

Michael and Jessica Maish

The Georgian Bay Wineries

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