Cardwell Hill Cellars

Cultivation of the original vineyard, located at the foot of Cardwell Hill, was started in 1983. During the next two years, approximately one-third of the 20-acre site was planted in Pinot Noir Wadensvil clone and the remainder in white varietals. In January of 2000, Dan and Nancy Chapel purchased the property as the first step in their dream of creating a premium vineyard to produce award-winning wines.

Cardwell Hill Cellars practices sustainability in our winery operations.  A significant factor is the use of gravity-flow concepts that involves three levels of operation in the winery. The fruit is sorted and de-stemmed on the upper level, berries drop into fermenters on the middle level and then about two weeks later the fermented wine flows by gravity to the barrel room located under the fermentation deck.

The winery building has 33 large windows providing enough light to work during the day without artificial illumination. The barrel room is in a cool underground chamber which does not require artificial cooling. Winemaking waste, called lees, is collected and recycled back into the vineyard thereby providing valuable nutrients to the soil.