Flat Rock Cellars, Part 3

Ange: Well Ed we are here in the cellar. Ed Madronich: Yeah. Ange: Surrounded by Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling over here. Ed Madronich: Yeah and some twisted over here. Ange: Some twisted over here. Ed Madronich: Yeah a little bit of wine hanging out. Ange: Nice, this place is great. Ed Madronich: It’s great yeah, so we’re underground now and the green roof that we saw earlier is above us and you can feel the temperature in here, nice humidity, nice and cool in here, keeps the wine at a perfect temperature, allow us not to have to heat or cool the facility and it’s great for the wine, great for the pocketbook so it works for everybody so yeah. Ange: Good for the earth Ed Madronich: And good for the earth even more importantly it’s great for the earth so. Ange: So when you’re going to have a little tasting room over the entry there. Ed Madronich: Yeah we made it so people can experience it, so this is the sort of the storage of wines area; you can see all the wine around us but we’ll have a little barrel cellar and because we need a little bit of room for storing barrels and we’re going to have a little tasting area that people will able to come in and see the facility and see underground and see all the things that we’ve done here, so it’s not only about being green but it’s also talking to the people who come here so they’ll understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and hopefully they can get some ideas on how they can be more responsible to the environment as well. Ange: And showcasing the things you do well, which is not only your wine but it’s everything from the ground up when it comes to Ed Madronich: Yeah. Ange: To the business. Ed Madronich: Well thank you very much and it really goes to original philosophy that we had here, to me it’s just not about the wine, when people come here it’s about the experience, it’s about the things that we do, it’s about education. Without all of those things it’s not a complete experience, wine to me is one part of that experience and it’s just enhances everything that we do so life’s always a little bit better with the glass of wine. Ange: Yeah you’re absolutely right and I know even from upstairs when we’re upstairs you can see the skyline of Trona. Ed Madronich: Yeah, you look straight across the lake; I used to live in Trona when I always look when I look across and I can see, I think of that all the traffic jams and I’ve think of how nice it is to live out here in the country and it feel a little bit slower and a little bit quieter. If people can, want to experience great experience is to come down to Ontario not just Flat Rock Cellars but come down experience Ontario wine country. It is better for the environment to buy local. Ange: And it is different. Ed Madronich: It is, you know we’re preserving green agricultural space here, we’re all farmers at the end of the day, it’s very important that we preserve that green space. Our product does not have travel on a train or a truck or a boat halfway to get across world to get here, so there’s a lot of benefits from an environmental perspective, as to why you should buy local, and don’t buy it because it’s local, buy it because we make great wine here and we do make some of the best wine in the world. Ange: We make that some great Rieslings, that’s for sure. Ed Madronich: That’s definitely true. Ange: One of my favorites, but I mean there’s a lot hype around local food and I think the next thing the local food is obviously supporting local wine and that is a big part of I think what will help our industry grow but would it make people have really appreciate what goes to our agriculture which is a lot of what happens in Ontario. Ed Madronich: Definitely and I think that you’re right, the next that we talk a lot about local food and buying local when it comes to food. What’s interesting, you go anywhere in the world you go to Burgundy, you go to Tuscany; they only drink burgundy and wine with their Burgundian food. You can’t even find other wines on their wine and things like that and our local chef, one of the things that’s amazing about our local chef is our local chef are making food to go with the local wines and I just think we hasn’t got to the consumers as much as it could but that’s really the pairing of the design of the food is to go with the wines and so I think as we develop more and more people are going to embrace the fact that if I’m eating local foods I’m going to have a local wine to go with it because that goes best with those local foods Ange: Absolutely. Ed Madronich: Because certainly the chefs are designing their foods and their menus around the wines that they have available to. Ange: Well like we said we’re producing award wining wine right, so for producing amazing dishes in the restaurant they should be carried with some great wine. Ed Madronich: I agree. Ange: Well, thanks very much, look forward to call me down when everything is finished in here, and you got the barrels all set up, it’s like part of the journey right? Ed Madronich: It is. It’s always good to see a develop along the way. Ange: Congratulations on everything. Ed Madronich: Cheers. Thank you very much we’ll see you again. Ange: Cheers. Thanks Ed.