A Canadian couple plants a vineyard after finding inspiration in Australia's Yarra Valley

A Canadian wine lover and his partner have planted their first vineyard in Ontario after a trip to Australia's Yarra Valley gave them the confidence to pursue the venture.

Six months after a visit to the region, the couple stood in the field of a farm they had bought near Port Hope, Ont., planting their first row of vines.

"I'm not sure I would have felt so confident planting those vines if I hadn't met him, or had that lunch with Luke, 16,000 kilometres away in the heart of one of Australia's most inspiring wine regions," the writer said.

The trip in late December began with a search for winemakers working at their own pace and scale.

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At Luke Lambert's property in the Yarra Valley, lunch included venison from an invasive Sambar deer he had shot on the property. "They love vines," Lambert said. "And they're delicious."

Lambert's passion is making Australian nebbiolo, dedicating his life to one grape on a granite-rich hillside.

The couple also met Stephen Morris of Pennyweight Winery, whose family's wine roots go back to the 1860s Victorian gold rush.

"Not as many people are drinking wine as they used to," Morris said. "It's painfully obvious what the problem is. The wine's no good."

Nearby, at Mayford Wines, Eleana Anderson leads the winemaking on a property her husband spotted from the air in the late 1980s, which then had no road, power or water.

"We're not subscribed to the bigger-is-better theory," she said, hand resting on a vine. "We found our happy balance."

In the town of Healesville, Mike Emmett runs Barrique Wine Store, which he has turned into a community hub with weekly winemaker events.

"The collegiate sense of co-operation is ridiculous," Emmett said. "During vintage, it's, 'hey, I'm short of bins, can you drop one?' Everybody asks everybody everything. And does anything for anybody."

Emmett introduced the couple to Timo Mayer, a winemaker who ran away from his family's German winemaking dynasty at 21.

"Apparently there are people out there who don't like Campari," Mayer said. "And they're the same people who don't like my wines. Well, who the hell wants to be friends with those people?"

The couple also learned about other outsiders thriving in the region, including Scott Bishop, who took over Denton Wines, and Sara Grounds, who runs marketing at Giant Steps.

They then drove south to Gippsland, at the bottom of Victoria, where a handful of winemakers are buying farms and turning them into vineyards, seeking a cooler, wetter climate.

David Chapman of Corner Inlet sold his house to fund his project there, having watched harvest dates creep earlier and pinot noir lose its finesse as years got hotter.

"I want to be somewhere cooler," he said, "and somewhere wetter."

As good luck would have it, after planting their Ontario vineyard, the couple discovered an Australian-born winemaker with decades of Canadian experience had moved in down the road.

With files from The Globe and Mail