LCBO Food and Drink Autumn 2016

elee Island

PELEE ISLAND WINERY & THE BUTCHER OF KINGSVILLE

IN THE AUTUMN, The Butcher of Kingsville offers a special sea- sonal treat—local grass-finished beef. All the beef the store sells is naturally raised and dry-aged but the grass-fed beef has a unique flavour and yellow, not snow-white, fat. Some customers club together and buy a whole animal, expertly butchered by Mark Muzzin.

Mark and Izabela Muzzin were both in the wine industry when they met—in fact Izabela’s father, Aleks Bemben, was the first assistant winemaker at Pelee Island winery and she grew up there, even con- ducting winery tours at the age of 12. How does that lead to opening an arti- sanal butchery? “We had a baby in 2009,” explains Mark Muzzin (above left), “and had a hard time finding good food lo- cally. We made connections with local farmers and started delivering meat and produce to customers.” Needing storage

space, they rented a century-old former bank; retail followed naturally. Today the store is thriving, famous for the quality of its local Berkshire and Tamshire pork, organic air-chilled chickens, Quebec pa- tés and terrines, cheeses from all over the world and, of course, its beef.    Pelee Island Winery is unique in so many ways. It’s Canada’s warmest and oldest wine-growing region and lies on the same latitude as Rome and northern California. There’s only one winery in the entire appellation and it owns 550 acres

of vineyards—hence the great range of wines Pelee Island produces every year— wines that are made on the mainland in Kingsville, Ont. Winemaker Martin Janz (above right) came here from Germany in 1993 as assistant winemaker and oversees the entire program, including the powerful BacoNoir. “We age it inbothAmerican and European oak barrels for 16 to 20 weeks,” explains Martin, “to add the softness and warmth you feel on the finish. Baco Noir is a bit like Ontario itself, open and expres- sive but not too fussy or pretentious.”

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