Hi, I’m Adrienne Rule, winemaker here at Rideau Vineyard. For nearly three decades, our team has been crafting small-lot wines with one guiding belief: the land should lead the way. When guests ask what gives our wines their distinctive character, we always point to two things—our terroir and our shared, minimal-intervention approach in the cellar. Together, these shape every bottle we make.

OUR TERROIR

One of the things we love most about working with this vineyard is our climate. Long, warm days give the grapes generous ripeness, while the cool evenings—carried in by Pacific breezes—help maintain natural acidity. That daily rhythm creates the balance we strive for in our wines, with a style that’s both age-worthy and food-friendly.

The soils beneath our vines are just as essential. The lower part of our estate rests on what was once an ancient riverbed, leaving us with gravelly soils that drain quickly. Varietals like Viognier, Roussanne, and Grenache thrive here, developing distinctive aromatics and minerality. As the ground rises into gentle slopes, the soil becomes more clay-loam—richer, with more water-retention capacity. That’s where our Syrah is planted, and the fruit from these blocks naturally shows more depth, structure, and savory character. Our job in the cellar is to honor these differences rather than smooth them away.

This land has been tended for generations—first as orchards of peaches and walnuts, and now as organically farmed vineyard rows shaded by ancient oaks. We avoid synthetic pesticides and have worked to build out solar operations as part of our commitment to sustainable stewardship. Healthy soils and healthy vines are essential to expressive wines, and we work every season to ensure this place continues to thrive.

The vineyard map below shows how we’ve planted each variety where it naturally thrives. Viognier spans much of thelower vineyard, joined by Roussanne and our more delicate red varietals, while the dense échalas-method blocks of Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Syrah rise up the hillside toward our upper Syrah plantings. These subtle shifts in exposure, drainage, and soil composition give our wines their layered personalities—and capturing those nuances is at the heart of our work.

OUR WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY

 

Our winemaking philosophy flows directly from this respect for the land. We hand-harvest each block, ferment with native yeast, and keep intervention to a minimum so the vineyard can speak for itself. We use oak sparingly, choosing barrels that add subtle texture rather than overt flavor. As a team, we’re always focused on clarity and balance, allowing each wine to reflect the character of the fruit and the soils it came from.

So when you open a bottle from our estate, you’re tasting more than just the fruit—you’re tasting our riverbed soils, our coastal evenings, our sustainable farming, and the thoughtful, hands-on work we put into every small lot. That’s the beauty of our terroir, and it’s what inspires us every day at Rideau.

We hope this gives you a deeper sense of how our estate comes together—from the soils beneath your feet to the wines you enjoy in your glass. Take a stroll through our shop to discover the full extent of the many varietals we work with.

DISCOVER OUR WINES