Montreal’s World’s Largest Rooftop Vineyard Yields Excellent Sparkling Rosé

Imagine sipping of sparkling rosé wine and discovering it was 100 per cent made with grapes grown and harvested on Montreal rooftops.

The project by Vignes en Ville founder, and rooftop wine pioneer, Véronique Lemieux, began in 2016 as a way to analyze the use of recycled crushed glass because it reflects sunlight, as a substitute for sand in soil mixtures.

The rooftop vineyard, the largest in the world, has 545 plants across four rooftops, Centre Agricole in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec, Palais des Congrès, and the Ubisoft building.

The first harvest produced an average sparkling white wine, which was converted to a rosé. According to Lemieux, this was where the magic happened. “It tasted like hard candy, without being sugary. It had a nice acidity, like an explosion of fresh raspberries,” said Lemieux.

Lemieux plans on organizing a tasting so more people will have an opportunity to sample the rosé wine.

In 2019 the vineyard won the Novae prize winners, which recognizes the 20 best practices in social responsibility and sustainable development in Quebec. More Information: Vignes en Ville