Extended aging on lees allows the great traditional-method sparkling wines to move through successive levels of expression, gaining depth, silkier texture, and intricate layers of toast and mineral resonance that only years of patient cellar ageing can reveal. Yet the most complete long-aged sparkling wines don’t stop evolving there. After disgorging, they enter a second act: bottle aging on cork, where the richness from lees aging gradually becomes even more integrated, creating a finer, more seamless harmony that only extended time can achieve.

The 2004 Brut Reserve Late Disgorged captures the synergy of both worlds: the profound textural and aromatic gains of extended lees aging (LD standing for late disgorged), followed by an equally important chapter of post-disgorgement bottle age. Together, these two phases amount to a whopping 21 years of evolution in a bottle. As if this level of maturity weren’t remarkable enough, the wine also represents a milestone in our history: it was the inaugural debut of our sparkling wine program, our first statement to the world that Nova Scotia could craft traditional-method sparkling wines of international calibre. Two decades later, this cuvée still stands as both a beginning and a benchmark - an origin story that continues to define what is possible here.