The award winning Happy Knight Wines announced this week that they will be making an addition to their Hatfield Point vineyard. The planned facility with be built on the site of their current vineyard and will serve as a facility for production, storage, storefront, as well as a tasting room.

Happy Knight co-founders Matt and Angela Guptil planned a two-day event over the weekend to break the news about the new facility, while playing host to a crowd of 200 at their vineyard, as wells as musical guests SWIG (Coldbrook) and The Marks Hollis Band (Saint John).

“We want to show everyone what we’re up to – the idea is to open up to the community.” – Matt Guptil

Happy Knight has been operating their winery for the last five years along the Belleisle Bay. The land that the vineyard is on had belonged to Matt’s grandfather, but the property had been in the family since they recieved it as a loyalist land grant dating back to 1784. It remains one of the few family-owned land grants in the area. The farm was converted to a five acre vineyard , and planted with organic black currants planted three years ago.

At the commencement of the project they began producing wine by shipping out to Nova Scotia. Guptil explains that approach was due to its inherent low risk when it came to laying out the initial investment,  but it also meant an opportunity to work with skilled winemaker Dominic Rivard. Rivard specializes in fruit based wines and also operates Bulwark Cider out of New Ross, Nova Scotia.

Now with some seasoned growth under their belts, and a stockpiled harvest they’re seeing a demand to step up their game. The new facility will play a key role in that by allowing them to produce and bottle their wine on site. The facility is being design by architect Caley Scholer and constructed by BelleBay Construction. The new building will be divided between 3000 square feet of production and storage space, and 1500 square feet of front end sales and tasting room.

For more information visit happyknightwines.com