The Bakery, the Orange & the Wild Hand
Trail Estate Winery is a family-run, low-intervention craft winery in Hillier, Prince Edward County — a place where a German-Canadian baking family and a biology-and-English grad with harvest stamps from South Africa and New Zealand are rewriting what Ontario wine can look, taste, and feel like. Founded in 2011 by Anton and Hildegard Sproll — who spent 30 years running a successful bakery in Kitchener-Waterloo before retiring to an acre of Baco Noir and a dream — the estate is now overseen by their son Alex Sproll (operations and marketing) and daughter Sylvia Sproll (accounting), with winemaking in the hands of Mackenzie Brisbois since 2015. The 6.5-acre estate vineyard is farmed with organic and regenerative practices — no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers — on clay and calcareous limestone soils that force vines to struggle and concentrate. In the cellar, Brisbois lets nature guide the process: wild, non-selective yeasts; zero filtering; zero additions of enzymes, tannins, or colour; and minimal to zero sulfur. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered — hazy, alive, and honest. The portfolio is split between classic County Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs and an esoteric line of orange wines, pét-nats, piquettes, and frizzantes with names like ORNG, Oh Julius, Neon Candy, Little Fluffy Clouds, and Juicy Red — wines that look like psychedelic posters and taste like wild fermentation. This is not a winery that chases scores. As Alex Sproll says: "Wine should have life!"
The Bakers, the Biology Degree & the Brisbois Hand
The story of Trail Estate begins in a bakery in Kitchener-Waterloo — with Anton and Hildegard Sproll, a German couple who spent three decades building a successful and innovative bakery, mastering the art of dough, fermentation, and patience. When they retired, they did not seek a quiet life. They sought an acre of Baco Noir and a dream — and found it on a 14-acre property at the intersection of Benway Road and the Millennium Trail in Prince Edward County. In 2011, they bought the land and began planting: two acres each of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, one acre of Baco Noir, and smaller blocks of Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Geisenheim, and Gewürztraminer. They launched their first vintage in 2013 and opened the tasting room doors in 2014 — a family operation from day one, with son Alex (a graphic designer) handling marketing and operations, and daughter Sylvia (an accountant) managing the books.
The turning point came in 2015, when the Sprolls hired Mackenzie Brisbois as winemaker and grape grower. A Prince Edward County native, Brisbois arrived with a degree in Biology and English, a diploma from Niagara College's Winery and Viticulture Technician program, and cellar experience at Norman Hardie — one of the County's most respected estates. She had also worked harvests in South Africa and New Zealand, meeting her husband in the Cape Winelands and bringing back a global perspective to a local project. At Trail, she found something rare: total creative freedom. The Sprolls gave her the vineyard, the cellar, and the mandate to push boundaries. She took the idea of small-batch, craft winemaking and ran with it — introducing skin-contact whites, orange wines, pét-nats, and piquettes to a region that had barely heard of them. "We took the idea of small batch, craft winemaking and ran with it," she says. "And the wines were good, but they were also different."
What emerged was a dual identity that defines Trail Estate to this day. On one side, classic, terroir-driven County wines — Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Cabernet Franc made with minimal intervention but recognisable structure. On the other, an esoteric line of natural experiments — wines with names drawn from pop culture and psychedelia, labels designed by Alex Sproll that look like concert posters, and flavours that challenge every preconception of what VQA Ontario should taste like. The Sprolls' baking background is not incidental: they understand that fermentation is alive, that patience is everything, and that the best products are made by hand in small batches. The winery's name comes from its location on the Millennium Trail, a converted railway line that runs through the County — a path, a journey, and a reminder that wine, like bread, is the product of slow transformation.
"Wine should have life! I shy away from anything too sweet and cloying. I just find wines with great floral and flinty aromatics more lively and interesting."
— Alex Sproll, Proprietor & Operations Manager
Prince Edward County, Hillier & the Limestone Hand
Prince Edward County is a knife-edge of limestone and lake jutting into Lake Ontario — a wine region defined by its fragility, its extremes, and its improbability. The winters are brutal, the growing season is short, and the vineyards are so close to the lake that a single frost can destroy a year's work. But the same calcareous limestone bedrock that makes farming difficult also makes the wines electric — the mineral signature of the County is unmistakable, a chalky, saline, flinty backbone that runs through every great wine made here. For Trail Estate, the County is not just home; it is the entire argument — a place that demands resilience, rewards patience, and punishes anyone who tries to take shortcuts.
The 6.5-acre estate vineyard sits on Benway Road in Hillier, just east of the village centre, where the soils are a study in contrast. The North block — nearest the winery — has shallow, heavy clay soils less than 12 inches deep, forcing vines to struggle for every nutrient and producing fruit of intense concentration and mineral tension. The South block, running along the Millennium Trail, has marginally deeper, more gravelly soils that shift from sandy at the top to incredibly rocky at the bottom, with slight shade from a nearby tree line that delays morning warming and extends the growing season. Both blocks sit above layers of calcareous limestone — the same geological formation that underpins Champagne and Burgundy — and in summer, the vineyard often experiences drought-like conditions that stress the vines and lower yields. The result is fruit with natural acidity, delicate aromatics, and a distinctive citrus-and-cranberry flavour profile that Brisbois has learned to amplify rather than correct.
Since 2018, Trail Estate has farmed with organic and regenerative practices — a commitment to building soil health, aiding biodiversity, and avoiding synthetic inputs. The vineyard is not certified organic, but the practices are rigorous: no chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers; hand-picking and hand-processing; and a focus on ecosystem health over yield. The Sprolls and Brisbois have also expanded their sourcing beyond the estate, working with trusted growers in Niagara — including the Wismer Vineyard and the Foxcroft Vineyard on the Twenty Mile Bench — to access fruit that complements the County's cool-climate character. This is not a scattershot approach but a deliberate expansion of terroir: the estate provides the mineral, acidic backbone, while the Niagara fruit adds ripeness, depth, and variety. The result is a portfolio that speaks for both the County and the broader Niagara Peninsula — a dialogue between two of Ontario's most important wine regions.
Hillier is the epicentre of Prince Edward County's wine renaissance — a small village surrounded by vineyards, limestone cliffs, and the glacial soils of the County's interior. Trail Estate sits just east of Hillier on Benway Road, where the Millennium Trail — a converted railway line — runs past the vineyard's southern edge. The site is not glamorous; it is a working farm on the edge of a bike path, with a prefab tasting room that has grown into something more permanent over the years. But the location is perfect for the Sprolls' vision: close enough to Hillier's other wineries to draw visitors, far enough from the main road to feel like a discovery. The North block's heavy clay and the South block's gravelly limestone provide two distinct expressions of the same hill, and the proximity to the trail means that cyclists, hikers, and wanderers often stumble upon the tasting room by accident — exactly the kind of organic, unplanned encounter that the Sprolls value.
The North block is the estate's most challenging and most rewarding site — a dry, shallow plot with less than 12 inches of heavy clay soil over limestone bedrock. The Chardonnay planted here has struggled to establish itself, but the struggle is precisely what gives the wine its character. The shallow soils force roots to penetrate the limestone directly, extracting minerals and creating a flinty, chalky, saline backbone that defines the County Chardonnay du Nord. The block is nearest the winery, protected from the harshest winds, and exposed to full sun — but the clay retains moisture just long enough to keep the vines alive through drought. For Brisbois, the North block is a lesson in patience: the yields are tiny, the fruit is slow to ripen, and the wine requires careful handling in the cellar. But the result is a Chardonnay of startling elegance and mineral intensity — the essence of Prince Edward County in a bottle.
The South block runs along the Millennium Trail, a converted railway line that is now a multi-use path through the County. This block is more sheltered than the North, with slight shade from a nearby tree line that delays morning warming and extends the growing season by precious hours each day. The soils change from sandy at the top of the block to incredibly rocky at the bottom, creating a gradient of ripeness and expression within a single acre. The Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from this block tend to be more supple and fruit-driven than the North block's mineral laser beams, with a softer acidity and a broader texture. The proximity to the trail also means that the South block is the most visible part of the vineyard — visitors on bikes and on foot pass within metres of the vines, watching the season unfold in real time. For the Sprolls, this visibility is part of the philosophy: the vineyard is not hidden behind a tasting-room wall but exposed, accessible, and integrated into the community's daily life.
Trail Estate's farming philosophy is rooted in the belief that healthy soil produces healthy grapes, and that healthy grapes need no help in the cellar. Since 2018, the vineyard has been managed with organic and regenerative practices: no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers; no tillage that would disrupt the soil's fungal networks; and a focus on biodiversity both above and below ground. The vineyard is not certified organic — the Sprolls and Brisbois prefer to spend their resources on practice rather than paperwork — but the standards are exacting. Hand-picking ensures that only pristine fruit enters the winery. Hand-processing means that every grape is sorted and destemmed with care. And the absence of synthetic inputs means that the vineyard's indigenous yeast populations thrive, providing the microbial foundation for the wild fermentations that define the cellar. This is not farming for yield; it is farming for flavour, for soil health, and for the long-term resilience of a site that faces drought, frost, and winter kill every single year.
Wild Yeast, Zero Adds & the Psychedelic Hand
Mackenzie Brisbois's winemaking philosophy is distilled in three words: "Honesty inside the bottle." This is not a marketing slogan but a technical absolute that governs every decision in the cellar. All fermentations are wild — initiated by indigenous, non-selective yeasts from the vineyard and the winery environment. No commercial yeast strains are used. No enzymes are added. No tannins are added. No colour is added. No filtering is used. And if sulfur is used at all, it is minimal to zero — just enough to stabilise, never enough to sterilise. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered, carrying their sediment, their haze, and their microbial memory from tank to glass. As Brisbois puts it: "We let nature guide the winemaking process."
The approach is small-batch and hands-on — Brisbois is not a remote winemaker but a craftsperson who works with a few tonnes of fruit at a time, adjusting to what each vintage and each site demands. The classic line — County Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Cabernet Franc — is made with minimal intervention but recognisable structure: whole-cluster or destemmed ferments, neutral oak or stainless steel aging, and careful attention to acidity and texture. The esoteric line — ORNG, Oh Julius, Neon Candy, Little Fluffy Clouds, Juicy Red — is where Brisbois pushes boundaries: extended skin contact, carbonic maceration, ancestral-method sparkling, piquette, and oxidative aging. These wines are deliberately unpolished, vibrant, and unpredictable — hazy orange wines with eight months on skins, fizzy pét-nats bottled with crown caps, and juicy glou-glou reds meant to be chilled and consumed quickly.
What emerges from this dual approach is a portfolio that is both serious and playful, traditional and radical. The County Chardonnays — particularly the du Nord and du Sud — are flinty, saline, and textured, with a mineral precision that rivals the best white Burgundies. The Pinot Noirs are light, earthy, and aromatic, with whole-cluster spice and a savoury finish. The Rieslings — especially the Barrel-Fermented and Foxcroft Vineyard expressions — are dry, austere, and age-worthy, with lime, petrol, and honeyed complexity. And the esoteric wines — the ORNG with its eight months of skin contact, the Oh Julius with its tangerine and marmalade, the Red Pét Nat with its purple haze of Baco Noir and Cabernet Franc — are fun, funky, and alive, capturing the energy of a winemaker who refuses to be bored. This is winemaking for both the purist and the party — for the collector who cellars Chardonnay and the twenty-something who drinks pét-nat from the bottle.
Wild Yeast, Zero Adds & the Honesty Covenant
The guiding principle of Trail Estate's cellar is that the grape already knows what it wants to become — the winemaker's job is to listen, protect, and get out of the way. The organic and regenerative viticulture provides healthy, complex grapes from living soils. The hand harvest and hand processing ensure that only pristine fruit enters the fermenter. The wild, non-selective yeast fermentation — initiated by the vineyard's own microorganisms — captures the microbial soul of Prince Edward County and Niagara. The absence of filtering, fining, enzymes, tannins, and colour preserves the raw, living, evolving character of the wine. The minimal sulfur — if used at all — means that every wine is a true expression of its place and its season, uncorrected and unmasked. And the small-batch approach allows Brisbois to experiment, to fail, to succeed, and to create wines that are never replicated — only evolved. The cellar is not a factory but a kitchen, where a baker's family and a biologist's instincts combine to make wine that is unmistakably, defiantly alive.
ORNG, Oh Julius, Little Fluffy Clouds & the Psychedelic Hand
The Trail Estate portfolio is a dual universe of classic County elegance and esoteric natural experimentation — a range that spans flinty Chardonnay, earthy Pinot Noir, bone-dry Riesling, and structured Cabernet Franc on one side, and orange skin-contact wines, fizzy pét-nats, juicy piquettes, and hazy frizzantes on the other. The classic wines are made with the same low-intervention ethos as the esoteric ones — wild yeast, minimal sulfur, no filtering — but they carry a more recognisable structural framework: barrel aging, malolactic fermentation, and patient élevage. The esoteric wines are where Brisbois lets loose: neon labels, pop-culture names, and winemaking techniques that VQA has never seen. Production is small and vintage-variable — the estate makes only what the season provides, and the esoteric line shifts from year to year like a rotating art exhibition. The current portfolio represents a province-wide exploration of natural possibility, from the limestone benches of Prince Edward County to the Twenty Mile Bench in Niagara.
The Bakery, the Millennium Trail & the Wild Hand
Trail Estate Winery is not merely a winery; it is a proof that a baking family and a biology grad can transform a 14-acre property on a converted railway line into one of the most dynamic natural wine projects in North America. In an era when the Ontario wine industry is still dominated by industrial scale, chemical inputs, and the pursuit of "ultra-premium" polish, Anton and Hildegard Sproll — with their son Alex, their daughter Sylvia, and their winemaker Mackenzie Brisbois — demonstrate that the most exciting wines sometimes come from a prefab tasting room on a bike path, made by a team that refuses to filter, fine, or standardise what the vineyard produces. The same small-batch ethos that defined the Sprolls' bakery — handmade, patient, local — now defines their winery. And the same wild curiosity that led Brisbois from a biology degree to the cellars of Norman Hardie to the harvests of South Africa now leads her to push the boundaries of what VQA will accept.
The legacy of Trail Estate is the legacy of the playful, serious hand in Canadian natural wine. Brisbois is not a typical Ontario winemaker: she did not inherit a family estate, she did not apprentice in Burgundy, and she did not build her brand on conventional accolades. She is a County native who left to see the world and came home to change it — a biologist who understands yeast, an English graduate who understands narrative, and a craftsperson who understands that the best wines are made with freedom. The ORNG is not just an orange wine; it is a declaration that Ontario can produce skin-contact wines of international relevance. The Oh Julius is not just a fun bottle; it is a proof that raw, unfiltered, zero-sulfur wine can be delicious and accessible. And the County Chardonnays — du Nord and du Sud — are not just classic whites; they are documents of a limestone terroir that deserves to be mentioned alongside Chablis and the Côte de Beaune.
The future of the project is tied to the future of low-intervention, terroir-driven winemaking in Ontario — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most famous appellations but from the most committed rebels. As the ORNG continues to introduce drinkers to the possibilities of extended skin contact, as the Red Pét Nat proves that Baco Noir and Cabernet Franc can dance together in a fizzy bottle, as the Field (of Dreams) Blend expands the definition of what sparkling wine can be, and as the Barrel-Fermented Riesling demonstrates that Ontario Riesling can age with the best of the Old World, Trail Estate remains what the Sprolls and Brisbois have always intended it to be: a family-run, wild-fermented, unfiltered, zero-addition craft winery on the Millennium Trail — structured not by tradition or technology but by dough, limestone, and the eternal reminder that wine, like bread, is a living thing that should never be tamed, filtered, or allowed to die in the bottle. The story of this winery is the story of a baking family who learned to ferment grapes with the same patience they once reserved for sourdough — and in doing so, created a taste of Prince Edward County that is unmistakably, defiantly alive.
"We let nature guide the winemaking process. Our aim is honesty inside the bottle."
— Mackenzie Brisbois, Winemaker & Grape Grower