A big thinker, culture builder, and vibrant connector, Dr. Norene Hyatt-Gervais has built a community hub in Morrisburg by cultivating relationships—and grapes.
When you’re in Norene’s company, it’s easy to get excited. She’s the kind of person who not only radiates but also acts on positivity and community spirit.
She grew up in Thunder Bay, the land of “trees and rocks, rocks and trees” and just loved discovering the swaths of cornfields and the vastness of the St. Lawrence River when she moved to Morrisburg 31 years ago with her husband Marc. Though the landscape was certainly attractive to Norene, it was the opportunity to take over the Morrisburg Animal Hospital that drew her here. That and a 70-acre hobby farm.
“We knew—we just knew—we would do something with this property,” she says.
At first, they used it as a hobby farm and home base for their four children. Then, Norene—who grew up the daughter of a passionate amateur winemaker—found out there were grapevines that would survive in our climate. And that changed everything: The seeds for a local vineyard were planted.
In 2006, she took a vineyard design course at the University of Guelph and acted on her knowledge by planting five acres of cold-weather grapes on their property. She followed that up by taking night and weekend classes at Ottawa’s Algonquin college for three years—while still maintaining her day job as a vet—and earned her designation as a sommelier.
“I wanted to have things in my toolbox so I could teach and lead tastings, and understand the chemistry of wine,” she says.
By 2016, Norene and Marc made their first wines and a year later, they opened doors to StoneCropAcres Vineyard and Winery. Since then, the vines have matured, the property has expanded, a cluster of new wineries have opened in the region, and Norene has continued to tap into her boundless energy to help push the winery and the community at large into an agri-tourism destination.
Partnerships with local food producers mean that the winery has stocked locally-made wine-infused cheese and even ice cream from Iroquois’ Upper Canada Creamery, focaccia crisps made with dehydrated and pulverized grape skins from Winchester’s Simply Baked Catering, and nacho chips made with heritage grains produced by Against the Grain, also in Winchester. Beyond food and drink, StoneCrop Acres, in collaboration with Ottawa-based Harmony Concerts, has also developed the Concerts At The Winery, an ongoing music series that has so far has scheduled performances into the end of 2020.
Norene continues to harbour lots of forward-thinking plans for working with like-minded businesses to elevate the region.
“There is a vibrancy in this community that is really coming alive,” she says. “I think it’s always been there but now there’s a swell of amazing people who want to share what we have with others. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
