Prince Edward County’s wine industry on display to the U.S.A.

Brighton resident Joe Haché is the creator and host of a six-episode series of web TV shows featuring the wineries of Prince Edward County. Photo by Cam Kennedy, QNet News

By Cam Kennedy

BLOOMFIELD – A man with a passion for wine has put Prince Edward County on the map for vino drinkers south of the border.

Brighton resident Joe Haché has been writing stories for several years on County wineries for the Picton Gazette. With hopes of taking his work to the next level, Haché started looking for media platforms to display what the County had to offer, but to a bigger audience.

He began his search by visiting the Canadian-based Food Network‘s website.

“I went online and checked out the Food Network here in Canada but they had about 15 pages of (paperwork) you had to fill out” to suggest an idea for a show, Haché said. He decided that the process was too long, and started looking into The Food Channel‘s website, based in the U.S.

His pitch to that network was simple: “Everybody is drinking wine now. Everybody loves wine. I want to tell the stories behind the wineries.”

The network liked Haché’s idea, creating a season of six episodes of the show titled I Luv Wine.

Each episode features a County winery. It gives viewers an insight into the lives of the vintners, with Haché serving as the host.

One of the wineries featured is Terracello Winery,  just outside Bloomfield.

Haché said he would sometimes pass the winery in his car as it evolved from an old farm into a winery.

As he watched the development of Terracello, Haché decided to see what was going on at the operation run by Anthony and Daniela Auciello.

The relationship between the Auciellos and Haché started when Haché knocked on their door, Anthony Auciello said.

“Because (Haché) is in the wine scene, he saw a little vineyard at the front of the property. He wanted to know what was going on,” Auciello said. “He knocks on the door and my lovely wife … answers the door with our two kids screaming at her leg” and said, “‘ You wanna talk about wine? You go see Tony. He is in the barn.’ ”

Haché says the small scale of winemaking in Prince Edward County, and the personal connections, are what help makes the local wine industry different than elsewhere.

“I’ve travelled to Bordeaux and stuff like that. There, you go to a big French house – you don’t get to talk to the owner and the winemaker. When you come to the County, like here at Terracello, for example, Tony is the winemaker. So you get to talk to him about his wine – hear about his story.

In addition to being available on the Food Channel website, I Luv Wine can also be seen on and its YouTube channel.