DUNHAM, QUEBEC, CANADA - In this pleasant countryside of corn fields and gentle hills, a group of rugged pioneers has settled in search of an elusive golden nugget. Many have staked their claims along a mostly rural stretch of Route 202, one-hour's drive south of Montreal. What they find won't end up in bank vaults, but in bottles and in cellars. The gold these pioneers pan for is predominantly Seyval, a hardy white wine grape of Alsatian origin. Québec winegrowers are beginning to reap rewards for their efforts, but they have seen their share of disappointments.

Panning For Liquid Gold

"It takes only one night to kill everything," says Frank Furtado, a co-founder of the L'Orpailleur vineyard in Dunham. He recalls with a lingering note of sadness the night of June 2, 1986. "There was a big frost and we lost 90 percent of the grapes. It was our second year and that was hard for us."

L'Orpailleur means "the gold-panner" and in Québec, where Arctic-like winters can bring bone-chilling temperatures as low as -30°C along with several feet of snow, any effort to grow wine grapes commercially seems as unlikely to produce results as sifting dirt for riches.

Despite the risks, "les vignerons québecois" have learned how to fend off the cold and produce attractive table wines. Their efforts have also produced an unusual twist to local tourism. A day trip from Montreal to Dunham or overnight stay in l'Estrie (known by Anglophones as the Eastern Townships), can include roadside tasting stops at l'Orpailleur and several other wineries. Nearby farms also produce and sell cider; raspberry and strawberry wines; and hydromel, a honey-based liqueur.

It's not always possible to see the vines that produce the uncommon wines of Québec because they spend more than eight months of the year buried deep in earth or snow. Using a winegrowing method developed in northern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the plants are set in spacious rows with room enough for heavy machinery to cover the vines in mid-October and unearth them in late May. Frosts can threaten the grapes as late as the first week of July, though special burners put out in the vineyards can offer protection against the killing cold.

Further protection for the grapes lies in the Dunham area's special microclimate. The picturesque lakes and hills of nearby Lac Massawippi, Mont Orford Provincial Park and the countryside surrounding Dunham trap and store the sun's heat, resulting in milder weather than common elsewhere in Estrie and Québec. In autumn, radiating heat from Lake Champlain less than 20 miles to the southwest protects vines against damaging early frosts.

In Francophone New England

The first licenses to operate vineyards were issued in Québec in the mid-1980s. Today, the five original winegrowers, including l'Orpailleur, are joined by a dozen others. In one recent year, Québec vintners sold 250,000 bottles of their hardy wines. With a production last year of 70,000 bottles, l'Orpailleur is far and away the market leader. At a 1992 international competition held in Montreal, the vineyard was awarded a bronze medal for dry white wine, a first for any Québec wine.

Work undoubtedly remains before these wines bring home any gold medals, but l'Orpailleur's award has provided a mother lode of golden attention for the winning vineyard and for the viability of the fledgling Québec wine industry.

The marketing and winemaking successes of l'Orpailleur and its competitors seems even more remarkable given that Québec's tax laws makes it prohibitively expensive for winegrowers to sell their product in government-owned liquor stores.

As a result, almost all Québec wines are sold directly at the vineyards. Most of the nearly 100,000 bottles l'Orpailleur sold last year were bought by more than 50,000 visitors. Several Montreal restaurants--Restaurant Prego, Restaurant de l'Hotel Quatre Saisons and Au Petit Extra among them--feature l'Orpailleur on their wine lists.

To entice oenophiles and passers-by alike, l'Orpailleur offers complimentary wine-tastings and informative vineyard tours. An attractive country-style bistro at the front of the vineyard looks out on a relaxing view of fields and hills. Naturally, l'Orpailleur figures prominently on the wine list. For appropriate accompaniment, l'assiette de fromages might include a farmhouse chèvre or l'Ermite, a well-regarded blue cheese from the monks of Estrie's Saint-Benoît-du-Lac.

Occasionally referred to as "francophone New England," Estrie resembles rural Vermont and northern New York State with its well-kept family farms, colorful fall foliage, and peaceful, back roads atmosphere.

There is, of course, an inherent contradiction in the notion of a francophone New England. Estrie, like most of Québec province, proudly draws on its French roots. Even the smallest of villages sport the requisite boulangerie and boucherie to supply picnicking travelers with homemade saucisses and pâtés and, of course, crusty bread.

In September, l'Orpailleur sends up a celebratory round of fireworks to mark the grape harvest. More in keeping with French winemaking traditions is a November ceremony to taste la première cuvée, the year's first wines.

Vineyard co-founder Frank Furtado, a Québec-born theater producer who has also organized international fireworks festivals throughout Canada, says the September gala at l'Orpailleur is a way to put his special stamp on the Dunham wines.

A certain North American flair for marketing is clearly Furtado's forté. At l'Orpailleur and throughout the Québec wine industry, however, those responsible for the wine itself are, like the grapes, transplanted from France.

If You Go

Québec's l'Orpailleur Winery is located 50 miles (80 km) south of Montreal on Route 202 at Dunham, near Cowansville.

The winery is open daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., April 15 through November 15. From November 15 through April 15, l'Orpailleur is open weekends from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; the rest of the week by appointment.

The restaurant at l'Orpailleur is open daily for lunch and dinner, June 1 through October 15.

For further information, contact Vignoble de l'Orpailleur, 1086 route 202, Dunham, Québec, J0E 1M0, tel. (514) 295-2763. To receive a Québec government guide on the Estrie region, contact Tourisme Estrie, 25, rue Bocage, Sherbrooke, Québec J1L 2J4, tel. (819) 820-2020.

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