Lieux Communs Winery

Lieux Communs is an urban winery in Montreal.

We make wine from fruit grown in Quebec and Ontario on the northern limits of viticulture. Old school, natural techniques and aesthetics. Hybrid grapes and budding young vineyards. Discovering a new terroir, new terroirs.

Our juices ferment naturally and often very quickly, slowed only by the cold autumns and winters. The resulting wines are pure, lively, both intriguing and joyous.

Our ciders and piquettes are a blank canvas for experiments in infusion and co-fermentation. Flowers, teas, herbs, berries, honey and grape skins become the colors on our palette. Less alcohol, freshness, often in can. As much terroir as any grape wine, but younger, fresher and joyous.

In 2021 we planted 4,500 vines on a volcanic hillside in Oka, Quebec.

Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Riesling. Pinots noir and gris, Gamay.  Rows of clover, thyme, wild flowers and grasses. Rocky, strong winds. Cedar posts, steel wires.

We follow the principles of organic and regenerative agriculture. We believe in polyculture, healthy soils and the willingness of plants to live in competitive harmony with the wild flowers and herbs growing between the rows of vines.

Our vines are planted on land that belongs to Hugo Grenon of Domaine Polisson.

Hybridity. Nordicity. Urbanity.

Lieux Communs is a hybrid winery dividing and connecting the urban and the rural. We vinify hybrid grape varieties developed for our freezing, humid climate, often with apples, berries, flowers, honey and herbs. The resulting beverages are fresh, boreal, northern, but often difficult to define.

The project is post-industrial, a former textile factory transformed into an urban winery in Montreal's Central District. This is the very neighborhood where, in decades past, small farmers would gather to distribute their fruits and vegetables to Montreal's restaurants and grocery stores. We inherit this history.

Collaboration. Proximity. Banality.

Lieux Communs was born out of residencies at several Quebec wineries. Between 2018 and 2020, Domaine Le Grand Saint-Charles, Coteau Saint-Paul and Château de Cartes allowed us to try natural and experimental winemaking in their cellars, sharing their space, equipment and knowledge.

In the beginning, the name 'Lieux Communs' referred to this spirit of collaboration and shared physical space. Even today, our winery is located in a cooperative and our vineyards on leased land adjacent to an existing vineyard.

Lieux Communs also refers to literal spaces for sharing a drink, from wine bars, restaurants, terraces and patios, to beaches, lakes and chalets.

There is also the semi-pejorative meaning of "Lieux Communs". Like in English, a commonplace is a banality, a cliché, an unoriginal proposition. The Quebec wine industry is full of these... Frontenacs, Marquette, Swensons, varieties associated with mediocrity and poor imitations

We, too, are walking clichés... Montrealers, sommeliers who imagine themselves as farmers and winemakers trying to make vInS nAtUrEs. But hey, we all have our own path to follow, and self-deprecation is essential to our generation anyway.