The Faces Behind the Bottles: Portraits by The Mighty Studio

On October 28, the Halpern Portfolio Tasting filled Hall D at the Enercare Centre with 94 vintners, hundreds of open bottles, and a room full of people who love wine. It is the opening night of the Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival, in support of University Health Network, and it moves quickly. Winemakers pour, guests taste, and the evening is over before anyone has had a chance to stand still.

This year we gave them a reason to. Tucked into the hall was a portrait set run by Hailey of The Mighty Studio, a Toronto portrait photographer with a gift for catching people as they really are. Between pours, producers and guests stepped in front of her camera for a minute or two. The results are some of our favourite images from the whole festival.

Meet Hailey and The Mighty Studio

The Mighty Studio is a Toronto portrait studio, and Hailey is the photographer behind it. She grew up under her grandfather's camera and always wanted to be the one behind the lens. It was her mother-in-law, Myra, who pushed her to pursue it. The studio is named in Myra's honour, after her licence plate: MYTMY, "Mighty My".

Hailey's approach is simple to describe and hard to do. She is looking for the moment a person's guard drops and something real shows up, before they think to hide it. There are no forced smiles and no stiff poses. Her portraits are honest, artful and relaxed, and the people in them look like themselves.

That approach suits a wine tasting. The people who make these wines spend the evening on their feet, telling the story of a vineyard for the hundredth time that night. A quiet minute in front of Hailey's camera shows a different side of them.

The portraits

The vintners

Mathieu Caron, Aupale

Mathieu joined us from Quebec with Aupale Vodka, one of the Canadian spirits in the Halpern portfolio. Aupale is made in Quebec from a corn base and glacier water sourced near Baie-Comeau, on the province's North Shore.

Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, Bodega Chacra

Piero founded Bodega Chacra in 2004 in Mainqué, in the Río Negro valley of Patagonia, after finding an old, abandoned vineyard of Pinot Noir. Some of the estate's vines date back to 1932 and 1955, and they give their names to the Treinta y Dos and Cincuenta y Cinco bottlings. Piero is the grandson of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, the creator of Sassicaia, and he makes the Chacra Chardonnay with his friend Jean-Marc Roulot of Meursault.

Emanuele Reolon, Isole e Olena

Emanuele joined us from Isole e Olena, the Chianti Classico estate in the hills of Barberino Tavarnelle. The estate is best known for Cepparello, its pure Sangiovese.

Andrea McLaughlin, Jackson Family Wines

Andrea represented Jackson Family Wines, the family-owned company founded in California by Jess Jackson in 1982. Its collection of estates now reaches from California and Oregon to Europe, South Africa and Australia.

Caterina Giustiniani, Jermann

Caterina poured for Jermann, the Friuli estate founded in 1881. Jermann is known for its white wines, and above all for Vintage Tunina, the blend that Silvio Jermann first made in the 1970s.

Pascal Jolivet, Pascal Jolivet

Pascal founded his namesake house in 1987. He makes Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé on both banks of the Loire, with Sauvignon Blanc at the centre of the range.

Louis de Montille, Domaine de Montille

Louis joined us from Domaine de Montille, the family estate in Volnay. The domaine's holdings run through the Côte de Beaune and into the Côte de Nuits, in both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Elisabetta Nonino, Nonino

Elisabetta is one of the three Nonino sisters. Her family has been distilling in Percoto, Friuli, since 1897, and her parents, Benito and Giannola, changed the reputation of grappa with their single-varietal Picolit bottling in 1973.

Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Remoissenet Père et Fils

Pierre-Antoine came from Beaune with Remoissenet Père et Fils, the Burgundy house founded in 1877. Remoissenet is known for its deep cellar of older vintages alongside its current releases.

Paolo De Marchi, Proprietà Sperino

Paolo De Marchi is known to many wine lovers for his decades at Isole e Olena. Proprietà Sperino is the family's other story: a hillside estate in Lessona, in Alto Piemonte, that came to the De Marchi family through a relative, Felice Sperino. Paolo had wanted to revive it since the 1970s. Today his son Luca runs the estate and makes the wines with Paolo's guidance, with Nebbiolo at the centre.

Annabelle Grellier, Château d'Yquem

Annabelle represented Château d'Yquem, the only Sauternes estate ranked Premier Cru Supérieur in the 1855 classification.

Friends of the house

Sharifa Jordan, Sommelier, Oretta

Sharifa is the sommelier at Oretta, an incredible Italian restaurant in Toronto.

The Butterfield & Robinson team

Butterfield & Robinson, the Toronto travel company founded in 1966, designs walking and biking trips through many of the wine regions represented in the hall.

The Halpern family

The Portfolio Tasting is a family affair, and it would not be a Halpern event without Halperns in the frame.

Thank you, Hailey

A tasting of this size is gone in an evening. Portraits like these are what stay. Our thanks to Hailey for bringing her camera, her calm and her eye to the Portfolio Tasting, and to every vintner and guest who stepped in front of the lens.

To see more of Hailey's work or to book a session of your own, visit themightystudio.ca or follow @the.mightystudio on Instagram.

All portraits by The Mighty Studio.