ConTenTs
evidence that they tried to ferment them or any other produce. It is not clear why most North American Native peoples – unlike populations in pre-conquest Central and South America, and the Caribbean – did not make fermented beverages. In the 1600s a missionary in Canada confirmed that ‘the Savages do eat the grape, but they do not cultivate it and do not make wine from it.’ His explanation was that they lacked ‘the imagination or the proper equipment.’
But grapes of the Vitis labrusca and Vitis riparia species flourished in many parts of their lands and immediately caught the attention of Europeans, as Eriksson’s visit shows. Five hundred years later, in 1535, the French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed down the Saint Lawrence River, passing the probable location of Vinland as he did so, and found an island where wild grapevines were growing up trees, as labrusca vines often do in the wild. He was so impressed by the quantity of grapes that he thought they must have been cultivated. He named the island Île de Bacchus, before (more diplomatically) renaming it Île d’Orléans for the Duc d’Orléans, son of the French king. In 1603 the explorer Samuel de Champlain also reported masses of grapevines growing along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River and wrote that he made ‘some very good juice’ from them. But he clearly, and curiously, did not wait for it to ferment.
The presence of grapevines growing wild throughout Canada eventually encouraged many European settlers to try to make wine from grapes growing locally, just as colonists in the settlements on the American Atlantic seaboard – from New England in the north to Florida in the south – tried to make wine from indigenous grapes. When those varieties proved unsuitable for wine, as they often did, Vitis vinifera vines from Europe were sometimes planted. But unlike well-documented American experiments in grape-growing and winemaking during the 1600s and 1700s, Canada’s were only sporadically recorded. In fact the record of the first 250 years of winemaking in Canada, from the early 1600s to the mid-1800s, resembles a highly redacted document, with a few places and names visible, but the rest hidden from view.
What we do know is that there were continual attempts to make wine in Canada from the earliest days of European settlement on the Atlantic coast in the 1600s. European colonists were driven to produce alcoholic beverages for various reasons: alcohol was part of the daily
diet for most men in Europe at that time; the colonists were initially reluctant to drink water in their new settlements because so much water in Europe was unsafe and they were suspicious of water everywhere; drinking (especially in taverns) was an important part of male sociability and definitions of manhood; and, last but far from least, the effects of drinking alcoholic beverages were enjoyable.
Wine was only one type of alcoholic beverage, of course, and the colonists could have made do (and generally did) with beer and grainbased spirits, because cereals grew easily throughout Canada. But many settlers came from parts of Europe (especially France) where wine was an integral part of the daily diet, and they tried to recreate these diets in their new surroundings. Others, such as the administrators and army officers who ran the English colonies, were from wine-drinking social classes in England. Drinking wine was something that distinguished them from their social inferiors, who drank only beer and cheap sprits, making wine important as a social marker not just as an enjoyable drink. For the clergy, a regular supply of wine was important for Communion, although the volume need not have been large – especially for Catholic priests because at that time they alone sipped Communion wine on behalf of their congregations. But the clergy – including members of the French religious orders that were soon established in Quebec1 – were also accustomed to drinking wine on a daily basis. Finally, fur-traders had an interest in wine because they used it, along with spirits and other commodities, for buying furs from Canada’s Native peoples.
There are scattered reports of some attempts to make wine from indigenous grapes in the earliest-settled parts of Canada. These include attempts by the French and English in what are now the Atlantic Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador) and in Quebec and Ontario. In 1623 the Franciscan missionary Nicolas Viel noted from an area near Lake Huron (now part of Ontario) that when the wine which he had brought from Quebec City in a little barrel that held 12 quarts (about 23 litres) turned bad, ‘we made some of wild grapes which was very good.’ This appears to be the first record of wine made in Ontario, and
1 In this chapter I refer to the regions of Canada by their modern names, rather than their contemporary names. Thus I refer to Quebec, rather than New France or Lower Canada, as it was referred to in earlier times.
By the 1930s, when Ontario’s wineries started to look seriously at them, French hybrids were being evicted from French vineyards under the new Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) rules, but they were welcomed in Ontario. Although Concord remained the single most important variety in the Niagara region, it soon began to share vineyard space with French hybrids such as Baco Noir, Maréchal Foch, Seyval Blanc, and Vidal.
The hybrids did well in Ontario and, because they were combinations of Vitis vinifera and other species, they gave new hope that Vitis vinifera varieties might be viable. In the 1950s a number of wineries began to plant vinifera vines, and in 1956 Brights produced Ontario’s first wine made entirely from Chardonnay. A few more vinifera varietal wines followed, but a benchmark in progress was reached in 1973 when two wineries sold their ‘Gamay Beaujolais’ wines in the LCBO. Wine critic John Reid commented ambivalently that the wineries ‘are to be commended for attempting [sic] to grow the sensitive vinifera grape in our adverse conditions – and both resulting wines are worth trying. In flavour they’re similarly light-bodied and refreshingly clean and savoury – although they don’t taste much like Gamays from France. Drink the 73s now.’
It was a similar story in British Columbia, where labrusca and hybrid varieties were the rule as the number of commercial wineries slowly grew from the 1930s to 1950s. Only in the 1970s did Vitis vinifera began to catch on, although in 1961 some Chasselas vines were planted at Quail’s Gate Winery. They had been included by mistake in an order of hybrid vines to establish the Quail’s Gate vineyards, and the owner, Richard Stewart Sr, planted them anyway. Chasselas still has a place in Quail’s Gate’s vineyards, and is included in a white blend. In 1976, Gray Monk Estate Winery (which had been established four years earlier) imported fifty Pinot Gris vines from Alsace – historic vines, it turned out, as they were the first plantings of the variety that is now British Columbia’s most planted white grape.
Although several of British Columbia’s small number of producers began to plant Vitis vinifera vines in the 1970s in defiance of the conventional wisdom that these varieties would not ripen in British Columbia, it was government intervention that gave impetus to the transformation of the province’s vineyards. The provincial government
employed Helmut Becker, from Germany’s famed Geisenheim viticultural research institute, to carry out experiments with Vitis vinifera in selected Okanagan Valley locations. Becker showed that varieties such as Riesling, Pinot Blanc, and Gewürztraminer did well. He thus established three of the varieties that produce some of British Columbia’s best wines and, just as important, he demolished the belief that Vitis vinifera would not grow successfully in the province. Becker also stressed the importance of carefully selecting sites and controlling yields, at a time when many producers were more interested in maximizing wine production than wine quality.
In the late 1970s, Hermann Weis of the St Urbanshof winery in Germany’s Mosel region, began to plant experimental parcels of Riesling at his Niagara Peninsula winery (now Vineland Estates) and in some locations in the Okanagan Valley. Some of these parcels survive today, and are the basis of Old Vines Riesling wines at two or three Okanagan Valley wineries.
In 1984 the federal government contributed to the evolution of British Columbia’s wine industry by publishing a detailed atlas of suitable regions for viticulture in Okanagan Valley and Similkameen Valley, now the province’s main wine production regions. Its maps, with detailed information on climate and soils, provided producers and would-be producers with invaluable data to help them plant vineyards that had the potential to produce high-quality wines. Overall, the shift to Vitis vinifera in British Columbia during the 1970s and 1980s largely paralleled the same trend in Ontario, meaning that in terms of varietal plantings, British Columbia’s wine industry had largely caught up to Ontario’s, despite its much later start. It was, however, a much smaller industry (there were only thirteen wineries, most very small, in 1988), still without much of a public profile, even in British Columbia. But just as vinifera vines had begun to make headway in Ontario in the late 1960s and 1970s, a disastrous vintage in 1972 led Ontario wineries to make a decision that many in Canada’s wine industry now regret. Faced with a very small harvest, the wineries persuaded the provincial government to let them import wine and add it to their Canadian wine, so that they would have enough volume to remain profitable and to compete with imported wines. New regulations that year permitted Ontario wineries to add up to 25 per cent imported
200,000 litres. In 2015, the value of Ontario’s icewine exports was $15.6 million, compared to British Columbia’s $2.5 million.
Icewine production is highly regulated. Canada, Germany, and Austria have signed an agreement to standardize production methods, the main stipulation being that grapes for icewine must freeze naturally on the vine and be harvested only when the temperature in the vineyard falls to -8°C or lower for a sustained period. This convention aimed to distinguish icewines made only by this method from wines that were often called icewine but made from the juice of grapes that had been artificially frozen. ‘Icewines’ of this sort have been made in places such as New Zealand and Australia. In 2014, Canada adopted additional icewine standards that regulated the labelling of icewines.
The stipulation that grapes must freeze naturally on the vine is fundamental to the definition of icewine, and it is a core definition of icewine in various international and national wine laws, as well as in the regulations in three of Canada’s main icewine-producing provinces: Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. It was also in the regulations governing icewine production in Quebec until recently (see below). Because the yield from vines bearing grapes for icewine is so small (only a fifth to a sixth of the common yield for table wine),
Icewine grapes freezing naturally on the vine.
producers are permitted to use not only the grapes left on the bunches at the time of harvest, but also grapes that have fallen off between the time of the regular grape harvest and the icewine grape harvest. These individual berries are caught in nets stretched under the bunches and are collected, along with the intact bunches, during the harvest.
In 2015 the Quebec government adopted a different protocol at the request of some icewine producers in that province. Vines there need to be buried for protection from extreme temperatures during winter, when night temperatures often fall to between -30° and -40°C. Temperatures such as these would damage exposed canes bearing bunches of grapes. In addition, heavy snowfalls often reach to the top of vine trellises, and would bury grapes still hanging on the vines. Rather than resign themselves to the idea that icewine cannot be made in these conditions, some Quebec icewine producers requested permission to cut the bunches of grapes from the vines soon after the regular harvest and suspend them in nets attached to a wire at the top of the trellis. There they freeze and are retrieved for pressing once the vineyard temperature has fallen to at least -8°C.
The acceptance of this practice by the Quebec appellation authorities as permissible for icewine production in the province provoked loud criticism from the organizations representing icewine producers in the rest of Canada. They argued that harvesting grapes and leaving them in nets in close proximity to the vine is not the same as leaving grapes to freeze ‘on the vine’. Icewine made this way, they said, was not only inauthentic but compromised the reputation of Canadian icewine as a whole. An organization of independent producers in Quebec, who make icewine from grapes that freeze naturally on the vine, argued that their wine demonstrated that this method was feasible in Quebec. But defenders of the method approved by the Quebec authorities argue that there is essentially no difference between using grapes that had been placed in nets and using grapes that had fallen from their bunches into nets, as is permitted in the rest of Canada.
The issue hinges on whether cutting bunches before placing them in nets on the trellis is tantamount to harvesting the grapes and whether there is a difference between grapes that fall from bunches without human intervention and grapes that are cut from the vine and placed in nets. While there are issues of definition here, it seems clear that
areas planted with vines are influenced by water, particularly Okanagan Lake, a long, deep glacial lake that never freezes and acts as an immense warming influence on nearby vineyards, most of which are located close to the lake. Vineyards have been planted on both sides of the lake, but those on the east side are much warmer since they are exposed to the heat of the late afternoon sun for several hours, and into the evening during summer. Other, smaller bodies of water also influence growing conditions in the vineyards that border them. In the south of the Okanagan Valley they include Skaha Lake, Vaseux Lake, and Osoyoos Lake in the most southern region.
Okanagan Valley lies to the east of the high Coastal Mountain Range, an important influence on climate in the valley because it acts as a rainshield. While Vancouver, on the coast, is a famously rainy city, the wine regions on the other side of the mountains are generally dry – so dry that the south of the Okanagan Valley features Canada’s only desert region. Annual precipitation in the south of the Okanagan appellation is 318 millimetres, while in Kelowna, 100 kilometres north on Lake Okanagan, yearly precipitation is 415 millimetres. Vancouver, in contrast, receives 1,460 millimetres of rain a year, three to four times as much. This still pales against the 2,000 millimetres received by some wine regions on Vancouver Island. Even so, the Okanagan Valley can sometimes be struck by heavy rainfall. In May and June 2017 heavy rains in the Kelowna area raised the level of Okanagan Lake enough to flood parts of the town and other low-lying areas. Vineyards were not affected because they are planted well above the potential level of the lake.
The Okanagan Valley also benefits from long hours of sunshine. Expressed in Growing Degree Days (GDDs, see p.227), they range from 1,155 in Kelowna, in the north of the appellation, to 1,405 in Okanagan Falls, halfway down, to 1,555 in the southern district of Osoyoos. These are aggregated figures, and individual vineyard sites report GDDs of 1,600 and higher. For comparison, Burgundy has 1,320 GDDs, and Napa Valley has 1,450. The number of Growing Degree Days is a general guide to warmth during the growing season. It is not a perfect guide to the suitability of regions for specific grape varieties, because other climatic events (such as rain), together with soil composition and other environmental conditions must also be taken into account. But they do indicate whether a region has enough warmth to ripen categories of grape varieties.
OkanaganLake
Raw figures such as these are useful, but equally important is the distribution of sunshine over the growing season. Bud break tends to occur weeks later in the Okanagan Valley than in some regions, but the intense sun and warmth allow the vines to catch up, so that harvest generally takes place at the same time, in September and October. Overall, the Okanagan Valley’s relatively high sunshine hours,
Kelowna
Pentic ton
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sustained minimum temperature of -8°C is required for icewine, but in the important Niagara Peninsula region it is generally not reached until early January, and sometimes later. Even so, winter temperatures fall dangerously low in Ontario’s wine regions in some years, causing vineyard damage and vine loss. Many producers with vineyards in lowlying areas employ preventative measures such as wind machines to stir up the air and prevent cold air from settling on the vines when frosts are imminent. Others, especially in Prince Edward County appellation, turn to the more radical measure of ‘hilling,’ burying vines under earth or covering them with thermal blankets after each harvest to insulate them against cold temperatures.
Adverse weather events are occasional, but they are not rare. Very low temperatures accompanying a Polar Vortex (the movement of Arctic air out of the polar region) in 2014 led to heavy crop losses, especially among sensitive varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, and Syrah. Some wineries in the Lake Erie North Shore appellation lost their entire crop. Unseasonal frosts can also be a problem. Record low temperatures in late May 2015 led to widespread crop losses as high as 85 per cent in Prince Edward County and Niagara Peninsula, despite producers
Lake Huron
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The main wine regions of Ontario
variously burning bales of hay in the vineyards and using wind machines and helicopters, all in an effort to raise ground-level temperatures. The effects of these events can be seen in Ontario’s wine production, which was significantly lower than average in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Most vintages present less dramatic challenges, and when their production levels are good, Ontario wineries enjoy the benefits of producing wine in Canada’s most populous province and largest wine market: Ontario’s population of more than 13 million represents more than a third of Canada’s 35 million inhabitants. Producers in Niagara Peninsula are especially fortunate in that the Greater Toronto Area has a population of 6.5 million, almost half of Ontario’s population. The city’s proximity enables Niagara Peninsula to attract day-trippers and other tourists from the Toronto area, as well as other Canadian and foreign tourists and business people who are visiting Toronto and want to use the city as a base for one-day wine excursions.
The other two Ontario appellations of origin are located further from concentrations of Canadian population, but each has its own advantages. The wineries of Lake Erie North Shore are a four-hour drive from Toronto, but only half an hour from Detroit, Michigan – which is, confusingly, north of Canada at this point on the border. Lake Erie North Shore wineries have reached out to the millions of Americans who live within an hour or two’s drive from their vineyards and constitute an important potential market. Prince Edward County has benefited from its rising profile as a tourist destination. A peninsula on the north shore of Lake Ontario about two hours’ drive from Toronto, the County (as it is referred to locally) includes Sandbanks National Park, whose sand dunes and beaches attract tens of thousands of visitors during the summer. Since the early 2000s, when land under viticulture and the number of wineries began to grow rapidly, Prince Edward County has also attracted many new residents and become a significant retirement destination. More than half the permanent population is over sixty-five years of age.
onTaRio’s aPPellaTions and wineRies
Ontario is an appellation (officially a Provincial Indication) in its own right, and some wines are labelled VQA Ontario, rather than by one of
The wines of Canada
Noir, from the oldest block of Pinot Noir vines in this vineyard. Aged more than a year in French oak, the wine is generally quite robust for a Pinot Noir from Niagara Peninsula, and shows great complexity in the flavours, balanced by fresh, juicy acidity.
Featherstone Estate Winery
3678 Victoria Avenue, Vineland, Ontario L0R 2C0
Tel.: (905) 562 1949
featherstonewinery.ca
The winery started when David Johnson, an amateur winemaker, and his partner Louise Engel, bought eight hectares of vines in 1998. Planted in Riesling, Chardonnay, Gamay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, and Merlot, the vineyard is cultivated without pesticides. They use insect predators (such as indigenous ladybugs) to deal with aphids and cover crops between rows. Sheep are used to reduce foliage around the grape bunches, and Louise Engel, a licensed falconer, flies a Harris hawk, Amadeus, to deal with birds.
Featherstone makes a popular Black Sheep Riesling, which shows concentrated, pungent flavours and bright acidity. Their Pinot Noir is
Amadeus the hawk (with Louise Engel) keeps birds from the vines at Featherstone Estate Winery, Niagara Peninsula.
full of fresh, nicely complex fruit and juicy acidity. Featherstone was one of the first wineries to use Canadian oak barrels, and the Canadian Oak Chardonnay, which demonstrates a barrel regime so well handled that the oak influences the texture more than the flavours, sells out quickly. There are two brightly flavoured Cuvée Joy sparkling wines (sealed with crown caps rather than corks): a blanc de blancs made from Chardonnay and a rosé made from Pinot Noir.
Vineland Estates Winery
3620 Moyer Road, Vineland, Ontario L0R 2C0
Tel.: (905) 562 7088
vineland.com
The winery began as a 20 hectare Riesling vineyard planted in the late 1970s by German viticulturist and winemaker, Hermann Weis. His aim was to prove that Riesling would do as well on the slopes of the Niagara benches as in his St Urbanshof vineyards in the Mosel region, and he also planted Riesling in the Okanagan Valley. He called his Niagara vineyard by the same name and opened a winery, but in 1992 he sold it to businessman John Howard, who renamed it Vineland Estates. The winery now farms 70 hectares on variable clay soils, the varieties being Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Vidal, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Meunier.
Vineland’s top tier wines are its Elevation Series and Reserve wines. Rieslings, made in dry and off-dry styles remain central to the portfolio, and there are icewines made from Vidal, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc.
Short Hills Bench sub-appellation
This bench is characterized by the softly undulating, flat-topped hills that the sub-appellation is named for. The valleys that separate the hills were formed by streams that still flow from the Niagara Escarpment. They present long, gentle slopes with varying orientations, but Short Hills Bench includes 90 per cent of Niagara Peninsula’s rare south and south-east facing vineyards, and vines are generally planted north–south for maximum sun exposure. The soils of Short Hills Bench are complex and vary widely from site to site. The half-metre-thick top layer is mostly clay and lies on top of nine to twelve metres of clay and silt. The clay in these upper strata gives the soil good water-retention, and the valleys
If there’s a common character to Pearl Morissette wines, it’s that they seem to be made with food in mind – or make themselves with food in mind, if you follow the stated philosophy. Whether it’s Riesling, Chardonnay, or Cabernet Franc, the wines have what Burgundians sometimes call a salivant quality. It makes some Pearl Morissette wines ideal as aperitifs and all of them versatile at the table.
Thirteenth Street Winery
1776 Fourth Avenue, St Catharines, Ontario L2R 6P9
Tel.: (905) 984 8463
13thstreetwinery.com
The winery started life in 1998 as a partnership of four men – all amateur winemakers – who worked at the winery on weekends and had other jobs during the week. They shared a rudimentary but effective winemaking building where they made wines that were as close to cult wines as any in Niagara Peninsula during the early 2000s. On release days, cars would line the road near the winery, and some wines were sold in allotments as small as two bottles.
The winery was sold in 2008 to Doug and Karen Whitty, who ran a family fruit farm for many years. They relocated Thirteenth Street’s winemaking facilities and it now operates from spacious premises that include a retail store and restaurant centred on a restored century-old farmhouse. Thirteenth Street’s wines are sourced primarily from six vineyards, including five owned by the winery in the Creek Shores subappellation. They total 16 hectares and the main varieties planted are Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Pinot Gris. Thirteenth Street also buys grapes from other growers.
Thirteenth Street’s winemaker is Jean-Pierre Colas, who has had extensive experience in New Zealand, Argentina, and Chile and made wine at Domaine Laroche in Chablis before coming to Ontario in 2000. He was the founding winemaker at Peninsula Ridge before going to Thirteenth Street. His wines there cover a wide range, and they include (as one might expect from a winemaker in Chablis) some fine Chardonnays. Sandstone Vineyard Reserve Chardonnay is aged for ten months in French oak and shows rich aromas and textures well balanced by clean acidity. There are some bright, flavourful sparkling wines, the Grande Cuvée (made from Pinot Noir) being produced only in exceptional vintages. Thirteenth Street was an early leader in Gamay,
and Sandstone Vineyard Gamay Noir is a fine example of the potential of the variety in Niagara Peninsula.
Niagara Lakeshore sub-appellation
Niagara Lakeshore extends south about three kilometres from Lake Ontario, and sits between the Welland Canal to the west and the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake to the east. In the summer the cool lake breezes replace the warm air rising from the land, and cool the vineyards, while at night the reverse pattern occurs, with warmer lake air pushing out cooler air that would otherwise settle on the land. In winter, warmer breezes from the water reduce the risk of frosts. Temperatures in this sub-appellation remain quite cool as late as April, but begin to rise slowly in May and start to decrease gradually in October. Vineyards enjoy unrestricted sunshine throughout the growing season. Temperature differences between the cool air over the lake and the warm air over the land create localized air circulation systems that moderate the rate at which this appellation warms during the day and cools at night. A common occurrence is the development of a band of cloud along the lakeshore in early fall, acting as insulation and keeping the days slightly cooler and nights a little warmer.
The topography is relatively flat, with long, very gentle slopes from south to north, toward the lake, which ensures that vines have uninterrupted exposure to sunlight throughout the growing season. Soils in Niagara Lakeshore are mainly clay and silt over bedrock of red Queenston shale. Porous reddish-brown sandy soils in areas near the lakeshore promote deep root penetration and have low water-holding capacity. But clay loam soils in the centre of the sub-appellation hold moisture for many months and retain their heat longer into the early autumn.
Stratus Vineyards
2059 Niagara Stone Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0
Tel.: (905) 468 1806 www.stratuswines.com
One of the notable wineries in Niagara Lakeshore is Stratus Vineyards, which combines a cool image and higher-end wines with consistently high quality. The production facilities, wine shop, and tasting rooms are housed in a stylish, industrial-chic building that draws many visitors in
Although that vintage led to expressions of optimism for the long term – one western Quebec producer exclaimed that his region would become ‘a new Languedoc’ – subsequent vintages settled into more normal patterns.
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There is some expectation that over the longer term, by the middle of the twenty-first century, climate change will make Quebec more suitable for viticulture. A 2017 report suggested that in a little more than twenty years, some regions of Quebec ‘can reasonably expect favourable climatic conditions’ for wine production, specifically in terms of more frost-free days and more GDDs. The wine the report referred to was not only that made from hybrid varieties, which are the basis of the current Quebec wine industry, although the report envisaged that hybrids might be grown more widely than they are today. More importantly, it foresaw the successful cultivation of Vitis vinifera varieties, especially early-ripening varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot
Quebec City
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Noir, and Gamay. The report noted that the Montérégie region (south of Montreal), the Outaouais (in western Quebec), and the banks of the Saint Lawrence River were likely to be the major beneficiaries of these climatic changes.
As a counterpoint to the good news for Quebec’s wine industry, the report noted that many warm wine-growing regions will have to adapt to even warmer temperatures. Much of California and Spain, for example, will become too hot for quality wine production. At the same time, the benefits to Quebec (which would also extend to other Canadian wine regions and regions that are currently marginal for viticulture) are not unambiguous. Although summers will become warmer and the growing season longer, winters will still be cold and producers will have to protect their vines. The outlook, in short, is not so much that parts of Quebec will become another Languedoc, but rather another Prince Edward County.
monTéRégie Region
The main concentration of wineries in Quebec is in the Montérégie region, to the south and east of Montreal, between the Saint Lawrence River and the American border. Many of the wineries are only an hour’s drive from Montreal, and are located in an area that is a popular tourist destination in summer. Wine tourists can follow a wine trail, the Route des Vins de la Montérégie, as well as a Circuit du Paysan that takes in not only wineries but also producers of fruit wines, cider, cheese, and other local products. The climate in Montérégie is somewhat more moderate than in the rest of Quebec, but ‘moderate’ here is a relative term. Winters are still so cold that vines need to be buried in winter, and the growing season is very short.
Despite the prominence of Montérégie in the overall wine industry, vineyards are only a small part of the region’s agricultural landscape. Far more important are apple orchards, and although much of that crop is destined for apple juice and apple sauce, it is also the basis of an important cider industry. Montérégie has a number of cideries that make cider in various dry, non-dry, and sparkling styles, as well as in Quebec’s own style, ice cider (see pp. 72–3).
selling and buying wine 24, 42–5, 49, 219–24
international–Canadian blends 79, 80, 81
Selona Vineyard 120
Semillon
British Columbia: Okanagan Valley 97, 101, 115, 117
Ontario: Niagara Peninsula 134, 138, 163, 166, 168
Senchuk, Ilya and Nadia 157
Seyval Blanc 62
history of Canadian wine 26, 31, 35
Nova Scotia 66, 199, 202, 203, 208, 210, 211
Quebec 190, 193, 194, 195
Seyval Noir 193
Sharp Rock Vineyard 117
Shaw, Anthony 57
Sheppard, Dave 170
Shiraz see Syrah
Shiraz Mottiar Vineyard 141, 142
Shirriff, F.A. 18
Short Hills Bench sub-appellation 151–3, 173
Siegerrebe 125, 128, 206, 210
Siegfried 210
Signature stores 221, 222
Simcoe, Elizabeth 12
Simes, John 91
Similkameen Valley appellation 59, 60, 87, 122–4
history of Canadian wine 27
icewine 69
landscape 85 soils 87, 122, 123, 124
vintage reports 215 62 & 1 Vineyard 182
Skaha Lake 88, 98, 104
Skinner, John and Trish 104
Smith, Nicolas and Henry 152
Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ) 24
La Fête des Vins du Québec 226
selling and buying wine 44, 49, 222–3
Vignoble de l’Orpailleur 194 wine production 52
soils
British Columbia Fraser Valley 125
Okanagan Valley see below
Similkameen Valley 87, 122, 123, 124
Vancouver Island appellation 127
grape varieties 62
Gulf Islands 128
Niagara Peninsula
Beamsville Bench 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 141
Creek Shores 158
Four Mile Creek 167, 168, 169
Lincoln Lakeshore 157
Niagara Lakeshore 161, 163, 166
Niagara River 170–1
St David’s Bench 154, 155, 156
Short Hills Bench 151–2
Twenty Mile Bench 146, 147, 148
Vinemount Ridge 173
Nova Scotia 201, 204, 207, 209
Okanagan Valley 87, 90
Black Sage/Osoyoos 114, 117, 118, 120
Golden Mile Bench 110, 111, 112, 114
Kelowna/Lake Country 90, 91, 93–4, 95
Naramata/Penticton 99, 101, 103, 104, 105
Okanagan Falls/North Oliver 105, 106, 107, 108
Ontario
Niagara Peninsula see above
Prince Edward County 174, 176
Quebec 192, 193, 194
South Bay Vineyard 182
Southbrook Vineyards 168–9
Southbrook Wines 96
South Islands sub-appellation 56, 183
Speck, Paul Sr and Jr, Matthew, and Daniel 152–3
spending on wine 54
Sperling, Anne 92, 95–6, 168–9
Sperling, Bert 95
Sperling Vineyards and Pioneer Ranch 23, 95–6
spirits, consumption of 12, 21, 54
Spurrier, Steven 39, 143
Stagg’s Vineyard 118, 120
Stan’s Bench Vineyard 111
Stanners, Colin, and family 178
Stanners Vineyard 178–9
Stevens-Meyer, Janice 107
Stewart, Richard Sr, and family 26, 94
Storm Haven Vineyard 109
Stouck Vineyard 141
Stratus Vineyards 37, 38, 161–4
Stutz, Hanspeter and Jürg 203 styles of wine 67–8
Sullivan, Dan 179–80
Sumac Ridge Estate Winery 30, 98, 100
Summerhill Pyramid Winery 96
Sunnyside Vineyard 94
sunshine see climate
Sutre, Alain 104–5
Sweden 219, 221
Swenson 191, 212
Swenson, Elmer 191
Switchback Vineyard 99
Synchromesh 109–10
Syrah
British Columbia 64
Okanagan Valley see below
Similkameen Valley 122, 124
icewine 74
Niagara Peninsula 134
Beamsville Bench 144, 145
Four Mile Creek 169
Lincoln Lakeshore 157
Niagara Lakeshore 163, 166
Twenty Mile Bench 148
Okanagan Valley
Black Sage/Osoyoos 67, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118–19, 120
Golden Mile Bench 113, 114
Kelowna/Lake Country 91, 92, 93, 94, 95
Naramata/Penticton 100–1, 103, 104, 105
Ontario 130
Lake Erie North Shore 185, 186
Niagara Peninsula see above vintage reports 215
Tannat 163
Tantalus Vineyards 23, 93–4, 95
Tawse, Morey 148, 149
Tawse Winery 37, 148–50
temperance movements 20–21
Temple, Nicole du 190
Tempranillo 163, 179
Terroirs d’Ici stores 222
T.G. Bright 18–19
Thiel, Harald 137–8
Thirteenth Street Winery 160–61
Thirty Bench Wine Makers 56, 63, 139–40
Thomas Bachelder 142–3
Tidal Bay sub-appellation 62, 199, 202, 210–11
Time Winery 98, 99–101
Tinhorn Creek 112–13
Toro Loco 222
tourism 34, 37, 38, 77, 83
Nova Scotia 200, 203
Pillitteri Estates Winery 166
provincial governments, role of 45
Quebec 189
Township 7 Vineyards and Winery 125–6
Traminette 210, 211
Triggs, Donald 34, 111, 164, 165
Triggs, Elaine 111, 165
Trius Wines 139, 167
Tufford Road Vineyard 136, 143
Twenty Mile Bench sub-appellation 145–51, 159, 164, 173
Two Sisters Vineyards 38, 172
U2 Vineyard 118, 120
Ugni Blanc 74
United States
Canada–US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) 32, 34, 107 emigration to Canada 12 Prohibition 21, 22 selling and buying wine 219 University of British Columbia 36 Upper Boucherie Ranch 94
Valvin 210
Vancouver International Wine Festival 225 Vancouver Island appellation 59, 86, 126–8 climate 86, 88, 126, 127 landscape 86
Vandal 66
Vaseux Lake 88, 105, 107, 108, 118, 120
Vee Blanc 192
Versado 96
Vidal 62
British Columbia 91 history of Canadian wine 26, 28, 33, 35 icewine 30, 69, 74, 76
Niagara Peninsula
Four Mile Creek 168, 169
Niagara Lakeshore 165, 166
Niagara River 171, 172
St David’s Bench 155
Short Hills Bench 153
Twenty Mile Bench 151
Nova Scotia 66, 208, 209, 210, 211 Ontario 64
Lake Erie North Shore 186
Niagara Peninsula see above
Prince Edward County 182, 183
Quebec 65, 66, 190, 193, 194, 195, 196
Viel, Nicolas 9
Vieux Pin, Le 117–19, 120
Viewpointe Estate Winery 186
Vignoble Carone 192
Vignoble de la Sablière 193
