Your globetrotting liquor columnist has just returned from a weekend in Onterrible, and made time in his busy schedule to visit a dozen wineries to bring you, the faithful reader, the down-low on the heart of Canada’s wine country.
Ontario’s wine industry began way back in the 1800’s, when Italian and German immigrants brought grape vines over from the old country. Early attempts at growing European varietals were unsuccessful, and Canada settled in for nearly 200 years of crappy wine made from native grapes.
Back in those days, the native North American grape varietals would produce a wine that tasted like boiled strawberries, and was only made palatable by fortifying it into a sherry or port-styled wine.
However, the wine was cheap and plentiful, so was considered “good enough” for the domestic market. Luckily for us all, the Canadian palate finally turned away from cloyingly sweet wines in the 1960’s, which is considered the birth of the modern Canadian wine industry.
It took a few decades of trial and error to find European grape varietals that would flourish in the cooler Canadian climate, but we eventually got it right by finding the hardiest European varietals most suited to our short summers.
Our domestic wine industry got a huge kick in the pants in 1988 with NAFTA removing the protectionist tariffs on wines, thus making the Canadian market accessible to wine producers from the USA.
This spurred the Canadian government to sponsor the Great Uprooting, which saw the vast majority of the vineyard stocks in Ontario uprooted and re-planted with superior varietals in order to compete in the global marketplace.
To the casual observer, it might look like all of southern Ontario is fine grape-growing country, but there are actually four distinct regions with their own unique climate and soil conditions.
The vast majority of the wineries in Ontario are in the Niagara Peninsula region, which make up around 85% of the grape production in Ontario.
In addition to being the largest wine region in Canada, the Niagara Peninsula region is home to the Niagara College Teaching Winery. This is one of only two teaching wineries in North America (the other is at UC Davis in California). The home of a two-year Winery & Viticulture Technician diploma program, this is where wine lovers go to become accredited wine professionals.
The program earns additional funding by selling the best of the student-produced wine at the college wine shop, but your intrepid liquor columnist suspects that the “factory seconds” make their way to the local dorm rooms for “disposal”.
The Niagara Peninsula produces 31 different grape varietals, so they have something to please the palate of even the most finicky wine snob. The so-called “big names” in Canadian wine such as Jackson-Triggs and Inniskillin are both based in this region
This area is truly the grape belt of Canada, and the vast majority of Canadian wines are produced in this region.
Unsurprisingly, the top wineries in the country can be found here. The Tawse Winery, located in the aptly named town of Vineland, has won the prestigious Canadian Winery of the Year award from Wine Access Magazine for 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Of course, the abrupt closure of the Calgary-based Wine Access Magazine back in February means there will be no winner announced for 2013, so the Tawse Winery may be able to spin that into some sort of lifetime achievement award.
Naturally, your intrepid liquor reporter made sure to stop in at the Tawse Winery to sample their wares at the source.
My favourite of the lot was their Cabernet Franc, followed closely by the Meritage, a Bordeaux-styled blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, and Cab Franc.
These wines are widely distributed in the mammoth LCBO network of government-run liquor stores in Ontario, which devours nearly all of the production capacity.
Luckily, both Liquor Depot and Highlander Liquor in Calgary regularly stock bottles from Tawse, so this award-winning wine can easily be found closer to home. To see if your local wine store has any stock, check www.liquorconnect.com.
So, if you would like to show your patriotism by drinking Canadian wine, it’s hard to do better than the tree-time winner of Canadian Winery of the Year. Seek it out at a well-stocked booze merchant near you!
