North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bill Russell" <shaman@pennswoods.net>]

Hi Victoria,

I was very impressed by some of the local Canadian wines I brought back from
my Toronto visit.

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: "victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>
To: <nafex@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 5:49 AM
Subject: [nafex] Ontario's New Wine Industry


> Here is an article from a news site to which I am subscribed. To open
> articles a password is needed, so I copied it to pass it on.
>
> September 17 ,2001
>
>             Canada's Wine-Producing Region a Climatic Wonder
>
>             By Lesley Wroughton
>
>             NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario (Reuters) - Along the southwest
> shore of
>             Lake Ontario, between Niagara Falls and Toronto, lies a
> little-known climatic
>             wonder attracting vintners from around the world.
>
>             A 5-mile by 45-mile shelf along the Niagara escarpment
> mimics optimum
>             grape-growing conditions of France's Burgundy region for the
> short Canadian
>             summer.
>
>             Warm air from the lake bounces off the escarpment above the
> vineyards,
>             providing a temperate moderate climate that produces
> European-style wines.
>
>             Now a tiny industry better known for winter-season ice wines
> is flourishing, with
>             new vineyards opening and vintners from France, Australia
> and elsewhere
>             coming to test their skills in what could be the next New
> World growth market
>             after Australia and New Zealand.
>
>             Large French and American companies are also investing in
> the region like
>             Boisset, Burgundy's largest wine producer.
>
>             Hard to believe in a country known more for its picturesque
> snow-covered vistas
>             than delicate bouquets of Chardonnay and Riesling. But the
> enthusiasm of the
>             newcomers tells the story.
>
>             A new 20-year growth strategy by the Wine Council of Ontario
> hopes to open
>             new markets after years of efforts to develop this unlikely
> wine region.
>
>             The plan sees Ontario's wine industry growing to $961
> million over the next two
>             decades from the current $220 million -- still small when
> compared with
>             California, whose wines reached a retail value of $13
> billion in 2000.
>
>             The growth has seen many new wineries open in the past year
> including Peller
>             Estate, Jackson-Triggs and Peninsula Ridge. An agri-tourism
> industry is
>             blossoming alongside 60 wineries, with accommodations and
> restaurants that
>             have attracted top chefs.
>
>             Jean-Pierre Colas, a Frenchman who worked with masters of
> Burgundy, was
>             skeptical when he first visited the region that was once
> considered the purveyor
>             of plonk, or cheap table wine.
>
>             Colas, whose intense eyes peer out from wire-rimmed
> spectacles, was headed
>             for Chile in 1999 to try out winemaking in a country whose
> techniques had long
>             intrigued him when he accepted an invitation from Canadian
> entrepreneur
>             Norman Beal.
>
>             Beal, a former oil commodities trader in New York, was
> looking for a vintner to
>             put his newly acquired Peninsula Ridge vineyard on the
> global map. Colas
>             came, saw the soil and unique grape-growing conditions, and
> was convinced.
>
>             "It is not really a style, it's a philosophy, and first it
> is the grapes," says Colas who
>             was amazed by the knowledge of the local grape growers about
> cool-climate
>             viticulture.
>
>             "This area is very special, unlike in Europe where we grow
> one varietal, here we
>             can grow everything and the results are great everywhere."
>
>             NEW WINE MARKETS
>
>             That a talent such as Colas, former head winemaker of
> Chablis house Domaine
>             Laroche in France, believed in the region showed the
> potential for Niagara
>             Peninsula to expand its product beyond its internationally
> acclaimed ice wines.
>
>             A sweet dessert wine produced from grapes left on the vine
> through the first hard
>             frost, the ice wines of Ontario compete with German and
> Austrian eiswein,
>             although they only won entry to the European market in
> March. Now Ontario is
>             looking to increase its ice wine production five-fold from a
> current 70,000 cases.
>             A half bottle of ice wine sells for about $29.
>
>             But Colas thinks he can produce table wines that are equal
> to or even better than
>             those of other New World regions.
>
>             At Peninsula Ridge, a short drive from Toronto and Niagara
> Falls, he combines
>             his French-inspired expertise with stainless steel vats and
> oak barrels in a cellar
>             designed with equipment from Europe.
>
>             Using his hands to gesticulate his passion for his work,
> Colas speaks in
>             French-accented English about the challenge of starting from
> scratch in such a
>             viticultural outpost.
>
>             The quality of his first vintage surprised him: a Sauvignon
> Blanc and Chardonnay
>             of notable body and flavor.
>
>             DEVELOPING WINE WORLD
>
>             Canadians have been making wine since the early 1800's but
> not until the last
>             decade has the industry focused on quality, due to economic
> realities shaped by
>             trade agreements and increased foreign competition.
>
>             Elsewhere in Canada, British Columbia on the Pacific coast
> has a thriving but
>             smaller industry.
>
>             For many years local Ontario winemakers used grapes from
> native species,
>             among them Vitis Labrusca, which produced brands like a
> mediocre pink bubbly
>             called Baby Duck -- for years Ontario's best selling wine.
>
>             In 1988 the Ontario government limited the use of Labrusca
> grapes, and the
>             federal government offered wineries funding to replace it
> with the more accepted
>             Vitis Vinifera from Europe, which includes Chardonnay and
> Cabernet
>             Sauvignon.
>
>             At the time, several wineries voluntarily adopted the
> Vintners Quality Alliance
>             (VQA) appellation system which has since been put into law
> that sets standards
>             for quality and specifies a wine's origin.
>
>             Australian Phillip Dowell is the new winemaker at
> Inniskillin, probably Canada's
>             best known winery, whose founders Donald Ziraldo and Karl
> Kaiser were
>             granted in 1975 the first new commercial wine license in
> Ontario since before
>             the Depression.
>
>             Like Colas, Dowell, who came from the Yarra Valley in
> Australia's Victoria state,
>             was surprised by wines already produced in the region.
>
>             "Niagara has now to substantiate itself to the rest of the
> world as a bone fide
>             wine growing region," he said. "They are doing that with ice
> wines but are now
>             also having to establish that with the table wines."
>
>             A STYLE OF ITS OWN
>
>             But Dowell says the local wine industry needs to develop a
> style it can call its
>             own.
>
>             "This is the most continental of any region in the world
> that can produce many
>             styles of wines and qualities -- and that creates the
> uniqueness of character of
>             the region, and that is where you start to develop the
> region's style," he said.
>
>             Dowell says he was impressed by the standards of winemaking
> in Niagara and
>             is boldly experimenting with Shiraz that his native
> Australia is best known for. "If
>             we can ripen Merlot here, there is no reason why we can't
> ripen Shiraz," he said.
>
>             Len Pennacheti, owner of Cave Spring winery and President of
> the VQA,
>             believes the industry is finally coming of age.
>
>             "We didn't have high quality grapes available to us as an
> industry because we
>             didn't think we could grow them," he says. "Now it is a
> matter of convincing the
>             marketplace that we are serious, that our wines aren't
> plonk".
>
>             The tall, dark-haired native of Niagara says the region has
> to learn to focus on
>             wines it produces well. "We need to find an emblematic grape
> varietal like New
>             Zealand has done with Sauvignon Blanc and my money is on
> Riesling."
>
>             "Riesling has been an ugly duckling grape variety for
> decades. In Australia they
>             put it in different packages and don't call it Riesling. We
> proudly put Riesling in a
>             classic bottle and sell it as a kick-ass varietal."
>
>             Paul Speck, owner of Henry of Pelham winery says the
> industry's transition
>             happened with the VQA.
>
>             "The industry has a little more meat on the bones than it
> did 10 years ago," says
>             Speck, whose winery started in a barn making 2,000 cases and
> now produces
>             75,000 cases.
>
>             He believes that ice wine will continue to open doors. "If
> we take the same
>             focused approached using ice wine as the door opener
> internationally and
>             following it up with our Chardonnays and Rieslings, we will
> impress them."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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