Category: Ontario

As part of the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration held in Niagara-on-the-Lake were lunches.  I was lucky to be able to attend the Peller Estates i4C Taste of Terroir.  A multi-course lunch with Chardonnay from around the world. This is the first time I visited Peller Estates, and I must say that their tasting room and restaurant is quite spectacular….

At the i4C+ Celebration on July 21-23, 2017 there will be 59 cool climate chardonnay producers; 25 wineries from Ontario and 34 from around the world.  There will be 2 wineries from BC too.  And as I mentioned in my previous article on the i4C+ Celebration, while the focus is Chardonnay there will also be Pinot Noir, Gamay, Cab Franc,…

If you have not heard of the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration, held in the Niagara region in southern Ontario, it is something not to be missed.  The i4C+ Celebration started in the summer of 2009 with some Ontario wine makers celebrating their success at the 2009 Cellier Wine Awards in Montreal.  These wine makers believe in the renaissance of…

This is my second year attending Top Drop Vancouver, where small-scale producers from around the world show us their hand crafted wines. According to Top Drop, “Our focus is terroir-influenced, handcrafted wines, and the people behind them. W e believe in the importance in farming one’s own fruit and/or being constantly engaged with grape-growers to ensure sustainability and a high…

Canada should be proud of its recent wine history.  We started getting serious about vitis vinifera in the 1970s.  BC and Ontario started growing wine grapes and producing wines.  Nova Scotia and Quebec have followed, and I heard, but have not seen, that there are also wines being produced in New Brunswick.  Our climate since the 1970s has warmed up…

Who is Bruce Nicholson? Bruce Nicholson joined Inniskillin Wines, Niagara-on-the-Lake as Wine maker on January 1, 2007, after working for 20 years in the Okanagan where he was the first wine maker, and then became the Senior Winemaker for Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate in British Columbia. Half of Bruce’s awards in 2012 were for ice wine.  Does he want to be…

Canada is a big country, with our wine grape growing areas on the limit of possibility, but at the edges of possibility is where you can make exciting wines, I’ve been told.  In the Festival Tasting Room I spent many hours tasting wines from BC, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, and speaking with the winery principals in attendance.  Below are the…

Did you know that there are 671 wineries in Canada, as of Feb 2017?  There are 276 wineries in BC.  There is grape wine being produced in BC, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.  As part of the Vancouver International Wine Festival, wineries from across Canada were invited to attend, and to celebrate our 150th birthday as a country.  Bringing together…

In Part 1 of this article, I covered the comments and insights of wine makers and hands-on owners in BC, Ontario, and Germany on the heartbreak and backache from growing and making wine from the Riesling and Pinot Noir grapes.  In Part 2, I have my tasting notes on the wines from these winery principals. Our Featured Wines Haywire Narrative…

When you think of Argentinean wine, you probably think of Malbec for red and Torrontes for white.  Some of you may also mention Bonarda.  But how about Sauvignon Blanc?  Bodega Norton has produced a partially barrel fermented (in French oak) Sauvignon Blanc, which is new to me.  Barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc is more well-known coming from California where it is known…