Wine From Canada? Yes, and It’s Falls-Adjacent

Almost certainly, George Bernard Shaw was not thinking of wine when he wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Yet Shaw might have been characterizing the men and women behind the recent emergence of world-class wine on southern Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. The proliferation of excellent Rieslings, Gamays, Cabernet Francs and Merlots from the past few vintages can be traced directly to the absence of the word “no” from their collective vocabulary.

I was thinking about that one soft, summer evening last week while I was visiting the area. I was sipping the 2000 Pella Estates Riesling, a peachy Mosel-like beauty with concentrated minerally fruit and mouthwatering acidity. The thought struck me again over a glass of 1999 Inniskillin Cabernet Franc, a zesty and succulent red with bright cherry-like flavors and the kind of pleasantly raspy texture that makes Chinon (Loire Valley Cabernet Franc) so appealing. It hit me once more as the supple tannins and luxuriant fruit of the 1998 Marynissan Merlot rolled over my palate.

Pretty soon, I was downright impressed. The wines were delivering a message, loud and clear: this is a region with its foot in the door.

It continued to make points with the 1997 Chateau des Charmes Chardonnay. While many 4-year-old California Chardonnays are already old and tired, the des Charmes was just beginning to show its intensity and full-bodied elegance. The delicious Saint-Emilion-like 1999 Cabernet Franc from Ancient Coast (a reference to local geology) and a distinctly Chiroubles-like 2000 Gamay from Chateau des Charmes upped the score even further. And the 1999 Inniskillin Riesling Ice Wine, made from grapes frozen on the vine, had all the sugary succulence and complexity of a Beerenauslese from the Rhine--although, perhaps, I may have been unduly influenced by the Ontario sunset.

In short, the Niagara Peninsula wine community has matched grape varieties to the terroirand learned how to produce credible emulations of the classic Old World models. That’s a critical point for a wine region. Once past that, evolution is rapid and fascinating as true regional character is revealed vintage by vintage in ever-more distinctive wines from separate enclaves and individual producers. Within mere decades, perhaps, acute palates will be able to pick a Niagara Peninsula wine from a pack of wannabes.

Although relatively warm by Canadian standards, the Niagara Peninsula is a difficult place to grow high-quality wine grapes. The region’s viticultural pioneers deserve a lot of credit for persevering through extremes of frost, heat and humidity that might have defeated more reasonable folk.

The peninsula is defined by Lake Ontario and the Niagara River. The waters meet around the historic town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, home not only of a theater festival celebrating the works of Shaw (one of the world’s largest) but also the historic Angel Tavern, a bit of Olde England in the colonies.

American troops burned Niagara-on-the-Lake to the ground during the War of 1812. Almost immediately, the rebuilt town became a tourist attraction. For the past 30 years the summer-long Shaw Festival has been the featured draw, but the area’s wineries are an increasingly powerful magnet.

The heart of the peninsula’s vineyard zone is the benchland along southern Lake Ontario at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment, the up-thrust limestone shore of a sea that vanished some 65 million years ago. The vines grow amid--and are gradually replacing--extensive peach orchards. That’s a good sign. Stone fruits of all kinds like lean soil, cold winters and moderate summers, and those conditions suit wine grapes as well.

The peninsula has two big things going for it. One is the deep limestone deposit left by a Jurassic-era sea that evaporated millions of years before the Ice Age glaciers carved out Lake Ontario. The geology and soils are similar to those in great French appellations such as Champagne, Burgundy and Loire Valley enclaves such as Sancerre and Vouvray.

The other advantage is the lake itself. It confers a moderating influence that gives structure to the growing season, and hence to the wines. With that combination of ancient soils and the tempering influence of water, the region resembles the Finger Lakes District just southeast in upstate New York.

There is a downside to the lake effect, however. Unlike the Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario is a huge body of water that generates its own marine-like climate, further amplified by Lake Erie to the southwest. The growing season can be stormy, muggy and occasionally frigid. And the frequent combination of heat and humidity turns the vineyard into a bug movie. It has taken generations of European-trained growers and winemakers to learn which grape varieties to grow and how to grow them properly.

Europeans settled the region more than three centuries ago and cultivated grapes almost from the beginning. Still, it was only in 1978 that John Marynissan planted the region’s first Cabernet Sauvignon vines. That tracks only a little behind California on a strict timeline--but cultural influences are part of terroir, too, and that part of the equation has lagged dramatically in East Coast wine regions. Ironically, it seems that Cabernet is one of the least promising varieties in this northerly vineyard, with its frequent heat waves and high humidity.

Vine diseases and pests are a big part of that lag. Phylloxera was born in this region. It was only the introduction of resistant rootstocks in the mid-20th century that made wine grapes tenable here.

The cultural aspect clicked into place when a winery group called Vincor took the stage in 1991. Nothing boosts the market presence of an emerging wine district like a corporation with big-time marketing bucks. Vincor is Canada’s largest premium wine producer ($294 million last year), roughly equivalent to Penfolds in Australia or Beringer in California. Its combination of refurbished old wineries and glamorous new ones has given the region a Napa-like cachet.

The company was founded by mass-marketing veterans Donald Triggs and Allan Jackson, who met while working for beer giant John Labatt Ltd. In the early 1990s the duo purchased several wineries owned by Labatt, and either sold or renovated them. The properties they retained became the core of the present group of 10 wineries. Its Niagara Peninsula brands include Jackson-Triggs, Hillenbrand and Inniskillin, among others. The company also owns several wineries in western Canada and one in California (RH Phillips).Vincor has also forged commercial alliances with large producers in Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Many Niagara Peninsula wineries incorporate restaurants. I was particularly impressed by dinners at Hillenbrand and the newly-opened Peller Estates. Both featured local ingredients such as Quebec foie gras, Jordan peaches and Brume Lake duck in dishes meant to showcase the winery’s various bottlings.

Such excellent restaurants and the summer-long Shaw Festival make the Niagara region especially conducive to tourism. I confess that I went for the theater--but then I discovered the wines, and left in the midst of planning a 2002 outing.

And here’s a real insider tip: several locals assured me that just up the Niagara River there’s a fairly impressive waterfall. Apparently it’s a rather nice place to go around sunset with a friend and a bottle of wine.

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Smith is writer-at-large for Wine & Spirits Magazine.