of Okanagan Valley, one clone of Pinot Noir is being ripped out because temperatures have become too warm for it. It is being replaced with Tempranillo. At Martin’s Lane, also in Okanagan Valley, extreme leaf-removal has been abandoned, says winemaker Shane Munn, because of the “harsh summer light.” Along with such adaptations, plantings of Pinot Noir are increasing everywhere. Its presence across Canada’s wine regions is largely shared only with Chardonnay, while other vinifera varieties tend to be associated with specific regions. The most planted other varieties in British Columbia are Merlot and Pinot Gris, while in Ontario, Riesling and Cabernet Franc are to the fore. In Quebec, hybrid varieties are hugely dominant, while in Nova Scotia there is more of a balance between hybrids and vinifera. It’s not that all the plantings of Pinot Noir across Canada


necessarily produce high-quality or even good-quality wine. But the great majority of the more than 200 varietal Pinot Noirs tasted for this story were very good, and a creditable proportion were excellent, as the list of notable Pinot Noirs shows. (Pinot Noir is widely used for making rosé and traditional-method sparkling wines, but the focus here is on the varietal still red wine.) Needless to say, the character and style of individual wines reflect climatic and vintage conditions, together with vineyard and cellar decisions, but it is noteworthy that all Canada’s regions contributed some excellent Pinot Noirs. There


Below: Martin’s Lane’s Fritzi’s Vineyard in Okanagan Valley, where the “harsh summer light” has led to less leaf-removal and more shade.


was no region where one thought, “Why on earth are they growing Pinot Noir there?”


That might seem to undermine Pinot Noir’s reputation as “the heartbreak grape” because of the putative difficulty of growing it. To be sure, some vineyard managers and winemakers do draw attention to the challenges of growing Pinot Noir in their regions. Amélie Boury, the winemaker at Château des Charmes in Niagara Peninsula, says, “It is no secret that Pinot Noir is a tough grape to grow in Ontario. It just waits for you to turn your back for a day and starts being trouble. But it is also very rewarding wine.” Others use words such as difficult, fickle, and challenging. Perhaps, then, the heartbreak descriptor is entirely accurate. Or perhaps it was coined in order to generate admiration for successful Pinot Noirs and sympathetic understanding for underachievers. Then again, if Pinot Noir really has broken many producers’ hearts, perhaps the issue is simply, as a Hawkes Bay (New Zealand) viticulturist once told me: “If you’re having problems growing a particular variety, you’ve planted it in the wrong bloody place.”


Matching site and variety in Ontario Finding the right bloody place for specific grape varieties is the work that Canada’s wine producers have undertaken over the past three or four decades. Ontario has led the way from the early 1990s, when thousands of acres of hybrid varieties were pulled out and replanted with vinifera. But while task number one was to match variety and site, many producers also had one


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 133


Photography by James O’Mara


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