wines from California and the southern hemisphere. At the same time, there was a shift in consumer preferences—perhaps better described as the emergence of a new consumer sub-market that began to appreciate Ontario’s cool-climate styles. Bryan Rogers and Connor Van Tol, winemaker and assistant


winemaker at Keint-he Vineyards in Prince Edward County, capture this shift: “Fifteen years ago, Ontario consumers weren’t interested in Pinot Noir. They wanted Cabs, Merlots, Shiraz—big wines with a big mouthfeel and heavy-handed flavoring. It was difficult to sell Pinot Noir, but that’s no longer the case.” A 2010 report on the future of the Ontario wine industry


argued that producers needed to forget about making “New World” wines and to embrace the cool climate and its “Old World” wine styles. Strikingly, it failed to mention Cabernet Franc—12 years later, the province’s most planted red vinifera variety—at all, and identified only Merlot and Pinot Noir as red varieties having “good market potential in the future.” Because of the cachet of Burgundy, Pinot Noir was considered the prize, and it has for a long time been the star that Ontario producers followed when looking for a prestigious wine that would put them on the world wine map. Icewine had led the way, of course, and it is still an important export wine in terms of value, but it has a very narrow market and limited potential for growth. It is, arguably, the world’s most regifted wine. For table wines, Riesling and, to a lesser extent, Chardonnay


did it for white wine, and Pinot Noir seemed right for a signature red in Ontario. Two of the province’s three appellations are decidedly cool: the all-important Niagara Peninsula (the country’s most productive wine region) and Prince Edward County on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The third, Lake Erie North Shore, is


Limestone underlies much of the vineyard land in Niagara Peninsula and Prince Edward County. To those who believe that soil has an important influence on wine character and quality, this composition spoke Burgundy—and therefore Pinot Noir and Chardonnay


somewhat warmer than the other two, and its South Islands sub- appellation is even warmer. Pinot Noir is grown in all. What was also influential to many producers was that limestone underlies much of the vineyard land in Niagara Peninsula and Prince Edward County. To those who believe that soil has an important influence on wine character and quality, this composition spoke Burgundy—and therefore Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Over time, Pinot Noir has remained important in Ontario, but its vineyard profile is difficult to quantify because of the limited statistics made public by the Ontario grape and wine industry. No acreage-by-variety information is available, but there are wine-production data. In 2021, Pinot Noir contributed 7 percent to the volume of all red wines certified by the VQA (Vintner’s Quality Alliance, Ontario’s wine certification authority)—behind Merlot and Cabernet Franc, which each contributed 11 percent. But Pinot Noir was the second-most important variety in terms of liters bottled as a varietal red wine certified by the VQA—a distant second to Baco Noir, a VQA-approved hybrid variety that has become remarkably popular.


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 135


Picture Credit


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