A primer to buying Ontario wines
With all of the chaos created by the US tariff situation and the removal of American wines from store shelves across most of the country, there may never have been a better opportunity for the Canadian wine industry to get in front of the consumer and change the long term dynamic of wine buying habits in this country. If we take the provinces at their word, we should see a lot more Canadian wine from other provinces hit those empty shelves in the very near future (and this is long overdue). But in the meantime with the push to buy Canadian, I’ll give some of the basics on the Wines of Ontario that should help you out in your buying adventures.
There are two primary wine categories sold in Ontario - VQA and International Domestic Blend (IDB). The first are made entirely from Ontario grapes and undergo a 'quality' certification process. The second only require that 25% of the grapes are from Ontario - the remaining 75% can be from anywhere, and a pretty good bet that generally means the US (though grapes are sourced from France, Spain and Italy as well). Only the big corporates make these international blends - Peller, Arterra, and a couple of others - so you are not supporting the little producers by buying these wines. And that 25% is only a corporate average, so an individual IDB wine could potential be entirely made from grapes grown elsewhere.
The IDBs only encourage growing bulk low quality grapes on large acreage farms with entirely mechanical farming techniques, and there is little benefit back into the Ontario agricultural economy. I'm going to stick to talking about VQA wines because that really is all that you should be buying from Ontario. There are 3 designated VQA regions in Ontario - Niagara, Prince Edward County (yeah), and Lake Erie North Shore. Niagara now has what are called sub appellations. A wine label will reflect the grape origin. VQA Niagara Twenty Mile Bench gives you a pretty specific identification of where the grapes came from. Notably you could make a VQA Niagara Twenty Mile Bench wine in Prince Edward County - the designation is grape origin. If a wine says VQA Ontario, then the grapes are blended from more than one of the 3 primary regions (i.e., a VQA Ontario wine in PEC is most likely a blend of PEC and Niagara grapes).
Now there is another category of wines made from all Ontario grapes, but they don't get the VQA accreditation. Generally these wines must be purchased winery direct, or at restaurants, bottle shops, etc. VQA certification comes at a cost to a winery. So if you're only making a small quantity of a specific wine, it may not be worth the effort. Second, part of that certification process is subjective. So to be certified as a VQA chardonnay, it has to be viewed that it looks, smells and tastes like an Ontario chardonnay by the panel, or it doesn't pass. Harsh, but it happens. Side note that one Niagara winery labelled some of its wine 'Blackball' to be rebels in protest of some of their wines not passing for this reason. The third primary reason is that some grape varieties grown in Ontario (mostly what we call hybrids) are not VQA certified. So if the wine contains any of those varieties, they don't get a VQA. And lastly there are an increasing number of vineyards outside of the 3 VQA designated regions (Georgian Bay, north of Toronto, southeastern Ontario, and even Ottawa). There is just not critical mass in any other geography to justify another VQA region at this time.
The VQA process is constantly evolving, and is opening up to a lot more involvement and input from the craft wine industry. So expect to see changes and a large number of additions to both grape varieties and styles that are accepted as VQA. This is a good thing.
Should you buy Ontario wine? Absolutely. If the tariff war is the event forcing you to do it, then you've been missing out. Put to bed any historical view that you have of Ontario wine quality. They are world class now and highly competitive. In many cases, they are far better value for your money if you are making the right comparisons. That said, this is an expensive place to make wine and the grape yields are low on an international scale. But with so many small wineries, you are getting detailed care and attention to winemaking that you will never see in a mass produced wine. So don't complain if you have to pay a little more - the labour and attention to detail that went into making the wine is worth the price.
