“Today the wineries use Riesling, Vidal and Cabernet Franc for varieties of ice wine.”
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario — The 51-year-old Antoine Gerald Satoshi, our host, raised his cup of ice wine as we were about to finish our Sunday dinner and said: “Merci pour votre visite, je vous souhaite un bon voyage. Cheers.”
I heard the patriarch of the six-member group respond: “Merci beaucoup.” Then chased that with his learned English, as he himself raised his glass: “Hail to the men who made the ice wine great, but hell to the men who made this glass short.”
The six, three of whom are from Oshawa, one from Colorado, and the two, including the patriarch, are the parents from northern Philippines more familiar with the sugar cane fermented wine called basi.
They stopped by the 23-hectare Peller Estates, en route home to Oshawa from the boat ride the day before at the Niagara Falls, which produces award-winning wines like the sparkling ice wines made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.
The dessert wine is made from grapes that have frozen on the vines, among products of this country of a little over 40 million which has earned international acclaim for ice wine production.
Peller Estates is just one of several wineries in Ontario, thanks to The Great Lakes that shaped the province’s wine regions which played a crucial role in moderating the extremes of the region’s continental climate.
During the winter, The Lakes do not freeze, their warm water helps protect the shoreline vineyards against vine-destroying deep freezes.
Ontario is known as a world leader in ice wine production, which also makes world-class, high quality table and sparkling wines. Not far behind are Germany, upstate New York, British Columbia, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.
Our host said ice wine is made by leaving grapes on the vine past the usual harvesting window to allow the grapes to freeze.
One wine expert said: “The grapes must be truly frozen during processing for the wine to be labeled as ‘ice wine.’”
Ice wine is sweet, like the other variety of basi intended for the women of northern Philippines, and has high sugar levels.
Under Canadian wine law, grapes designated for iced wine cannot be picked until the mercury drops to at least minus 8 degrees Celsius. Canadian ice wine initially was made from either Vidal or Riesling grapes.
Today the wineries use Riesling, Vidal and Cabernet Franc for varieties of ice wine.
Majority of wines are dry table wines (60 percent white and 40 percent red), mostly made from Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.
Ontario takes pride in its climate, its nutrient-rich soil and topography which together contribute to the production of high quality wines.
The soil varies from sand to clay to rock with a high concentration of limestone, and the topography of Ontario’s wine region, according to sommeliers, is ideal for water drainage and provides nutrients and minerality to the grapes.
Other notable wine regions in Ontario include the Niagara Benchlands, on the Niagara Escarpment, which have a mild climate and limestone rich soil similar to the soil in Burgundy and other wine producing regions of France.
There is also the Lake Erie North Shore, which has a long growing season due to the shallow waters warming rather fast during summer.
We were made to understand that Ontario’s angle to the sun allows the province to soak up every ray of sunshine needed to ripen classic varieties.
North American varieties are known as Vitis Labrusca which include Concord and Niagara Traditional. European cultivars, including wine grapes, are Vitis Vinifera.
The stop at the Peller Estates gave us an identity card to the True North, validating what California-born author and journalist Thom Elkjer said in another time “Wine is a passport to the world.”
