Buy Canadian Wine: Discover the Unique Wines from Canada

Canada is known worldwide for its high-quality and unique wines. Discover everything you need to know about the Canadian wine industry, the famous wine regions and the exceptional wines this beautiful country has to offer.

Why Canadian Wine?
Canada has established itself as a leading wine producing country in recent decades, with a particular emphasis on the production of ice wine. Canada’s unique climatic conditions, with cold winters and warm summers, provide the perfect environment for producing exceptional wines. Canadian winemakers use innovative techniques and a deep knowledge of terroir to create world-class wines.

Major Wine Regions in Canada

Ontario
Ontario is Canada’s largest and most influential wine region, accounting for more than half of the country’s wine production. The Niagara Peninsula is the epicentre of Ontario’s wine production, famous for its scenic vineyards and excellent wineries. The region is best known for its ice wine, a sweet wine made from frozen grapes harvested in the winter.

British Columbia
British Columbia is another prominent wine region, with the Okanagan Valley as the main wine producing area. The warm, dry climate of the Okanagan Valley is ideal for growing a wide variety of grapes, including Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. The wines from this region are known for their fruity flavors and complex aromas.

quebe
Quebec has a growing wine industry, known primarily for its white wines and sparkling wines. The cold winters and short summers create unique conditions for viticulture, resulting in wines with distinctive flavors and character.

The Pride of Canada: Ice Wine

What is Ice Wine?
Ice wine (Icewine) is a special type of dessert wine made from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. This natural process concentrates the sugars and flavors in the grapes, resulting in a very sweet, rich, and intensely flavored wine.

Production process
Ice wine production is labor-intensive and risky, as the grapes must be frozen at the right temperature before they are harvested. This is usually done at temperatures of -8°C or lower. The frozen grapes are carefully harvested and immediately pressed, yielding a small amount of highly concentrated juice. This juice is then fermented to produce ice wine.

Flavor profile
Ice wine has a unique taste characterized by its intense sweetness and complex aromas of tropical fruits, peach, apricot and honey. It has a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity, making it a popular choice as a dessert wine.

The epitome of cool climate
Location is everything when it comes to wine. It’s where the sun, rain, sky and soil come together – a unique and special place, unlike anywhere else on Earth. Cool climates are known for producing some of the most elegant and exciting wines in the world. Our home is Ontario, and it’s the epitome of a cool climate. Read more about our latitude, lakes and limestone below.

Latitude | A Cool Climate Wine Region
Ontario’s wine regions share a similar latitude with well-known wine regions such as Tuscany and Oregon. Ontario’s angle to the sun ensures that we capture every drop of sunlight needed to ripen classic grape varieties. The daily temperature swings during the growing season create ideal conditions for a fine balance of acidity, alcohol and fruit expression. Wines from cooler climates are more aromatic, lighter in body and higher in acidity than those from warmer regions, which provides refreshment, harmony with food and good aging potential.

Lakes | Great Lakes Profile
Ontario’s vineyards stretch along three of the Great Lakes – Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and Lake Huron. The lakes moderate the cold winter temperatures and cool the vineyards during Ontario’s hot summers. The Great Lakes have shaped Ontario’s wine regions and play a crucial role in moderating the extremes of the continental climate. In winter, the lakes do not freeze over, and their warmer waters protect the vineyards from the crushing cold. In summer, their cooler waters moderate the heat extremes; temperatures of 30ºC are not uncommon.

Limestone | Glacier & Soil
Over the centuries, Ontario has undergone several glacial events that have formed and eroded the layers of sedimentary rock and ancient reef structures. This has resulted in the Niagara Escarpment, a natural ridge that stretches across southern Ontario between Lakes Huron and Ontario. Along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, where the Niagara Peninsula is located, there are highly complex soil structures. Gradations and pockets of sand, gravel and clay over a limestone bedrock can be found in a band between the shoreline and the crest of the escarpment. This band, which runs approximately 50 km east-west with varying widths, supports Niagara's vineyards and orchards.

The same glacial events have affected Prince Edward County, exposing a near-island of limestone subsoil in Lake Ontario, with a topsoil less than a meter deep in places. On the shores of Lake Erie, the limestone lies deeper beneath a mix of sand and clay soils. Soils in the Great Lakes basin range from sand to clay to rock, with a high concentration of limestone from an ancient seabed exposed by long-term glacial activity. Limestone is the same basic soil type shared by Burgundy and other regions in northern France. Some vineyards sit flat on former seabeds, while others are located on hillsides and terraces that formed the ancient shoreline. This topography is ideal for drainage (too much moisture can dilute flavors) and provides nutrients and minerality to the grapes.

Want to buy Canadian wine or ice wine?
At IJswijnen.nl we are proud of our extensive range of wines from Ontario. Discover for yourself why this cool climate is one of the most exciting wine regions in the world and enjoy the elegant and refined wines it has to offer.