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According to Norwegian sagas, Viking explorer Leif ERICSSON discovered grapes when he landed on the American continent around 1001 AD. He named the place Vinland. Although speculation continues as to whether Leif found blueberries or grapes at his landfall, L'ANSE AUX MEADOWS, Newfoundland, it is certain that wild grapes grew along the eastern seaboard of North America. Johann Schiller, who is acknowledged as the father of the Canadian wine industry, made good use of these grapes in the 19th century.
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Vineyard at Inniskillin
Vineyard at Inniskillin Winery (courtesy Wine Council of Ontario).
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Schiller, a retired German corporal, was given a land grant just west of Toronto and in 1811 he planted a small vineyard from cuttings of wild vines he found growing along the banks of the Credit River. Schiller made wine from these domesticated grapes and sold it to his neighbours. Thirty-five years later the estate was bought by an aristocratic Frenchman, Justin de Courtenay, who had unsuccessfully tried to replicate the taste of red Burgundy in Quebec. He had better luck in Ontario and his Gamay won a prize at the 1867 Paris Exposition.
The first true commercial Canadian winemaking operation began in 1866 when three gentlemen farmers from Kentucky acquired land on Pelee Island - Canada's most southerly (and warmest) point - where they planted 30 acres of native North American Catawba grapes. A few months later they were joined on the island by two English brothers, Edward and John Wardoper, who planted their own vineyard, half the size. Gradually vineyards were planted on the mainland, moving east along the shores of Lake Erie to the NIAGARA PENINSULA, where Canada's major concentration of vineyards is situated today.
The first vineyards in British Columbia were planted in the 1860s at the Oblate Mission of Father Charles Pandosy near Kelowna in the Okanagan, but it wasn't until the 1930s that the first winery was established in the valley.
By 1890 there were 41 commercial wineries in Canada, 35 of them in Ontario. In the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia and along Québec's St. Lawrence shoreline it was the Church rather than the regions' farmers which encouraged the planting of vineyards and fostered the art of winemaking.
During Canada's 11 years of PROHIBITION (1916-27), the making and selling of wine was not illegal (thanks to an aggressive grape-growers' lobby which managed to have wine exempted from the Act) and Canadians could buy sweet wines referred to as ports and sherries with an alcoholic strength of 20 degrees. Following prohibition, the provincial liquor board system was put in place across the country to control and regulate the production, distribution and sale of beverage alcohol.
It was not until the mid-1970s in Ontario and British Columbia that the supremacy of the large wineries was challenged by the appearance of boutique and farmgate ventures. In 1997 Canada had over 110 licensed wineries classified according to the scale of their production: large commercial enterprises, estate wineries and small-scale farm operations.
Wine from locally grown grapes is currently made in four provinces - Ontario, British Columbia, Québec and Nova Scotia - with small fruit wine operations in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
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