Canada Flashcards
Canadian Wine History
Lambrusca wines labelled sherry or port since early 1800s
Canadian Wine Laws
Provincial Liquor boards control production
Canadian Wine Regions
Niagara Pennisula (NR Ontario). Okagnagan Valley (BC). Small non- appellation plantings of hybrids in Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Canadian Appellation Terms
VA (Viticultural Area)
VQA
Canada.
Vitners Quality Alliance (Est 1988) administers Appelations Viticultural and W/Making standards.
Banned Lambrusca from Appellation status but not some hybrids and American varieties.
Provincial liquor boards control production.
Niagara Pennisula Conditions
Largest quality production area. Lakes Ontario and Erie influence air movement. Continental with short hot summers and long very cold winters.
Winter and Spring frost threat.
Main VAS are Palee Island and Lake Erie, North Shore
Niagara Pennisula Wines
Vidal and Riesling Icewines.
Elegant Rieslings.
Bordeaux blends in warmer areas.
Okagnagan Valley
British Columbia (Canada).
East of Vancover @ Northern Limit for viti.
Semi desert conditions (edge of Sonodran Desert). Both Vinifera and Hybrids planted.
Success with Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewürztraminer.
Where is Okanagan Valley?
British Columbia
Ontario- Climate
Moderate Continental (Cold Winters)
Name VQA appellations for Niagara Pennisula
Niagara- On- The- Lake: Niagara River, Niagara Lakeshore, Four Mile Creek, St David’s Beach
Niagara Escapment: Short Hills Bench, Beamsville Bench, Twenty Mile Bench
Name VQA’s of Ontario
Niagara Pennisula- including sub regions
Prince Edward Country
Lake Erie North Shore
Pelee Island
List VQA’s of British Columbia
Okanagan Valley Vancover Island Gulf Island Fraser Valley Similkameen Valley
History- Canada
Long history of wine making, starting in the early 1800’s with production of mostly Labrusca wines labelled as sherry or port. Provincial liquor boards control production. In 1988 Vintners Quality Alliance set up to administer appellations, viticultural and winemaking standards. Labrusca wine did not qualify for appellation status, however some hybrids and American varieties do.
Niagara Peninsula- (Ontario) Canada
Largest and most important quality production area. Located between the southern shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Continental climate with short, hot summers and long extremely cold winters with threat of winter and spring frost damage. The lake influences the movement of air.
Bordeaux blends in the warmer area.
Two main VAs (Viticultural Areas) are Pelee Island and Lake Erie North Shore.
Okagnagan Valley (British Columbia)- Canada
Located 300km east of Vancouver, near the northern limits of viticulture, planted in semi desert conditions on the edge of the Sonoran desert. Both vinifera and hybrids planted, success with Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewürztraminer.
Other Regions- Canada
Small plantings of mostly hybrids and American varieties in both Quebec and Nova Scotia, not controlled under the appellation system.
VQA
Vintners Quality Alliance, was initially formed as a voluntary organization to identify wines made entirely from grapes grown in canada, as opposed to the many on sale that are merely blended or bottled there. Today Ontario and British Columbia’s VQA appellation systems are legally enforceable.
Brock University
Leading university in canada for wine-related academe. It is home to the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) established in 1996. Graduates make wine all over the world with particularly large contingents in California and Ontario. CCOVI is also the home of North America’s only undergraduate degree programme in the study of cool climate grape growing and winemaking. Student exchange programmes include partnerships with Okanagan University College in British Columbia, the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, lincoln University in New Zealand, the University of Udine in Italy, and dijon. In viticulture, studies include the effects on wine quality of different vine training systems, vine spacing, irrigation, and shoot thinning; Niagara terroir using gps, control of disease (particularly powdery mildew) and pests (particularly Asian lady beetle—see ladybug taint), the elucidation of odour-active compounds in Canadian icewines, and the effects of canopy management and oenological treatments on red wine composition and taste. Studies in winemaking have focused, non-exclusively, on the production of Icewine. Niagara College offers a Winery & Viticulture course as well as a graduate course in Wine Business Management.
French Hybrid
Group of vine hybrids bred in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usually by crossing or hybridizing american vine species with a European vinifera variety (see vine breeding). These are also known as direct producers, hybrid direct producers, HDPs, or, in French, hybrides producteurs directs. One early response to the invasion of the American phylloxera louse in Europe was to plant American varieties, since most had phylloxera tolerance. In Europe they proved to be both hardy and resistant to a wide range of fungal diseases, but, because of the strange, often foxy, flavour of the wine they produced, it has been illegal to plant the likes of isabella, noah, Othello, Black Spanish (Jacquez), and Herbemont in France since 1934. The aim of the early hybridizers was to combine the pest and disease resistance of the American species with the accepted wine quality of the European wine species V. vinifera. A group of French breeders such as François baco, Castel, Georges couderc, Ferdinand Gaillard, Ganzin, Millardet, Oberlin, Albert seibel, Bertille seyve, and Victor villard, and, more recently, Joanny Burdin, Galibert, Eugene Kuhlmann, Pierre Landot, Ravat, Jean-François Seyve’s sons Joannes and Bertille (who married Villard’s daughter and developed the important seyve–villard series of hybrids), and Jean-Louis vidal, produced thousands of new hybrid varieties with such aims in mind. They used american hybrids as parents as well as American vine species. V. aestivalis, V. rupestris, V. riparia, and V. berlandieri were common parents because of their excellent disease and pest resistance, and a reduction in the strong fruit flavour associated with V. labrusca. Some of the rootstocks used today were bred by these hybridizers, particularly Castel, Couderc, Ganzin, and Millardet. Active hybridizers in other countries included the Italians Bruni, Paulsen, Pirovani, and Prosperi. These hybrids were widely favoured because of disease resistance and high productivity, so by 1958 about 400,000 ha/988,000 acres of French hybrids were planted in France, or about one-third of the total vineyard area. Wine quality was, however, often inferior, especially from the earlier French hybrids. With continued crossing and back crossing, the objectionable features in the taste of the wine could be reduced (see diagram for new varieties). French planting regulations since 1955 have deliberately discouraged vine varieties associated with poor wine quality, however, both hybrids and V. vinifera, and so by 2012 there were fewer than 205,000 ha of hybrids. With the exception of Baco 22A, which may be used for armagnac, hybrids are being systematically phased out of French wine and brandy production, even though there were still sizeable plantings of Villard Noir, chambourcin, and plantet for red wines and some Villard Blanc and seyval blanc for white wines, according to the FranceAgriMer statistics for 2012. Other hybrid varieties that are authorized, if not actually encouraged, in France include Baco 1, Chancellor, Couderc Noir, Garonnet, Oberlin Noir, various Seyve-Villard hybrids, and Varousset for red wine and Rayon d’Or for white wine. The French hybrids have been planted outside France and have made significant contributions at some time or other to the wine industries of the eastern united states (see new york in particular), canada, england, and New Zealand, where French hybrids were planted in the majority of vineyards into the 1960s, and used for fortified wines. From the 1960s onwards, in almost all of these regions, these hybrids have been systematically replaced by V. vinifera varieties for reasons of wine quality, although in some sites in Canada and New York subject to winter freeze, only a hybrid such as Vidal will survive (and has produced some fine ice wine), while Seyval Blanc is still grown to a limited extent in England.