Wine has
been made commercially in Canada since the mid-1800s but Canadian wine has
begun to register with professionals and consumers in the wider wine world only
in the last five to ten years, as quality has dramatically improved. Canadian
wine is now being exported in meaningful volumes to the U.S., Asia and Europe.
Since the beginning of this century the number of wineries has increased
many-fold (the great majority are less than fifteen years old), wine regions
have been demarcated (and some divided into sub-appellations), wine laws have
been adopted in three important wine-producing provinces (there is no national
wine law), and indigenous and hybrid vines have largely been replaced by vitis
vinifera varieties in the main wine regions.
Here, Canadian
wine expert Rod Phillips provides an overview of Canada's wine regions, their
climate, soil, and other geographic conditions, and the grape varieties they
grow most successfully. The wines of Canada discusses the key producers
of each region (British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada), and the
styles of wine most characteristic of their production, as well as analysing
vintage variation and noteworthy viticultural and winemaking techniques, such
as burying vines to protect them from winter temperatures in some regions. The
book concludes with useful practical appendices covering the distribution of
grape varieties, annual production by region or province, wine consumption in
Canada and vintage charts. The wines of Canada is the first comprehensive guide to one of the rising stars in the
world of wine.