On the face of it, Canadian wine would seem as improbable as wine from Siberia or Greenland. But Ontario is just across the border from the New York’s Finger Lakes region, which boasts plenty of successful winemakers. The same goes for British Columbia, hard by Washington State. All these places enjoy hot summers, with large expanses of water to protect grapes from the worst effects of winter. So there is no objection in theory.

And in practice? Wine of some sort has been grown in Canada for a couple of hundred years, much of it disgusting. The European grape Vitis vinifera succumbed to disease, so the Canadians used the local versions, Vitis labrusca and Vitis riparia. These were pretty nasty, and their unpleasantness could only be partly disguised, usually by turning them into imitation port and sherry. Read the rest of this entry »