Inniskillin is a Canadian
winery
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...
located in
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of O ...
. Inniskillin, which is mainly noted for its
icewine
Ice wine (or icewine; german: Eiswein) is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing for a more concentrated grape ...
production, has played an important pioneering role in the modern
Canadian wine
Canadian wine is wine produced in Canada. Ontario and British Columbia are the two largest wine-producing provinces in Canada, with two-thirds of the Canada's vineyard acreage situated in Ontario. However, wine producing regions are also present i ...
industry. Since 1994, Inniskillin also operates a winery in
Okanagan
The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is part ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
(Inniskillin Okanagan) in addition to its original location (Inniskillin Niagara).
History
Inniskillin was founded by
Donald Ziraldo
Donald J.P. Ziraldo is a Canadian winemaker and businessman, and a Member of the Order of Canada. He and his partner Karl J. Kaiser have often been cited as two of the most important figures in Canadian wine history. He and Kaiser have been credi ...
and
Karl Kaiser and saw its beginnings in 1974. Before embarking on the Innskillin project, Ziraldo was running a grapevine
nursery and Karl Kaiser, a trained chemist, was a home wine maker. The first vines were planted in 1974, and since the duo had the ambition to make better-quality wines, their vineyard was planted with traditional European grape varieties, of the ''
Vitis vinifera
''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curre ...
'' species, chosen from those cultivated in colder European regions. Their first vineyard, of was planted with
Riesling
Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...
,
Chardonnay
Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...
and
Gamay
Gamay is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as long ago as the 15th centu ...
.
[Inniskillin: History - Milestones](_blank)
, accessed on July 7, 2008
At that time the wine industry in the Niagara consisted of five bulk wineries growing American ("non-vinifera") vines, and no winery licenses had been issued since 1929. Inniskillin's license in 1975, which Ziraldo successfully lobbied for, was therefore the first post-
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
license issued in the region. The company Inniskillin Wines was formally incorporated on July 31, 1975,
[Inniskillin: History](_blank)
, accessed on July 7, 2008 and the first harvest occurred three years after their first vineyard was planted, in 1977. While waiting for their ''V. vinifera'' vines to yield grapes, they produced some wine from
hybrid grape
Hybrid grapes are grape varieties that are the product of a Hybrid (biology), crossing of two or more ''Vitis'' species. This is in contrast to crossings between grape varieties of the same species, typically ''Vitis vinifera'', the European grape ...
s.
[Wine Business Monthly, September 1, 2000: Inniskillin Leading Icewine Craze](_blank)
/ref> In 1978, Inniskillin moved to its present location on the Brae Burn Estate
:''"Brae" is also the Lowland Scots language word for the slope or brow of a hill.''
Brae (Old Norse: ''Breiðeið'', meaning "the wide isthmus") is a village on the island of Mainland in Shetland, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Description
Brae w ...
. An existing 1920s barn, thought to have been inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
, was restored for the winery's use, and has become something of a landmark.
The initial production consisted of white and red table wine
Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification.
In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not fortif ...
s, but another significant development started a few years later. In 1983, Karl Kaiser and three other Ontario wineries all left grapes on their vines in an attempt to produce ice wine, in order to put the harsh Canadian winter to good use. Inniskillin and their Niagara neighbour Ewald Reif lost their entire crop to hungry birds, while the two wineries Hillebrand and Pelee Island, situated in another part of Ontario, were able to harvest a minuscule amount of frozen grapes.[Appellation America, December 26, 2007: Kings of the "Ice": Donald Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser](_blank)
/ref> In 1984, Kaiser used nets to protect Inniskillin's grapes and were able to produce the winery's first ice wine. This wine was made from Vidal
Vidal (, , , ) is a Catalan, Aragonese, and possibly also Romansh surname, which also appears in French, Italian, Portuguese and English, and as a given name.
Vidal may refer to:
Surname
*Maurice Vidal Portman (1850–1935), a British doctor ...
grapes harvested at the Brae Burn Estate and was in fact labelled "Eiswein", the German and Austrian wine term. Thus, Inniskillin was one of the first Canadian wineries to produce ice wine, and the first to do so in commercially significant quantities. The international breakthrough of Canadian ice wine came in 1991, when Inniskillin's 1989 Vidal ice wine won the ''Grand Prix d’Honneur'' at Vinexpo Vinexpo is one of the largest exhibitions for wine and spirits professionals from all over the world, held in Bordeaux in uneven years. The first event dates back to year 1981 gathering 524 exhibitors from 21 countries 11,000 professional visitors f ...
.
The two founders of Inniskillin practised a division of labour. Kaiser handled the winemaking, and Ziraldo handled the marketing and was president of the company. Ziraldo was also instrumental in creating the Vintners Quality Alliance
Vintners Quality Alliance, or VQA, is a regulatory and appellation system which guarantees the high quality and authenticity of origin for Canadian wines made under that system in British Columbia and Ontario. It is similar to regulatory systems i ...
(VQA) and was the organisation's first chairman.
In 1992, Inniskillin Wines merged with Cartier wines (one of the old wineries of the region, founded in 1889) to form Cartier Inniskillin Vintners Inc. In 1993, Cartier Inniskillin Vintners Inc. merged with T.G. Bright & Co. Limited (founded in 1874 as the Niagara Falls Wine Company) under the name Vincor International Inc. Inniskillin wines continued as a subsidiary of Vincor, with the wines labelled as before and Ziraldo and Kaiser in their old roles.
In 1994, Inniskillin started activities at a subsidiary winery in Okanagan, British Columbia, under the name Inniskillin Okanagan. After that, the original winery was referred to as Inniskillin Niagara. This winery was started in collaboration with First Nation
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
locals, the Okanaqueen Tribe of the Inkameep people, which kept vineyards on their land and supplied grapes to Inniskillin Okanagan. In 1996, Inniskillin expanded their Okanagan activities by buying an existing winery in Okanagan, Okanagan Vineyards, as well as the Dark Horse Vineyard.[Wine X Magazine: Okanagan BC](_blank)
, accessed on July 7, 2008
In April 2006, Constellation Brands
Constellation Brands, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is an American producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits. Constellation is the largest beer import company in the US, measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share (7.4 percen ...
bought Inniskillin's parent company Vincor International Inc., which became Vincor Canada. Later that year Karl Kaiser went into retirement, but stayed on as a consultant for Inniskillin's ice wine activities, and Ziraldo left the winery and his position as president.
Wines
The icewine production, accounting for approximately 10% of the winery's output, is commercially significant to Inniskillin. The parent company Vincor has singled out Inniskillin to be the group's primary icewine exporter, and Inniskillin icewines are therefore among the most distributed Canadian icewines in export markets such as United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
All of Inniskillin's wines are VQA wines and most are varietal
A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...
, and their range of table wines is marketed in five levels.
* Varietal Series (Niagara and Okanagan), several different varietal wines marked only with their region origin. Unoaked white wines and unoaked or lightly oaked red wines.
* Reserve Series (Niagara and Okanagan), varietal wines of more concentrated flavours from a narrower range of varieties. The Reserve Riesling is unoaked, while other white and all red wines see more oak than the wines in the Varietal Series.
* Discovery Series (Okanagan), varietal wines made from "odd" varieties not commonly cultivated in Okanagan Valley.
* Single Vineyard Series (Niagara and Okanagan), mostly varietal wines sourced from a single vineyard where the combination of vineyard and variety is considered favourable. As for the Reserve Series, Riesling wines are unoaked while other whites and all reds are oaked. Blended Meritage
Meritage is a name for red and white Bordeaux-style wines without infringing on the Bordeaux (France) region's legally protected designation of origin. Winemakers must license the Meritage trademark from its owner, the California-based Meritage A ...
wines are produced in Okanagan.
* Founders' Series (Niagara), limited amounts of oaked Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines.
Vineyards
Inniskillin sources its grapes both from their own vineyards, and from some contracted neighbouring vineyards in the Niagara Peninsula. In Okanagan, grapes are also sourced from the vineyards kept by the Okanaqueen Tribe. The only non-vinifera grape grown is Vidal, used for icewine. The following vineyards are used:Inniskillin: Vineyards - Okanagan
, accessed on July 7, 2008
References
External links
Inniskillin
Video of icewine production at Inniskillin (Youtube)
Donald Ziraldo Fonds RG 457
Brock University Library Digital Repository
{{coord, 43.2105, N, 79.0641, W, display=title
Wineries of the Niagara Peninsula