By Rick VanSickle I do not know of another Niagara winery that has an elevator, but if you want the best you need to take it to get to the inner sanctum of the Two Sisters Estate Winery for the Stone Eagle Experience. It’s a quick ride to the third-floor private room. It opens to a large tasting table, full wine bar, and a wine rack filled to the brim with back vintages and current top tier Two Sister and Stone Eagle wines. This is where estate sommelier Dieter Unruh uncorks the estate’s best cellar treasures and the ultra-premium Stone Eagle collection of wines. I am on this day of tasting w ..read more

By Rick VanSickle There was darkness, then minutes later, light once again bathed the vineyards while a cacophony of birds chirps as if it was dawn at 3:30 in the afternoon; such was the scene at Westcott Vineyards for the total eclipse of the sun. It was eerie and enthralling at the same time despite the cloudy conditions that only permitted brief glimpses of the celestial event. Guests cheered the magical moments of totality and oohed and awed as the phases of the eclipse peeked from the clouds and brought Niagara back into light. There’s a metaphor there somewhere but suffice to say it wasn ..read more

By Rick VanSickle The Canadian wine community is once again giving “from the heart” for the upcoming 2024 Grapes for Humanity Fine Wine Auction that goes live on April 12. Also in this Ontario Wine Report: Our picks from the Vintages release Saturday, including rosés from Westcott Vineyards and Southbrook, four Hidden Bench wines and a Chardo from Domaine Le Clos Jordanne. The annual online auction, which is conducted in partnership with Grapes for Humanity Canada and Dymon Wine Cellars, is held to raise funds for Tree Canada, The Nature Conservancy of Canada, and the Halo Trust, in support o ..read more

By Rick VanSickle Hauling a big-ass map showing the intricately laced terroirs of Niagara Wine Country’s sub-appellations, Thomas Bachelder stops in the middle of New York City for a quick photo. He’s standing on Lexington Avenue, across from Dos Caminos, home of the famous Margarita Madness, and on his way to the Canadian Consulate with a café latte in hand, where he and partner/wife Mary Delaney are about to pour Bachelder and Domaine Le Clos Jordanne wines for the New York City wine trade as part of a Team Canada contingent. Wherever Thomas goes his terroir map is sure to follow. Wherever T ..read more

By Rick VanSickle The birth of the Canadian wine industry was a chaotic time, and the man who was at the centre of it all is still at it 50 years later. And it took a weather catastrophe this past winter in B.C. wine country to reawaken that passion in Donald Ziraldo, who in 1975, received the first new winery licence in almost 50 years along with his late partner Karl Kaiser of Inniskillin Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. That licence proved to be the catalyst for kick-starting the modern wine industry in this country. Up until that point, Ontario was planted to a sea of labrusca grapes ..read more

By Rick VanSickle If anything can eclipse Nik Wallenda’s 2012 highwire walk across Niagara Falls, which drew 150,000 people to the region, it just might be the upcoming astronomic event of a lifetime. Police and city officials around Niagara are preparing for up to a million visitors to the region beginning on April 5 and lasting through April 8 when a rare total solar eclipse, a celestial phenomenon that won’t be repeated in Niagara for over a century, promises to be an out-the-world experience for those who brave the drive and expected crowds. People across the continent will see the moon p ..read more

By Rick VanSickle Oh, yeah, and everyone had a big laugh. Gift the wine writer a chilled bottle of Baby Duck and hilarity ensues. Also in this Ontario Wine Report: New Chardonnay from 80x reviewed, our picks from the March 30 Vintages release, and a new consumer VQA wine taste event in Ottawa. It was mildly funny in 2001 when then Calgary Sun sports editor Martin Hudson (above left) brought a cold bottle of the wildly popular Baby Duck to our house in Calgary for a dinner party. I was a senior editor and the wine writer for the paper at the time. And, yes, there were a few more laughs 23 year ..read more

By Rick VanSickle When winemakers quote Charles Dickens you know something dramatic occurred with the Ontario grape harvest in 2023. But as the first wines from 2023 begin crowding last year’s wines off store shelves shortly, all that drama will be long forgotten, just as the next vintage begins its cycle of turning grapes into wine in the unpredictable climate of Ontario all over again. It is adversity that has made Ontario winemakers strong; the innate ability to pivot quickly from whatever Mother Nature throws their way. Note: For full report on Harvest 2023, go here. Once the smoke cleare ..read more

There is no doubting that icewine put Canada on the world wine map, but in recent years, that sweet vinous treat has fallen on hard times. The trouble began when COVID hit, the market plummeted for icewine due to several factors, not the least of which was China’s abrupt move away from Canadian sweet wines and the ritual of gifting. Other factors impacted icewine’s shrinking market, but key producers have battled back and seem to be now trending upward, at least from COVID and post-COVID lows. After an ideal icewine harvest in Niagara, which began conveniently on Jan. 15, a robust 4,100 tonne ..read more

By Rick VanSickle A reader recently posed the question: Do we really need another wine competition in Canada? Note, also in this Canadian Wine Report: Our recommendations for the Niagara wines coming to Vintages stores March 16, including, Malivoire, Bachelder, Sue-Ann Staff Wines, Cloudsley and Featherstone. It’s a fair question, and one that has been hashed out ad nauseam. The reader who wrote his response in the comment section of this website, in relation to the new Stampede Cellar Showdown wine competition based in Calgary, views these judging events as “marketing opportunities for winer ..read more