Vineyards: 'Grape growers are the foundation of the wine industry ...

Vineyards is a new column written by Debbie Zimmerman, chief executive officer of the Grape Growers of Ontario.

DEBBIE ZIMMERMAN/Special to Bullet News

Debbie Zimmerman

As you’re enjoying a nice glass of wine on a warm summer day or as you’re relaxing in the evening, have you ever wondered what goes into that wine? Ever paused to consider that bottle of wine started with a grape grower, one who could be living right here in the region?

Grape growers are the foundation of the wine industry. Each bottle of wine starts with good, quality grapes. VQA wines are crafted from grapes grown from Ontario’s unique and diverse vineyards and represent quality and authenticity. We grow the wines you love.

In 1947, when the Grape Growers of Ontario’s predecessor, the Ontario Grape Growers’ Marketing Board, was founded there were 15,000 acres of vineyards in Ontario with growers harvesting 36,000 tonnes of grapes for 22 wineries. The grapes being grown were labrusca varieties, native to Southern Ontario. These varieties are ideal for juice, preserves, and dessert and low alcohol wines; they’re not suited for the lighter, and dry, table wines consumers want. At the time, the value of processing sales to those wineries was $2.5 million.

The grape and wine industry has changed dramatically in the intervening 45 years. With the loss of juice manufacturers and consumers’ demand for higher quality table wines, growers removed 8,000 acres of their labrusca and hybrid vines between 1989 and 1991 and over time replaced them with vinifera vines – traditional European varieties. The harvest of grapes such as Chardonnay, Riesling, Gamay, the Cabernets and Merlot was only 800 metric tonnes in 1980. By 2000, the vinifera harvest reached 20,400 tonnes. Today, vinifera grapes account for 67 per cent of the total acreage in Ontario. There are still just over 15,000 acres of vineyards, but growers now produce some 64,000 tonnes of grapes for 176 wineries with annual sales of more than $78 million.

Ontario’s grape growers take advantage of a temperate climate, enhanced by the diversity of soils, ideal moisture and rainfall and the moderating effect of the Great Lakes. This allows high quality wine grape varieties to flourish. There are four designated viticulture areas in Ontario: Niagara Peninsula, Lake Erie North Shore, Pelee Island and Prince Edward County.  More than 80 per cent of our growers are right here in the Niagara Region.

As the CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario, which represents all processing grape growers in the province, I have had a chance to meet many of them and have come to realize how unique each one is. Grape growers are the kind of men and women who will lose sleep worrying about frost or too much rain because they know how much the weather can affect their crop. They’re the ones willing to take a risk on the varieties of grapes they’ll plant and the ones who protect the land for future generations. And they are the ones who are willing to help out a fellow grower because a successful farm equals a successful grape growing industry.

Each grower has a story as rich as the soil they farm. Over the coming months, I look forward to introducing you to some of our growers like Debra Marshall, from Prince Edward County, the Funk family, from St. Catharines, or Trevor Falk, from Niagara-on-the-Lake. You’ll get to know who the growers are, where the grapes come from, their growing philosophies and how quality is created in the vineyard. To know a good wine is to know the Grape Grower.

Debbie Zimmerman is the CEO  of the Grape Growers of Ontario.