Organic wines making mark in Niagara
The concept of growing and producing food organically is certainly nothing new in our world.
The deliberate production of organic wines started to take off in France in the 1940s but to little fanfare, and it was not considered really a fad or even a great idea. The wines were not sought after by wine aficionados around the world, and it was not something synonymous with quality in the wine world.
Times they are a changin’ and the idea of an organic lifestyle being integrated into a splash of vino is certainly something taking hold, and many wineries here in Niagara are flying that all-natural flag.
Frogpond Farm Organic Winery is a small winery in Niagara-on-theLake and takes claim as Ontario’s first-to-be-certified grower of organic grapes and producing organic wines in our region.
Since then, others have joined the revolution and they are not just any wineries but those that are winning awards and leading in quality.
Southbrook Vineyards on Niagara Stone Road has joined the ranks along with the fourtime Canadian winery of the year at Tawse Winery near Vineland. These are wines that are stunning in quality and diversity and are some of the leading wines in the ethos of wine lovers, and they also happen to be both organic and biodynamic.
The concept of biodynamic is a strange and ancient one and deserves much more discussion than I can give it in the column but worth looking up to understand the process and interesting history.
There also are many wineries that use organic methods to produce grapes but simply have not gone to the length of becoming certified. Some well-known Niagara wines use organic vineyards, such as the former vineyards of Le Clos Jordanne as well as Malivoire, but the wine is not certified organically. Stratus Vineyards imposes strict organic practices in its vineyard, but its proximity to non-organic grapes makes it impossible to make that bragging point. Wineries such as Flat Rock Cellars and many others across the region employ strong environmental impact strategies in both how they run the winery and take care of their vineyard in regard to water, energy and soils.
So the question that always arises about growing organically in wine is simply: “Does growing and producing organically make the wine better?”
This is certainly a tough question to answer in a short column, and I would also surmise you would get a vigorous discussion on this point among winemakers.
The reality is always down to choice, keeping in mind personal ethics, commerce and quality. Many producers will talk about how natural and organic practices in the vineyards are better for the grapes’ life cycle and will produce a healthier vine and in connection a better quality wine.
In my own opinion, being organic is not something that is high on my list in determining how I choose a wine.
I do, however, have to admit that wines such as Quarry Road Pinot Noir from Tawse, Petit Verdot from Southbrook and Stratus White rank as some of my favourite wines in Niagara, and I cannot help but make the natural connection. Craig Youdale has been in the food and beverage industry for three decades as a chef, restauranteur, professor, international competitor and now dean of the Canadian Food and Wine Institute at Niagara College.