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Dave Smith[_1_]

On 2019-11-05 12:02 p.m., wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Nov 2019 11:12:29 -0500, Dave Smith
> > wrote:
>
>> On 2019-11-05 8:54 a.m., A Moose in Love wrote:
>> songbird
>>>
>>> Concords are great for eating. I'm trying to think what Canadian
>>> grapes we used for wine making. Concords? Muscats?
>>>
>>
>> That is why Canadian wine was so bad for so many years. Then in the
>> 1970s they started growing varietal grapes. Now they make great wines.
>
> Great wines got their start when growers began removing the native
> labrusca vines (Fox grapes, like Concord or Niagara) and replacing
> them with vinifera vines (European-style table wine grapes).
> Here in Ontario, that began between 1989 and 1991.
>

It was a little earlier than that. Don Ziraldo and Karl Keiser started
using Gamay Noir, Chardonnay and Riessling grapes. That gave a big push
to Niagara wines and paved the way to quality wine production in the
region.