Canada's wine industry is best known for icewine — it produces more than any other country, mostly from Ontario's Niagara Peninsula — thanks to reliably cold winters that let grapes freeze on the vine before pressing. British Columbia's Okanagan Valley and Ontario's Niagara region also produce well-regarded still wines from cool-climate grapes.
Grapes grown here
Sub-regions
Niagara Peninsula
The Niagara Peninsula is Canada's largest wine-producing region, its microclimate moderated by Lake Ontario and shaped by the varied soils of the Niagara Escarpment. It's especially celebrated for icewine, alongside still wines made from cool-climate vinifera varieties.
Okanagan Valley
The Okanagan Valley is British Columbia's leading wine region, its warm, dry climate and long summer daylight hours (moderated by a chain of lakes) allowing a wide range of grapes to ripen well. It's known both for quality still wines and, as part of Canada's icewine tradition, dessert wines made from grapes frozen on the vine.