SUPERIOR SIP

Sustainability in the Ontario Wine Industry

As we make our way into spring up here in our green-come-lately snowy holdout in the north, we can still be grateful that it will arrive, and hopefully resplendently soon. Clock a few hundred miles to the south right now, however, and the remarkable wine regions of Ontario are in full swing with bud break flourishing their baby berry growth on the vine.

It’s a lot of work bringing those hardwon grapes to fruition in the fall, when they are harvested to make some exceptional, regionally descriptive wines that we can claim as our very own. There are also the challenges of pest and wildlife predation, threat of mildew and fungal infestation, erosion and unstable weather conditions, water health concerns, and depleted soil fitness.

It’s no mean effort to make a good go of bringing in a bumper crop, even being shored up with commercial pesticides, irrigation, herbicides, and nutrients. However, there is a flourishing movement towards more environmentally sound practices that encompass not just the vineyards themselves but the entire winemaking operation, providing a path towards longevity and sustainability for the industry as a whole.

It’s a conversation best led by example. During my time working in the wine region in Niagara, I was able to observe and (fortunately) participate in a myriad of opportunities to move away from conventional control in vini/viticulture to more inclusive and symbiotic methods.

In the vineyard, sheep were employed to green harvest (eat the excessive green grapes) and add natural compost to the soil (yes, poop!), while chickens wandered the rows and scratched at the soil to turn it over and oxygenate it. Rose bushes were planted at end-rows and acted as coal mine canaries, showing signs of infestation or illness that were treatable before the vines were infected, while companion plants proliferated between the rows to add nutrients to the soil that the vines were much in need of. Integrated pest management systems were employed, such as pheromone tents to attract male moths to reduce population and infestation, while natural vineyard sprays that included quartz meal and manure were utilized to attract sunlight and promote growth.

In the winery, geothermal systems were employed to place less stress on the entire system and less aggressive chemical methods of fining, filtration and stabilization were employed to deliver those grapes into a great wine.

Sounds easy? It wasn’t, but there was a great idyll to being party to something so pure, that produces something so true.

The take-away is this: sustainability is the hard road, but we can all participate in its making. Read your labels and do your consumer research (loads of great producers aren’t necessarily certified but employ organic/ biodynamic practices) to be part of the change you want to see in the world—and of course, enjoy it in a lovely glass of Ontario wine.