Local Wine route

After about an hour of driving around sightseeing in the county, we found ourselves spontaneously following the local wine route on Saturday. It was a fun day and I bought some delicious wines from Colio, Pelee Island, Black Bear, Mastronardi and Aleksander wineries. Prior to this day, we had only visited Rush Creek Wines, where I bought almost a dozen fruit wines.

For more information and location, click here

VQA: is 100% Ontario

That's right! You don't need to step outside the province for a great bottle of wine. Look for the VQA Medallion and you'll be sure to taste the essence of Ontario wines. The VQA, which stand for Vintners Quality Alliance, is a set of standards for winemaking excellence.

The VQA Ontario site explains, "VQA is your assurance that the wine you choose is made from 100% grapes grown in Ontario and its unique viticultural areas. All VQA wines are verified to confirm their origin and tested to ensure they meet a rigorous set of quality standards." ... read more

Here are the basic VQA regulations as listed on the WinesofOntario.org website:

"To claim Ontario as its origin, a wine must:

Be made from 100% Ontario grown grapes of approved varieties.
Wines bearing more specific origin (sub-appellations) must be 100% from the stated area
Meet minimum sugar levels (ripeness) at harvest as set for each grape variety.
Be made from a minimum of 85% of grapes grown in a single vintage (year) and indicate the vintage on the label."
... read more from the Wines Of Ontario website