Canada: Articles on Canada Wine & Wine Regions

Whether you know him from Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters or the myriad films in which he has appeared, Dan Aykroyd’s DNA is found throughout the blueprint of pop culture.  Now, three decades after exploding onto the scene as an SNL cast member, he has turned his attention to winemaking with the launch of Dan Aykroyd Wines.  IntoWine recently caught up with Dan to learn more about his wine venture. 

What first got you into wine?
I really got interested in wine when I started working on Saturday Night Live.  Up to that point my level of sophistication was mostly drinking Mateus Rose to impress various young ladies on dates or back at their place, if I was lucky.  However Steve Cropper the legendary blues musician who played in the Blues Brothers band and on the show took me under his wing and taught me a lot about wine.  He was the one who introduced me to Grand Cru Bordeaux and Burgundy and the wonderful big reds of California.  While he’s the one who got me started it was really my friend Issac Tigrett who was one of the founders of the House of Blues who gave me my graduate course in fine wine. 

It may seem impossible, but there are, as yet, vast, undiscovered areas where wines are produced that few people seem to know about. More specifically, there are few wineries that excel at a level of winemaking which belies the inherent strength of the specific region. Case in point: Mission Hill Winery in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada.

If Canada doesn’t scream wine to anyone, that idea might be forgiven. But if the Okanagan Valley isn’t on your list of wine places to visit, you’re sorely missing the proverbial boat. When one thinks of world-class wine the short list is easy: Names like Napa, Bordeaux, Piedmont, Rioja, Mosel, among others. Canada it seems, is better left to hockey and maple syrup. You might be embarrassed how wrong you can be.

Canadian Wines have been on the increase since the 1970s.  Although increasing in popularity, these wines are still not on the radar of the large scale North American or world market.  If you count fruit wines, one can find wine from every province in Canada.  There are 2 major areas of production: British Columbia’s Okanogan Valley and Ontario’s Niagara Penninsula.  There are countless others, but the areas with the largest output are the 2 mentioned above.