Since the late 20^th century, Ontario has rapidly evolved into a world-class winegrowing region. While global recognition has grown steadily since Icewine’s arrival on the international market in the 1990s, this past year has provided a confluence of events that allow for Ontario’s real ascendancy.

The 2025 tariffs imposed by the United States on Canada immediately disrupted the Canadian wine market. Canada was the largest importer of wines from California and Washington State—35% of American wine was sent to Canada in 2024—and the Canadian liquor monopolies responded by removing American products from their stores. While devastating to the US wine industry, the tariffs provide an opportunity for Ontario winegrowers to expand their domestic markets. (Today's Supreme Court ruling rebuking these tariffs is the most recent development in the increasingly turbulent trade landscape, and its effects remain to be seen.)

Demand for Ontario wine may be compounded by shortages in British Columbia, Canada’s second largest winegrowing province. Severe winter freezes in BC in both 2023 and 2024 decimated Canada’s West Coast wine industry, killing some of the vineyard and eliminating roughly 60% and 100% of the crop in the two years, respectively.

This February, the Ontario Ministry of Finance cited a 79% increase in sales of Vintners Quality Alliance (or VQA, Ontario’s appellation and regulation system) wines from the previous year. But Ontario’s ability to sate the local thirst for fine wine was not always guaranteed. Despite robust enotourism across the Niagara Peninsula, wineries report that, in the past, there was little loyalty toward Ontario wine from consumers as close as Toronto. Ilya Senchuk, the winemaker and co-owner of Leaning Post Wines, explains, “If your wines are really great and then also Canadian, then people love that. It can’t just be enough that it’s Canadian, but I think the difference this time around is [that] we have