The secret to successfully pairing wine and food is to source them from the same place. And Ontario is spoiled with both incredibly rich farmland that produces delicious ingredients year-round and a creative crop of winemakers who are making vintages on a par with the world’s best.
These three winemakers have mastered Ontario’s varied terrain and temperatures to create wines made for any occasion, from a go-to table wine for a summer barbecue made with local ingredients to a bright bubbly to toast a special occasion. Whether you’re planning a casual night or a celebration, get to know the maker behind your new favourite wine.
Alex Baines
Hidden Bench Estate Winery · Niagara Benchlands
Alex Baines has always been up for a challenge. With an itch to travel after graduating, he moved to Australia from the U.K. And when he had to find work to extend his work visa, he got a job at a winery. Bottling, driving a tractor, pump work during production—he was up for all of it. He still happily tackles challenges today growing grapes on Hidden Bench’s estate in Beamsville, Ont.
“What drew me to Niagara was the finesse and tension of the wines here—especially Chardonnay,” he says. Baines describes Niagara Benchlands as fitting in between California and Burgundy. “We have the best of the old and the new,” he adds. “There’s something really special to me about the glacial soils we have.”
The mix of clay, limestone and loam in Niagara’s cool climate is the foundation for delicate and elegant wines. “I honestly couldn’t imagine making wine like it anywhere else,” he says. As for Baines’ favourite way to enjoy a Niagara wine? Paired with fish, like Lake Erie perch, or Canadian seafood: “We have sparkling and oysters quite often.”
Casey Hogan
Southbrook Vineyard · Niagara-on-the-Lake
Casey Hogan wasn’t supposed to become a winemaker. In university, he studied engineering and physics. To make money during school, he worked at a wine shop and became enamoured with the different varieties of grapes. “I was like, ‘Whoa, this is really interesting,’” he says. Hogan dived deeper with wine classes at night and then committed to a life among the vines.
Now, he is the winemaker at Southbrook Vineyard, an organic biodynamic winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. “We look at biodiversity in the vineyard, encouraging a diverse amount of species that creates symbiosis, rather than using fungicides and pesticides,” he explains.
Winemaking lets Hogan use both the analytical and creative sides of his brain, and he finds inspiration for both in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s community. “Everyone knows one another, and people get together to share wines and have a good time,” he says. “It keeps you very open and honest and makes life better.”
Also experienced as a butcher and a baker, he views wine as a condiment. “The balance between what you’re drinking and what you’re eating… the acidity, tannins— they all bring something that complements the meal,” Hogan says. His go-to wine for food pairings is an aromatic white: “I like something that’s got a bit of a punch and intensity, like a Riesling or a barrel-aged Chardonnay.”
Vicki Samaras
Hinterland Wine Company · Prince Edward County
Vicki Samaras likes to take big swings. First, it was when she was a teenager, declaring to her parents that she wanted a winery. “They touched my forehead with the back of their hands,” she says, explaining that they were checking if she was hallucinating because of a fever.
Then she met Jonas Newman— he was a maitre d’ at Scaramouche in Toronto at the time— and the two partnered and bought a vineyard together in Hillier, Ont., a small community in Prince Edward County. “We were the eighth vineyard planted in the county,” Samaras says, describing the wine crowd there as grassroots. “They are hands-on proprietors. They do it because they love it and really want to have a feel for the land.” She went three for three when, in 2003, she and Newman opted to cultivate a winery focused on sparkling wines.
“Everybody here was saying that Prince Edward County was the next Burgundy,” she says. “I was going through the geological records, the weather patterns, and I thought: ‘I don’t think so. I think this is more like a sparkling-wine region.’” Samaras’ instincts were right. Today, Hinterland wines are an essential part of many people’s celebrations. “Nothing is more rewarding to me than someone showing me a photo of them holding our bottle at their wedding, their graduation or an everyday celebration,” she says.
