“I knew the leopard would eat my face, but I thought it would tickle!”
As noted already, wines deriving from Vitus Labrusca, the Fox Grape. Familiar to anyone who has eaten Welch’s concord grape jelly, or drunk Welch’s grape juice.
I grew up with Concord grapes from my grandmother’s grape vine, so to me, “foxy” is the natural flavor of grapes. When I went to grad school in upstate New York, I got to try wines made from the many fox varietals – not only Concord, but also Niagara (as noted), Diamond, Catawba, Delaware, and others. Niagara wine was the specialty of Widmer’s winery, which I used to be able to get in the Boston area, but which I can’t any more. I had no idea there were Canadian wineries making Niagara wine.
European winemakers disdained the “foxy” American wines as inferior, as did American connoisseurs***.***
I recall reading about some Civil War general who complained that all they had to drink at one point was Catawba. But it is possible to make Labrusca wines that don’t taste too sweet – try, for instance, the wines made by Bully Hill vineyards.
I also developed a love for grape pie, made with varieties of Fox grapes, usually Concord. I make at least one every year, and I try to obtain other varieties to use.
I love Canada. I love many Canadian products. I do not love Canadian whisky. I like both Bourbon and Scotch.
You can get some very nice rieslings from the Niagara region.
Yes. Does that surprise you? Some excellent wines come out of Niagara, Prince Edward County, and Point Pelee, all in Ontario. British Columbia makes some great ones as well, and Quebec and Nova Scotia are up and comers.
We can grow grapes and make fine wines here in Canada. Is that surprising?
You’ve obviously never had a superior Canadian whisky. Forget Canadian Club and Crown Royal. Try some Collingwood. Perfect neat or on the rocks:
Yes and no. I’ve browsed a lot of liquor store aisles and have seen wines from dozens of countries, but never Canada. I mean, there are probably wines from Sweden and Ireland and God knows where else; I just haven’t ever encountered any.
As neither a wine drinker, nor a vintner, yes it surprises me. it was my understanding grapes needed a certain climate to grown to make acceptable wine, and Canadian winters weren’t it. Getting wine snobs to accept California wines as being anything more than bottled vinegar took a long time, and their climate is a lot different than Canada.
It would seem that assumption was not correct. Huh.
An assumption that explicitly incorporates “snobbery” is doomed to be unreliable.
I’m not the one judging wines. The battle to get California wines taken seriously took a long time. Sure it’s all settled now, but at the time they got nothing but derision from the wine aficianados.
Wayne Gretsky owns a winery. I’ve had a couple of the wines (got them at the Toronto airport). They’re pretty good.
There are river valleys along the Niagara where the temperature is more moderate and allows for vineyards that wouldn’t be possible elsewhere in the vicinity.
Also along the Finger Lakes in upstate New York, which, it’s claimed, also has very good soil for grape growing.
Actually, I’m surprised at how many wineries have opened up in, for instance, New England. When first returned here in the late 80s there was only one winery around, near Pat’s Peak in New Hampshire. Now there are dozens of wineries in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. (Maine, probably, too, but I haven’t explored there). Ironically, that first one near Henniker closed.
There are also plenty of wineries near the Thousand Islands in upstate New York, and near Plattsburgh. And a lot of them on the eastern end of Long Island. It sometimes seems there isn’t anyplace grapes won’t grow.
I grow enough concord (and other Labrusca grapes) in my own yard to make two grape pies every year.
Not to mention sparkling Muscatel one finest wines of Idaho.
Gretzky can get fucked.
I’m shocked…shocked I tell you!
One of the most surprising datapoints from President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory was his strength among young voters, a demographic that is typically a core part of the Democratic base. In 2020, President Joe Biden won this age group (18-29) by 24 points. Yet, in 2024, Trump closed the gap, with former Vice President Kamala Harris winning this same group by just 4 points.
Now, a Pew Research Center poll shows Trump steadily losing ground with a larger young cohort, revealing weaknesses in the very group that helped him win in November. In February, Trump had a 92% approval rating among voters under 35 who cast a ballot for him. Since then, his approval rating has slumped to 69%, a loss of 23 percentage points, which is the largest drop of any age group among Trump’s voters.
When you get your daily dose of “reality” through your phone, shit happens.
Until real reality fucks you in the face. Then younger, more flexible personalities change POVs. Older, more rigid personalities double down on STUPID.
As long as someone they hate is getting shot in the chest/face, no, they won’t.
Or drunk Manischewitz or Kedem kosher wines. Probably others, those are just the ones I have personal experience with. Standards of Kiddush and Passover gatherings across the Jewish US.
Or Mogen David.
But it’s not just Jewish wines. The wines made by the Cribari family of Barry wines for Catholic mass are pretty awful, too.
Obviously, when God selects someone to be in the ministerial service, He/She takes away their wine discrimination ability.