There are always aha! moments in wine for me, despite having tasted Canadian riesling for almost 40 years. But maybe it has taken the 40 years of vine maturation to have it sink in. It happened for me earlier this year when I tasted Cave Spring CSV Riesling 2023 from a vineyard first planted in 1978 (reviewed fully below). I begin my review with this statement: “This is a serious white wine, an observation that suggests it is something other than varietal riesling, or least something beyond the common perception of riesling.”

It moved me to write this piece that seeks out and presents the growing number of excellent, seriously good white wines in Canada being made from the riesling grape. Wines of stature, complexity and most of all age-ability, that not only prove their worth through sheer durability, but by expanding their flavours and refining their textures in the bottle. As you will read below, we are very fortunate to have a growing library of such old vine rieslings in Canada, at prices that are shockingly good value.

I really do not want to rehash the issue of riesling popularity and old theories about why this grape is not more commercially loved. Nor predict a “riesling renaissance,” which has also been foretold for 40 years globally, but has never happened. It makes distinctive, idiosyncratic wine, and the more distinctive and characterful a wine is, the fewer the number of people who actually like it. To each our own. 

And true riesling fans, who wear T-shirts with slogans like “everything happens for a riesling,” actually don’t care if the world embraces riesling. Nor do totally invested producers around the world,  in Germany, Alsace, Austria, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. They know they are making a niche product for consumers who get it. And know it will never, ever, be as popular as pinot grigio, or chardonnay. And that’s okay.

It’s actually better than okay for those who like serious riesling, because it is keeping prices well below where the quality dictates it should be, compared to chardonnay, for example.

So, I am not going to fight for inexpensive, high yielding, young-vine Canadian rieslings that just don’t offer much character. A German friend categorizes such wines as “hollow” and I tend to agree. But I might also aptly describe them as boring. Rieslings made in Canada that aren’t aspiring to greatness will never be great. This is also true globally. But we can and do make great riesling.

Riesling’s Place in Canada

We have the northerly latitude and climate similar to other places in the world where riesling works. No need to re-invent; just cut and paste, which we did in the early 1970s when German émigrée Lloyd Schmidt, put together a proposal for a federal grant to bring in vines from the family-related Weiss vineyard in the Mosel region of Germany. The clones transported here were named Weiss 21-B. They were planted the St. Urban’s Vineyard at Vineland Estates, in what is now the Twenty Mile Bench appellation on the Niagara Escarpment. And this remains the dominant clone grown across the country.

Back then Niagara was perceived as a cold-climate wine region — thanks, of course, to our winters. But Ontario is actually latitudinally much farther south than Germany’s regions, as well as the riesling vineyards of Alsace in northeastern France. Our growing season is longer, warmer and more humid, especially in Ontario. In B.C., with the same northern latitude as Germany, but a drier climate similar to Alsace, a major trialling of grape varieties was taking place at the same time, and riesling was of course among them. One of the first riesling vineyards was planted in 1978 in East Kelowna. The Tantalus 2023 Old Vine Riesling from these vines is reviewed below.

Although grape acreage stats in Canada are always difficult to pin accurately, we grow about 2,500 acres of riesling, with about 1,650 in Ontario. This comprises 17% of Ontario’s production and is made by over 130 wineries. British Columbia has about 665 acres, most in the northern part of the Okanagan from Penticton to Kelowna. There are small amounts in Quebec and Nova Scotia (Gaspereau Vineyards does it well), but this relatively late ripening variety can struggle to ripen in eastern Canada.

Before returning to the all-important matter of riesling’s ageability, a note that in Canada riesling is also made into sparkling wines, with traditional method versions often achieving excellent results. Two to look for in Ontario are Hidden Bench Chantilly Extra Brut 2023 and Charles Baker Cuvee de Boulanger 2022, which I hope to review in full in the weeks ahead. And of course, riesling is important for icewine in Canada, which too is a topic for another day.

With Riesling Vintage and Age Matter

I have designed this post around the idea that riesling is “better” with age and has the ability to improve in bottle longer than any other white grape in the country. So, in the reviews that follow, you will see wines from 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020, with mention of some older vintages tasted alongside, including 2017, 2015 and 2014 — wines at or approaching a decade of age. The very fact that it was easy to find such a range of vintages, and that only one is more than $40, bolsters the points I am trying to make.

Riesling gets better with age! I tasted several young 2025s, an excellent, warm vintage in both B.C. and Ontario. And although they were very good quality with ripe stone fruit aromas, I found them aromatically reserved and fairly constricted and simple in flavour. Two that I have reviewed in full — from Naramata in B.C. and Prince Edward County — are excellent, but more time is needed.

Rieslings from the 2024 vintage are generally in same zone of still requiring further age. I found examples from Niagara to be a bit leaner with good acid bite, green fruit aromas, but showing less flesh and richness than 2025 or 2023. I have only reviewed one excellent 2024 from Ontario below. Many are not yet released. But I did happen across a rare B.C. 2024, grown on the Okanagan Lake front in Summerland that survived the winter freeze. 

The 2023 vintage in Ontario and B.C. is the one I would be buying now. The wines are showing great structure, with complexities starting to emerge. There is something solid, balanced and pure about these wines, and when coming from very old vineyard sites, there is excellent depth and a sense of being profound. And likely age-worthy for another decade. There are reviews for three 2023s from B.C. and one from Niagara. 

Surprisingly, the 2022 vintage in both Ontario and B.C. was quite warm, although in Ontario the crop level was about 50% due to almost drought conditions. It has sewn in a certain sense of opulence, ripeness and power, and is starting to show some evolutionary complexity. It’s the vintage I would be drinking now. I have fully reviewed one from Niagara and given an honorable mention to another.

Even the longest winery- aged rieslings from the 2021 vintage in Ontario are now being released. Of the string of years in this decade, this was the most difficult due a variable and often wet autumn. It was not so much a matter of ripeness but of balance and depth. Thankfully perhaps riesling winemaking allows flexibility in achieving balance as amounts of residual sugar can be tweaked to line up with acidity. The top end wines reviewed show deftness on this matter, and very good complexity.

The Covid 2020 vintage is considered one of the best in recent history in both B.C. and Ontario, for ripeness, balance and depth. The vintage may be getting harder to find, but the one example I did review from the Beamsville Bench in Niagara was a revelation of poise, evenness and minerality. And it is a current release and fantastic value!

I also tasted a few older vintages and make comments in the context of the younger versions in specific reviews. But only one, a 2014, was fully mature and showing some oxidation. And a 2015 was my favourite of the whole exercise. You will have to hunt it down in the reviews that follow. Please enjoy — and perhaps make this the summer that you give Canada’s best rieslings a serious look.