Backgrounder & facts

Wine Country Ontario
Wine Country Ontario invites consumers to experience and learn why 100% locally grown Vintner’s Quality Alliance (VQA) wines taste better. Wine Country Ontario is dedicated to promoting Ontario’s wine-growing regions – Niagara Peninsula, Prince Edward County and Lake Erie North Shore. It is also an expression of the entirety of the Ontario wine-country experience: how the wine tastes, where it’s made, how it marries with local food, and how it reflects the overall lifestyle of each region. Wine Country Ontario is a place that is unlike anywhere else. It is a place where grape growers, winemakers, food artisans, chefs, B&B owners and innkeepers, tour guides and tourists come together to celebrate a culinary experience that is part of every culture in the world – but in a way that is uniquely our own. Wine Country Ontario is truly so much more than just a bottle of wine. Wine Country Ontario is a consumer facing brand that is a trademark of the Wine Council of Ontario, a non-profit trade association that promotes Ontario’s vintners and the unique qualities of our authentic, 100% VQA wines.

Wine Council of Ontario – Organization profile
The Wine Council of Ontario (WCO) is the champion of Ontario's high quality, authentically local Vintner's Quality Alliance (VQA) wines and of promoting wine country as a destination. As a non-profit trade association, WCO represents 80-plus wineries from across the designated viticulture areas of the province: Niagara Peninsula, Prince Edward County and Lake Erie North Shore. Our members are grape growers, manufacturers and leaders in tourism in their communities. We are the future of Ontario's wine industry, which is a source of new investment, jobs and award-winning wines. The Wine Council of Ontario’s role is to promote Ontario VQA wines and vintners, support the production of excellent local wines valued at home and abroad, and build on the substantial economic benefits that the VQA wine industry brings to the province. Authentically local VQA wine is made without imported grapes. The Wine Council of Ontario promotes the unique qualities of Ontario’s locally grown wines through its consumer facing brand Wine Country Ontario.

For more information on the Wine Council of Ontario visit www.winecouncilofontario.ca.