Donald Ziraldo on Canadian Wine

Ange: Welcome to Le Goumet TV. Today we’re here with a Canadian wine icon Donald Ziraldo, welcome Donald. Donald: Hi. Ange: And now I know that you’ve got quite a bit of going on the local food movement, can you give us a little bit of a rundown about what you’re doing, you initiatives, your goals. Donald: Sure. My current position is Chair of the Vineland Research and Innovation Center and one of the things we’re doing is local food initiative which truly means getting people to drink wheat peat. Drinking wheat peat for the last 30 years so we called it “PQA” so that was really simple. And now trying to figure out how to do the same thing, we’re working with people like LFP, local food plus, they got the medallion on. The idea is really to get people to start and thinking about buying fresh local strawberries right now and then followed with peaches and cherries and all those kind of things, match it up with Grape Ontario Wine. And my tagline is local food is the 21st century version of Le Terre Wine which we all know Le Terre wines what distinguishes a great wines from others is their characteristic Terre wine and the flavor and all of the things. You’ll explain Terre wine in great detail. Ange: Exactly, of course. The ground, the earth, the climate, every man makes theses area is different from this area from around the world. There you go. Donald: The tilt of the soil and all those making for some things, that really created distinction between a—we have a chardonnay from California, the chardonnay from Burgundy. We all know that all White Burgundies are made from chardonnay, it creates a great distinction. What’s from Niagara are unique in their on way because they have unique flavor profiles. The hits differently. Ange: Maybe you could tell us a little bit of about what happened with you, I mean you started in a scale and way back when? Donald: Thirty-four years ago. Ange: There you go and you’re now moving into this small food movement, is this something that’s sort of you feel that really needs to be appreciated by our culture? It’s something you think the culture is bringing and yours are hopping on board with, how would you develop, you know, how do you say that relationship? Donald: Probably a combination, I did the wine thing. I kind of fell into it because I had the same experience 30 years ago doing wine, I've been working into Canadian wine. And now we’re going to do the same thing and this is the local food movement just healthy. It creates some fund for the farmers and exhorts the farm community so it supports the Greenbelt. I think I just sort of stepped into it, it was happening, and it’s always knocking in to the right place at the right time. Ange: And you could see that the wine is going that way with the green organic bio-organic movement especially in Niagara and within the Ontario regions so I mean, hopping on board with food that just seems natural. Donald: Yeah, right. Ange: It’s the same agricultural systems that comes into. Donald: In a world that starts shifting back to more natural, the whole idea of BOWD—I was with Paul, wine maker from Taus and I registered for a course, a program the cool climate alliance with agriculture system at Brock University. So I went in I sat down with my niece who’s with me, he has interesting mind. And this kid and I was 30 years old, he sits down and he says, “You’re not staying are you?” I said yes I’m staying and he said I want to learn about the DP which is organic European style, and they do all kinds of very natural stuff. Sulfur and copper for fungicides. So you’re going back through the way it used to be before. Families in Italy or pioneers in Canada who used to cultivate. And wine is going that same way so whether it’s organic or whether it’s sustainable or whether whatever, I think all of that sort are going back. A good friend of mine, Professor Petruchi from California used to say, “leave a little bit of grape in the wine. Ange: If you we’re to give some advice to someone looking to find out more about organic practices, organic food, is there someone you could tell them to go or a book to read that will be educational? Donald: You know I’m the worst dilemma by the sky fall who had written the book, it’s amazing. He tells a little bit sort of how we became industrialized. If you go to Foodland Ontario, some of the—even the wineries like Henry Of Pelham they’ve done this program where you could get into the whole management of vineyard with them and come in reap down there. So you get to a real appreciation of what you can do. So go to the wineries, they cal tell you a lot. I wish I knew the name of these websites or some of this like my cup of tea book of Food Plus. My research facility of the vine land is www.vinelandontario.ca, that’s a vital research center. So from there, you can find all these different things on local food. We’ve got a little food committee and we’re really getting some great sport. We did vineyard bottles couple years ago, and we had this Seeger Vineyard and Schuele Vineyard, the Montague Vineyard which is my own and we put three of them side by side and we took a two of the soil and put it behind each one. And said to the people who taste this to look at the soil, it looks different and it taste different and then you could talk to the farmer-- Ange: That’s why it would taste different because it comes from different things. Donald: It takes the characteristics and that’s why the French chardonnay it tastes different from California. Which one is better? Ange: It’s up to your pallet. Donald: And your members get to taste. Ange: It’s fabulous. I think I speak for a lot of us when I say thank you for doing what you’re doing and we’re excited for the near point future and thanks for coming up and spending a little bit time with us. Donald: It’s my pleasure, it’s always fun talking to DP wine like you. Ange: Cheers.