Mira Ananicz was our speaker and she spoke about ice wine in a presentation called  “Winter’s Gift in a Glass”. Mira was the first woman to make wine in Canada. She had 29 years of experience at Vincor, the country’s largest winery before retiring in 2006.  In her career, she was especially proud that her 1982 Vintage Red and White Wines were selected for a dinner held by the Canadian government for Queen Elizabeth in 1984.

Ice Wine was invented by accident in 18th century Germany. It was first produced in Canada in 1973. It is produced to tight VQA quality standards and must be picked after November 15th and when the temperature is lower than -8 degrees Celsius. It is expensive as a given quantity of grapes only produces one-fifth the volume they would produce if used for normal wine production.  Canada is the largest producer in the world and 75% of Canadian production comes from the Niagara region.

Bert Murphy of Fort Erie is our speaker at the upcoming February 11th, 2014 monthly Probus meeting. His talk will be about the geology of the Niagara Region.