Summer Festivals awaken interest in Canadian Wines
"... snip... An Ontario wine festival is scheduled for July 25 in the central Ontario Kawartha Lakes cottage-country community of Buckhorn. It's organized by Larry Paterson (905/743-4153), a liqour-board employee so keen on ontario wine that he once defied the central-distribution system and personally created the province's largest selection of VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) wines in the Lakefield LCBO store. For the common good, he has since been transferred and his collection dismantled, but Mr. Paterson is so irrepressibly keen that he and his partners have planted a tiny, experimental vinifera vineyard (including pinot blanc, merlot, gewurztraminer) in Buckhorn, where tender European varieties are theoretically supposed to have less than a snowball's chance. The vineyard is called Walley's Folly, alias Mosquito Creek. Will the VQA someday be adding Peterborough County to its roster of official appellations?... snip..."