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v economist suntribune business saturday march 23 2002 13 j jv rj ij twines from page 7 made from fruit grown on the passafiurrie farm located beside the winery bill redelmeier invites every one to the longestablished southbrook winery on major mackenzie drive west of richmond hill mr redelmeier wants a warmer world people in the grape business are all in favour of global warming providing moisture goes with it he said the familyowned and operated winery on a 285acre farm produces 7000 cases of grape wine and 7000 case of fruit wine each year southbrboks product is fit for royal ty when queen elizabeth and prince philip dined at the royal york hotel in 1997 southbrooks chardonnay was served york region wine makers have stepped onto the world stage besides southbrook willow springs farms and applewood have each won national competitions southbrook scored a major coup recently when the flagship canadian framboise dessert wine won the sec ond prize out of 2000 entries in a noted london england competition while southbrook farms has been in operation for 65 years the winery has only been open for 10 still it is the oldest in york region the ontario wine industry is a seri ous enterprise half of canadas 180 wineries are in ontario last year 41 million litres of the provinces wine accounted for 338 million in sales people in the grape business are all in favour of global warming providing moisture goes with it the rarest and most treasured of ontarios products are the luscious intensely flavoured icewines ontario is the only wineproducing region with- a winter cold enough to guarantee an abundance of icewine as well no other region in the world produces icewines with such consistency and quality said ms rector ontario is usually blessed with a cold winter that ensures icewines can be made consistently lately the weather gods have not been kind we only had a couple of cold pock ets thats where you do your picking the picking is usually done between christmas eve and new years eye and its done at night mrs- locilento explained each autumn select vineyards are left unharvestedso that the grapes will freeze naturally the colder the grapes the sweeter the juice when the temperature dips below zero the water injthe grapes freezes leavr y ing a smau amount of pure juice with high concentrations of sugar acidity while the past two years were not banner years for ontario icewines the province continues to be recognized as processing the worlds finest icewines winning top awards at competitions stressed ms rector icewine is made at 45 wineries in ontario its popularity is climbing at an amazing rate- in 1983 there were 8000 cases produced in ontario in 2000 the figure jumped to 82000 cases the grape yield for icewine will indeed be down thisyear we might be down by two thirds said mr redelmeier