By Rick VanSickle
Four of Canada’s rarest, oldest and most historic wines — three original bottles of Inniskillin, alongside a bottle from Château-Gai — are up for bids in the current Waddington’s Fine Wine Auction.
The wines from the cellar of Michael Vaughan honour the four visionaries who revolutionized the Canadian wine industry 50 years ago — winery creators Donald Ziraldo and Donald Triggs along with winemakers Karl Kaiser and Paul Bosc Sr. “While the latter have sadly passed,” said Vaughan, “the former are still going strong. Here they are together at the opening of Inniskillin (see above). They represent the turning point for the Canadian wine industry.”
Stored at only 6 C and not moved for more than four decades, Eugene Mlynczyk, Master of Wine and national sales manager at Principle Fine Wines, the luxury team within Arterra Wines Canada, confirms that these rare bottles are all in outstanding condition and are likely to be perfectly drinkable today.
Celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, Inniskillin is renowned for its pioneering role in establishing the Canadian wine industry. Located in Niagara-on-the Lake, Inniskillin was granted the first Ontario winery license since prohibition in 1929.
Vaughan (above), an internationally accredited wine judge and columnist, wrote in Toronto Life in October 1975: “Inniskillin House is betting that (a) they can make good wines and (b) people will buy them.”
Originally tasted at Canada House in London in 1976 at an event organized and hosted by Vaughan that was attended by leading British wine experts, including Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson and Steven Spurrier, the wines were deemed “vastly superior to the wines of even a few years ago.”
Of the 40+ Canadian wines presented; these were the highest scoring:
• First place was Inniskillin Maréchal Foch 1975, lot 13 in the Waddington’s auction;
Followed by three reds all tied for second place:
• Inniskillin Chelois 1975 made by Karl Kaiser, lot 12
• Inniskillin Vin Nouveau 1974 made by Karl Kaiser, lot 11
• Château-Gai Gamay Beaujolais 1975 made by winemaker Paul Bosc Sr., lot 14
The estimate for each of the wines up for auction is $1,300-$1,500 per bottle, which would be the highest price ever paid for a Canadian wine at auction.
Following Canada House tasting, Vaughan wrote for Toronto Life’s Summer Restaurant & Gourmet Guide: “Now for the news: the tasting was a smashing success, with several of the wines astonishing the panel with their quality.”
As the curator and consignor of these wines, Vaughan, admits “it was a difficult decision to part with these historic bottles after such a long time. Their one-of-a-kind condition makes them among the rarest in my collection. The catalyst was this year’s 50th anniversary of Innsikillin. I was close to both winemakers, Paul Bosc Sr. at Château-Gai in 1973 and Karl Kaiser at Inniskillin in 1975. I was fortunate to be able to visit, travel and taste with them over several decades.”
Bidding on these wines and a lot more wine at the Waddington’s auction began on Sept. 8 and bidding closes on Sept. 16.
In 2021, Vaughan selected Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) as the new home of his impeccably preserved collection of award-winning Canadian wines.
The Michael Vaughan Wine Collection contains 2,500 bottles of historical wines from across the country, including a number of extremely rare bottles that date back decades. The collection has been personally curated and preserved by Vaughan and contains some of the last remaining bottles of their kind that are still in mint condition and drinkable.
Vaughan, who earned his PhD in International Economics from the University of Toronto, was a Professor of Economics at Ryerson University before becoming a national wine writer and critic. He said his collection was curated with intellectual pursuits in mind. As an educator himself, Vaughan said he felt CCOVI’s state-of-the-art facilities and reputation for research and educational excellence made it an ideal partner for both housing and utilizing his unique collection.
“I wanted to make sure the wines I have accumulated went somewhere where they could be a useful learning experience,” he said. “I wanted to share them with an academic institution. The most important one for me was Brock, because it made sense that it went to a place where the students, the faculty and the winemakers could experience the evolution of these wines and see how good they still were and how they had changed over all of these years.”
Brock University has become a trusted steward for unique, historically significant collections, including the Alexander Hamilton collection that was donated to the Brock Library’s Archives and Special Collections last year.
The collection is housed in CCOVI’s 44,000-bottle capacity wine cellar, where the wines are climate-controlled, archived and preserved as part of the Institute’s Canadian Wine Library.
“This donation contains wines from some of Canada’s top wine vintages, including 1998 and 1999, and to have these coming through our doors is very exciting,” said Barb Tatarnic, CCOVI’s Manager of Continuing Education and Outreach. “It opens up a treasure trove of opportunities for CCOVI to take a deep dive into these wines and to offer tastings and research opportunities that look at things like ageability, the impact that good vineyard practices have on the quality of wines, climate, weather impacts on vintage variation and much, much more.”
Vaughan has been studying, collecting and writing about wine for more than 50 years, documenting the 1970s resurgence of the Canadian wine industry first-hand. He is the publisher/editor and creator of Vintage Assessments, a not-for-profit publication dedicated to professional buyers, sommeliers and wine lovers, and has personally tasted and critiqued tens of thousands of the world’s top wines.
In addition to Vaughan’s historic wines, the auction offers a rare 20-bottle vertical of Château Mouton Rothschild (1980-1999), a 2006 Duclot Bordeaux Prestige Collection and a large selection of cult Napa wines, outstanding Burgundies, rare and iconic Champagnes, Super-Tuscans, many original wooden cases and perfect 100 point wines are also showcased.
You can browse the gallery and bid for your favourite wines here.
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