Cave Spring Cellars vineyard in Niagara.Cave Spring Cellars/Supplied
Winemaker Daniel Lenko recently posted an image of a backhoe in a vineyard, with uprooted vines scattered about the ground on his Facebook page. The caption – “The end of an era” – announced Lenko’s family farm in Beamsville was no longer home to Canada’s oldest chardonnay vines – or any grape vines.
For the first time in more than 75 years, the Lenko family won’t supply grapes to Niagara wineries, but their pioneering legacy continues to inspire winemakers in the region.
Lenko, a third-generation grape grower and owner of an eponymous winery, says rising costs and growing uncertainty forced his hand. Last year, 12 tonnes of his cabernet grapes rotted when he couldn’t find a buyer. (Ontario grape growers were faced with a 7,000-tonne surplus of grapes in 2024, but this year winemakers are already saying they are struggling to secure enough grapes depending on the variety.)
“I have torn the vineyard out for financial reasons. I cannot keep pouring money into something that doesn’t pay,” he explained in a direct message to this Globe and Mail reporter.
The unexpected social-media post inspired heartfelt messages of shock and admiration from winemakers, wine lovers and customers. In response, Lenko suggested he was looking forward to relaxing – “I’ll see you at the beach this summer,” he says. (He continues to work in the industry, installing drainage tiles that help keep excess water from vineyards.)
The 30-acre property on King Street West was planted to fruit trees and traditional labrusca grape varieties when Lenko’s grandparents bought it and relocated from Manitoba in 1947. Twelve years later, his father, Bill, was encouraged to plant chardonnay by the foreman of Chateau-Gai Wines. He was assured there would always be a buyer for those grapes compared with the abundance of concord and Niagara varieties used to make jellies, jams and wine.
Len Pennachetti, president of family-owned Cave Spring Cellars, which planted its first vineyards in 1978.Steven Elphick/Cave Springs Cell/Supplied
Lenko’s 1959 experimental vines – which inspired the family to plant more chardonnay in 1973 and 1984 and other vinifera vines throughout the years – was a proof of concept. “Because of Bill’s work in the 1960s, it was clear the Beamsville Bench could support vinifera,” says Len Pennachetti, president of family-owned Cave Spring Cellars, which planted its first vineyards in 1978.
When the Pennachetti family planted 12 acres of chardonnay and riesling vines, they leaned on Lenko and a handful of other growers experimenting with vinifera. “We were this small cadre of vinifera zealots working against the perceived wisdom at that time,” Pennachetti explains. “We would talk to each other but wouldn’t admit what we were doing to others because no one thought growing these varieties was possible.”
On Christmas Day in 1980, a devastating freeze gripped Niagara vineyards with a -26 C chill. Similar temperatures were experienced shortly after New Year, which wiped out the buds that would have been the grape crop for the year and killing many vinifera vines, including some of Lenko’s prized original vines.
During a visit to discuss the damage, Pennachetti asked Bill Lenko if he could take one of the dead trunks of a gnarly old chardonnay vine that had been yanked out of the ground. He kept the six-foot-tall vine, roots and all, beside the fireplace at his home on Cave Spring Vineyard. “It was a talisman,” he said. “I would look at it every day and remind myself, we’re going to get through this and make wine again.”
Despite Mother Nature-inspired setbacks, vinifera vines continued to thrive in Niagara, but the industry as a whole was reluctant to switch over to better-quality grapes.
The signing of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988 would help reshape Niagara vineyards by inspiring the creation of the Vintners Quality Alliance regulations, which no longer permitted wines made from native labrusca varieties. Even then, cautious farmers planted easier-to-cultivate French hybrid grape varieties, such as baco noir, seyval blanc and vidal, instead of vinifera.
The home vineyard fuelled a portfolio of 10 to 12 wines totalling around 3,500 cases each vintage.Cave Spring Cellars/Supplied
As the modern industry continued to evolve and consumer acceptance grew, the acreage of vinifera varieties increased to meet demand. The Lenko family’s operation expanded, too, with the opening of Daniel Lenko Estate Winery in 1999. The move helped the family generate additional revenue streams beyond grape sales and, once again, the Lenkos adopted an unconventional approach.
The home vineyard fuelled a portfolio of 10 to 12 wines totalling around 3,500 cases each vintage. Those bottles were sold on weekends between February and August. (In Bordeaux, similar operations are called garagistes.)
There wasn’t a tasting room or wine boutique to welcome visitors. Guests sampled the wines at family’s kitchen table, while enjoying kielbasa, cheese and homemade bread, followed by pie or other treats made by Lenko’s mother Helen. Bill Lenko would insist visitors try his apricot jam before leaving.
Critics and wine judges embraced Lenko’s wines, conferring high scores and bright, shiny medals from various wine competitions. In 2007, following a tasting of 70 Canadian wines, British wine critic Jancis Robinson saved her loudest praise for Lenko’s 2002 syrah: “so delicious that I felt it was truly outstanding.”
Winemaker Ilya Senchuk gained his first exposure to professional grape growing and winemaking working with the Lenkos between 2002 and 2010. The graduate of Brock University’s wine program says the experience opened his eyes to the potential of Niagara wine and helped shape the development of his own family’s winery.
“Wineries like Lenko really helped to kick-start the modern era of the Niagara industry,” says Senchuk, co-founder of Leaning Post in Stoney Creek. “It was a terroir-based winery, rooted in the vineyard, with high-quality wine that received international recognition.”
Daniel Lenko took an all-or-nothing approach to winemaking, only harvesting grapes with a ripe character to produce his preferred style of concentrated and ripe red wines and rich and flavourful chardonnays. Following the hot and dry conditions of the 2012 harvest, Niagara faced a variable 2013 growing season and a bitter frost in 2014 that damaged vineyards across the region.
The farm reverted to selling grapes to wineries, such as Two Sisters in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which purchased chardonnay between 2015 and 2022 when their own chardonnay vines produced the enough grapes to satisfy their needs. Even last year, while clusters of cabernet were left to rot, Lenko’s chardonnay grapes found a buyer – just as predicted.
