Canada

Wine Growers Nova Scotia, citing the writer Tony Aspler, dates the first European vines in what became Canada to 1611, when Louis Hébert planted a vineyard at Bear River. The Québec specification records that Jacques Cartier found wild vines on the Île d'Orléans and that colonists tried European vines from 1608, defeated by the winters.

The modern systems are recent. Ontario wineries created the VQA framework as a voluntary program in 1988, and the Vintners Quality Alliance Act, 1999 was proclaimed on 29 June 2000. The program came to British Columbia in 1990, and the province's Wines of Marked Quality Regulation took effect in August 2005. In Québec the first five artisanal permits were issued in 1985 and the Vin du Québec IGP was recognised on 17 November 2018. Nova Scotia launched Tidal Bay in June 2012. The trademarks "VQA" and "Icewine" passed to Wine Growers Canada in 2014.

Canada's vineyards lie where water or shelter makes up for a cold climate. In Ontario the three appellations sit on the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, whose water moderates spring and autumn temperatures; the Niagara Escarpment rises behind the Niagara vineyards. British Columbia's largest region, the Okanagan Valley, runs more than 250 km along Okanagan Lake in the interior, on glacial till, sand, gravel and volcanic rock. Nova Scotia's vineyards are never more than 20 km from the ocean, on sandstone and slate, beside the Bay of Fundy's tides. Québec's IGP is drawn where growing degree days reach at least 900 (base 10 °C); winter lows of −25 to −40 °C mean vines must be hilled up or covered.

The provincial bodies describe a common thread of freshness. VQA Ontario credits the day-night temperature shifts and sunshine of the Niagara Peninsula with more complex and intense flavours than warmer climates give. Wine Growers Nova Scotia calls acidity the signature of its wines and describes a hint of salinity. The Québec specification describes acidic, fresh whites with green apple, pear and citrus, and red wines very high in colour pigments but low in tannin. The BC Wine Authority describes Okanagan wines from crisp whites and sparkling wines to full-bodied reds and icewine.

Wine Growers Canada identifies Ontario and British Columbia as the only provinces producing wines under a VQA standard, which there is provincially legislated, monitored and enforced; it also names the Nova Scotia Wine Standards and Québec's certified wines as 100% Canadian regional standards. Each provincial system uses its own geographic names: three appellations and their sub-appellations in Ontario, nine geographical indications in British Columbia, Tidal Bay in Nova Scotia and Vin du Québec.

Federal rules from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency require a country of origin on wine labels and allow wine blended in Canada from imported and domestic wine to be labelled "International blend from imported and domestic wines", with the larger share named first. The terms icewine, ice wine and ice-wine are reserved for wine made only from grapes naturally frozen on the vine.