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Donald Ziraldo has often been hailed as one of the most important figures in Canadian Wine History. In April 1974, Ziraldo was the first person since prohibition in Ontario to obtain a winery license. The winery was Inniskillin. He partnered with Karl Kaiser, an Austrian wine-maker who had immigrated to Canada a few years earlier, and together they worked for 30years to establish Inniskillin and Canadian wines on the world wine map. Their most well known accomplishment was winning...and elevating Canadian icewine to the world stage. Today, icewine and Canada have become synonymous largely due to the efforts of Ziraldo's marketing prowess. Link label History: While tasting Ontario wines in the early 1970's, Ziraldo and Kaiser discovered very little wine existed in the premium market segment in Canada. They seized the opportunity and set out to break new ground producing premium varietal wines from premium grapes grown in the Niagara Peninsula. In order to succeed, Ziraldo and Kaiser knew their future in the wine business was dependent on using the Vitis vinifera grapes, the family of grapes used to produce the fine wines in the established wine regions of the world. When sourcing these limited grapes became a challenge in the early 70's, Ziraldo and planted vinifera grapes which included Riesling, Chardonnay and Gamay and formed the quality base for Kaiser to work with.

Major General George Kitching CEO of the Liquor Control Board Ontario tasted their wine and as luck would have it, was as eagar as they were to have 'drinkable' Canadian wine produced. Kitching had fought in WWII and as a result had travelled through Europe and had developed a taste for European wines. He granted them a one year provisional licence in April 1974. They could produce 450 gallons to be sold through the New Rare Wine and Spirit Company. On July 31, 1975, Inniskillin Wines Incorporated and its founders Karl J. Kaiser and Donald J.P. Ziraldo were granted the first winery license in Ontario, Canada since prohibition.

Although both Donald Ziraldo and Karl J Kaiser made wine it was, Karl a trained chemist, who would be the winemaker and Donald the sales and marketing leader. http://www.inniskillin.com/index.cfm?method=pages.showPage&PageID=2ef86e0f-ef4a-03e7-f500-c165bca6d192&originalMarketingURL=Niagara/About-Us/Timeline

In 2006, Inniskillin was bought by Constellation, in a hostile takeover and Ziraldo left Inniskillin to 'retire' that same year. http://www.scribd.com/doc/151871725/Wine-Tidings-magazine-OUT-THERE-Canadian-Edition-August-2013 His retirement lasted as long as his non-compete clause, 2 years, after which he immediately began producing his own Riesling icewine under the "ZIRALDO" label.

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