Oct 15, 2026
John Kocsis’s family has grown grapes in Beamsville, Ontario, since 1965. Today, Kocsis, who opened Atlantis Niagara Wines in 2018 and sells Icewine, says his business might shut down within months.
That’s what’s happening in Niagara wine country right now. Canadians have embraced local wine since provincial liquor boards pulled American bottles from store shelves in March 2025. Grape growers who couldn’t sell their whole crop three years ago now can’t grow enough, and yet some small wineries are still facing hardships.
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The difference comes down to where a winery sells its product — and where your dollars land.
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Why is the local wine boom missing small wineries?
Put simply, it’s because the boom is concentrated in one sales channel.
Sales of Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) wine — which is made from 100% Ontario-grown grapes — topped $264 million at the LCBO, Ontario’s Crown-owned liquor retailer and wholesaler, in the 12 months ending March 31, 2026. That’s up 43.7%, according to an LCBO scorecard shared by Wine Growers Ontario, a trade association representing the province’s wineries. Over the same period, VQA sales at winery retail stores fell 11.5% to about $139 million.
The LCBO added 291 VQA wines over that year.
Kevin Watson, chair of the Grape Growers of Ontario, told CityNews that a grape surplus of about 5,000 tonnes three years ago has turned into a shortage. “That’s how much the Canadian consumer has helped our industry,” he said.
That’s good news for wineries with LCBO listings. It does little to help an operation like Kocsis’s, which, he told CHCH News, sells only to visitors — not to the LCBO or restaurants.
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How did the U.S. ban add to the pressure?
On Sept. 29, 2026, a U.S. ban on imports of packaged Canadian alcohol, including bottled wine, took effect.
Rob Taylor of Wine Growers Canada, a national industry association, said the ban is especially severe because it closes the U.S. market outright instead of simply making Canadian wine more expensive. Some bulk wine shipped in containers larger than 4 litres is exempt.
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Exporters are feeling the hit most directly. Pillitteri Estates Winery, a family-owned producer in Niagara-on-the-Lake known for its Icewine, does about 17% of its business in the U.S., director of viticulture Jamie Slingerland told CKTB News. As a result, Slingerland wants the province to help expand the winery’s presence from 30 LCBO stores to 130.
For wineries that rely on tourists, the damage started earlier. Kocsis says business dropped sharply once tariffs and cross-border tensions took hold. Tara Vinodrai, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Management and Innovation, told CHCH that the Niagara region’s ties to U.S. tourism and export markets leave its businesses among the most exposed in Canada to the trade dispute.
Where do your wine dollars do the most good?
If you want to support small wine producers, does it matter where you buy? Yes. Buying VQA at the LCBO supports Ontario grape growers and the wineries big enough to land listings. To reach the smallest operations, you usually have to go directly to them.
That can mean:
- Buying at the cellar door during a winery visit
- Ordering directly from a winery’s website for delivery or pickup
- Joining a winery’s club, if you’re confident the business is on solid footing
Supporting small Canadian wineries doesn’t have to be costly or difficult. And you get the added benefit of exploring wines and businesses you may never have encountered.
What to do now
If you want your money to keep small Canadian wineries pouring, here’s a practical checklist:
- Avoid prepaying large amounts to a winery that has signalled financial trouble
- Use any gift cards you already have
- Pay for prepaid purchases by credit card, which may give you chargeback options if the business can’t deliver
- Buy direct when you want your money to reach a specific small wine producer
- Keep buying VQA at the LCBO to support growers and larger wineries
- If you own a small business, check how much of your revenue depends on one channel and diversify if necessary
The sales boom proves Canadian shoppers can move a market fast. Where those dollars end up may decide which small wineries are still open for next year’s harvest. As Kocsis put it, “If you’re gonna support anybody right now, it should be your own.”
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
