Canadian wine has been made for over 200 years. Early settlers tried to cultivate Vitis vinifera grapes from Europe with limited success. They found it necessary to focus on the native species of Vitis labrusca and Vitis riparia along with various hybrids. However, the market was limited for such wines because of their peculiar taste, which is often called “foxy.” However, this became less apparent when the juice was made into Port- and Sherry-styled wines. For a period of time in the 1800s the export of these affordable wines to England made Ontario one of the largest wine exporters in North America.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the temperance movement and later consumer demand for fortified and sweet wines, hampered the development of a quality table wine industry. However, during the 1960s consumer demand shifted from sweet and fortified wines to drier and lower alcohol table wines. At the same time, there were significant improvements in wine making technology, access to better grape varieties and disease-resistant clones, and systematic research into viticulture.

After the repeal of alcohol prohibition in Canada in 1927, provinces strictly limited the number of licenses to produce wine. The nearly 50-year moratorium on issuing new winery licenses was finally dropped in 1974. During the same decade, demonstration planting began to show that Vitis vinifera could be successfully grown in Canada. Others found that high quality wines could be produced if Vitis vinifera vines were grown with reduced yields, new trellising techniques, and appropriate canopy management.

In 1988, three important events occurred. They were: free trade with the United States, the establishment of the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) standard, and a major grape vine replacement/upgrading program.

During the 1990s, Canadian vintners continued to demonstrate that fine grape varieties in cooler growing conditions could potentially possess complex flavours, delicate yet persistent aromas, tightly focused structure and longer ageing potential than their counterparts in warmer growing regions of the world.

Canadian wines have a less than 50% share of the Canadian wine market, making Canada one of the few wine producing countries where domestically produced wines do not hold a dominant share.

While there are many small Canadian wineries, the domestic wine market has long been dominated by two companies, Vincor International and Andres Wines. In 2006, Vincor International, which had grown aggessively in previous years by acquiring wineries in California, Australia and New Zealand, was itself acquired by Constellation Brands, a U.S. based company and one of the primary consolidators of the global wine business.