Zweigelt is a light-to-medium red with soft tannin, bright acidity and a taste of sour cherry, raspberry and black pepper. Give it a slight chill and it drinks more like a warm-weather red than a heavy one.
Not a grape anyone expected in Canada, but Niagara and the Okanagan both took to it. It's an Austrian import, built for exactly the short season Canada has plenty of. A few wineries bottle it alone. More use it to round out a blend. This is one grape the liquor boards mostly missed. Buy it here instead.
Fritz Zweigelt crossed Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent in Austria in 1922, aiming for a vine that buds late and ripens early. That timing dodges spring frost. It also beats the cold before harvest, the same gamble every Canadian grower makes. The labels here prove it worked: Niagara River and Four Mile Creek in Ontario's wider Niagara Peninsula, and West Kelowna in the Okanagan. Most of what's on this page is red wine, with a couple of rosés, a sparkling wine and an icewine besides.
Straight varietal or a supporting player
Some bottles here are 100 percent Zweigelt, unblended. A couple of rosés use it differently. Barrel aged four months in French oak, Zweigelt adds a splash of colour and spice alongside Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. One red goes further still: Zweigelt is the majority grape in a five-way blend. Check the label, then pour it with grilled sausage, roast pork or a peameal bacon sandwich, the same lineup that suits any dry red wine.
Is Zweigelt dry or sweet?
Almost all of it is dry to off-dry, with the bright acidity that makes red wine food-friendly. Icewine is the sweet outlier here, made a different way entirely.
Does Zweigelt taste like anything I already know?
A bit like Pinot Noir or Gamay: light on tannin, high on red fruit, easy to drink slightly cool. Zweigelt just adds more black pepper and spice to that profile.
Does anyone make Zweigelt icewine?
Yes, though it's rare. One Okanagan winery in this collection picks Zweigelt grapes well below freezing for a small-batch icewine, a trick that only works in a climate cold enough to leave fruit on the vine that long.
