28 - Order of Canada recipient Donald Zirlado, a Canadian or Friulan origins, co-founded Inniskillin Wines

When destiny is etched on a ring

Donald Ziraldo, do you care to explain why you, a man whose parents hail from Friuli, have a Canadian name?
"It was my father's idea. 'I want our son to be half Italian and half Canadian. That way he'll be successful,' he once told my mother. So here I am: my first name is Canadian, but my last name is Italian."
And the good thing is that his father's prophecy has come true: on May 7 Donald Ziraldo was awarded the country's highest honor: the Order of Canada. It's the crowning of a life intensely devoted to work, but especially to a winning idea: producing high-class wines in spite of those who thought, or still think, that the Canadian climate is ill-suited for grape growing.
Niagara Falls-based Inniskillin Wines Inc. is the living refutation of this belief.
He did not follow in his father's footsteps. Actually, a veritable abyss runs between Ziraldo's and his late father's occupations. And abyss is the right word, since his father used to work in the MacIntyre gold mines of Timmins, in northern Ontario. Ziraldo himself, on the other hand, works on the surface, among rows of grapevines in the sweet climate of the Niagara Peninsula.
Why did you decide to become a wine maker?
"Look at this," he says displaying a gold ring he wears. "It was made with the gold that my father used to mine. My mother gave it to me when I graduated in Agronomy from the University of Guelph, in 1971... My father had already passed away, and in giving the ring to me, my mother told me: 'He would have wanted to give it to you himself.' At that time I had not decided which branch of Agronomy to pursue. I took the ring and I saw a grapple of grapes carved on it.
"If I am where I am, it's partly thanks to this ring. In a sense, it held within it my destiny."
The Ziraldo family, who hail from Fagagna ("In my house we still speak furlàn," says Ziraldo), a town in Friuli nestled by rolling hills crested with rows of vineyards surrounding the town of San Daniele. Which is the town instantly associated with Italian ham and tajùt, but which is also a place of emigrants. Thousands of people from Bassa to Carnia, from the sea to Tarvisio, have left this land in search of work abroad. The people from Friuli have built the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Copenhagen Royal Palace, skyscrapers in New York and entire blocks in Buenos Aires. And they have dug the subway line in Toronto and the mines of northern Ontario.
People like Fiorello Ziraldo, Ziraldo's father, who came here in 1923, when he was only 16. He worked hard for many years - 23 to be exact. Then, once he attained a certain financial status, he decided to change his occupation and get married. He bought a piece of land in the Niagara Peninsula where he grew fruit. One day he hopped on a ship and returned to Fagagna where he met Irma, who had studied obstetrics. Afew months later they were married.
"At the end of their honeymoon, my parents came to New York," recounts Ziraldo. "They went through customs and then headed for a hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, which at the time was the most luxurious in New York, all brimming with art deco. To this day, my mother smiles at the memory of those days. 'Who would have thought that after staying at the Astoria I would find myself here among all these fields, working the land?' she quips. "But she never complained. There was no time for it because they had to make their business burgeon. Then, the following year, 1948, I was born. That's all."
As a bona fide Friulan, in spite of having been born in Canada, Ziraldo is a soft-spoken. man of few words. He is someone for whom everything has to be handled carefully. And yet the awards he has received are all prestigious. Of course, Governor General Romeo LeBlanc does not give the Order of Canada to just anyone.
A couple of news bits: Ziraldo's business has received many prestigious international awards; he has been the most impassioned promoter of the VQA (Vinter's Quality Alliance, the crest indicating the controlled origin of the Canadian wine). He was invited to participate May 13, in the ceremony, held in London, to unveil the newly renovated Canada House. The event was attended by Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
Let's return to the ring, Mr. Ziraldo. After deciding to devote your life to making wine, what did you do?
"As I said, my father used to grow fruit in his fields. Meanwhile, I had already visited my relatives in Friuli several times. There I began pondering. I thought to myself: if places like Friuli and Germany, where it's cold, grapes are still grown successfully, why not do the same in the Niagara Peninsula, which has the same latitude? Then I studied the average temperatures and I realized that in the area where I had my little business the temperature often dropped below zero from November to April, but that in June, July, August, September and October, the temperature exceeded an average of 22 degrees. I then concluded that this area was not only ideal to make ice-wine, which is wine made from grapes harvested in winter, but also the wine from the so-called vitis vinifera: Chardonnay and Black Pinot, for instance. It was all up to me to make a high-quality wine."
So, what happened?
"I returned to Friuli and I went to the Rauscedo co-operative where I bought the first species of grapes: Riesling, Gamay Beaujoulais and Chardonnet. Then in Fagagna I met Manlio Toniutti, whose father was a close friend of my father. Manlio owned a printing press specializing in labels for wine bottles. He made some for me. And that's how I started. Then I met Karl Kaiser, an Austrian who held a degree in chemistry from Brock University, and who had experience in the wine industry. Karl had married Sylvia, a Canadian, and had no intention of returning to Austria. When he came to me, he wanted to buy vines from my vineyards. To make the long story short, we became partners and together we founded Inniskillin Wines Inc. Then we asked the Liquor Control Board of Ontario for a licence to work in the business. And it wasn't an easy feat, I'll tell you that...."
Why?
"Because that was 1969 and those kinds of licences were not granted, nor was there any willingness to make an exception. But we had the good fortune of meeting a friend in general, George Kitching, president of the Liquor Control Board, who shared our objective of producing quality wines from grapes grown in the Niagara Peninsula, and so in 1975 Inniskillin was officially launched. Over time, the company has significantly increased business, since Kaiser and I have been able to surround ourselves with the best wine experts in the business."
That's a strange name. Why did you name your company Inniskillin?
"Because we were equal partners. Kaiser and I consider ourselves co-founders. We didn't think it was fair to call our business Ziraldo Canteen or Shloss Kaiser. So we looked up history books and we discovered that a famous Irish regiment, the Inniskillin Fusiliers, particularly distinguished itself in North America during the war of 1812. In honor of that regiment, we gave our company that name."
And the Inniskillin Wines Inc. itself has won many battles...
"Well, let's say yes. The biggest satisfaction came in 1991 at the Bordeaux Vinexpo, in France, when out of 4,100 participants our ice-wine won first prize, the Golden Citadel. More recently, last March, our Chardonnay Reserve 1996 placed first at the Chardonnay of the World contest held in Saint Leger, in Burgundy, a typical wine region of France. Also, our Black Pinot won the gold medal at the 1993 Vinitaly held in Verona."
Your business has become a point of reference even outside of Canada. And, under certain aspects, it is a museum where one can learn how grapes are made into wine; there are even polychrome glass panels derived from an original design by Frank Lloyd Wright. You have garnered all the most prestigious awards. Pardon our impertinence, but what do you want to do when you grow up?
"I want to create a school for highly skilled wine makers. Actually, the school already exists, it's the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute linked with Brock University. I want to provide it with more solid infrastructures, and for this reason I'm working hard to find $4 million, which is indispensable for the launch of this initiative. This, by the way, is a project that has attracted many important names in the business. To mention a few: the Marquis Piero Antinori, Count Alexander de Lur Saluces, Robert Mondavi, Robert Drouhin and Miguel Torres. We are talking of the elite of viticulture. My experience teaches me that Canada can produce quality wines. But in order for this to occur expertise must be fostered. And that's what I intend to do. One does not wake up one day and decide to work in this business. Everyone knows how to make wine, and many are even able to make good wine, but few can make truly special, classy wines. And Canada can make classy wines. That's why we must not miss this opportunity."
And among all these concerns for Canada and Europe, how much time do you have to devote to your family?
"I'm not married, except to Inniskillin. This allows me to dedicate all my time to it. Actually, let me correct that: I dedicate 90 per cent of my time to it. The remaining 10 per cent I devote to the great hobby in life: skiing, but also to art deco, of which I consider myself an expert.Which goes to show that one can become an internationally-renowned manager, can be born in Canada and have a North American background, but if in the veins there is Friuli blood one cannot live without the mountains and the archetypal mountain sport: skiing. Plus a passion for art; is this a contradiction? Not really. Just go to Carnia, in Upper Friuli, for instance, and one will see that those 'crude' mountain men are able to create refined drawings by simply using a piece of wood taken from trees in their Alps.

Publication Date: 2002-12-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2203