Great article about a barber in Toronto who also happens to be the world’s best maker of icewine:
Joe is a bit of an upstart. The wine establishment still considers him a bit of a gatecrasher — after all, who comes out of a hair salon making great wine right off the bat? But Royal DeMaria took five golds in one category at the Concours Mondial in Brussels earlier this year, something no winemaker in the world has ever done before; since the beginning, Joe has won more gold medals than Toronto has subway stops.
Some hobby. His first icewines which are now five or six years old are selling for up to $5,000 a bottle. Why is this guy still sweeping hair up off the floor?
Dec. 17, 2004. 06:49 AM
Toronto Star
Toronto barber turns winter into wine
JOE FIORITO
That nip in the air may be annoying to you, but it’s worth roughly a quarter-million dollars to Joe DeMaria. He’s a barber. And no, this has nothing to do with short back and sides for Christmas.
In addition to being a hairstylist, Joe DeMaria is one of the best icewine makers in the world. He owns a small winery on a 10-hectare farm in Vineland. But he can’t pick this year’s grapes until the temperature drops to minus 7 or 8 degrees, and stays that way long enough for him to get the harvest in.
And so the other day, when it was still relatively warm, Joe drove into town and booked a few hair appointments for his regular customers. He likes to, um, stay close to his roots.
We talked in his shop, Modern Waves, on Annette at Jane.
Joe sat in a barber’s chair and said, “The grapes are good this year. They’re massive. A big crop. We’ve got a blanket of grapes. We had a lot of rain this year. Big berries. I’ve never seen anything like it.” That’s the way he talks, in bursts.
He said, “This year, I should get 12 tons of Gewürtztraminer grapes, two tons of Sauvignon Blanc, 60 tons of Vidal, 20 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 tons of Riesling, two tons of Pinot Gris, two of muscat, seven of Chardonnay, 25 of cab Franc, a ton and a half of Pinot Noir, and 12 tons of Merlot.”
He didn’t have to stop and think. He knows the numbers, and he knows the grapes, by heart.
“The ideal time to harvest is anywhere between the 1st and 15th of December, at that moment when the temperature drops to minus 8, 9, or 10. It’s a trade-off. The longer the grapes stay on the vine, and the colder it gets, the less juice you get. But you get a higher brix.”
Brix — pronounced “bricks” — is a measure of sweetness. One degree brix equals one per cent sugar in the grape juice.
“As a comparison, maple syrup is around 80 brix,” he says. “Icewine has to measure 35 brix or above. We do ours between 35 and 39. We don’t like it too cloying. We like more elegance.” Me, too. I’m a sucker for more elegance.
“If you take a ton of grapes — that’s about 44 bushels — you should get between 120 to 150 litres of juice. If everything goes right,” he said.
So who picks his grapes? “A crew of Vietnamese guys. I’ve worked with them for seven years. How did we meet? I was just getting started. I was working underneath my tractor and this guy came up — he scared the daylights out of me — and said he needed work. I didn’t have any work. But as he was leaving I thought, well you never know. I took his phone number. Best thing I ever did.
“The first year, we were picking on New Year’s Eve. The guy’s a bullet in the field. He does 10 rows where other guys do three. He does my pruning, tying, picking. We’ve become friends. I fix his plumbing and he picks my grapes.”
Joe is a bit of an upstart. The wine establishment still considers him a bit of a gatecrasher — after all, who comes out of a hair salon making great wine right off the bat? But Royal DeMaria took five golds in one category at the Concours Mondial in Brussels earlier this year, something no winemaker in the world has ever done before; since the beginning, Joe has won more gold medals than Toronto has subway stops.
Some upstart.
The earliest Royal DeMaria icewines — five or six years old now — are scarce but still available, and they sell for $5,000 a bottle.
“It’s like diamonds. If there’s a good vintage, you should buy it up because you’ll never see it again.” You can see why he’s a bit nervous about the weather; he’s got diamonds on the end of his vines.
He’s also got a fight on his hands.
Joe also makes winter harvest wines —not technically icewine, but equally tasty. His label features a stylized lion; under the lion, “Royal DeMaria” in large type; in smaller type, “Canada’s Icewine Specialists.” He has that registered as a trademark in the United States and in Europe.
But the Vintner’s Quality Alliance of Ontario isn’t thrilled. The VQA is responsible for quality control, and the use of appellation on labels. The VQA claims that, according to legislation, it alone can authorize the use of the term “icewine” on a label. They don’t like Joe’s use of the word when it appears on bottles of his winter harvest wines, even if it’s just a part of his trademark. The lawyers are talking. Joe is waiting on the weather. Me? I think I’ll drink.
POLLENATRIX 