Dr. Marcel Martel, F.R.S.C.
Dr. Martel is Professor of History at York University and the Avie Bennett Historica Canada Chair in Canadian History. His current research projects focus on the development of the wine industry in Canada and the arrival of cognac in North America during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Join Dr. Martel and Dr. Gagné as they discuss the history of wine in Ontario.
About this event
French immigrants Pierre-Antoine Robinet and his son Jules were among the first to envision a future for wine production in Southwestern Ontario at the end of the nineteenth century. Settling in the Windsor region, the Robinets brought with them both technical knowledge and the entrepreneurial spirit that characterized many French settlers of their generation. Like their British and American counterparts, the Robinets believed that Ontario had the potential to rival Europe and other emerging wine-producing regions around the world.
The birth of the Ontario wine industry, however, was far from easy. The international wine market was dominated by France, Italy, and Spain, which together produced approximately 85 percent of the world’s wine in the second half of the century. Yet even these dominant producers faced crisis. The devastating outbreak of phylloxera brought ruin to countless growers and created uncertainty about the future of European viticulture in the 1870s. What was a disaster for Europe became an opportunity elsewhere. Regions previously considered peripheral to the global wine trade—such as California, South Africa, Australia, and parts of Canada—saw potential to fill the void left by European decline.
This presentation argues that the industry’s initial development was part of a larger process of transnational knowledge transfer, where immigrants adapted European techniques to North American conditions. Yet this transfer was constrained by social values rooted in Protestant culture. The temperance movement viewed alcohol as a source of moral decay, crime, and social instability. What motivated immigrant entrepreneurs to invest in a product that faced cultural resistance? And how did global agricultural crises, such as the phylloxera epidemic, reshape economic opportunities in the world?
Location
The discussion will be held in the MacKinnon Building Room 132, University of Guelph and on Zoom. Register for the free Zoom link.
More information is also available from Dr. Rebecca Beausaert or Dr. Ben Bradley.
Dr. Alex Gagné
Dr. Gagne is a Canadian historian, museum assistant, and university lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University. He was a recent recipient of the Avie Bennett Historica Canada Dissertation Scholarship in Canadian History.
Rural History Roundtable events are sponsored by the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professorship in Rural History.
