Richard Slingerland, VP of sales for Pillitteri Estates Winery, reveals why China, Japan and South Korea constitute 80% of sales for the Ontario winery. Rebecca Lo reports.
Nearly three decades ago, family-owned and operated Pillitteri Estates Winery began focusing on exporting its ice wines to Asia. And it has never looked back.
Pillitteri vice president of sales and third generation family member Richard Slingerland explained that after launching its first Vidal ice wine in the mid-1990s, it was quickly embraced by Asian customers. Descending upon the winery’s cellar door on Niagara Stone Road near the Canadian and American border, the most frequent question for Chinese, South Korean or Japanese visitors was how many bottles they could bring home without being taxed.
“Ice wine is perfect for gifting, which is very important to Asians,” said Slingerland. “It is a celebration wine used traditionally in toasting. And Canada has a good reputation for excellent quality products.”
Pillitteri could be a poster child for the Canadian immigrant success story. Hailing from generations of winemakers in Racalmuto, Sicily, then 12-year-old Gary Pillitteri and his father left home in 1948 to settle in the Niagara area. After marrying fellow transplanted Sicilian Lena Argo, they began operating a fruit market on Niagara Stone Road in 1973 selling peaches, plums, apples and grapes grown on their small farm.
Pillitteri was crowned Grape King by Grape Growers of Ontario in 1981. Son-in-law Jamie Slingerland won the same honour in 2015. After table grapes, the company began planting Bordeaux varietals and produced its first Vidal ice wine in 1988, winning a gold medal the same year for its inaugural vintage. Flush with success, the farm and market were converted into a winery that opened in 1993 with 16,000 cases for sale. In the past three decades, two subsequent generations of Pillitteri descendents joined the business as production increased steadily to its current 120,000 cases per year.
“We have already bottled 45,000 cases of ice wine this year, which makes up about 50% of our total production of wine,” Slingerland noted, adding that currently nine members of the Pillitteri family were actively working in the winery.
“My grandfather Gary was one of the first in the region to mix our Sicilian winemaking know-how with the German tradition of producing sweet wine,” he said. Aleksandar Kolundzic has been Pillitteri’s winemaker since 2010, though Slingerland noted that his grandfather still strolls through the winery daily.
Within the estate’s 150 acres (60.7ha), Slingerland explained that early January is typically when ice wine grapes were harvested. Temperatures needed to hover consistently for days between -8°C to -10°C in order for grapes to remain frozen solid as they are picked. “Most of our crops are Vidal; Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay also grow well here,” Slingerland stated. “We make some red ice wine but not every year as they are harvested later than whites — which makes their crops more susceptible to climate variations.”
Pillitteri produced the region’s first Chardonnay and Merlot ice wines. As the official wine partner of the Canadian Olympic team, its Team Canada Wine Collection of red and white wine plus its Vidal ice wine pledges CAD$1 (£0.53) per bottle sold towards the Canadian Olympic Foundation.
With China representing Pillitteri’s largest market, Slingerland travels to Asia four times a year to visit distributors to learn first hand about market trends and variances. “Around 60% of our total production is exported to China,” he said. “We have had good long term partners there for more than two decades; in Hong Kong, we have been working with Watson’s Wine for 12 years. In 2024, we started using Xiaohungshu (the social media platform also known as RedNote) and our goal for 2026 is to begin conducting live stream sales in the country.
“South Korea is our next biggest market and we work with six distributors there, while we have one for the whole of Japan. I anticipate that I will be travelling more frequently to Asia to open Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines in the coming years.”
Back home, Pillitteri continues to cater to its walk-in clientele with three Mandarin and one Korean speaking staff members standing by its cellar door. And it continues its tradition of making rare ice wines. The winery has produced the world’s first ice wine made from Corvina grapes and experiments with ice wine aged for a decade in neutral oak. Slingerland affirmed that Pillitteri “wants to keep pushing limits”.
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