Inniskillin took shape in nineteen seventy-five when Donald Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser secured Canada’s first new winery license after Prohibition and began planting vinifera in Niagara with a focus on estate-grown quality. Their early work with Riesling and Chardonnay set the foundation, but the breakthrough came in the mid-eighties when they successfully harvested Vidal for Icewine, a style that quickly became their signature. International attention followed after the nineteen eighty-nine Vidal Icewine earned top honors at Vinexpo, helping establish Canada as a serious Icewine producer. The winery later expanded into the Okanagan and continued refining its Icewine program, which remains the core of its identity today.