Prince Charles a big hit in Ontario wine country
Prince Charles’ tour includes sampling wines from Niagara College vineyards
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. — He swirled, sniffed, sipped and concluded that the provincial fruit of the vine was fit for a king. Or in his case, king-in-waiting.
Braving weather more suitable for the winter ice wine harvest than autumn grape-gathering, Britain’s Prince Charles paid a quick visit Thursday to Niagara College, beside the Queen Elizabeth Way, where he tasted wines produced by the campus winery and helped dedicate its new visitor center.
Stinging, wind-driven sleet blew in as the monarch’s older son and heir apparent emerged from the 20-vehicle motorcade that brought him from Hamilton, wearing a gray double-breasted suit but no topcoat.
He cheerfully opened an umbrella extended by an aide and began working the crowd of drenched well-wishers who had begun lining up behind a white picket fence two hours earlier for the chance to demonstrate their fealty to the crown.
It was a charm offensive that would have done any American politician proud, and that sent his mother’s waterlogged subjects home happy.
Then Charles was ushered into the visitors center, where college officials briefed him about the five-year-old teaching winery in the heart of Southern Ontario, Canada’s largest and fastest-growing wine region.
Students in one- or two-year programs learn the inner workings of a winery, from planting grapes to selling wine. Their education prepares them for jobs as winery managers, winemakers, viticulture technicians, marketers, sommeliers and master tasters.
In the downstairs wine cellar, the royal guest tasted several varieties made from grapes grown in the school’s 40-acre vineyard at the base of the Niagara escarpment.
“He really enjoyed them, particularly the chardonnay,” said Saundra Patterson, wife of college President Dan Patterson.
Though the Prince of Wales is known for carrying out his ceremonial duties with humor and aplomb, she said he seemed to really enjoy this side trip on his whirlwind 11-day tour of Canada with his wife, Camilla. The Duchess of Cornwall skipped the Niagara-on-the-Lake leg after the couple visited Hamilton’s Dundurn Castle, built by her great-great-grandfather, earlier in the day.
“He was very personable, very relaxed” in the tasting room, Saundra Patterson said later. In fact, the prince lingered well past the one hour his handlers set aside for the winery tour, before heading off to his next stop, Toronto.
After unveiling a plaque destined for the visitor center, he plunged into the swarm of college officials and politicians sampling wine and hors d’oeuvres under a nearby party tent.
Regrettably, he tried to hold a teacup and saucer while glad-handing. Inevitably, his elbow was bumped and tea splattered his suit coat.
Niagara College did not request the royal visit, but the school’s reputation led organizers to put it on the agenda, Dan Patterson said. The prince’s long-standing interest in the environment and rural affairs may have been a factor, he said.
Though the event was a coup for the 10-year-old campus, Canadians as a whole are deeply ambivalent about their historic ties to the royal family.
A recent poll by the Sun Media newspaper chain indicated that 45 percent of citizens believe the monarchy should be done away with, and 44 percent support keeping the queen as head of state.
Predictably, the negative attitude was strongest in bilingual Quebec where 78 percent of those polled favored ending the monarchy, while the royals enjoyed their greatest support — 55 percent — in Ontario.
The results were even less comforting for Charles and Camilla. Only 2 percent of Canadians thought the pair would make strong monarchs, while 20 percent thought they would be very weak.
Worse, the poll revealed that every region of the country disapproved of Charles becoming head of state.
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