Sweet & Sticky Ice Syrup was the brain child of Niagara businessman Steve Murdza. Murdza’s family has been growing grapes in the St. Davids area since the early days of hybrid and vitis vinifera grapes being planted in Ontario. “At one time, my father had two hundred acres of wine grapes on the go”, Steve notes, explaining that they were one of the first families to grow higher-quality wine grapes.

Today Murdza, who is also co-owner of Coyotes Run Winery in St. David’s, has a ten acre vineyard, and he plans to open a Niagara production plant and buy icewine juice from other growers as the market for Ice Syrup grows. Murdza is in partnership with his brother Peter, retired insurance broker Mike Berlis and Canadian wine icon Donald Ziraldo. And in early 2010, Sweet and Sticky launched two new Ice syrups: one produced from white Vidal grapes and another from red Cabernet Franc. "Ice Syrup is the first product of its kind in the world", Murdza said.