Newsletter #118 - Cellared in Canada Goes Boom

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OntarioWineReview Newsletter 118 ... October 2009

• News From Our Vine:  Who Do You Find Sexy / Gewurztraminer Tickets on Sale

• Ontario Wine Review:  Cellared in Canada Goes Boom – so what’s next?
• Grape Guy’s Picks of the Bunch:  How about 3 from 2007
• Weekly Wine Notes and More:  33 Vines, Coyote’s Run, 4 Road reports and Vinatges
• Beautiful Bottles:  Taking a look at some great 2008s … so far, so good
• Wine Event Spotlight:  A Plethora of Events

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News … Who Do You Find Sexy / Gewurztraminer Tickets on Sale

Who do you find “Sexy”? … After a month of nominations for the “Sexiest” Ontario Winemaker, we have our finalists, 6 women and 6 men, they are …  
MEN: Daniel Lenko (Lenko Estate Winery), Derek Barnett (Lailey Vineyard), Frederic Picard (Huff Estates), Marc Bradshaw (Pillitteri), Serge Papineau (Legends), and Shiraz Mottiar (Malivoire).
WOMEN: Lydia Tomek (Hernder), Lyse LeBlanc (Mastronardi), Natalie Spytkowsky (Rosewood), Shauna White (Ravine), Sue-Ann Staff (Megalomaniac), and Tanya Mitchell (Sprucewood).

 

Now it’s time for you to vote.  Visit www.ontariowinereview.com and look for the poll on the right hand side of the page.  There you’ll find the top 6 male and female winemakers (in alphabetical order) as nominated by readers of OntarioWineReview.  May the sexiest winemaker win.

Great Gewurztraminer Challenge … Tickets for the OntarioWineReview Gewurztraminer challenge are now on sale.  Visit www.ontariowinereview.com for all the details of how you can get your tickets.

 

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Ontario Wine Review:  Cellared in Canada Goes Boom – so what’s next?

Tick … Tick … Tick … Boom.  Well, the Cellared in Canada (CIC) debate has really hit a boiling point over the past couple of weeks.  I subscribe to a news forwarding service I lovingly refer to as the “DT Newswire” and I must have been forwarded about 2 dozen articles about CIC wine in the last week alone.  These articles aren’t just from obscure sources like Lindsay and North Bay, they come from major Canadian newspapers from coast to coast and international press like Jancis Robinson, who seems to be championing the cause, and the Economist, who seem to be just pissing Canadians off by calling us “the nanny state” and referring to our wine as “passable plonk”.

I also received forwarded links from you, my readers, and I thank you for them.  It would seem in the last year and a half (coincidentally when Esprit hit the market ) we have gone from a country that didn’t care less about our homegrown wines, to a country that has started a rallying cry against CIC wines; as usual, there are two sides to this issue:  the ones that want to ban it outright and the ones that want to keep it … Where we’re going is very Canadianly, somewhere in the middle.  

First, let me say that I am not in favour of banning it because I don’t like championing unwinnable causes.  People think I want it abolished, truth is, just like the Wine Rack and Vineyard retail outlets you find in your local grocery store (run by Canada’s two largest wine companies), which I thought should be turned into VQA stores (no chance), we will never see the end of CIC wine.  That stuff’s a moneymaker; for the winery, the government, the LCBO and the countries that supple the wine.  Everyone down the row makes dough, and if I have learned anything from listening to Neil Diamond, it’s that “Money talks” (“but it don’t sing and dance and it don’t walk” – Forever in Blue Jeans); and as long as CIC makes money it will continue to be made, no matter how many websites or petitions are circulated asking for its demise.  Folks, let’s be honest, and a little crude, for a second:  people have been railing against porn since the dawning of the camera, and yet it is still around for one simple reason: it makes oodles of money.  And why?  Because sooner or later everyone want to “try” it, so they can make an informed opinion.  Some are repulsed, others are fascinated, some really enjoy it, while others are consumed by it.  So you see Cellared in Canada is a form of Canadian porn.

So what’s the next step for CIC wine now that the debate is rolling along?  The answer here certainly isn’t falling back to the argument I keep hearing about other countries doing it so why can’t we?  (Wines like Piat D’or and Kressman are also “blended brews” from their assumed country of origin).  We are, for lack of a better term, a “reactionary country”; we so rarely lead the way, especially in the wine industry.  The cork vs. screwcap debate is a perfect example.  We wanted to see what other countries did before committing to it ourselves.  Whereas a country like New Zealand, embraced it whole hog.  In a country where conformity is king, it’s time to step out of the shadows of “other countries” and lead, because it is our country that’s on the hot seat about this blending topic, and deflecting isn’t going to work this time.  We can’t wait to see what other countries are going to do because they’re not being bombarded in the press like we are.  They are not under the microscope.  What was once just a local issue, has now exploded to an international issue as the world press steps in.

The answer seems simple, it’s time to change the CIC rules and make what’s in the bottle transparent … all of it.  A high-profile wine writer suggested these three changes for a start:
I would like to see the provenance and percentage of off-shore blends stated clearly on the back label.
I would like to see a distinctive capsule that must be used by all producers for CIC bottlings, so that visually it’s immediately apparent to the consumer that it’s not a VQA wine.
There should be a special international section for CIC wines in LCBO stores, well away from VQA shelves.

I think we should go one step further and take a page out of Magnotta’s book, a winery that makes CIC wines and yet has seen little in the way of protest against them.  That’s because they have clearly identified their CIC wines as international blends for years, with the main country of origin right on the front label, in bold lettering.  Using that model for labeling, we now look to the LCBO.  CIC wines should be completely removed from the Ontario section and placed in their own special section called “International Blends”.  And why should the LCBO get involved here?  Because, make no mistake about it, the LCBO is a branch of your Ontario government, and if the government monopoly (LCBO) was established to protect us from the evils of alcohol, then it should protect us from all the evils, including deceptive labeling practices.

The other rule that has to change is the “stretching rule”, where, in effect, wineries that make CIC wines can add 20% water to the blend.  One winery owner, who has made CIC in the past, told me that from one ton of grapes you can roughly get 750L of juice and yet the Wine Content Act allows you, as a winery, to stretch it to 902L with water … but the question that begs to be asked here, does the water have to be local?

Through this whole media storm, what we really have to avoid here is the hysteria of this situation.  It seems that every 4 years, a crisis comes along that taints the Ontario industry in the consumer’s mind (2001: Ladybug; 2005: 99/1; 2009: CIC).  What must not get lost here is the gospel of VQA, which is and always will be 100% Ontario product … The only thing we are talking about here, when we refer to Cellared in Canada, is a handful of wineries that make a specific type of wine: Cellared in Canada wines.  Do not allow this new boon of publicity to get in the way of what is truly 100% Canadian wine (VQA).  My biggest fear is that everyone will read about CIC and think all Canadian wine is blended with international wine, and that we water down our wines.  Please keep in mind, dear reader, as you continue to read press clippings from home and abroad about Canada’s “wine fraud”, that VQA is still 100% Ontario (Canadian) – always has been, always will be.  Now let’s change those rules and prove to the world that we can be leaders in the wine industry, instead of passive followers.

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To hear three CBC interviews – Jancis Robinson, John Peller and Seaton McLean discuss the Cellared in Canada issue visit: the CBC show The Current, from September 25, 2009 and listen to Part 2.

Grape Guy’s Picks of the Bunch:  How about 3 from 2007 …

Weekly Wine Notes and More:  33 Vines, Coyote’s Run, 4 Road reports and Vinatges

A new Ontario wine is reviewed every Tuesday … take two minutes to listen to the Podcast or read the tasting notes on the Blog.

Tuesday October 27th, 2009 join iYellow Wine Club at The Great Hall (1087 Queen Street West) from 8pm-10:30 pm for NIGHTLIFE an event where you’ll be able to Taste of 23 Napa Valley Wines, Meet California Winemakers, Enjoy the sounds of Toronto House DJ - DJ Dinamo and Savour hor's Deourves by On the Move Catering.  Cost is $48+gst  Click here for further details.

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Beautiful Bottles:  Taking a look at some great 2008s … so far, so good

Wine Event Spotlight:  A Plethora of Events

  What can the Grape Guy do for you … Michael Pinkus (Grape Guy) provides a variety of wine related services that you might be interested in taking advantage of:  he gives lectures, leads seminars, conducts tastings, sets up tours; consults, selects and judges.  He also gives interviews, broadcasts, podcasts and writes.  Contact the Grape Guy if you require any of these services or have any questions.

Psst, Pass It On … keep the good wine flowing. Forward this newsletter to your mom in Milton, your son in Smith Falls, or any other family member or loved one that you know needs good wine advice.

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