Ontario Grape Shortage Leads to Rule Change on Blending
To save local wine for top labels, producers will be able to use all foreign-grown grapes in lower-tier wines
Eric Arnold
Posted: September 16, 2005
Due to a severe grape shortage in the province, the government of Ontario is temporarily amending laws that limit the amount of foreign-grown grapes that can be blended with domestically grown wine. The change, which will only affect the 2005 vintage, was made at the behest of wineries and growers in the Niagara Peninsula and Ontario's other wine regions.
"If we couldn't do this, it would have meant that 20 million less bottles would be produced—about CA$150 million [US$126 million] in revenue," said Norm Beal, chairman of the Wine Council of Ontario and owner of Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery. "And I would say 20 million is the minimum—that's the low side."
Over the winter, surface ice built up into a 2- to 3-mile stretch of crushed ice along the southwestern end of Lake Ontario. This led to temperatures four to five degrees cooler than normal for the province's wine regions and a freeze that caused significant vine damage in January. "The 2004 crop in Ontario was around 54,000 tons of vinifera wine grapes," Beal said. In contrast (though harvest has yet to begin), he estimated that "in 2005, the crop looks to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 21,000 tons."
Under the province's Wine Content Act, there are two categories of Ontario wine: Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) and blended. VQA wines must be made from 100 percent Ontario-grown grapes, undergo several tests and gain the approval of a tasting panel. These make up most of the province's exports to the United States. Blended wines can contain foreign juice in addition to Ontario-grown grapes, and are labeled as "Cellared in Canada from imported and domestic wines."
Normally, the blended wines are required to include a minimum of 30 percent Ontario-grown grapes. The temporary change to the Wine Content Act will allow wineries to use all foreign wine in these lower-tier labels if they wish, so that they can maintain production levels of their VQA wines.
While volume is down, Beal and other winegrowers in the region report that the quality of the grapes in 2005 is among the best they've seen. "We don't want to put all our high quality, Ontario vinifera in the blended pool this year, because it's a waste," Beal said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to keep our VQA at relatively normal levels, and it will mean a pretty significant increase of imports of wine, primarily from California, Washington and Oregon."
Along with the temporary amendment, the wineries, growers and Ontario government have agreed to change the labeling rules and signage for blended and VQA wines. They expect to come up with exact language within the next six weeks. "There was a bit of confusion at the customer level," Beal said. "We will make a commitment with the growers and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores to change the signage to clearly reflect the difference. That's a permanent thing."
