Kawarthas tops in Ont. wine sales
"People in the Kawarthas have shown they love Ontario wines, so the winemakers figured they'd show a little affection in return.
Representatives of 16 wineries were at the Lakefield-Smith Community Centre Sunday offering glasses of their best vintages, and wine consultants were suggesting ways to best enjoy them as part of The Great Canadian Wine and Cheese Show.
Astrid Neuland, sales director of the St. Catharines-based Henry of Pelham Vineyards, said samples were going for about 20 cents each, meaning her firm was actually losing money with each serving.
"I don't think we'd do this every year but we really wanted to support the area," she said.
Tom Pennachetti, of Cave Springs wines, figured he would go through 30 bottles by the end of the day but said was more than happy to do so.
"This area has always been a hotbed for Ontario wine, and we're always happy to promote," he said. "For people to come out on a Sunday to taste them, you know they're serious."
Connie and John Rechanicz said they've come to prefer domestic wines to imports, so the show was an opportunity to give some new ones a try.
"I like to keep the labels so you can keep track of what you want when you go to the store," Connie said.
Graham Keats, president of the Kawartha Wine Society which organized the show jointly with a number of other groups, said more than 1,000 people had attended by 3 p.m.
"Actually, we'd have been happy with 500," laughed Lakefield LCBO assistant manager Larry Paterson.
The featured products of each company were their Vintners Quality Alliance wines, which are made from one type of grape rather than a blending process.
VQA executive director Peter Gamble said sales of the wines in the Kawarthas have grown "three-fold" since they were introduced two years ago.
"They're so far ahead of anybody else it's incontestable," Gamble said.
"The LCBO staff here are a really enthusiastic group who stock a lot of Ontario wines."
Paterson said the event, which also had booths manned by area cheesemakers and artists, was intended as an "up-scale, but not snotty" way of promoting Ontario agricultural products.
"You don't think of people going in to stores and wanting imported cheeses really, but wines are something else. Five years ago nothing had a worse reputation than Ontario wines," he said.
Agriculture Minister Elmer Buchanan presented Kawartha and District LCBO manager Ed Gilson with a plaque commemorating the 29 area stores' support of the VQA lines.
"Local dairy farmer Gord Jopling said about 25 per cent of the milk produced in Ontario is used to make cheese. Milk producers are generally eager to endorse its compatability with wine.
"A nice cheese will accent a good wine, and vice versa," he said.
Since 1988 the 20 southern Ontario wineries have stopped using native North American grapes to make table wines ("they make good jams and grape juice, but not wine"). All varietites now come from European stock."