By Larry Paterson August 15, 2008
with permission to copy labels from Sunnybrook Estate Winery (all thoughts are my own).
Give up yet?????
follow down the page
hint - it is nothing to do with anything that is upright in the picture. Take a look at the fine print on the side panels...
Still haven't got it?????
The fact is that your government is worried that the word "Ontario" in the phrase "Medium wine made from 100% Ontario Black Currants." may lead to massive confusion for the poor confused Everyday Jane and Joe consumer, who might mistake it for a Chardonnay which has "VQA Ontario VQA" on the label. The same is true of the use of Niagara Nectarines. I am sure that the officials involved would take an equally dim view of "Ontario grown Frontenac" (Frontenac being a new wine grape brought here from Quebec). How worried are they? Well, this year (2008) they have a kind of "Wine Police" out checking all the labels at all the little wineries in Ontario to ensure that you the consumer should not have to be exposed to such trickery...
This same government doesn't seem to recognize any possibility of confusion with wines labeled "Cellared in Canada" in fairly small print on the bottom of the front label. These wines contain up to 70% imported wine (often of the same low quality as most under-$15 factory-made imported tetra paks on the LCBO general list), and for one year were allowed to be a full 99% imported content. In many cases the Cellared in Canada "Products" are in the same size, shape and colour of bottle as earlier vintages when they were 100% Ontario, VQA wines. They are often shelved in the same locations that they were in the past when 100% Ontario, and the labels have an uncanny similarity, exchanging the VQA statement for Cellared in Canada.
And the prices of these "Products" is not any less than the VQA wine itself was in the previous vintage, despite the fact that the quality of wine generally brought in costs dramatically less than the cost of growing an equivalent volume in Ontario. The Ontario government - via the LCBO - has shown little interest in putting 100% Ontario wines front and center in their stores, being more than happy to share in the profits collected from selling cheap imported wines as Canadian product. The last I heard well more than half the Ontario wine that LCBO counts in their "Ontario" wine sales contained up to 70% imported wine.
This same labeling regime applies to not only fruit wines, but to a host of newer, hardy, disease-resistant (much eco-friendlier!) grape varieties that are growing all over Ontario, and which might allow family wineries in most areas south of Highway 17, and in some cases north! None of these wines are - or are ever likely to become - allowed to participate in VQA programs. Without denying the great things that VQA has accomplished, it is in reality a private producers club (controlled by mainly large wineries) which has been entrusted with managing important portions of Ontario Wine Law (and is this not yet another example of government evading it's responsibility to look out for all citizens?)
Given the recent focus on identifying where our foodstuffs come from, I think that anything that denies the consumer information necessary to their purchasing decisions is wrong. When this "Wrongness" is instituted by government and then left in the hands of major corporate players the "Wrongness" proceeds to a more dangerous degree. Imagine WalMart being able to dictate retail policy in Canadian stores! Such is the nature of this situation. And a cynic might point out that sales from small family wineries do little to increase LCBO profits or record Management Bonuses.
Ontario would do well to look west to British Columbia to see progressive development. It is no longer surprising to me that BC wines tend to dominate Canadian wine competitions, with strong gains being made by every province except Ontario. Our standards - such as this labeling and the Cellared in Canada fiasco - may well be lower now as an industry than they were ten years ago.
If you think that any of this is at all wrong, please send your thoughts to any newspaper or other news provider, or fire off an email to the four major parties in Ontario. Give them a piece of your mind, as it were (some cynics claim they need every piece they can gather). Just click on the name and enter your comments.
Liberal Party – Dalton McGuinty
Conservative Party – John Tory
New Democratic Party – Howard Hampton
Green Party admin@gpo.ca
