Dear Editor:

On a recent trip to Sydney, Nova Scotia to visit my brother John, I dropped by the Nova Scotia Liquor Control Board store. My mission was to pick up a nice bottle of British Columbia wine to go with the lobster and mussels dinner that my sister-in-law Dorian was making us for dinner.

Although I did find a very few bottles of VQA wine, the Canada section of the store was almost entirely dominated by ‘Cellared-in-Canada’ wines.

These are cheap, blended wines consisting of mostly imported wine, but it was confusing as they are labelled as ‘Cellared-in-Canada’ and marketed as Canadian wines.This practice is extremely confusing to the average customer and should be brought to an end.

The question of how to label cheap imported bulk wines blended by Canadian wineries is a divisive issue within the Canadian wine industry and distracts industry members from working together cohesively on more important strategic issues.

In my view, the Cellared in Canada designation is misleading.The term ‘cellared’ in the context of wine has a particular meaning, suggesting that the wines have been aged in climate controlled storage to enhance flavours and other attributes.

The term ‘blended’ is a more accurate description of the value added in Canada. Manufacturers add value by blending to the flavour profile valued by consumers of their particular brand.

The question, at least in cases where there is no significant Canadian grape content in the blend, is whether this is enough of a Canadian involvement in the process to fairly describe the product as Canadian in any meaningful sense

Cellared in Canada wines compete with imported wines in the under $10 category where consumers are shopping for value pricing and familiar brands.

They do not compete with Canadian wines which mostly occupy the higher priced premium market where consumers tend to have higher income and education and are more willing to explore regions and varietals.

The blending of foreign wines in Canada is a very important part of our overall industry, with sales almost double the sales of Canadian wines

Blending of international wines by the large commercial wineries creates a market for our excess grapes and allows us to compete against cheap imported wine in the low end of the market. Federal labelling laws require disclosure of country of origin on all wine labels. The designation ‘Product of Canada’ can be used only for wines made 100 per cent from Canadian grapes. Foreign wines can reference a single country of origin only if at least 75 per cent of the grapes are from that country. Blended wines made from the grapes of two or more countries must disclose the countries of origin in descending order of percentage content.

As an exception to these rules, under an administrative order issued in 1994 and intended to be temporary, Canadian wineries blending foreign and Canadian wines in Canada can label this product as ‘Cellared in Canada’ without giving further particulars of country of origin. Ontario requires a minimum of 25 per cent Canadian grapes but British Columbia has no minimum content requirement.  Many in the industry argue that because the sourcing of wines used for Cellared in Canada blends varies frequently based on pricing and availability, it is impractical to go beyond the phrase ‘blended from International and Canadian wines’ in providing details of country of origin.

I would argue that it is also not cost justified to implement the monitoring regime that would be required given that consumers in the value price category generally do not regard country of origin as an important factor in their choice of wines. Some argue that even though Canada does not export internationally blended wines, Cellared in Canada labelling is damaging the Canadian brand, and that the accurate labelling of our wines is critical for Canada to be taken seriously at the international level.

Perhaps ‘International Blend of Foreign and Domestic Wines’ is a designation upon which everyone could agree to replace the current ‘Cellared in Canada’ labelling. The designation should be placed on the front label and the same terminology should also be required on wine store signage and on restaurant menus.

The British Columbia Wine Institute has asked for an 18-month sunset on the current interim measure and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is drafting new labelling standards next year for adoption in 2018.

The Canadian Vintners Association has launched a consultative process seeking industry views as to the required changes. It is time for a change. The term Cellared in Canada is confusing and needs to be replaced.

Al Hudec,

Oliver, B.C.