Niagara winery & wine selections in NGV Uncorked reflect personal preferences and are based on recent winery visits and tasting sessions, not reviews by wine critics / writers or industry wine awards. The opinions expressed in NGV Uncorked regarding the Niagara and Ontario wine industry are those of the author.
Are the Canadian and Ontario governments making a concerted effort to promote Canadian wines and protect consumers from cheap, foreign, sometimes inferior wines peddled as "cellared in Canada" ? Do Ontario wine drinkers fully understand the VQA designation ? And, are Niagara wineries fairly represented and their wines prominently displayed and marketed in the LCBO ?
A simple, unqualified "no" will suffice.
Let's be perfectly clear: "cellared in Canada" is a pretty much meaningless tag used for marketing foreign wines here. These wines are predominantly inexpensive foreign wines and some may contain as little as 30 % Canadian content. More disturbing is the fact that several Ontario wineries participate in "cellared in Canada" marketing, bottling and selling so-labelled wines under their brand - as if it was domestic wine. They may have vinified it, "cellared" and bottled it - but it's not Canadian wine by a long shot.
No one has an issue with the LCBO offering properly labelled, regulated foreign wines on its shelves, alongside Canadian wines. Many wine drinkers prefer and enjoy French, Italian, Australian, Chilean and German wines. But to create the perception that other inexpensive foreign wines are Canadian by using the "cellared in Canada" marketing strategy is just misleading. Do the yourself, the Ontario wine industry and economy a favour - pass over "cellared in Canada" wines and spend a few dollars more for VQA wines; better wines in every sense.
Neither are "cellared in Canada" wine labels required to include the country(ies) of origin, nor the varietals or their proportions in wines so bottled. As is the case with VQA wines, this does allow for some blended wines to be sold as a single varietal. The growers, vineyards and wineries producing the wines are not identified, perhaps not even regulated in some cases. And what winemaker or winery would allow their wines to by shipped "en masse" and bottled anonymously anyway ? None who take any pride in their wine !
In total contrast to the "cellared in Canada" bottling and marketing of wine is the Vintners Quality Assurance (VQA) Ontario - legislated, wine industry guidelines for the production, content, bottling, naming and labelling of 100 % Ontario-grown grape wines.
VQA employs geographic limits, imposes nomenclature, varietal content, blending & proportion rules and imposes an annual testing regimen for each and every wine to be labelled as VQA Ontario.
Typical VQA wines are labelled with the following information: Winery, Ontario appellation (e.g. Niagara Peninsula), sub-appellation where applicable (e.g. Beamsville Bench), single vineyard where applicable (e.g. Funk Vineyard), varietal (e.g. riesling) or blend name (e.g. meritage), volume (e.g. 750 ml), alcohol content (e.g. 13 %) and, very importantly, "VQA" or the VQA logo. ( more about VQA labelling standards )
Some wines do not qualify for VQA certification, including fruit wines, wines that do not contain the 85% content requirement for a single varietal, or blended wines whose proportions do not meet VQA standards.