Sidebar 1: Fruit wineries left out

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Fruit wineries could be part of the solution to the grape surplus, says Jim Warren of Hamilton, president of the Ontario Viniculture Association, which expanded from its central Ontario base last April. Warren says fruit wineries are restricted as to the amount of grapes they can use for winemaking. If wine makers could use more, some of the surplus would be used up. But the organization doesn't have a seat at the table as grape growers and the Ontario Wine Council follow the Premier of Ontario's directive and work out their differences this winter.

Many fruit wine makers don't qualify for Vintner Quality Alliance (VQA) even if they use all Ontario produced juice. There is a financial advantage to the VQA status, Warren points out: a lucrative "margin enhancement." An OVA release from last summer says that "margin enhancement" can amount to as much as $340 on $1,000 in sales to a licensed restaurant. Cellared in Canada wines don't get that either, he notes "and we don't' want them to."

OVA's members take an issue to the board. If 80 per cent of the members agree on a position the board sends out a press release. (A membership costs $25). "I think government looks at a lot of these players as small potatoes" and decides they don't count because they don't contribute much to employment, Warren says.
Everybody needs the same opportunity to sell their wines, Warren says. "We aren't anti-Wine Council. We believe better things could be happening there," Warren says, mildly. BF