Wine is simply a beverage made from fermented grapes (usually), with the convivial, soothing, sacramental, seducing, celebratory, anesthetizing, heartbreaking, intoxicating, sensual, energizing, mellowing aspects of alcohol.

Therein lies its complexity, for it provides a giddy array of possibilities.

And when you manufacture wine, it can do everything from confer status to raise tax coffers.  Many want a piece of it, thinking, of course, there’s something to be gained from wine.

As a result, winemaking is tightly controlled in Ontario.  Against a backdrop of prohibition morality and good old-fashioned business competition, the wine industry is a complex web of regulations and restrictions.

NOT ALL GRAPES ARE EQUAL

To understand the broader socio-economic-political impact of making commercial batches of wine, it may be wise to begin with a fundamental belief that is dear to many, and ambivalently understood by others: grapes are fairly sacred, not to be removed from their land of origin unless bottled as wine.  The notion is that the taste of the wine springs from the very soil that supported the vines.  If grapes are imported from various regions and mixed in the same tank, purity is compromised and connection with the land is severed.  For some, purity is lost when you simply cross the road to continue harvesting from a different microclimate.

Sometimes it all sounds too precious.  On the other hand, if you’re buying fireweed jelly while vacationing in Newfoundland, you would be disappointed to learn the berries were shipped in from a berry farm in another province, or even another country.  It’s that mystical connection to the land, or at least a transparency about the ingredients that matters.  Strangely, buying jelly at your local grocery usually elicits little concern about origin.

IS WHAT YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET?

Buying wine at Ontario’s LCBO stores works the same way; some consumers are as undiscriminating as everyday jelly purchasers.   Many people are simply open, relaxed and casual about their wine, ready to accept a well-made product, no matter its source.  Others are more particular shoppers, but probably don’t have the goods on the grapes that are allowed to go into good wine.

For example, wine for sale in the Ontario section of the LCBO with “Cellared” or “Made in Canada” printed on the front label, may contain, depending on the winery and the vintage year, a significant amount of foreign grape content.  The situation is a little complicated.  Wineries established before 1993 are allowed to add up 30 per cent of offshore grapes to homegrown product (wineries that opened later don’t have the same right because of free trade deal rules with the United States and fears of jeopardizing the domestic wine industry if those rules are broken).  After a disasterous winter that severely reduced the 2003 grape harvest, the pre-1993 wineries were allowed to import up to 90 per cent of their grapes for blending into that vintage, while other wineries were allowed to make up their shortfalls with offshore grapes based on their previous harvest records.

What all of the above means is that relaxation of grape origin rules allowed the wineries to cope with the whims of nature, a sensible thing (especially when you’re in the industry), but consumers weren’t particularly made aware of the changes.  It also leaves Ontario’s grape farmers feeling a little insecure, the usual result of cheaper imports.    

In Prince Edward County, wineries were also given a break, in this case to accommodate the growing pains of a new region, which was especially helpful for wineries needing cash flow during the four-year wait for grape vines to fully mature.  Getting hit with the same unusually cold winters only added to our challenges.  As a result, we are allowed to bring in a certain percentage of Ontario grapes from outside the county, an amount that began at 90 per cent and has been decreasing each year over a five-year period.  Most of our grape shopping, of course, is done in Niagara. 

Currently, county winegrowers are trying to be classified as a Designated Viticultural Area (DVA), a rite of passage test for new wine regions wishing to join the esteemed ranks of Niagara Peninsula, Pelee Island and Lake Erie North Shore.  Oddly, wineries inside a DVA are allowed to ship in grapes from anywhere within the province and in any amount, because once you’ve proven you can grow grapes, they are suddenly less sacred.  It’s as if the security that comes from knowing you are a genuine wine region allows you to stretch your boundaries and honour grapes that grow beyond your farm, appellation or region.  But you can still market a premium single-vineyard wine.  It’s a complex blend of values, philosophies and perspectives requiring much deep thought to distill.

100% AUTHENTICALLY COUNTY

But to provide integrity to our local industry—and keep things simple and transparent-- the county’s winegrowers have mandated their association, Prince Edward County Winegrowers Association (PECWA), to guarantee the origin of county-grown wine.  No blending with other vintage years, or with grapes grown outside the county appellation.  It has to be 100% authentically county. 

If a wine bottle is sporting a gold seal with the words “Prince Edward County Wine,” rest assured that PECWA officials have gone over the winery’s records and can vouch that the words printed on the label match the bottle’s content.  Every grape was grown on our soil.  You have our word on it. 

In our store, we aim for a simple approach to meet everyone’s needs:  one side of a chalkboard lists our estate-grown wines, while the other side contains wines vinified on site but made with or blended with Niagara grapes.   Product of Ontario or Canada means exactly that.

Our goal has always been to make wines from county grown grapes, which is why we take such pains to survive the winters.  A winery and a wine region ultimately need authenticity, too.

WE DON’T MEAN THIS TO SOUND LIKE SOUR GRAPES, BUT…

Of course, there’s so much more to politics in the wine business.  (In fact, it’s wise not to get us started.)  In Ontario, every grape is weighed, likewise every gram of sugar, and every drop of wine is measured and accounted for at all times.  There’s enough paperwork to track plutonium.  We get hit with the usual and unusual taxes.  Tensions arise when rules lack rationale, or seem discriminatory.  And then there’s the usual struggle between an industry trying to thrive and a government eager to pay for public services.  Weary winery owners try to pass on this knowledge to bright-eyed dreamers, but to no avail.  Winegrowing is such a seductive enterprise.