NEWS FLASH!!
Canada is embroiled in the battle of Cellared in Canada wines, one of which was our Official Olympic Wine.
Cellared in Canada wines (CIC) are plonk that 3 companies buy in bulk abroad
and sell in Canada as Canadian Wines, after a brief "Cellaring".
These companies are Vincor, Peller, and Mission Hill. See
sample story CBC OR
Wine Spectator's view.
In BC, they can be 100% plonk; in Ontario, they have to be at least 30% Ontario content, rising to 40% next year.
In BC Liquor stores, they make up over 80% of the average "BC" wine section.
OK, it's just politics and most BC winemakers can sell everything they make despite this fraud. But in Ontario,
it's leading to depression type foreclosures because the big three use
as much imported plonk as possible and buy as few Ontario grapes as possible.
Here's a sample story of one family facing foreclosure. If you live in Ontario you should be trying to help this family out
in any way possible.
From: Countryman
To: Jim Warren
Cc: Larry Paterson
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 4:44 PM
Subject: Help!!
Hello Jim. We want to let you know that FCC is having us Sherriffed out onto the road as of Monday morning,
October 19, 2009. They plan on seizing everything
that we cannot move this week including the wine, crops, furniture,etc even
though they legally only can take the house, barn and land.
We are going public with our plight and would like to ask you and Larry if you can post our
plight with OVA, the press and maybe even Facebook.
We are holding a press conference for 10:00a.m. on Thursday, October 15 at the farm and winery.
We are playing our last card for us and the industry as a whole to the people.
Any help or advise will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
The Countryman Family
_______________________________
Situated an hour north of Victoria, British Columbia, in the heart of the Cowichan Valley,
the eighteen acres of our home vineyards nestle in the southern corner of sixty acres
of meadow and forests. The property is part of an unusual climate area: a rain-shadow rain-forest.
Our whites here are Bacchus, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. Our reds are Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir and Mar�chal Foch. We grow our wines using natural methods to fertilize, plus no pesticides or herbicides. Our wine-making too, uses the most natural, non-interventionist methods possible.
We welcome visitors year round. Winery tours include a tasting, an explanation of the wine-making process and, when the season permits, sampling from the barrel.
In 2009, we are open from noon to five every day until at least the end of November.
We are harvesting through October and dealing with the new wines intensely during November.
In summer, We often host special events and we are well off the main roads (on purpose).
More details and directions here.
Demand for all our wines is very high and you will not find them in more
than a handful of selected restaurants and specialty stores.
To help meet demand, we have purchased another valley farm (on Mount Prevost) with
Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, a little Merlot and lots of Gew�rztraminer.
There will be a Gew�rztraminer and a Pinot Gris from that vineyard for 2010, a wonderful Pinot Noir for spring of 2012 and
a small but select lot of Merlot for the fall of 2012.
2009 COWICHAN WINE & CULINARY FESTIVAL has come and gone: a great success.
Many thanks to our extraordinary staff and our many suppliers. Once again, among the tapas,
the oysters Glenora were the first to go.
A Summary: The Wine Festival Lineup for
September 19th and 20th, 2009 was as follows:
