The Ontario government has made a move to protect domestic wine in Ontario. In an attempt to promote %100 Ontario wine the province is clearing up signage on wine to ensure consumers know what they are buying. Under the current system wine consisting of grapes from Ontario, US, Chile and Argentina are considered Ontario vintages as long as the Ontario grape content is %30. Under the new system, these wines would be labelled "cellared in Ontario" and have a mandatory Ontario grape content of at least %40. Furthermore, the Ontario government has ensured that %100 Ontario wines, produced by VQA members, will receive additional investment by allocating increased levies on blends towards the VQA distilleries. This move is to be accompanied with VQA shelving preferance in all LCBOs province wide.
Call it what you will but this seems to be an act of protectionism to me. Ontario is acting in a way to better business for Ontario wineries and Ontario grape farmers. Despite the obvious benefits for Ontario, one must consider the potential backlash that may come from this. For instance, does this new policy go against free trade? Well there is a definite increase and preferential treatment being given towards Ontario grape production and this will inevitably take away from US production. I like the idea of Ontario promotion but the last thing I want to see is a large scale US court filing that would see Ontario pay lost revenue damages to the US. Hopefully Minister McMeekin has done his legal homework or else this could get interesting.
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This certainly is not protectionism. This is merely honest labelling. An Ontario wine is wine made with Ontario grapes, it is illogical to have Ontario made with very little Ontario grapes. Let us call a spade a spade. People look highly on Ontario wines, and it would be scandalous to allow foreign grapes in to Ontario wine.
ReplyDeleteFurther, the government is not disallowing American grapes, it is merely disallowing the sad mixture of American grapes in Ontario wines.
Good move by the Ontario LIBERAL government!