Why I hate the label “Cellared in Canada” ..

Why I hate the label “Cellared in Canada” ..

I was at the LCBO the other day and perusing the Canadian Wine Section and got thoroughly perplexed almost all of the isles were labeled “cellared in Canada” which after some research seems it really means that that these wines can contain under certain circumstances a ratio as high as 99 per cent imported wine. Now to be clear the concept of blended wines is not new nor am I against it. Some of the wines are quite good, but the way it is positioned marketed labeled and the confusion it causes in the marketplace is what I am truly against .

What I find ridiculous is these wines sit right beside VQA wines or simply wines made purely with Ontario grapes with no distinction.
Why this being done ? .. well it allows some of the big vintners to produce and sell more varied and sometimes cheaper wines..
why the population isn’t screaming? .. well unless you dig you would not realize what was going on ..

In my opinion what this does is muddy the definition of Canadian wine and really takes us backwards. Further more the blending of the two (no pun intended) on the shelves leave the consumer really not knowing the difference between the two and unable to appreciate the quality Canadian wines that are available.

We really need to support the Canadian wine industry and it should not be hard now since the quality of Canadian wines is excellent..

LCBO

In Ontario the LCBO is our storefront for purchasing wine (yes there are other niche stores ala Magnotta) but LCBO is king however they have been slow to adopt modern technology which makes it harder for folks like us who love wine and would like to share that knowledge. I agree with the folks over at the Toronto Wine Scene blog I too would also find it useful to link reviews to the LCBO so my readers could just jump over .. maybe if we all complain we could make a difference 🙂 for Ontario wine drinkers.