quicksearch
This month, the GOW tasting team offers an early look at some of the replacement, or Crafted in British Columbia wines, made in response to the 2024 deep freeze that swept through most interior wine regions.
The freeze left many vineyards struggling to produce fruit and, in some cases, losing many old and young vines.
Fortunately, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island escaped the worst freeze and have been operating at full capacity, offering a steady supply of locally grown wines. A handful of interior wineries, with deeper inventories or access to a broad selection of vineyards, have decided to work with what they have, pointing to a high-quality and plentiful 2022 that will see them through the crisis.
The replacement wines have spawned collaborations with Washington, Oregon, California, and Ontario, and in a few cases, wineries have gone further afield, such as New Zealand. We suspect South America and Europe will join the party before it ends. The goal was to create enough wine to keep the winery doors open this summer for tourists and locals alike and, perhaps more importantly, retain the staff and prevent the brain drain of our biggest and brightest winery personnel.
The wines are legally categorized as "Made in Canada with Imported Ingredients." If that sounds a bit harsh, it is, but that's all we have for the moment. Given the climate chaos that plagues the planet and will undoubtedly continue, it might be helpful to draft some pro-active legislation that thoroughly describes the origin of the wine and even where and how it was processed, so everyone could plan to be ready to react with a set of guidelines in place to use if necessary. The British Columbia Wine Authority has no jurisdiction over these wines because they are not 100% B.C. Still, we would be happy if they got involved because, in the end, they are being sold in B.C. by B.C. wineries, and as we have seen, there is no rhyme or reason to the content of labelling regarding the source of the juice/grapes and where the wine was made.
Few, if any, labels look deceptive, but the information is in a jumble of positions on the front and back labels of these wines, and consumers deserve better.
Here are some early reviews for the white wines and rosés crossing our tasting bench. We will expand the list next month with additonal reviews.
