Another grape-growing and wine-producing season is on us in British Columbia and there is little to suggest the vast Okanagan Valley will be carved into a number of smaller, sensible sub-regions that relate to the origin of where grapes and wines are produced before the next harvest.

A small band of estate winery owners are indignant that the word Canada or the term Canadian appears on an enormous number of wine bottles sold in Canada that contain little or no Canadian-grown fruit. The renamed International Canadian Blended wines, or ICB (formerly CiC or Cellared in Canada) are a major irritant to flag-waving estate winery producers even if there seems to be little movement by the same producers to strengthen what really matters: the authenticity of place names and sites of the vineyards and wines they are making.

Let me dismiss ICB wines for what they are, a deceptive, money grab. ICB wines are not a threat to authentic Canadian wine, grown and fermented in Canada’s vineyards and that sell at double, if not three or four times the price of any ICB label. Usurping the word Canadian and using it on international blends is at least despicable, but read the federal legislation regarding made in Canada or produced in Canada, not to mention the French or Europe equivalents. In the end, the definition really has nothing to do with what our estate-based, artisanal wine producers are creating.

Depending on the province where it is assembled, international Canadian blended wines is a category of wine that is produced with varying quantities of bulk foreign wine and possibly some Canadian juice. In B.C., no Canadian content is required in ICB wine. B.C.-grown grapes are far too expensive to be dumped into cheap ICB wine, which is why it rarely happens.

In Ontario, as of April 1, wineries that existed prior to 1993 must use a minimum 25-per-cent Ontario wine in the blend. Ontario still has a provincial grape marketing board that protects plenty of inferior grapes that would never make it into any of Ontario’s top-flight wines. Hence the mandated 25 per cent keeps the protected growers happy and doesn’t really affect artisanal producers other than taking valuable vineyard space for inferior grapes.

ICB producers are currently seeking relief from the excise tax they pay on that portion of ICB blends that is Canadian. The big boys they are relentless. The trick is to separate yourself from the category, which brings me to the Okanagan. Estate producers need to be better organized and push hard for an authenticity mantra.

Since the start of the modern era of B.C. wine, we have been saying industry (and government) should be moving to map the country’s vineyards and creating legislation that clearly defines our wine-growing regions, sub-regions and vineyards.

The real strength of VQA has been in identifying 100 per cent B.C. wines for consumers, not guaranteeing quality. Why not revamp VQA to guarantee the origin of every wine produced in British Columbia and a few standard wine-making practices. Consumers will always decidee about quality but there’s no reason they should question the origin of any wine made in British Columbia.

We have towns and villages and vineyards. How hard is it to recognize the sites and the producers using them? We don’t need to be Burgundy, but if a Naramata producer makes a wine in Oliver, why can’t we recognize that on a label? If the wine is a blend of Naramata and Oliver fruit, an Okanagan Valley designation will do. The point is to be as specific as possible and verify each bottle religiously.