New British Columbia Wine Authority

[jamiemaw]

The following was announced today:

NEW BRITISH COLUMBIA WINE AUTHORITY TO FOCUS ON QUALITY

'VICTORIA - The administration of wine quality standards for the British Columbia wine and grape industry will become the responsibility of the newly formed British Columbia Wine Authority on Aug. 1, 2005, John van Dongen, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries announced today.

The authority will administer the new Wines of Marked Quality Program, established by the Wines of Marked Quality Regulation under the Agri-Food Choice and Quality Act.

"The regulation establishes the standards for premium wines and appoints the British Columbia Wine Authority as the administrator of the program," said van Dongen. "By adopting the regulation and establishing the new authority, B.C. is strongly positioned to participate in the finalization of national wine standards in collaboration with our industry and government partners across Canada."

The minister said the British Columbia Wine Institute, which currently administers B.C.'s wine standards certification program under the authority of the British Columbia Wine Act, is being repositioned to focus on marketing and promoting British Columbia wines. Its wine quality standards administrative functions are being transferred to the new authority. British Columbia VQA will continue to be used as a mark of quality for British Columbia wines.

The new regulation is aimed at providing truth in labelling to ensure consumer confidence in British Columbia wine, an independent governance structure to provide fair and transparent wine quality assessment and a program to set standards that will assure the premium quality reputation of the British Columbia wine and grape industry, encouraging continued growth and investment.

"The benefit of this is that it will meet industry demands for an independent and objective governance structure," said van Dongen. "This should result in the British Columbia wine and grape industries working together to promote British Columbia premium wines. The new regulation also supports the development of a national wine standards program."

"These strong new regulations will increase the competitiveness of our already growing B.C. wine and grape industry," said Bill Barisoff , MLA for Penticton-Okanagan Valley. "The grape and wine sector has come a long way in gaining an international reputation, and the new authority will enhance the international reputation of B.C.'s premium wines."

"The establishment of the New British Columbia Wine Authority has been in discussion since 2003. B.C.'s wine industry, including a four-member industry advisory panel representing the four vintner associations, has been consulted each step of the way," said van Dongen.

The industry advisory panel comprised of Bob Ferguson of the Association of BC Winegrowers, Gordon Fitzpatrick of the British Columbia Wine Institute, David Godfrey of the Wine Islands Vintners Association and Tony Stewart of the BC Estate Winery Association will continue to provide advice to the ministry in getting the new wine authority into operation and developing details of its governance policies.

"This is an extremely positive step for the British Columbia wine and grape industry," said Fitzpatrick. "It will allow B.C. growers and producers to expand their markets and assure consumers both here and abroad of our high standards and quality."

British Columbia now has 101 licensed wineries, and in 2003 B.C. wines generated more than $240 million in domestic sales. Exports passed $3.2 million last year with the top three export markets being the U.S., Japan and the European Union.'

[Keith Talent]

So, what does this mean? Is it going to become some sort of British Columbia AOC laws?

Without any further details, it raises some interesting points of speculation, ie. why do we need to assure consumers of quality, what practices will this board change to increase the quality?

It's like it's written in code, and if you had the decoder ring you'd see the secret message having something to do with chaptilization or imported juice.

[barolo]

I have to agree this release is not exactly enlightening.

Does it mean that the holdouts who would not join the VQA program will participate under the new model? That is what I divined from this comment: "The benefit of this is that it will meet industry demands for an independent and objective governance structure"

Anne