Tasting the virtual wineries
By Jurgen Gothe
in the Georgia Straight
A lot of wine comes out of Oliver, but the major players take many forms.
These labels don’t have their own real estate, but people snap them up anyway
The post office building in Oliver, B.C.—“Canada’s wine capital”, according to the welcome sign on the outskirts of town—has to be one of the world’s major architectural marvels. Inside this unprepossessing structure, in the middle of town a couple blocks up from Highway 97, you can find at least 10 different wineries!
And yes, you can get inside them all—if you have the keys, which are your standard-issue postbox keys. Which are held by Sawmill Creek and Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery, Sola-Nero and Copper Moon, and a bunch more, which in turn are held by Vincor and Peller and “Artisan Wine Company” and “Roundpetal Wines”.
These are “virtual wineries”, and you see their many products in all the B.C. LDB stores, but not in any winery tasting rooms. It was on one of those midday talk shows where people phone in with questions—on plants, food, booze, traffic, whatever—where I was guesting that the call came: “I’ve been drinking some Okanagan wine called Sawmill Creek that I like quite a bit,” said Bob from Burnaby. “I’d like to visit the winery. Can you tell me where it is?”
Sure, Bob. You drive to Oliver, find the post office, hang around Box 1650, and see if someone drops by to pick up the mail. Follow their car to wherever. And another thing—it isn’t actually Okanagan wine. Well yes, strictly speaking it is ’cause it’s made (or “cellared”) there, but it isn’t Okanagan grapes. Well, maybe some of it is. But that’s another story that this corner of your paper has been railing against for years.
You see, Bob, this is the phenom known as the virtual winery. Lots of label, plenty of bottle, no winery. Or as they say in Texas, all hat, no cattle.
Virtual wineries are particular labels under which the major players in the B.C. wine biz engage in keen competition. Now, I have never understood why a successful winery, or group of wineries, would want to compete with itself for market share, but that’s why I’m not doing any Ponzi schemes this year.