Consumers are reacting with anger and confusion over revelations that imported bulk wine is being labeled and sold as B.C. wine.
“Customers want the real thing. They don’t want a faux B.C. wine,” said John Clerides, owner of the private wine store Marquis Wine Cellars over the growing consumer reaction against wines being sold in B.C. liquor stores with the “Cellared in Canada” designation.
He said his store receives four or five queries a day from customers in response to growing media attention being focussed on the practices of the Canadian wine industry. Clerides sells one of the wines but tells customers to put on their glasses and read the label before buying it.
“Cellared in Canada” appears in fine print on the back label of some of the wines sold by the big three Canadian winemakers, Vincor International, owner of the Jackson-Triggs label, Andrew Peller Ltd., owner of Peller Estates and the Mark Anthony Group, owner of the Artisan Wine Group and its Sonora Ranch and Painted Turtle brands.
Other wines, often with similar labels but at a higher price, are genuine B.C. wines. All three winery businesses buy bulk wine from cheap sources outside Canada, bottle it here and sell it in the B.C. Wines section of government liquor stores.
Some private stores sell the wines as well; others refuse to touch them.
“I would say customers are dumbfounded. I think there’s a sense that they have been lied to,” said Matthew Sherlock, manager of Kitsilano Wine Cellars. Sherlock does not stock the wines in his store.
see the full story in the Vancouver Sun September 23/09