Canadian wines

[winer]

Hey, all you moderators. What are chances of getting a category called "Canadian wines" added to the list of topics on the board? Canadian wines are doing great things in some international competitions these days, and it would give us an opportunity to blow our own horn a little bit! However, I have no idea what percentage of your posters to the board might be Canadian, but perhaps you do.

[Innkeeper]

Agree with you. Hopefully, it will happen faster than changing the Oz,Kiwi,SA threat to a Southern Hemisphere one.

[Thomas]

I think Canadian wines should be lumped in with East Coast (for Ontario) and Pacific Northwest (for the western part of the country). The reason: it is not easy to find Canadian wines outside of Canada, unless they are ice wines and you live in Japan.

I travel to Ontario at least once a year--it being only two hours from my Finger Lakes home--and I am convinced that each year the wines get better.

[winecollector]

The only time I've ever seen a Canadian wine is when my wife picked me up a bottle while vacationing up there. She brought me back a bottle of 1995 Hillebrand Chardonnay, which was excellent! Otherwise, they are just nowhere to be found around here.

[winer]

Sigh. I've heard this comment many times. Either there is just insufficient volume of our wines produced to allow them to be distributed to the US, or none of the importers in the US are interested. The answer is probably some of both.

I still like the idea of having a Canadian category (not lumping us in with the existing Washington/Oregon and East Coast geographical areas) because, dammit, we are very proud and nationalistic too, plus we LIKE to blow our own horn! If enough Canadian posters participate in the board, perhaps we can convince the Americans that they really ARE missing something by not having Canadian wines available to them, and they will then lobby to have more Canadian wines imported. The Canadian wine industry will benefit by getting a bit more exposure.

[Thomas]

Winer, we in New York have been trying to get the same kind of recognition and distribution--volume and promo savvy (lack thereof) holds us back.

[chittychattykathy]

As far as importing of BC wines, I believe it's more so because of the high costs to export and low production levels of many wines.
As far as a separate thread,
I know many, if not most of the BC wineries, several BC winemakers, and am involved in BC wine events (I will be moderating a tasting at the Victoria event in Feb.), yet I still think at this point that they can be within the Northwest or East threads. Even "Wine Press Northwest" mag. who reports on wines from all over the "Northwest", includes BC wines with the four NW states.
Someday it would be great to see, but for now it would get very little play.

[winoweenie]

Have never seen a Canadian wine on the shelf in any of the stores here. Think maybe Hi-Time had one once. Blow your horn loudly on the existing threads and maybe when your industry gets large enough to have distribution in most of the states the thread will follow. WW