Province suspends minimum production requirements for wineries

The Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce welcomed the province’s efforts to support wineries whose crops have been damaged by the extreme cold of the winter.

To allow onshore wineries whose crops were damaged during the extreme cold to retain their licenses, the province has exempted them from the minimum production requirements for 2024.

The Chamber justified this by stating that the decision would enable wineries to continue selling their wines from previous vintages without interruption.

When extreme cold snaps hit in January, wine experts estimated that the damage would cause grape and wine production to decline by 97 to 99 percent.

In the months that followed, the provincial government visited local wineries and promised to provide an additional $70 million, in addition to the $15 million already available, to help the vineyards replace the destroyed vines.

The federal government has agreed to suspend the annual increase in consumption tax.

Winery owners and operators also expressed optimism, as the 2022 harvest will be above average, there are still bottles for sale and there is the possibility of considering new, more climate-resilient vines for replanting.

However, land-based wineries had not heard about the changes needed to maintain their licenses. Without a license, these wineries would not be allowed to sell wine, even if it had been bottled previously.

In late June, the Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce received a letter from Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Attorney General, announcing that the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch would exempt the 4,500-litre production target for 2024.

In addition, if a land-based winery anticipates difficulty meeting this requirement, it is possible to apply for a one-year exemption to use 25 percent of its own land-based product in British Columbia.

“This means that British Columbia’s 295 onshore wineries, many of which are based in the South Okanagan, can keep their tasting rooms open and continue to sell their inventory from previous years’ harvests,” said Jordan Knox, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, the province is placing great importance on finding additional assistance to combat the grape shortage. This includes a review of the wineries’ sales contracts with the Liquor Distribution Branch.

“When you don’t have grapes to make wine from, as is the case with most land-based wineries, you have to have a fallback solution, which is to be able to source and use grapes from outside the province,” said general manager Michael Magnusson.

In this case, the Government is considering whether onshore wineries can retain their classification and the benefits that come with it, while entering into joint ownership with a commercial winery permitted to use non-British grapes.