The B.C. government on July 10 announced that winemakers in B.C.'s Cowichan Valley may put that specific region on the front label of their wine bottles to show customers where the grapes for their wines were grown. Wines that carry the new sub-appellation also have to go through a process to prove that their wines are indeed made with grapes grown in the area, and that those grapes represent at least 95% of those used to make the wine.
This is the fifth wine sub-appellation, or sub-geographic indicator, that the government has approved, and it is the first one that is outside of the Okanagan Valley. The others are: , , and .
Like the other four sub-appellations, winemakers in the Cowichan Valley must also put the full 麻豆传媒映画Island appellation, or the larger geographic indicator, on wine bottle labels. Those in the other sub-appellations similarly must put Okanagan Valley on their wine bottle labels.
Bailey Williamson, Blue Grouse Estate Winery's winemaker, was one of those who led the initiative, and that winery's owner, Paul Brunner, said the new designation "recognizes our unique terroir and solidifies 麻豆传媒映画Island's position as an up-and-coming wine destination."
The Cowichan Valley is roughly defined as being the area between the Cowichan watershed, the eastern coastline from Mill Bay to Maple Bay, and the western area of Cowichan Lake.
B.C. has long had nine wine regions that have wineries that may make wine that could be certified under the BC Vintners Quality Alliance program.
They are: Okanagan Valley, Similkameen Valley, Fraser Valley, 麻豆传媒映画Island, Gulf Islands, the Kootenay, Thompson/Shuswap, Lillooet and Prince George.
Wineries in those regions that qualify for the BC VQA certification must put those regions on wine bottle labels.
The drive to enable winery owners to put more specific geographic areas on their wine labels has been going on since before 2015, when the as the province's first such sub-appellation.
The movement then picked up steam in July, 2018, when the B.C. government as the province鈥檚 second sub-appellation.
The recent drives to create sub-appellations also follow the 2015 founding of the B.C. Wine Appellation Task Group, which , in a way that would resemble a cracked mirror.
The industry also showed overwhelming support for the idea of creating sub-appellations in a provincial plebiscite that the British Columbia Wine Authority held in 2016.
鈥淚 wanted it all to happen at once,鈥� task group chairman and Summerhill Pyramid Winery principal Ezra Cipes .
In the end, however, the project proved too ambitious for the task group, and it was left to deeper-pocketed groups of winery owners to spend the necessary time on reports, lobbying and consultation to get their carefully drawn sub-regions designated.
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