New #CdnWine ice wine definition good for BC, good for Canada

February 14, 2014

Earlier this week the Canada Agricultural Products Act - Ice Wine Regulations were annexed to include some key language changes that will better protect the BC Wine Industry. The regulations will now define ice wine as “Only
wine that is made exclusively from grapes naturally frozen on the vine is
“icewine”, “ice wine” or “ice-wine”.

“This is an important distinction,” noted Okanagan Coquihalla MP Dan Albas “in some
jurisdictions short cuts are taken where grapes are moved from the vine and then frozen, in extreme cases could even be artificially frozen and then sold as ice-wine” added Albas “Not only do these practices compromise the quality of the ice-wine product they are also cost cutting measures that work against a level playing in an important market for the BC Wine Industry”

Albas also supports the new ice wine definition applies to products imported into Canada.
“Obviously we cannot control how other country’s produce or label wine products however any wine product imported into Canada will be prohibited from being sold as Ice-Wine unless it meets this definition” commented Albas.

“This is something we have been working on in Ottawa for some time and I am pleased that
these new regulations are coming into force” added Albas “Ice Wine is a very delicate and costly product to create and BC Ice Wine producers are some of the best in the world – these regulations will better support the work they are doing.”

The full text of the new Ice Wine Regulations can be found here:

http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2014/2014-02-12/html/sor-dors10-eng.php
 

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