The Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce says it is pleased with the province’s measures to help wineries experiencing crop damage from the winter’s extreme cold event.
The province has exempted land-based wineries which experienced crop damage during the extreme cold from the 2024 minimum production requirements in order to maintain their licenses.
The chamber says the decision allows these wineries to continue selling past vintages without interruption.
When the extreme cold event occurred in January, wine industry experts had estimated the damage would result in a reduction of 97 to 99 per cent in grape and wine production.
In the following months, the provincial government visited local wineries and pledged $70 million on top of the current $15 million to help vineyards replace destroyed grape vines.
The federal government agreed to suspend the annual excise tax increase.
Winery owners and operators also expressed a positive outlook with a larger-than-average crop in 2022 that still had bottles for sale and the opportunity to look at new, more climate-resilient vines for replanting.
However, land-based wineries had not heard of changes that would be needed to maintain their licenses. Without a license, these wineries would not be permitted to sell any wine, even if it had been bottled earlier.
In late June, the Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce received a letter from Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, announcing that the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch will exempt the 4,500 litres production requirement for 2024.
There is also the option of applying for a one-year exemption to use 25 per cent of product from one’s own land in British Columbia if a land-based winery expects difficulty in meeting this requirement.
“This means that B.C’s 295 land-based wineries, many who call South Okanagan home, will be able to keep their tasting rooms open and continue selling their inventory produced from prior years’ harvests,” said Jordan Knox, president of the chamber.
In addition, the province is prioritizing work to explore additional supports for the grape shortage. This includes a review of the winery sales agreements with the Liquor Distribution Branch.
“When you don’t have any grapes to make wine from as will be the case for most land-based wineries, you need to have a stopgap measure in place, which means being able to source and use grapes from outside of the province,” said executive director Michael Magnusson.
In this case, the government is looking at land-based wineries being able to maintain their classification and associated benefits while entering into common ownership with a commercial winery, who are permitted to use non-B.C. grapes.
