Access to Ontario Restaurants Needed by Non-VQA Ontario Wineries

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD

FOR ONTARIO WINERIES

RELEASE # 4, August 2008

 

Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested or contact your choice of news provider.

 

UNFAIR ACCESS TO ONTARIO RESTAURANTS

 

Significant and increasing acreage of 100% Ontario grown wines are not Vintners Quality Alliance certified.  A VQA wine sold to a restaurant receives preferential financial treatment which results in a significantly higher return to the winery.    Non-VQA wines delivered to a restaurant by a winery are treated as a sale to the LCBO.  The difference in the two treatments can amount to more than a third of the total retail value – perhaps $340 on the sale of $1,000 to a restaurant.  This is money "earned" by LCBO even though they do not make the wine, make the sale, deliver the wine or pay any of the costs involved.  Small wineries making 100% Ontario non-VQA wine cannot afford this disadvantage. 

 

VQA in Ontario will not sanction any wine made from anything but grapes or any of the increasingly large acreages of hybrid vines that are now growing in many portions of southern and Central Ontario.  In British Columbia 100% BC grown wines sold directly to a restaurant – VQA or not – are taxed the same.  Are we really that far behind BC?

 

This is obviously discriminatory.  Consumers are asking small wineries why they cannot find their wines in local restaurants.  Ontario wineries need equal tax treatment.  OVA calls upon the Ontario government to allow all 100% Ontario wines and ciders to be sold to licensees under the same rules. 

 

The Ontario Viniculture Association welcomes all interested parties to join with us. 

	Ontario Viniculture Association
Jim Warren	http://littlefatwino.com/ova.html	Larry Paterson
President		Vice President
paradise@mountaincable.net		littlefatwino@trytel.net

 

OVA is an organization which has 45 Winery members as of this information release. 

A minimum of 80% of this membership voted in favour of providing this information.

 

Please communicate your thoughts by emailing any of the following:

 

Liberal Party – Dalton McGuinty dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Conservative Party – John Tory john.tory@pc.ola.org

New Democratic Party – Howard Hampton hhampton-co@ndp.on.ca

Green Party admin@gpo.ca

 

Chimo!  www.deantudor.com