Even on vacation, Canadians are carefully reading the labels and choose to stay north of the 49th parallel this summer.
In a climate where the demand for local wine has increased, industry experts have noticed that consumers are in conflict when they find their favorite Okanagan vineyards that sell bottles full of grapes that were grown south of the border.
The BC wine industry was forced to take measures after a cold in January 2024 grapes froze throughout the Okanagan valley, which makes it a meager harvest.
Instead of trusting loans or a rescue, the BC wine industry asked the province to relax the long data rules about the importation and taxes of grapes and wine juice, and did.
“We had no grapes to make any wine,” said Séverine Pinte, the other executive and wine grower of Le Vieux Pin in Oliver, and the Stella in Osoyos.
Able to obtain fruits from the other side of the border, BC wine growers came in the south to work with US producers.
In his role as director of the British Columbia Wine Council, and as a producer, Pinte is working to educate the public on what the “created in BC” label means, even when the grapes are from other places.
Last year, a cold -instant -instantaneous devastating eliminated 95 percent of BC grapes, giving a great blow to the wine industry in the Okanagan region in particular. Now, despite the chill in relations between the United States, the BC wine industry has had to resort to the importation of American wineries, especially the state of Washington, to spend the season. Shiva Reddy, a sommelier and in the food and wine columnist, explores the reasons for optimism in the BC vineyards this year.
She said that, initially, customers often distrust the “Washington” seal in bottles that helped produce. However, she said that once they try the wine, “they are seduced and that’s all.”
Regardless of where the grapes originate, Pinte has noticed a marked increase in the visitors of the wineries throughout the region.
Most of the vineyards in the Okanagan faced a significant death in 2024 after a slight fall gave way to an extreme cold wave. After surviving several summers hindered by smoke, scorching heat and low yields, many BC headquarters decided to import and process grapes cultivated in the United States to stay afloat at a time just before the election of US President Donald Trump.
“They bought it last year. Last year was another world, another story. It was completely different … we want those vineyards to survive,” said Sophie Jacob, a Quebecois tourist who redirized and reprogrammed her journey through North America to stay inside Canada’s borders and spend more time in the Okanagan.
“They are doing good wines … It is good for the economy here in the Okanagan valley. So we have no problem with that.”
While Jacob has boycotted his trip to the United States and refrains from buying products made in the United States, he feels that wines created in BC using foreign grapes are still beneficial for the local economy.
Although many Canadians had already made the change to the Canadian manufacturing drink, in March, the BC Government formally suspended the importation of American alcohol.
The decision was in direct response to “growing threats” and tariffs imposed by us President Donald Trump, said BC Prime Minister David Eby.
Since then, American alcohol has become a rarity on the shelves of BC stores, such as those stored by Ethan Hrasko, manager of a BC liquor shop in Kelowna.
He said that while wineries are seeing an increase in visitors, there has been a general decrease in sales in BC liquor stores throughout the region.
However, he says that customers who come are making an effort to buy Canadian wines.
“It has been an increase [in demand for B.C. wines] Sure, “said Hrasko.
“But it has also been found with a lot of caution because some of the BC wineries replaced many of their white wine grapes with American brand grapes or grapes of American origin due to an frost that occurred in the Okanagan valley.”
He said that some customers have said they want to avoid all traces of American products, even if the grapes were pressured, fermented, aged and bottled in BC.
“There is much more label reading.”
Hrasko estimates that the demand for American wines has fallen by 27 percent, while BC wine sales have fallen only two or three percent since last year.
“[Customers] They are trying to make sure they are supporting the right businesses and seek to buy premises as much as they can. Some of the grapes are from the United States, but they have occurred and have become wine here. That has been a dispute and conversation point with some customers. “
