"Border Crossing"

My crusade against "cellared in Canada" continues, this time in the August 2008 issue of Canadian Living magazine:

"I've been an avid reader of your magazine for a couple of years now; my husband finally got me a subscription for Christmas last year, and I love getting my issue in the mail each month.

As a writer and sommelier student, I was pleased to see the introduction of your wine column. Kudos to Anne Martin for her down-to-earth, simple explanations about wine, making it less intimidating for non-wine drinkers to give new things a try. I did notice, however, a bit of misinformation in the June issue. The chart on page 160 lists Wild Horse Canyon under 'Homegrown Heroes', along with wines from the Okanagan and Niagara. This would lead one to believe that Wild Horse is a Canadian wine, when, in fact, it is a blend of grapes from both Canadian and U.S. wineries.

If you're saying 'homegrown' in the sense that it's North American, this works, but there may be confusion among consumers who are looking for a strictly Canadian product. The best of Canadian wine will bear the VQA symbol, signifying the use of grapes grown only in Canada's winemaking regions and crafted according to strict guidelines for quality assurance.

Thanks again for a great read.
Bethany Harpur

CL's food editor, Gabrielle Bright, responded with:
"Thanks for your comments. We struggled with this, too, and decided that since some of the grapes are grown in Canada and it is an interesting partnership, we would include it in our Homegrown Heroes column. However, you are right that we should have listed it as West Coast, B.C., Washington and California (or Canada and U.S.)."