Is the BC VQA wine standard in jeopardy?

SeeYaLater Ranch – a BC VQA wine

UPDATE: The state of BC VQA is now going to be the #BCWineChat Twitter town hall discussion on Wednesday, (Aug. 7th) beginning 8pm with this week’s host Paul Rickett. For an archive of past chats visit bcwinechat.com.

Are price-sensitive wine shoppers moving away from quality BC wines for more international choices? A story in this week’s Business in Vancouver by reporter Glen Korstrom suggests that’s happening. BC VQA was the brainchild of the pioneering Harry McWatters (Sumac Ridge, Vincorp and now McWatters Wine). What is BC VQA? Here’s how Wine BC describes it:

BC VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) is the appellation of origin and quality standard for the Wines of British Columbia. Established in 1990, BC VQA certified wines must meet specific standards with respect to origin, vintage and varietals. These wines are also tasted by a qualified panel for quality characteristics prior to being able to use the BC VQA designation. To put it simply, when you see BC VQA on a bottle, it is your guarantee that you’re sipping a wine that is 100% from British Columbia.

Many fine stores in BC are now established to sell “BC VQA only”. The selections are amazing and there is good value to be had. But according to Korstrom’s report, the market share of BC VQA is decreasing.

Part of the reason may be price.

The average price for the equivalent of a bottle of non-BCVQA wine sells for $7.20 before taxes. That’s less than half the average $15.40 pre-tax price for the equivalent of a bottle of BCVQA wine, according to the BCLDB numbers.

But another reason may be the fact that consumers see the BCVQA brand as irrelevant to their purchasing decision.

Okanagan Crush Pad principal Christine Coletta believes that the BCVQA brand was crucial 20 years ago when the nascent industry needed to prove that B.C. wine was high quality.

That message has sunk in, she said. As such, consumers now make purchase decisions more on the reputation of the winery and on market image.

The other reason BC VQA is being held back is its rules around packaging. Wine sold in boxes, for example, are not included, despite the high quality of the wines produced by OK Crush Pad and Summerhill shipped in boxes. Secondly, there is the wine on tap innovation, now popularized by the Vancouver Urban Winery.

Vancouver Urban Winery is rapidly growing its business repackaging mostly BCVQA wine in 19.5-litre stainless steel tanks and selling those tanks to restaurateurs who sell wine by the glass. Unused wine is then not exposed to oxygen.

All of that BCVQA wine is then recategorized as non-BCVQA wine because all BCVQA wine must be in bottles.

Read the whole BIV piece “Consumers increasingly choose non-BCVQA wine“, and decide for yourself.