Why I miss the Lieutenant Governor’s awards for excellence in B.C. wines
Happy BC Day, everyone! This day which takes place on the first Monday of August each year is during the height of summer in our province, and a time where everyone I know here tries to relax and celebrate this wonderful part of the world we live in.
Since 2003 in the weeks leading up to BC Day, a small entourage of global dignitaries accompanied by the province’s Lieutenant Governor (also referred to as “the LG”) were bussed around to several regions to meet with farmers and winery proprietors. The occasions were to award in-person one of twelve auspicious awards, known as Lieutenant-Governor’s Awards for Excellence in B.C. Wine, or colloquially referred to as the LG Awards.
On these buses were the consuls and even ambassadors of foreign states, and sometimes leading business figures, who would travel together to taste the award-winning wines of that year. It is hard to put a value on that kind of world-wide recognition for our agri-tourism sector, but needless to say it will have won over many who would not known British Columbia for its wines.
Having been personally involved in an occasion that involved the presence of the Queen’s representative, the Lt. Governor, I know that the protocol put in place can be a little daunting. It would be even more so if you are a small winery that produces just a few thousand cases. When Her or His Honour arrives, there are a number of handlers who make sure that all the protocol rituals are observed, right down to how the dignitaries are received by their host.
The feature photo accompanying the top of this post is one I took while leaving Wild Goose Vineyards and Winery on August 1, 2006. At the head of the line hidden behind a woman in a white blouse is the family patriarch, the late Adolf “Fritz” Kruger, followed by his son, winemaker Hagen Kruger, and further down the line is his brother Roland along with family members and winery staff.
I thought there was magic in the LG Awards, and in particular the Lt. Governor’s worldly entourage. I was proud to be invited to at least two of the award presentation ceremonies in the Okanagan. The first was when Kraze Legz Vineyard and Winery (also known as Skaha Vineyard) was awarded for its un-oaked Chardonnay. On the bus for that event was then U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman and his wife Vicki, whom I had the pleasure to speak with. I can still remember the beaming smiles on winery proprietors Sue and Gerry Thygesen.
The following day I attended the ceremony at Okanagan Crush Pad, where the local mayor and Member of Parliament Dan Albas were in attendance. It seemed that the entire Summerland community had come out to celebrate.
Regrettably, in my view, a decision was made near the end of the term of the previous Lt. Governor, Her Honour Judith Guichon, to discontinue the Lieutenant-Governor’s Awards for Excellence in B.C. Wine.
This might be confusing to readers because since 2018 there is now something called the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Wine Awards, which in April of that year was announced as a joint venture between the Okanagan Wine Festivals Society and Government House. The release described the new award as follows:
The British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Wine Awards will replace the Lieutenant-Governor’s Awards for Excellence in B.C. Wine and the B.C. Wine Awards. This new competition will be open to all licensed wineries in British Columbia, including fruit wines and mead. The competition will take place mid-September in Penticton, with 12 respected wine judges from across Canada and the United States spending three days judging an estimated 600 wines. Bronze, silver and gold medals will be awarded. The top 1% of medal winners will receive the Lieutenant-Governor’s platinum medal, with one wine receiving the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Best Wine in British Columbia.
Since the announcement of the new award, I have seen no evidence of any tour buses traveling to wineries, and quite a bit less news from Government House about our wine industry (this release announcing the 2018 judging is one of the last). The awards now take place in September in the Okanagan, as opposed to being announced at the end of June.
This is not to cast any aspersions on the new awards, which ably capture some of the very best our province has to offer. It is just that the LG Awards in its original inception was something completely unique. And more importantly, it helped a fledgling wine industry to become confident in itself.
When the winners of the 12 awards (there were just twelve each year, and no platinum, gold, silver or bronze), were announced in a news release from Government House, the entire BC wine sector would sit up and take notice. Which winery would break from obscurity to quickly selling out its production on LG Award winning wine?
The cost of running the awards was cited as a reason for the change. Traveling outside of the Okanagan might have made it a more pricey endeavor, but the awards ran for nearly 15 years and became a staple of our wine scene. The award was even copied by the Province of Ontario.
The origin of the LG award for excellence in BC wine
Wine writer Tim Pawsey can be counted on for some excellent story-telling when it comes to the history of BC wine. Tim’s discerning palette was put to use as an LG award judge through all its years, along with some other very esteemed wine critics. He wrote his own diplomatic take on the discontinuation of the LG award, which you can read here. He states:
There was no question in my mind that the original contest (started in 2003), truly, was a one of a kind. Few wine competitions anywhere were as challenging, for both entrants and judges. The odds of a wine being selected were somewhere around 40 to one. I would add that the spirit of generosity and consensus on the judging panels was also noteworthy. It proved to be a critical part of the competition’s success.
The Okanagan likely will always be the dominant wine region—by sheer numbers. However, as years go by, those other areas are emerging, with differing styles, varieties and merits. My hope is that the new organisers will firmly embrace the spirit of the original Lieutenant Governor’s Awards. That this is, indeed, a province wide quest for excellence.
As Tim says, it was important that the award helped us to discover great wines coming from the province’s emerging regions, such as Lillooet and Vancouver Island. Only one time in its history did a Vancouver Island wine (2014 Tempest Ortega by Enrico Winery) win an LG Award, but it was a monumental recognition that winemaking excellence was happening beyond the Okanagan.
Tim also provides a nice overview and a bit of history on the origin of the LG award in a 2017 post here.
The story as told to me at a reception following the installation of Her Honour Judith Guichon by Herb Leroy, former private secretary to Lt.-Gov. of the day Iona Campagnolo, was that the awards rose out of a respectful rivalry involving the LG and the then Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson and her vice-regal consort John Ralston Saul. The GG and Saul had dined with Campagnolo at Sooke Harbour House in Victoria, renowned for its BC cellar.
Allegedly Saul was so impressed with the BC wine that accompanied the dinner (a favourite of the Lt. Governor) that he had the restaurant contacted afterward and bought their entire stock. Whether this is exactly how things happened or not, it does make for good BC wine lore. Leroy would later be appointed as BC’s short-lived honorary wine envoy in 2013.
Just a little miffed at the prospect of no longer being able to pair this unnamed wine at the restaurant, Campagnolo mentioned what had happened to then Premier Gordon Campbell, who suggested to Her Honour that she use her office to establish a formal way to recognize excellence in BC wine. Thus the LG Award was borne!
So while I sit here in the Okanagan on our 16th consecutive year of wine travel in our province, I wanted to share this little lament for a very special recognition of our indigenous wine and grape culture that we have lost. I am as proud as ever of our province and of this industry which really only has existed in its present form for three decades.
To all of the wineries who won the LG award (often more than once) during its 14 years in existence, to you I raise a toast on BC Day!