A co-owner of Prince George's only winery has gone public with his frustration over the time it's taken to get the product onto the shelves of a local grocery store.
Even though buying a bottle of Northern Lights Estate wine at the Save On in Penticton is as easy as walking in, taking it off the shelf and ringing through at the cashier, it remains blocked from the Spruceland Mall location a year after it began stocking B.C. Vintners Quality Alliance wines.
Pat Bell is pointing his finger squarely at the B.C. Wine Institute, which licences the store and 20 others across the province, to sell VQA-designated wines.
"The poor Spruceland folks would love to have our wine," Bell said Monday. "They tell me the most common question they get asked is 'where is Northern Lights wine?'
"And oddly enough, we are in a Save On Foods in Penticton because that's a different type of licence. So in the heart of wine country where all the big grape wineries are, we're able to sell at Save On Foods but we're not allowed to sell it at the Save On in Spruceland, which is our neighbour and two-three kilometres from the winery."
BCWI chief executive officer Miles Prodan confirmed the terms of the licence for the Spruceland Save On bar the store from selling non-VQA wine. But he stressed whether the VQA designation could be expanded to include fruit-based wines is up to another body - the B.C. Wine Authority.
"When that has happened, they're more than welcome to sell their wine in a B.C. VQA wine store but until then, we just are safeguarding that certification because we've got that consumers' trust," Prodan said.
Wines made only from B.C.-grown grapes and that meet BCWA quality standards get the BC. VQA designation. The BCWI, in turn, holds the licences for selling VQA wines.
Prodan said the BCWI is "happy" to help fruit-base wine makers gain status through the BCWA, noting it has members who also grow fruit-based wines.
But Bell is questioning BCWI's willingness after Northern Lights' membership in the organization was rescinded because it does not produce grape-based wines.
"I believe it would be easier if we were able to do that in conjunction with the Wine Institute, I think it would make sense for us to be part of the Wine Institute and work collaboratively on that," Bell said.
"They've rejected that model and have said 'you go develop it on your own and we'll tell you whether it's good enough or not.' That's the sense, they haven't used those exact words, but that's the sense."
Prodan said membership in the BCWI was narrowed to grape wine to reduce confusion.
Bell has turned to social media to make the issue public.
"It's just having a public discourse or dialogue and I think it's happening a little bit with my posting on Facebook," he said.
