[Growwine] Acreage necessary for on-site winery outside of DVA

[Ryan]

The 5 acre # seems to be a magic number elsewhere, too; Alberta's fruit
winery regulations, which seem upon first reading to be the most vintner
friendly in the country from a taxation and red tape point of view also
require you to have 5 acres of your own fruit planted before permitting
production.  They also have minimum volume requirements of several thousand
cases.

It's just the same stupid prohibitionist mentality this province has had in
some form for a hundred years, except it also fills the pockets of
politicians, C-levels at the LCBO, and their golf buddies at Constellation,
etc.. Did anybody catch the terrible journalism that surrounded the recent
bust of the Portugese illegal wine manufacture here in Toronto?  It was like
Toronto reverted to some Orangeman mentality from the 40s -- ... those crazy
Latin immigrants and their wine!  I can't find the Toronto Star article now,
but this happened about two months ago, they busted some poor suckers making
cheap wine (from important grapes unfortunately) and selling it illegally
under the counter at Portugese groceries in downtown Toronto.  The article
was full of cheap unresearched bullshit like comments about how the place
was "unsanitary" because vats for fermenting were uncovered (that's how you
make wines, you idiots), the grapes were covered in spider webs (so?), and
there was a "cat running free in the warehouse" (I would presume to kill
mice, so they don't join the spiders).

Rant rant rant,
Ryan

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:24 PM, Larry Paterson <littlefatwino1 at cogeco.ca>
wrote:

>  Garageists are illegal in Ontario (maybe a threat to LCBO record
> profits?)... speaking as President of the Amateur Winemakers of Canada I
> must oppose this government position.  There are probably 20 to 30 amateur
> winemakers in Canada who can make small quantities of superb wine, but
> cannot enter the market.
>
> If you were to open a restaurant in Ontario under current winery
> legislation you would be required to have five acres of grazing beef if you
> wanted to sell hamburgers.  There is some doubt as to whether you would need
> a further five acres of grain for the buns, or five acres of mustard seed if
> using mustard.  God help you if you wanted your customers to have relish or
> ketchup or onions...
>
> Larry Paterson,
> President,
> Amateur Winemakers of Canada
>
>
> http://www.littlefatwino.com/awc.html
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Paul Bulas <pabls at yahoo.com>
> *To:* growwine at littlefatwino.com
> *Sent:* Monday, June 23, 2008 12:15 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Growwine] Acreage necessary for on-site winery outside of
> DVA
>
>  Why would there even be a minimum?  Is 5 acres deemed to be the minimum
> acreage from which a profit can be made?  I would have thought that some
> fellow who even had an acre of fine terroir in some interesting nook along a
> tourist route should be able to start a garage winery, even if his output is
> tiny.  What gives?
>
>
>
> That rule sounds like economics-based thinking to me, not wine-based
> thinking.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Larry Paterson <littlefatwino1 at cogeco.ca>
> To: growwine at littlefatwino.com
> Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 11:55:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [Growwine] Acreage necessary for on-site winery outside of DVA
>
> Steven
>
> the minimum acreage is 5 acres, though I'm not sure of an actual vine or
> fruit count.  There is a very scary but excellent publication from Ontario
> Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs called something like Starting a Winery
> in Ontario.  It is about $40 or so, worth it for sure.
>
> Lardy
>
> Larry Paterson, lfw, rd, adcc
> (Little Fat Wino, Roving Drunk, Alcohol Distribution Channels Critic)
>
> http://www.littlefatwino.com/
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- *From:* steven kett <kett_doit at hotmail.com>
> *To:* GrowWine <growwine at littlefatwino.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, June 23, 2008 11:02 AM
> *Subject:* [Growwine] Acreage necessary for on-site winery outside of DVA
>
> I am wondering what the is acreage necessary for developing an on-site
> winery outside of a DVA in Ontario? And does that acreage consider the vines
> per acre ratio (of lets say 625 vines an acre) or the area that the planting
> covers..?
> Thanks Steve
>
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