What is VQA?

The Vintners Quality Alliance is a contract between the vintners of Ontario and the consumer. The VQA medallion is a commitment to quality and a guarantee that the wine expresses the highest aspirations of the vintner's art.

VQA is to Canada what AOC is to France, DOC is to Italy and QMP is to Germany: quality control from the vineyard to the glass.

Every wine-growing country has a body of regulations which sets standards for its finest products. Based on generations of trial and error, these laws delimit the geographic areas where the grapes can be grown and how the wine must he made.

Experience has shown that certain vineyard areas, because of their favored soils, exposure and microclimate, produce the best wines year after year. By designating the appellations of origin on the label, vintners offer wine lovers a guide to their superior products.

Noble wines do not happen by accident. They are the happy result of the finest grapes being planted in the right soils, ripened in a conducive climate, then selected and vinted with care. Only high quality grapes make great wine, so Ontario's VQA regulations stipulate which varieties can he used for products that bear the Vintners Quality Alliance medallion.

Objectives of the VQA
The VQA not only sets the regulations for Ontario's quality wines, it also ensures that the wines live up to these standards. Before products can be marketed under the VQA medallion they must be tested and passed by a grading panel.

The Alliance also issues vintage reports on the Designated Viticultural Areas and disseminates information concerning Ontario's quality wines on an on-going basis.

The VQA regulations
In Ontario, a distinction is made between two levels of superior quality. Each has its own set of guidelines:
* Provincial Designation -- wines grown in the province from an approved list of Vitis vinifera grapes or vinifera hybrids.

* Geographic Designation - a more demanding appellation based on Designated Viticultural Areas, (DVAs). This appellation identifies and isolates three specific growing areas within Ontario. Only the classic European grape varieties can be used in order to merit the DVA identification.

Ontario provincial designation
Wines that conform to the Provincial designation regulations can, under VQAs charter, use the term "Ontario" on their labels.

To be eligible, such wines must meet the following basic standards:
* They must be made from only approved grapes (the classic European varieties and preferred hybrids).
* If labelled as a varietal they must contain at least 85 per cent of the variety named and must exhibit that variety's predominant character.
* 100 per cent Ontario-grown grapes must be used whether the wine is a varietal or a blend.
* All grape varieties must reach a minimum sugar level expressed in degrees Brix (brix is a measurement of natural sugar in the grape at the time of picking).

These minimum standards are comparable to, and in many cases superior to, those set by other wine governing agencies around the world.

Geographic designation
For this superior designation, the Vintners Quality Alliance recognizes within Ontario three Designated Viticultural Areas which have traditionally produced the finest and most distinctive wines:
* Niagara Peninsula
* Pelee Island
* Lake Erie North Shore

A more stringent code of regulations governs the right of vintners to use these highly specific Geographic Designations on their labels:
* A minimum of 85 per cent of the grapes must come from the viticultural area named on the label. Only Vitis vinifera, the classic European grape varieties, such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling and Pinot Noir, can be used.
* For varietals, 85 per cent of the wine must be made from the variety named on the label and must exhibit the predominant character of that variety.
* The wine must be produced from l00 percent Ontario-grown grapes.
* If a vintner wishes to designate the vineyard from which the wine was made, the site must be within a recognized viticultural area and l 00 per cent of the grapes must come from that vineyard.
* Wines described as Estate Bottled must be made entirely from vines owned or controlled by the winery in a viticultural area and must not leave the winery prior to bottling.
* Minimum sugar levels have been set for vineyard designated and Estate Bottled wines, as well as dessert and Icewine.

Wines are evaluated by a panel of experts in light of the stringent VQA quality parameters. Only those wines which meet or exceed the production and appellation standards are awarded VQA status and entitled to display the VQA medallion.

International Acclaim

"The single most important factor in the advance in quality of Ontario wines has been the introduction of the VQA. This appellation system and the minimum standards it set in place brought Ontario into the twentieth century and set the course for global recognition."

-Tony Aspler, author of Vintage Canada

There are many ways to measure critical acclaim and certainly, when it comes to the products of Ontario's vineyards, the praise of the wine press is an excellent barometer. So too is rapidly escalating consumer demand. The most palpable symbols of high achievement, however, are the medals, scrolls, commendations and other decorations that have been lavished on Ontario wines since the introduction of the Vintners Quality Alliance in 1989. At competitions at home and around the world, their sheer number and diversity arc testaments to the fact that Ontario has been recognized and accepted as a producer of fine wines.

It was Icewine that first 'broke the ice' of international acceptance for Ontario wines, a phenomenon that has led the province to become the world's largest and most consistent producer of this winter nectar. But it is not only sweet wines that have caught the attention of tasting panels abroad; Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Gew¸rztraminer in whites and Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Gamay in reds have all brought home the medals.

.Some of the recent highlights for Ontario VQA wines have been:
* The International Wine & Spirit Competition 1995 (Surrey, England) -- The Pichon-Longueville Lalande Trophy for the Best Blended Red Wine of the Show, plus six gold medals;
* International Wine Challenge 1995 (London, England one gold medal; Vinexpo 199S (Bordeaux, France) -- six gold medals;
* InterVin 1995 (Canada/U.S.) -- sixteen gold medals;
* Vinitaly (Verona, Italy) - two Grand gold medals and one gold medal; Sélections mondiales 1996 (Montreal, Canada) -- one gold medal;
* Beverage Testing Institute 1995 (Chicago, U.S.) -- one platinum medal and seven gold medals.

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