It’s no accident that the brand-conscious Chinese are eyeing investments in British Columbia’s wine industry: In less than 30 years, the sector has created some of the world’s most acclaimed wines by emphasizing quality over quantity.
With only 10,000 acres of vineyards, the industry is a tiny player in the global industry — Australia boasts single wineries with as many grape-bearing acres. (Ontario’s industry, Canada’s largest, has more than 15,000.)
Yet B.C.’s 240 grape wineries scoop up huge numbers of international awards; more than 2,100 in 2013 alone.
“We are recognized officially as having some of the top wines in the world,” said Miles Prodan, executive director of the Kelowna-based British Columbia Wine Institute.
Grant Stanley, chief winemaker and partner at 50th Parallel Estate, an up-and-coming winery specializing in Pinot noir and Pinot gris, said winemakers from all over the world are relocating to the Okanagan to take advantage of its ideal conditions for high-end wines.
“It is genuinely an awesome place to grow grapes,” said Mr. Stanley, a Vancouver native who honed his skills in New Zealand’s industry before returning to his home province. “There are fine soils, a fabulous dry climate and a perfect cool-climate viticulture scenario to make great wine year after year. A lot of people recognize that the region has huge value.”
The industry owes its startup to a hot-tempered Catholic missionary from Marseille, France. Father Charles Pandosy planted the first vines in the Okanagan in 1859 and is now the Okanagan’s patron saint. But a new beginning came in 1988, the result of Canada’s Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. Without provincial protection from American wines now pouring in across the border, B.C.’s industry was forced to compete, and improve. Most of its poorer-quality French hybrid and labrusca vines were ripped up, replaced with premium vinifera qualities.
Today the industry produces some of the world’s most recognized varietals. The most produced reds are Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Gamay noir; the most produced whites are Pinot gris, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, Pinot blanc and Viognier.
Pioneers like Harry McWatters raised the bar by launching the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), a trade association that developed national standards for quality wines.
But the focus on quality was also a consequence of B.C.’s limited land available that is suitable for grape growing. In the Okanagan, which produces 80% of B.C.’s wines, vineyards are located in close proximity to Lake Okanagan to take advantage of its moderating influence. Further away, they won’t survive winter or the dry, hot summers, Mr. Stanley said.
Already, vineyards have pushed out apple and cherry orchards, but that too has reached its limit. Competition with developers of recreational properties selling lakeside condos has pushed up land prices, making the business one where capital demands are intense.
Explains Mr. Prodan: “You have to acquire the land to begin with, and … you are starting off with some of the highest land prices in the wine industry in the world. [Then you] prepare the ground and plant the grapes, and it’s a huge endeavour. And then it takes three to five years before you get your first vintage-worth out of it.”
With traditional financial institutions shunning the business, the industry has had to be creative to find funds.
Chinese buyers represent the latest influx of investors, but Alberta oil money has been a major and steady contributor. Celebrities have also done their part —Vancouver-born actor Jason Priestley and Wayne Gretzky are among those with interests in the B.C. industry.
Still, the sector has become an economic force. Sales of B.C.-produced VQA wine are expected to exceed $220-million in 2014, up from only $6-million in 1992. Wineries contribute $2-billion to the provincial economy, employ some 10,000 people, and draw 800,000 visitors every year.
“The tourist impact is very significant,” said Mr. McWatters, a veteran who founded, among other wineries, B.C.’s first estate winery in 1980, and is planning to open a new state-of-the-art winery next spring. “People come to the Okanagan largely for wine.”
Guenther Lang played a big role in encouraging the startup of family wineries. Convinced that the Okanagan had winemaking potential similar to the lake region of Northern Italy, the German financier moved to the area to launch Lang Vineyards in 1990. Then he successfully lobbied the provincial government to allow wine farmers to sell directly to the public, obtaining the first of many farm-gate licenses.
“I was always optimistic for the wine industry,” said Mr. Lang, a former financial auditor for Mercedes Benz. “In the early time, I met a supplier from Bordeaux, France, and he came here to visit me, and he said: ‘You have such a great Indian summer. You must have great growing conditions.’ He confirmed what I knew.”
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