After a summer hiatus The News returns to update you on the stunning August climate threats in the Okanagan and Niagara, and the legalization of Direct to Consumer interprovincial wine shipping. It also explains some changes at Canada’s Best Wines, including a decision to publish point scores, and the introduction of a new Just Tasted section. There is also a calendar of CBW tours and tastings this fall.
Fire and Rain: August in The Okanagan and Niagara
Both major wine-producing regions in Canada endured startling and troubling climatic events this summer. In The Okanagan it was nasty, voracious wildfires near Vernon and Summerland, fed by drought conditions, that started at the end of July and heightened through August. At the same time Niagara was hit with biblical rains in two almost back-to-back events in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake. The only consolation is that both events happened in mid-summer, before veraison, and there were few stories of direct, severe vineyard and crop impacts, so far. The industry awaits September and the harvest with breath deeply drawn.
The B.C wildfires were severe in the upper Fraser River communities of Clinton and Lytton from mid-July, with Lilloet and its small vineyard area on the Fraser on alert but not directly threatened. Things got dangerous in the north Okanagan on July 31 when the Bradley Creek fire sparked west of Vernon, grew rapidly next day, wiping out over 200 homes and forcing evacuation of 5000 people on the west side of Okanagan Lake. There are few vineyards in the immediate vicinity, and the much larger acreage on the east side of the lake (Parallel 50, O’Rourke/Peak Cellars) was not directly affected.
Farther south the Bald Range Fire started on Friday, August 7 about 15 kilometres northwest of Summerland, and swept eastward toward the Lake at a furious pace. By Monday, August 10, the fire had spread to 15,600 hectares (156 km2) burning dozens of homes and structures and causing the evacuation of over 20,000 people in Summerland. The town itself and vineyards to the south and east were spared.
The vineyards north of Summerland suffered the most damage, especially in the Garnet Valley, one of my favourite, bucolic little valleys in B.C. – with meadows, stables, orchards and vineyards – the latter owned by Haywire & Solvero. Solvero has reported that about five percent of its hillside vineyard (shown here) was burned, but that the winery and its tanks of wine were left intact. The 320-acre Haywire Vineyard property in Garnet Valley was in the direct path but fared fairly well also, according to co-owner Chris Coletta.
For those not living in fire zones its instructive to hear how exposed properties like Haywire can prepare. “Land management and fire mitigation strategies included a large pond for helicopter water bucketing at the centre of the property, fire hydrants on the perimeter, an eight-acre wetland reserve, irrigated green spaces, clear areas around buildings and rooftop sprinkler systems, appear to have significantly limited the overall impact.
“Most importantly, the actively farmed vineyard blocks remain intact, as does much of the property’s essential farming infrastructure and equipment. Evidence of the fire can be seen in the vineyard, particularly in the dry grass between rows, but these areas are expected to recover quickly with irrigation or rainfall.”
The potentially more severe impact on this year’s harvest could be smoke taint in the grapes up and down the Valley, with smoke lingering on and off throughout August, even past veraison as the grapes turn colour, ripen and soften. The extent won’t be known until later in the fall after fermentations, but what is known is that summer tourism in the Valley has been way down, creating yet another layer of anxiety for the beleaguered B.C. industry.
In Niagara a major, but localized storm on July 27/28 dropped an incredible 140 mm to 160 mm of rain in parts of Niagara-on-the-Lake and St. Catharines, overwhelming local sewer systems, flooding basements, and turning vineyards into lakes – hitting lower lying areas close to Lake Ontario the hardest. Then boom, another storm August 2 poured another 100+ mm of rain onto the drenched landscape, worsening the saturation, causing power outages and creating sinkholes. One Instagram video showed a man waterskiing in a roadside ditch at the edge of a flooded vineyard, being pulled by a pick-up.
Again, this happened before veraison while berries were green and hard, but there may some longer-term consequences that don’t show up in the wine itself.
One is soil saturation and root stress wherein prolonged waterlogging starves roots of oxygen, threatening vine health and stunting younger plants. Muddy, flooded fields made it difficult or impossible for growers to drive tractors and heavy machinery between the rows, delaying vineyard management tasks during a critical period of summer growth. One of which was spraying for increased humidity borne disease pressure from downy mildew and other fungi. As well as removing leaves from the fruiting zone to increase air and sun penetration.
Again, because the extreme weather struck in mid-summer while grapes were still green, the 2026 vintage is likely spared from ruin, but the size of the crop and when it is actually ready for picking could still be impacted, with any poor weather delay increasing the risk of cooler, wetter conditions later in the fall. It is now wait and see, and fingers crossed for the kind of utterly dry and warm September that Niagara experienced after the soggy summer of 2023.
Direct to Consumer Wine Shipping – Just Do It
On July 21 premiers of nine provinces signed an agreement to implement Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) sales of alcoholic beverages between their jurisdictions. This agreement built on the commitment in the June 2025 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on DTC Sales of Alcoholic Beverages. The next day Quebec signalled its intent pending creation of the legislation as well.
Lawrason’s Guide to Canada’s Best Wines is predicated on the ability of Canadian consumers to purchase wines direct from Canadian wineries. So, I am naturally delighted that the provinces have finally legalized the practice – not just for Canadian wine but for all alcohol produced in Canada. However the implementation by the provinces is still underway as they set up their mechanisms. But why wait for them? Just do it!
What still needs to be done? Well, a media release on July 22 from Wines of B.C. Executive Director Jeff Guignard provides the strongest clue.
“Participating provinces must still determine how they will implement the agreement and may adopt separate registration, authorization, reporting, and remittance requirements. The agreement also allows provinces to impose liquor board markups, fees, and other charges on direct shipments.
“A national framework is not the same as a national market,” said Guignard. “The real measure of success will be whether governments use this agreement to remove barriers, or simply replace existing barriers with new fees, markups, and bureaucracy.”
Amen, to that!
To be clear, the provinces still do have the ability to rig the financials to their liking. Section 6.1 of the Agreement states “Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent a Party from adopting or maintaining a measure that applies a charge to the DTC Sale of Beverage Alcohol, including: 1) Fees, 2) Commercial, Environmental, and Social Charges, 3) Mark-ups; and 4) Taxes, including sales taxes and consumption taxes.
And to clarify another point, this agreement is only about shipping direct from the point of production (the winery, brewery or distillery) direct to individual consumers. There cannot be a third-party intermediary, nor can wines be shipped to retailers, restaurants or bars in other provinces.
We Are Now Publishing Scores & The Illusion of 100 Point Perfection
Subscribers to Canada’s Best Wines know that I founded this website based on the idea that I would not publish the point scores on the 100-point scale, even though I still score the wines in the background. I adopted 91 points as my baseline for inclusion on the website, then applied a five-star value rating based on score and price. I did it because I have never really liked point scores, and still don’t, for reasons explained below.
However, many readers do like them. I asked in a quick survey if they wanted my point scores on each wine. Two-to-one they said yes, with most also wanting/liking the value ratings. So, I will publish both in reviews going forward, while still maintaining 91 points as my baseline for inclusion in Canada’s Best Wines (maybe the odd 90 if the price is really good).
So, what you will see is a narrow range of scores between 91 and 97 (which still seems almost meaninglessly narrow to me). Rarely do I go above 97, for any wines from anywhere. I am leaving some headroom because I just know there are some incredible wines out there in the world, and perhaps in Canada, that get close to perfection.
But I can just never score 100 points objectively, which is to say it is a perfect wine and nothing can ever be better. I could score several wines 100 I guess, as I come across them, but then the whole exercise becomes cheapened somehow, and 98 or 99 begins to seem like a disappointment, especially to the winery that missed perfection by a point. You begin to see how silly this becomes.
The other problem I have with 100 Point wines is that the notoriety can be seen to be just as important to the reviewer as the wine. You may have noticed that certain critics continue to show up on bottle stickers and in publications because they score wines high, sometimes absurdly high. The overall trend creates score-flation. And yes, I know that by publishing scores I too will benefit from having the scores used by wineries and retailers. But at least everyone knows my baseline is 91.
Two Canadian wines have scored 100 points, one by John Schreiner in B.C. a couple of years ago, and one just this summer by Tony Aspler in Ontario. You can look them up on AI in an instant. In this case I know both gentlemen as senior, very experienced and conscientious men. So, I expect the wines will be outstanding. But perfect? If and when I taste them I will let you know, but don’t expect 100.
In the final analysis, consumers must come to trust the reviewer and not the score. And this gets to the reason why I have decided to publish my scores. As reader Norman Smyth put it very simply “your scores give fidelity to what you really think of a wine”. I want to be transparent and trusted above all.
New “Just Tasted” Reviews Coming Soon
As well as publishing scores this month, Canada’s Best Wines is also introducing Just Tasted reviews to the home page, that will also be behind the pay wall. All readers will see the wine(s), but only subscribers will see the score, value rating, tasting note and backgrounder.
I am doing this primarily to bring more flexibility to which wines get reviewed. Broad themes are, I hope, very informative and thorough, but they crowd out other wines that don’t fit the themes, perhaps without exposure when they are available.
“Just tasted”, will happen at least three times a week. It could be one wine, maybe two or three, per posting. The review date will be listed and maintained for scrolling for two weeks, with the review then joing others on the site, searchable database.
Canada’s Best Wines Tastings & Tours
When I launched Canada’s Best Wines I let it be known that I would be hosting wine tasting events and tours across Canada as things got rolling. Well, we are rolling.
Tours – Our first wine country tour landed in Niagara August 23 & 24, when the Glitter Girls from Saskatoon (with matching wine tasting Adidas) jetted in for an Ed Sheeran concert then two-days on a personally hosted tour of six wineries that have been featured in Canada’s Best Wines. I put notebook away and narrated the festivities as we did spectacular tastings at Two Sisters, Stratus and Stone Eagle in Niagara-on-the-Lake, then moved next day to the Niagara Escarpment to visit Dobbin Estates, Cave Spring Vineyard and Mason Vineyard. Cellar doors were flung open and best wines were poured.
Coming up September 27, I will also be teeing off a one-day tour of Niagara Escarpment wineries – Domaine Le Clos Jordanne, lunch at Redstone/Tawse and Leaning Post – for the Oakville Golf Course Wine Society. It is only being actively promoted to Oakville WS members but I am sure that interested parties in the area might be considered. I do three or four tastings a year for this group. Please be in touch with me at david@canadasbestwines.ca
Tastings – On September 17 I will be in Ottawa to present a dozen terrific Canadas Best Wines selections to the National Capital Sommelier Guild. The wines from Niagara, Prince Edward County and the Okanagan Valley are all are among my favourites from postings this spring and summer. The NCSG is one of Canada’s most enduring tasting groups, and I must thank Director Bill Ellis for so generously supporting this event. And by the way, I will also be attending with CBW contributor Janet Dorozynski. Again, please let me know if you are interested.
On November 7 the annual Judgment of Kingston tasting will look at Pinot Gris from Prince Edward County. The region is of course well known for its pinot noirs and chardonnays, which have historically been blind tasted against global contenders. But the County is growing into its own skin and no longer needs to be compared. I will be attending, and available to lead a Prince Edward County tour the day or two before or after.
And from November 9 to 18 I plan to be in the Okanagan Valley. Please be in touch if a small, private Canada’ Best Wines tour or tasting is of interest.