Lest we forget

On this day of remembrance, Lest We Forget.

Today I am going to highly suggest you to watch a newly released TVO documentary "Crush-Message in a Bottle". I watched it twice and my heart is broken for the farmers how the business has become so though.

For those of you who don't want to spend 78 minutes on this film, here is a short recap; It starts with an organic farming grape grower family Saunders. Even they have been farming their land for decades, they look struggling financially to make the ends meet. All of the family works personally in the farm year around but a cold winter or a rainy fall wipes out their grapes. They still insists on farming and keeping it organic which I highly respect and admire. 

There are also stories about Kelly Mason of Mason Vineyards how she single handedly does all the physical and mental job while working at three other wineries.

I always say to anybody who asks me "Is wine business is lucrative?"; this is the hardest business I have ever been to and has the lowest Return of Investment. Especially if you are just a grape grower in Canada, the chances of making a living solely on farm income is close to zero. If you are a grape grower and a small VQA winery, you will have a little bit more meat on the bone, but the work and capital requirement increases exponentially.    

I guess as a part of the Canadian Wineries, we are in a Perfect Storm situation now. We have been getting hits from everywhere. Here is a short list of challenges we have been facing;
- Pandemic 
- Increases in input costs ie. bottles, labels, corks, diesel, labour
- Unpredictable weather effects of climate change, heavy summer rains in Ontario, wild fires in BC, winter freeze in both

As a normal business in a healthy economy we should just increase our wine prices and pass it to the consumers. It is not so easy, in the last 12 months we have seen;
- Astronomical increase in interest rates having people less disposable income
- Canada's new guidelines on alcohol use suggests less wine consumption
- The miracle drug "Ozenpic" is making people eat and drink less
- High gas and hotel prices made people travel less
- Wine glut in the world making Canada the dump ground for unsold foreign wines (Thank you LCBO)

As Icellars we have not increased our wine prices (Our 2017 Arinna was $45 dollars in 2019 and it is still $45 in 2023).

So under all of these conditions, wine regions in Ontario and BC have seen less foot traffic and less sales. As Ontario wineries we have always admired our BC colleagues on how much they are getting local support for their wines. But now, you will not believe how many BC wineries are for sale or closing their doors for good. I believe the same is happening more silently here in Ontario.

We are all hoping to weather this Perfect Storm with your help. Please consider buying and drinking more Canadian wines if you want to have a Canadian wine industry in the future.

Best wishes.
Adnan Icel
Owner&Winemaker