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we’ll get back to that). Some winemakers will claim tell their side of the story were ignored. (To be fair,
that this forces them to conform to some arbitrary this isn’t the only winery that refused to answer my
“standard” that determines what the “predominant VQA-related questions, even with the promise of
character” of a specific grape variety actually is. The anonymity. In fact, not one of the over half-dozen
“T word” - typicity - is often bandied about, along wineries I approached chose to answer any of the
with the notion that striving for typicity limits inno- question I asked.)
vation.
“It is important to note that ‘typicity’ is not men-
In fact, Niagara’s Pearl Morissette winery’s web- tioned anywhere in the VQA regulations or proce-
site contains this statement: dural documents,” Macdonald points out. “We do
not prescribe any typical presentations of varietals
“We’ve all been blackballed. Some more than oth- for Ontario and aim to recruit tasters with glob-
ers. But whether it was not getting selected on the al exposure to a wide range of styles. Innovation
school soccer pitch or having the VQA repeatedly is welcome as it should be for a relatively young
pass over your Niagara Riesling on the basis that it region. For example, we have seen oak-aged
“lacked typicity”, getting blackballed has not always Rieslings which are certainly not typical but have
been a positive experience.” been approved based on soundness. We do how-
ever confirm certain category requirements during
The winery chose to celebrate this uniqueness the sensory testing, for example, sparkling wines
with its Black Ball Wine Society, but you still must be carbonated, Icewines must be sweet. In
can’t help but suspect there are some hard feel- my opinion this discussion is really about what is or
ings behind the repeated rejection of its Riesling. is not perceived as an unacceptable flaw. Problems
Requests I made to have those at Pearl Morissette typically arise when the “style” is characterized by

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