{"id":16978,"date":"2013-11-21T07:26:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T12:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=16978"},"modified":"2013-11-22T11:05:51","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T16:05:51","slug":"canadian-wine-and-the-european-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/canadian-wine-and-the-european-trade-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Wine and the European Trade Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"canadian<\/a>How will the new European trade deal affect the Canadian wine industry? Here are some excerpts quoted from a recent story by Dianne Buckner, host of CBC’s Dragon Den. The story ran on CBC, Reuters and Canadian Business magazine.<\/p>\n

Unlike Canada\u2019s cheese-makers and fisheries who find themselves disadvantaged by the new deal, some in Canada\u2019s wine industry are thrilled by the prospect of new customers. Just\"cbc<\/a> ask the president of the Canadian Vintners Association. \u201cThe agreement opens preferential market access to the EU\u2019s more than 500 million consumers,\u201d says Dan Paszkowski. \u201cIt creates new opportunities for Canadian wine exports to Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian consumers won\u2019t see any fabulous new bargains on imported wine. The savings under the new deal will be insignificant \u2014 a few pennies per bottle. That\u2019s certainly not going to be enough to turn a wine aficionado\u2019s head, or lure them away from buying a domestic wine.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile on the other side of the deal, savings for Europeans who buy Canadian wine are bigger, but still not huge: a 45 cent price reduction on sparkling wine, 18 cents for still wine. Natalie MacLean sees huge potential for Canadian wine in Europe.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s the editor of Canada\u2019s most visited wine review site<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Growth opportunities<\/strong>\"CanadaFlagWineBottle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MacLean believes the beauty of wine is its diversity. \u201cWhat we offer is different from what Europeans have now,\u201d she says. \u201cWe specialize in cool climate wines and not just ice wine. Our riesling, pinot noir, sparkling wines, our shiraz and cabernet franc \u2014 those are really big specialties for us both in Niagara and the Okanagan. The Europeans will be open to our wines.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacLean looks back to the NAFTA agreement and what it did to spur Canadian vintners to up their game. \u201cWe ripped up a lot of bad vines,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was a higher drive to quality, and although our volume market share went down, we got a smaller piece of a much bigger pie. So our overall production went up, our quality went up, and the number of wineries skyrocketed, especially in BC and Niagara.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says CETA will benefit Canadian consumers also, since an open export market for fine Canadian wines will again be a driver for quality here at home.<\/p>\n

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Wine journalist\u00a0Natalie MacLean’s 10 top picks of Canadian wines ready to take on the world:<\/strong><\/p>\n