2019 "Accustomed to the Dark" Gamay Noir from Ursa Major Winery.

By Frank Luca

On Tuesday afternoon news broke that Alberta’s government would be boycotting B.C. wine. Within hours activists in Quebec, four provinces and half a country away, had lit the bat signal. Email lists and Facebook groups spun up, as members of the province’s powerful anti-pipeline movement sprang into action.

Last year the Energy East pipeline proposal was withdrawn, marking a big victory for the coalition of Quebec community groups that had been fighting it. But for these activists, the fight isn’t just about preventing spills in their backyard, it’s about fighting climate change.

That’s why when Energy East went down, they promised their allies in B.C. they would keep fighting to block Kinder Morgan as well. But, of course, that’s hard to do from half a country away. Or at least it was until yesterday.

About a year ago (or maybe longer... 2 summers back... but in autumn?) I took a road trip through the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia for Travel+Leisure. In short, I love wine. I love BC wine in particular, so it was a dream story to shoot. Although some locations were decided upon, it was really an immersion in the environment and photograph-based-on feeling. I knew I wasn’t looking for a typical tipsy-wine-travel look with backlit bubbly (I just came up with that). Something more grounded and maybe a bit timeless; speaking of the farming and the pace of life rather than overzealous rose sippers. 

Let me remind you that I’m not a fan of pinot gris. Despite this, the Sandhill Pinot Gris has some stuff to offer. Not in the smell, mind you. It smells like nothing. Probably because most pinot gris tastes like nothing. 

Sandhill Pinot Gris, on the other hand, has acidity AF. When you sip it, something pretty weird happens. Unlike most acidic white wines, the acidity gets you in the mid-palate rather than right up front. What the hell am I talking about? Basically, imagine biting into a green apple. It’s like, a second AFTER you bite into it, there’s this mouth-watering freshness that’s almost too much to handle. 

I’m honestly telling you that drinking this pinot gris gave my mouth the same feeling that biting into a green apple did. The apple notes are off the hook and dominate any other flavor that might come to call. The label of the wine says that it has flavours of “melon, pineapple and lemon drop (what the fuck is a lemon drop?) but all I tasted was green apple, green apple and more green apple. That’s not a bad thing, but it was definitely a lot to handle. I shouldn’t complain though, because my usual complaint about pinot gris is exactly the opposite; that it’s flavourless. Upon drinking, I also noticed an unpleasant bitterness in the aftertaste that was really neither here nor there. 

I gave up on this wine, but a lack of any other wines forced me to keep drinking it the next day, and wow! it was a whole different wine. The oxidization and time in the fridge overnight really mellowed out that bitterness and acidity, revealing a whole new wine. I got honey notes, some of that melon, and a bit of a candy-like/rock sugar aftertaste (is that lemon drop? idk). 

The B.C. government is formally challenging Alberta’s ban on B.C. wines through the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) dispute settlement process. The Alberta government announced two weeks ago an immediate halt on the import of B.C.’s wines into the province.

“B.C.’s wine industry is an important contributor to our economy, creating good jobs and other economic benefits for people in B.C.,” said B.C. Jobs, Trade and Technology Minister Bruce Ralston. “We’re standing by our wine producers and the communities that rely on this important industry by launching a formal trade dispute, and we are confident we will be successful.”

The B.C. government is launching the dispute because of concerns “Alberta’s actions threaten the livelihood” of families that work in the province’s wine industry. B.C. is arguing that banning wine shipments from another province is a breach of Alberta’s obligations under the CFTA.