Monthly Newsletter

VQA IS 100% ONTARIO AND 100% CANADIAN. EVERY TIME. GUARANTEED.

Now more than ever, it’s time to share this message with every consumer in Ontario. VQA is the only guarantee that a wine is 100% Ontario. Look for the VQA letters or the logo for authentic, local wine. Every time. Guaranteed.

 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – NEW BOARD MEMBERS

The Ontario Wine Appellation Authority held its 27th Annual General Meeting in Niagara on the Lake on July 15, 2026.

We are pleased to welcome Tim Kuepfer and Omer Yazaroglu as new members of the OWAA Board of Directors.  Tim is the owner of Broken Stone Winery in Prince Edward County, filling a small winery seat and representing the Prince Edward County appellation and Omer is Director of Culinary Services at the Niagara Parks Commission, filling the seat representing the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel
and Motel Association.  We look forward to adding their perspective to the Board’s deliberations.

We express our thanks and gratitude to retiring Directors Dan Sullivan and Tony Elenis for their dedication and many contributions to keeping our appellation system strong and relevant.

If you were not able to attend the meeting, you can see our 2026 Annual Report here.

LEVEL 1 IN VQA WINE APPELLATIONS – IN PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY

Calling all PEC wineries! Send your staff for wine appellation training, in-person!

When: Tuesday August 19, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM or 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Where: Broken Stone Winery, 500 Closson Road

To register please email Katherina Radcliffe and let me know your preferred time slot.

FAQ: MY WINE FAILED! NOW WHAT?

Occasionally, wine submissions are unsuccessful in the lab, at the tasting panel or in the label review process. Yes, you can resubmit the wine for re-evaluation but there are steps you need to follow to proceed within the VQA Services automated system. To move any application forward after a failure, the entire application must be completed and set to Not Approved. This means that a tasting result, lab result, label review result and payment are required. Once the application is completed and results posted, a resubmission can be made by logging in to VQA Services, choosing the application from the Wine Approvals grid and selecting “Resubmit Application”. Then choose the component(s) that failed – Resubmit for Tasting Panel, Resubmit for Lab, or Resubmit for Label Review, or the desired combination of these.  You may select only the specific lab components that failed, for example, check off the turbidity box only.  If you are submitting for re-tasting or re-testing, please confirm the status of the label (look for the green checkmark on the wine grid) and don’t forget to tick the box to have the label reviewed the second time around if it is outstanding.

Note that there is a flat fee for a second (or third) submission to the Tasting Panel. The lab fees charged will reflect the testing cost of the analyte(s) that is retested.  There is no fee for additional label reviews.

As always, if you have any questions or need help navigating the system, please contact the office.

FAQ: CAN I ADD ANOTHER LABEL FOR THIS WINE?

Occasionally wineries wish to bottle their approved wines under a new or different label than what was submitted with the approval application. This is permitted as long as the additional label is provided to OWAA and is VQA-compliant. Please email all new labels, including private labels, quoting the VQA Wine Approval ID to Sabina.  We will review your label and append it to the approval record.  Online upload is not available once a wine is approved, so all new/revised labels must be sent by email and will be manually added to your file.

CANADIAN WINE LIBRARY – CALL OUT FOR WINES

The Canadian Wine Library’s (CWL) is a revolving collection of some of the finest domestic wines grown in Canada (VQA Ontario or 100% Canadian-grown wines).
Wines are submitted and judged by the CWL for their attributes for ageing.  The purpose of the collection is to educate winemakers on how their wines are evolving; to educate consumers as to how they can expect Canada’s wines in the collection to age; and to serve as a resource for research in sensory evaluation, vintage variations, and stylistic changes over time.

HOW to submit wines:

Submission Deadline: December 11, 2026 

Quantity: Two bottles of each wine 

Details Needed: Technical data at harvest, bottling and winemaking notes.

Mark your wines (CWL Submission) and send to:

Taylor MaGee

CCOVI Brock University

1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way

St. Catharines, ON   L2S 3A1

E:  cwl@brocku.ca

Download printable file here