Chinese Company Buys Ont. Icewine Maker As Fakes Flourish

Canadian icewine is the flagship wine brand in Canada and accounts for more than 50% of the value for all wine exports in the country. "Icewine has become the Gucci of the wine world, and because it's a large dollar value - prices go as high as $300 a bottle - it's treasured and rare," says Sherri Haigh, director of public relations for the Wine Council of Ontario. But its popularity and status as a luxury brand have made it a target for counterfeiters, particularly in China, where it's known as "liquid gold." Take Niagara winemaker Allan Schmidt. Two years ago, he discovered that a company in China was illegally selling a fake icewine using his label, Vineland Estates Winery. Despite repeat legal efforts, Mr. Schmidt has given up trying to sue the Vineland imposters. "I don't think the Chinese government will shut them down," says Mr. Schmidt. "So they continue to make a product, but it's not authentic Canadian icewine," he says. "The fake icewines have become a big challenge for us," says Dan Paszkowski, president of Canadian Vintners Association. Between 2004-05, the volume of Canadian icewine sold to China dropped from 9,000 liters to 4,500, a factor attributed to the counterfeit market. Although the volume of icewine sales to China increased 300% to reach 13,500 liters in 2006, the association is "also seeing a rise in false icewine products," according to Mr. Paszkowski. So what is fake ice-wine exactly? "Unless they are naturally frozen on the vine it shouldn't be termed icewine," says Mr. Paszkowski. There are all kinds of fraudulent forms of icewine being sold in Asia. Sometimes, bulk wine from Canadian is laced with corn syrup and Chinese white wine to sweeten it and sold under the white wine label. In other cases, regular grapes are frozen post-harvest and made into beverages termed icewine. So far, none of the Chinese icewines tested by the Canadian Vintners Association exhibit the proper chemical profile or "signature" of a genuine icewine from Canada, according to Mr. Paszkowski. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=07aa65f7-795b-42b2-8f26-aec9f768e947&k=90290 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 31, 2007]

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