Not good enough for the Olympics?

The lead article in this edition of Ontario Wine Review is Michael Pinkus expressing his deep disgust with the decision to make the "official" Vancouver Olympic wines from imported grapes:

This past fall (2008) it was quietly announced that Jackson-Triggs (Vincor) would be selling their "Esprit" Olympic wine in the newly created "Olympic retail stores" in British Columbia. This raised a red flag just last week, when a colleague of mine found the announcement during a routine web search. He wondered if the wines available in these stores (2 red / 2 white) were to be the VQA or Cellared in Canada Esprit wines. As many of you know back in May 2008 (Newsletter #82) I called Vincor out on the carpet for putting the inferior non-VQA wines into the official Olympic Esprit wines. My comments caused quite some controversy for Vincor and made them into "damage-control" (aka. spin mode). They told us that a VQA wine was indeed on the horizon, and published an explanation on their website as to why they went the non-VQA route. Let's focus on the question at hand: will the wines in the Official Olympic Stores be real Canadian VQA wines, will Vincor honor their pledge of providing 100% VQA wine during the Olympics and for all Olympic events? Additional fuel was added to this controversial fire as Vincor ramped up their advertising for this product. One such ad appeared on the back cover of the latest issue of the LCBO’s popular Food & Drink magazine, touting Esprit (non-VQA) as the Olympic wine.

[. . .] the Olympics is an event on the world stage and has the potential of putting Canadian wine onto that stage. People from all over the world will be coming to the Olympics and will get a chance to try our wines at events, buy it in stores and take it back to their homelands . . . Wouldn't it be shameful if they get home and realize they have a bottle of Cellared in Canada wine. The use of Cellared wine to promote a Canadian event is deplorable, though I am ready to tip my hat to Vincor if by 2010 the Cellared in Canada CRAP is off the shelves and 100% VQA is on the tables at Olympic events and on the shelves of British Columbia wine stores . . . Nothing less would satisfy this writer or any other lover and supporter of the Canadian wine industry. We are competing on the world stage during the Olympics, 100% VQA wine should be given that same opportunity when the world comes to our door. If the Chinese could do it in Beijing (100% Chinese made wine was served at their events), then lord knows we Canadians can do it too. Keep your eyes open, once again, Vincor I remind you, a nation is watching.