Canada is one of the world's largest producers of icewine. The Government of Canada is introducing regulatory amendments under the Canada Agricultural Products Act that requires wine labelled as icewine to be made only from grapes naturally frozen on the vine.
The new national standard helps ensure that wine entering Canada adheres to a common definition and it also demonstrates to our trading partners that icewine produced in Canada meets a national standard.
Consumers benefit from the new national standard as it clearly defines icewine. Producers also benefit from greater international market access helping to further strengthen Canada's position as world leader in the production of icewine.
Icewine is Canada's main wine export in terms of dollar value. It provides 45 per cent of Canada's wine export revenue while only consisting of 1.2 per cent of Canada's wine export volume.
In addition to the new national standard for icewine, there are other regulatory amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations and to the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Regulations. These regulatory amendments allow wine manufacturers to place the mandatory labelling information within a "single field of vision."
Specifically, the single field of vision means that wine manufacturers will be able to place the mandatory labelling information on any part of the surface of the wine container, excluding its top and bottom, provided that it can all be seen without having to turn the container.
The regulatory amendments do not change the items included under mandatory labelling information on the container, which includes common name, net quantity, country of origin and alcohol content by volume, to ensure that Canadians can make informed decisions.
Many other countries, including the United States, Australia and New Zealand already permit wine manufactures to place mandatory labelling information within a single field of vision.
