An Exciting New All-Canadian Wine Fair in Toronto
Elbows Up! Coast-To-Coast Canadian Wine Fair aims to lift up Canadian wine while breaking down the barriers that restrict access to it.
Illustration by Michel Tolmer.
Canada is many things: welcoming, diverse, safe, full of stunning nature. At the same time, there are many things that it clearly is not: good at self-promotion, supportive of interprovincial trade, an easy place to make wine. With all that in mind, and thanks to a not-so-gentle nudge from our neighbours to the south, Mark Cuff, founder of the Ontario wine import agency The Living Vine and a partner at the garagiste winery Therianthropy alongside co-founder David Eiberg, launched Elbows Up! Coast-To-Coast Canadian Wine Fair, a new wine fair that aims to lift up Canadian wines and break down the interprovincial trade barriers that hamper industry development.
On Saturday, July 12, Elbows Up! will take over the Fort York National Historic Site in Toronto, where it will play host to 28 wineries from five provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Alongside the wineries—which include cult, natural, conventional, and ultrapremium outfits—the Toronto restaurant Ricky+Olivia will be serving small bites, while the multihyphenate fromagerie, bottle shop, and grocery store Good Cheese will offer cheese plates, sandwiches, and other provisions.
The goal of Elbows Up! is not only to bring attention to wines from across the country but also to break down the archaic legal barriers that have heretofore restricted consumer access to wines from outside one’s home province. “Canadian-made wines are treated as though they were imports when they cross provincial lines,” Cuff says. “The result is inflated prices, limited availability, and an unfair playing field that holds back both producers and consumers. It is not only frustrating for consumers, it directly hurts Canadian wineries who are trying to compete against international brands that face no such restrictions.”
A major component of Elbows Up! is its drive to abolish the interprovincial trade barriers that limit Canadians’ access to wines made in their own home country, circulating a Change.org petition for both attendees and general Canadian oenophiles to sign. As the now-popular statement after which it is named did for Canada’s cultural identity, Elbows Up! aims to reiterate what Canadian wine is, according to Cuff. “All Canadian wine should be local wine, no matter where it is made or sold in Canada.”
Elbows Up! runs Saturday, July 12, from noon to 5 p.m. at Toronto’s Fort York National Historic Site. Tickets for either of the two sessions can be purchased here.
