Original article from The New York TimesCanada’s Napa Valley Seeks Elusive Audience: Canadian Wine Drinkers
By: Dan BilefskySeptember 19, 2020
OSOYOOS, British Columbia — The first surprise for Séverine Pinte, a French winemaker working in Canada, was how casual everyone was — more ripped jeans and flip-flops than Chanel.
Then there was the unexpected need to warn grape pickers not to smoke marijuana near her beloved vines.
And finally there was a furry menace: Canadian black bears with a taste for chardonnay that gobbled up rows of grape clusters, forcing winemakers to employ hunters, electrified fences or pepper bombs.
When Ms. Pinte emigrated to Okanagan Valley in British Columbia a decade ago, she experienced some culture shock, as she transitioned from the formality of Bordeaux’s centuries-old wine industry to Canada’s more laid-back style.