Late last year Penticton’s TIME winery signed a deal to be the official wine of the Calgary Flames. Now the Okanagan vineyard can’t send their wines to Alberta.
TIME has been producing red and white wines with the distinctive Flames logo and slogan “It’s Go TIME” —with a dollar from the sale of each bottle going to the Calgary Flames Foundation. But the winery is concerned about what punitive action by Alberta to ban imports of B.C. wine over a pipeline dispute will mean.
The operators said the ban could be a huge blow to their relatively small operation, depending on how long the dispute drags on.
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“We are hoping this gets resolved immediately and currently we are sitting with some great inventory in Alberta so we really are not worried about that yet,” said director of sales and marketing Christa-Lee McWatters-Bond.
McWatters-Bond said TIME winery has enough inventory in Alberta to supply the Saddledome, the Flames home arena, and other retailers for about a month or so.
On Thursday the President and CEO of the Flames Ken King issued a statement in response that said “everyone regrets the need for such actions but we respect the need for political leaders to make difficult decisions in the interest of all Albertans.”
The statement didn’t address how the B.C. wine ban would impact its patrons, but said “as a sports organization we do not provide political opinions or views on such matters. Our Flames Foundation will continue its community service proudly. We do hope that a greater good will be served as a result of this decision.”
WATCH BELOW: Okanagan wineries call Alberta’s ban on the import of B.C. wine unexpected and unfair