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Daniel Lenko’s 2011 wines in jeopardy after Region hits him with puzzling ‘order to comply’

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Daniel Lenko, above with his new sign, walks us over to his building where an “order to comply” certificate has been slapped on his winery, which houses barrels of wine and the tools of the trade needed to make wine, including the water that does a great deal of the work from cleaning out barrels and pumps to the scrubbing of the floors.

The order is from the Region of Niagara, dated July 18, 2011, and lists two areas of concern an official had after an inspection on June 29, 2011.

the order
The compliance letter from the Region.

First, the posted letter says, Lenko must cease and desist from discharging winery production waste (which Lenko says is 99% water and 1% wine) into an unapproved septic tank and then discharging that onto the ground surface. The order was delivered on July 18 and is backdated to July 17.

Second, Lenko is ordered to apply to the Region for a permit to construct a sewage system and, upon application, submit a detailed design plan from a qualified engineer or sewage systems designer and, upon approval, proceed to install the new system by Sept. 14, 2011.

lenko order
Daniel Lenko looks at the order to comply letter slapped on his winery by the Region. (Thanks for taking the photo, Joel!)

Needless to say, Lenko, who makes some of Niagara’s most profound wines from his estate, is not a happy camper.

Lenko has been making and selling wines for 12 years from his very visible location at 5246 King St. between Vineland and Beamsville.

He says the very same inspector who slapped him with his “order to comply” directive in July has been to Lenko’s winery two other times, in 1999 and 2002, and on both occasions he was told he’s in compliance with the regulations (which is why he has a valid licence). Now, all of a sudden, in 2011, says Lenko, his septic system isn’t good enough? He doesn’t understand.

Somehow it was good enough to get a full retail licence, he says. Somehow it was good enough to get a manufacturer’s licence to make wine and sell those wines to the public, he adds.

lenko barrel
Daniel Lenko in his winery.

“I’m just looking for answers,” an exasperated Lenko says.

Without answers, Lenko, who’s already laid off his winery staff while he charts a new course of action, says he may just have to sell his 2011 crop of grapes (a last resort) instead of making wine from his winery that is effectively, as of this moment, not in compliance with the Region.

Lenko says he was flabbergasted when the Regional inspector said to him, face to face, that he had “no record” of ever approving Lenko’s septic system in 1999 or 2002. Yet the licence was approved, and can only be approved with approval from the Region, and the compliances are listed in his application that sits with the Ontario government.

“It’s exhausting,” says Lenko. “Who’s on first here?”

“Why not just make me conform to what’s on my application? I’ll conform to that.”

Lenko says a new septic system, designed, approved by the Region, and installed by Sept. 14, at a cost of upwards of $50,000 is just not possible and fears his season, in what’s looking like a pretty good vintage, will be lost.

His wines currently in barrel, mostly the 2010 vintage, are not affected by the compliance order as they simmer away in oak in the winery.

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Niagara Escarpment letter.

Lenko is puzzled by the fact that an inspector came to call just after he erected his new sign outside the winery (a sign, by the way, that is under review by the Escarpment Commission before he can even install it permanently and a notice to that effect is posted on a nearby tree) as if he didn’t realize that Lenko ran a winery at the well-known location. “I put up this sign, and boom! This happens,” he says.

Lenko says he’s just going to “let sleeping dogs lie” for now. The inspector has come back and said he can work with Lenko on the date of the compliance order. But when he came back, he told Lenko, without even inspecting anything, that his house, which is used only for the tasting room now, doesn’t conform to regulations either.

You can see why Lenko is more than a little perturbed at his current predicament.