WINEMAKERS AWAIT IMPORTANT DECISION FROM SUPREME COURT
As we close out 2017 we look back at some key Canadian wine stories of the year and how they might affect the business of B.C. wine in 2018.
In Canada, there is no bigger story than the Comeau case in New Brunswick. After an interminable amount of time getting to the Supreme Court of Canada earlier this month, we await a decision regarding a New Brunswick man fined $292.50 for violating the New Brunswick Liquor Control Act, that like most provinces severely limits the amount of alcohol Canadians can move between provinces.
B.C. wineries are acutely interested in the outcome given they have no direct access to the large Ontario, Quebec and Alberta markets. A favourable ruling would open their wines to a huge market of wine consumers. Fine wine drinkers are hoping the SCC ruling will affect all wines sold in Canada, ending the strong-arm listing and pricing policies of provincial liquor monopolies and finally levelling the field of retail wine trade across the country.
It used to be weather events such a frost, hail, rain and drought were the main adversaries of grape growers. Now, you can add wild fires to that list and it looks as if they will be a constant threat in the coming years. While nothing can console those who lost everything, including the lives of family and neighbours and co-workers, B.C. and California wine producers may want to spend the winter assessing future fire risks and, if possible, learning what can be done to limit fires and indeed fight them locally ahead of time.
The downturn in tourism during and after fire events is another aspect wineries need to counteract by producing vetted, up-to-the minute information that could be used to counteract the wave of negative media focused on spectacular flame images, and fire damage. Often the day-to-day story is far different then what is reported across social media and traditional news outlets.
Near the end of 2017, the Okanagan Valley wine-scape changed dramatically with the sale of four well-known wineries to Ontariobased buyers. Andrew Peller Limited purchased Black Hills Estate Winery, Gray Monk Estate Winery and Tinhorn Creek Vineyards for just under $100 million in September. In late November Arterra Wines Canada, formerly Constellation
Canada, now owned by the Ontario Teachers Fund, purchased the Naramata-based boutique winery Laughing Stock Vineyards. We are told it will be business as usual by the purchasers but it’s difficult to believe that running a B.C. winery from Ontario will result in business as usual. We will watch.
Locally we wait for any movement from the new provincial government on tax relief as it relates to the ever-rising price of a bottle of wine in B.C. In 201314 the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch reported income of $877 million, the latest figures in 201617 have soared to $1.083 billion. Meanwhile consumers, private wine shop owners, restaurants are dying from a thousand tiny cuts that impede their ability to buy anything at a price that resembles the real world.
The implementation of a wholesale monopoly system, now in place for more than two years, has proven advantageous to no one but government.
With the power to adjust the price of any product in B.C., they can operate their 198 stores knowing full well what everyone else in the private sector is selling and at what price. They also currently list 216 exclusives or products that are unavailable to the private sector. It’s a large number given how loathed wineries are to grant any single retailer an exclusive on their products because of the ill it creates among other retailers.
All of which should make for an interesting 2018.