WineAlign

Last Saturday British Columbia’s Liquor Distribution Branch staged an in-store release of 28 premium B.C. wines in their annual fall Best of B.C.’s promotion.  On October 3 it released, in its 23 signature stores, 68 top Bordeaux 2006s.  This too is an annual release, as in something planned that consumers and suppliers can rely on.  Just two small examples of a system that works better than Ontario’s LCBO,

But there are many more.  In B.C. there is no “classics catalogue” with lottery-like maybe-you’ll-get-it-maybe-you-want shenanigans for small lot wines.   No virtual on-line sales that involve passwords, or emails about wines will or won’t arrive at a place you can pick them up (on line sales can work but don’t work well in Ontario).  Imagine just going to the store and picking up the bottles same day.  Or sending a surrogate armed with a handy booklet in which you have checked off which bottles to buy.

It gets better.  The BCLDB doesn’t have a separate Vintages or specialty stores or sections at all.  Every wine from one country appears in that country’s section, those at $9.99 beside those at $99.99 and everything in between (except for the triple digit wines that are under lock and key to prevent shoplifting).  What a great opportunity for the trade to “up-sell”, and for shoppers to get a comparative and realistic sense of the quality and value of wines they are buying.

There are indeed always-available wines like those on Ontario’s general list. Then side by side there are specialty listings that are in lesser supply and may not be in all stores. But those wines just arrive when they arrive (no bi-monthly releases) and sell out when they sell out. And if they sell well they are bought again by the BCLDB and earn themselves a regular berth, until they stop selling.  Gee, that makes sense to me, allowing suppliers an ability to build brands, and consumers an opportunity to buy favourites on a regular basis.

Wait, still better!  B.C. wine lovers have – count’em – three other retail options. There are a few private fine wine merchants in certain areas with the population base to support them. This broadens B.C’s pallet of small lot, fine wines enormously. There are countless so-called cold beer and wine shops selling lower priced wines and beers. And finally there are VQA stores selling nothing but B.C. VQA wine, with a wide ranging selection – a program that has made B.C. wine the largest selling regional wine in B.C.

So why is B.C. so much better than Ontario?  Because the B.C. government has given up on the notion that it must be a monopoly retailer of alcohol. Allowing even a degree of privatization and competition quickly forced the retailing of wine down its rightful paths. Like opening a damn and watching it flow through natural channels across a wider landscape.

The moment Dalton McGuinty pulls that philosophical plug the same will happen in Ontario.  And he can do all this for Ontario consumers  with the stroke of a pen, making more money for Ontario’s now-debt laden treasury, and at the same time removing many of the political issues choking and poisoning our local wine industry.  His own Beverage Alcohol Review of 2005 has already told him that, but he threw it in the garbage days before a liquor board employees strike deadline.

C’mon Dalton, face down OPSEU and MADD and do the right thing.

- David Lawrason