If you're setting out to buy wine, spirits or beer in Ontario today, you may want to consider bringing a few extra dollars if you're able. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has placed donation boxes for the Canadian Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund at all of its more than 600 locations. They'll be there indefinitely – even for those who don't drink but happen to be passing by.
At press time, I couldn't confirm that any other liquor retailer had introduced a similar initiative, but I'm given to believe one or more will have something in place. The attempts to call and e-mail each province were a reminder to me of the balkanized alcohol market in Canada, a topic that haunts me weekly and about which I've been meaning to say a few words.
I love this country, don't get me wrong. But it's clear our forefathers failed to consider the pain in the keister they would cause for wine critics at future national newspapers. When it comes to wine, this is not one country; it is 13.
The overlap in identical brands and vintage years from province to province is modest, and the overlap across the country in wines worth strongly recommending is negligible.
A central problem is that shipping alcohol between provinces and territories is illegal without the consent of officials in each liquor jurisdiction. An importer that brings a wine into Alberta cannot also import into British Columbia or Manitoba or Nova Scotia without setting up a separate business in each totally autonomous jurisdiction. This has resulted in very few national distributors and very few “national” brands.
And, to be fair, it's not just our balkanized alcohol-distribution system that limits access. Fine wine tends to be made in small quantities. It's a meticulously grown agricultural product. You can't turn the tap on when supplies run low, as with Coke. If it sells out at the store and warehouse, often there's no more inventory until the next vintage rolls around – usually a year later. That's why finding that special wine you had in a restaurant in Provence last summer in a liquor store here is usually a bust.
Even great wines made in significant quantities, such as Château Mouton from France or Osoyoos Larose or Oculus from British Columbia, might get wide distribution in Canada, but often at different times in each province. The wine might be available this week in Quebec but not until March in Saskatchewan. Many great Canadian wines are available only in the provinces where they're made, a fact that would make Sir John A. Macdonald, a man known for tipping back an adult beverage or two, roll in his Kingston grave.
I needed to clear the air a bit. A kind reader wrote recently on the subject and made a logical suggestion. Given the national scope of this newspaper, he said, shouldn't I mainly be writing about wines available nationally? Other readers have made similar suggestions over the years. All logical. Problem is, if I were to write mostly about wines simultaneously available in all 13 provinces and territories, I'd be writing about factory-made jug wines. I'd also run out of brands in about two columns.
Even a quality exception such as the Vieille Ferme line, a big-volume brand from the respected Perrin Brothers of France who also run Château de Beaucastel, cannot be purchased in Prince Edward Island. (Kind note to the PEI Liquor Control Commission: They're good for the money, at about $12 to $14 across the rest of the country.)
