Allison McNeely
Allison McNeely is the web editor of Wine Access. Her work has appeared on websites, blogs and in print. She loves running and is the magazine's resident web nerd.
Ottawa Columnist Calls for Private Wine Stores
Ottawa Citizen columnist Joanne Chianello laments the lack of small production wines at the LCBO
Ottawa Citizen columnist Joanne Chianello is hoping to try The Good Earth 2009 Pinot Noir at this weekend's Ottawa Wine and Food Festival. The Good Earth is a small wine producer and Chianello has been unable to find the wine at her local LCBO store.
Chianello says that Ontario consumers have a difficult time finding many small production wines, as well as many wines made in Ontario and B.C. at the LCBO. Some Ontario producers sell their wines exclusively at the winery and it is illegal to ship B.C. wine into Ontario, making many Canadian products inaccessible to Ontario wine drinkers.
Chianello believes that the answer to Ontario consumers' woes lies with the development of private liquor stores alongside the LCBO.
Chianello says that she's not one of those "wine snobs" (ahem!) calling for the end of the liquor monopoly in Ontario. She doesn't believe that the LCBO will ever go away, as it made $1.4 billion for Ontario last year and is a political non-issue.
What do you think?
Photo: Karl Baron
Comments
Anonymous
read Ms Chianello's original article in the Citizen and wrote to her that very day. the following is my e-mail to her. (she is based in Ottawa)
Joanne:
just read your article concerning your ‘inability’ to find that pinot noir and surprised you seem to be unaware of a few facts
1. like I have done 18 of the last 20 years, drive to Niagara (about 5 hours to NOTL) or Prince Edward County (about 1.5 hrs) and purchase whatever wine you want....the only question I pose to the different wineries is “...will this wine be listed at the LCBO..” if the answer is yes I do not buy it and I wait for that wine to show up at my local outlet. if the answer is no I buy as much as I want
2. most if not all Ontario based wineries will deliver their product to Ottawa either through private couriers or delivery services like winery-to-home and that cost is not exorbitant
3. Vincor has stores throughout the city under the wine rack name and this outlet represents a number of Ontario wineries, Colio has an outlet on march road, Hillebrand has a number of stores in the city including 1 at Browns Independent in Stittsville
now you might wonder to yourself, do I want to buy a case of a wine I’ve yet to sample ? well that’s where the trips to wine country come in. over a few trips you get to find wineries that continually produce wines suited to your palette and your pocketbook...for example when I heard about Bottoms Up from Marynissen in NOTL I had no issue calling them and ordering a case that was delivered to my door. I always go to Marynissen on my trips to NOTL because they are smaller and most of their wines, if not all, are sold at the farm gate. I know over years of experience with them that I like the wines they produce and have no need for them to be listed at the LCBO
hope this helps your personal wine quest
Cellarmonk
The LCBO is not going away nor should it. With the fast paced growth of the small winery, right across Canada. We are missing such ahuge opportunity by not expanding the markets and creating better acess to market for the wine lover and the wine maker. Private and national is the way to go. And while we at it, make the VQA program meaning full and not the old boys network it is.
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