Wine Club Barriers

Once the exclusive domain of cult wineries, the wine club is now something many wineries offer to their customers.

Offering everything from purchasing vintages prior to general release to exclusive bottles and back vintages, a wine club can be a great thing for wine lovers. With the passage of Bill C-311, federal barriers to the inter-provincial shipping of alcohol dropped, leaving it to each province to determine how and when to allow alcohol to be shipped in or out of the province by a private consumer.

In theory, these barriers dropped to support domestic wineries permitting them to sell direct to consumers outside of their home province, as selling direct from the winery is typically far more profitable for the winery than sending them to retail outlets or liquor boards at a discount.

As of now, an Albertan can join a wine club located out of province, but sadly, you won’t be able to have the wine shipped to you here legally, at least not yet. Naturally, some people live a life with little regard for consequences, but for now, the rules say you have to accompany the wine into the province.

To be fair, we have a lot of selection available here in Alberta already (with about 17,000 active listings, far more than are available in BC or ON) and ordering directly bypasses the representative who may currently import, markets and promotes the wine to restaurants and liquor stores. Most importantly, the current system ensures that the tax revenue is collected by the Alberta government, on behalf of Albertans for Albertans.

Taxes are a part of life, especially the so-called “sin taxes” on alcohol and tobacco. But this defeats the point of the typical wine club. Special offers, back vintages or advance purchasing options are why we join the club. Sure the wine might be available in liquor stores in Alberta already, but for those in the know, having a guaranteed supply of a certain limited offering, the chance to order or receive wine well ahead of your brother-in-law who also likes the same wine, and even to round out a vertical of a winery’s offerings are all good reasons to avoid the retail supply chain.

Most wine clubs I spoke to in the course of my research didn’t want to be quoted, or mentioned. But I’d be surprised if any of them turned away an Alberta address wanting to join their club. Quite frankly, although it is against the rules in Alberta, a lack of enforcement, clear penalties (though being charged under Section 50 — Liquor Control — of the liquor act could result in a maximum fine of $10,000 and/or up to 6 months in jail) and vague wordings mean that for the typical law-breaker here, there is no reason why a wine lover wouldn’t want to join a wine club.

If you were to ask the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) about wine clubs, you’d hear things like: we have so much wine available here anyways why would you bother trying to bring wine across provincial borders? Or they might suggest talking to your local liquor store or import agent if you want to import a wine not available in the province. They also might say Albertans have always been able to import wine from out of province for personal consumption — on your person.

As someone who has been in the wine business for a good long time, I can offer these responses. First, someone is always going to want something they can’t get at home or get it before anyone else. I bring home wine on my travels, you should too. There is no good reason why as an adult I can’t order Canadian wine from another province in Canada from the comfort of my home. It is a very small percentage of Canadians who would even consider ordering wine from out of province — is it even worth getting worked up about?

Secondly, unless you are after many cases of a certain product and willing to pay up front, no wine or liquor agent will want to bring in that cool little wine you found, wherever it may be from. At the retail level, if it isn’t here in Alberta already, you have no chance sweet talking them to bring something in. If it is already available in Alberta, and if you are willing to buy the case, any store should be willing bring it in for you. (Go to the Alberta Liquor Guide at liquorconnect.com to find out if products are already available) 

Finally, driving to/from BC, you might as well bring back whatever you can carry. It is impossible to enforce, so go nuts. If you belong to a wine club, feel free to make the approximately nine hour drive to get to the Okanagan as much as you’d like, or save some time and ship the wine to Invermere and pick it up there. By plane, your luggage limits will determine how much you need that last bottle of wine. Returning from abroad directly to Alberta, we are a very lucky place to be. The taxes for exceeding your personal exemption are really quite low and far less than you’d pay if Customs found the excess bottles you tried to sneak in. Just go ahead and declare it.

The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Act is a bit of a slog to wade through on the matter of interprovincial shipping. Section 89 “Importation from other Provinces” states that, “an adult may import from other provinces for personal consumption” with no mention of that importing only being on your person. Section 77 mentions that, “No person may import liquor into Alberta unless: C) the importation is authorized by this act or a federal act."

Bill C-311 removed the federal barrier, but the bill in no way changed the restrictions or limits each province may have set already on personal imports for personal consumption. So the province is in the right — they have the means and authority to set those limits.

Some vagaries of the law include that the way things stand right now, most provinces are happy to permit wines being shipped out of the province of origin. The destination province seems to be where the problem is for wine club shipping. Some wineries in British Columbia are shipping to Alberta and the ones I have spoken to seem to have been advised by their lawyers and other counsel that shipping to Alberta is ok.

Winelaw.ca has been pretty clear on the matter with their Canada Shipping Law Update and they feel that Alberta is an open province for interprovincial shipping for personal use.

Is it? No, but change is in the works.

Most likely we won’t hear any wind of what those changes are until they are announced. What’s my suggestion for how to handle ordering wine from out of province, but still from within Canada? Permit it as soon as possible and levy a small tax (maybe $5-10 per case) or service charge for the winery/liquor store/shipper (to be passed along to the consumer) to ship alcohol to Alberta. The consumer gets the option of ordering an out-of-province wine and the government is able to monitor the process and collect at least a portion of the revenues otherwise lost.

Who knows what will happen, but I’ll be saving my out-of-province wine dollars for when I’m out of province, too. For now...

Photo by atl10trader