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UPDATED! The utter failure of Ontario booze czar Ed Clark, plus news for PondView, Rennie Estates and 2015 Grape King

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Is anyone else surprised by the monumental failure of Ontario’s attempt at modernizing booze retail in this province?

The man struck with the task of bringing Ontario just a smidge closer to the real world showed such great promise with all him ambitious plans and bravado of standalone private wine shops, beer flowing in the aisles at grocery stores, dismantling the foreign-owned Beer Store and fairness across the board by taking back licences from grandfathered private wine stores, mostly owned by one American company, so the seeds could be sown for at least partial privatization of the booze monopolies.

Oh, heady times were upon us.

0217clarkBut Ed Clark, the former banker-turned-failed-booze-saviour, has proven to be an utter disaster. No one quite knows how he’s going to screw this thing up next.

The entire reason Clark was called in in the first place was to find a way to modernize an antiquated system and gain better access for consumers to buy products — mainly VQA wine and Ontario craft beer — the LCBO and The Beer Store either refused to carry or were unwilling to carry. That left the majority of Ontario’s breweries and wineries, with their locally-crafted products made right here in this province, with no access to the market other than at the winery or the brewery.

Man, Clark talked a good game. He brought the players together over a series of high-stakes discussions and bit-by-bit his plan was leaked to the media. It was coming together nicely. A series of private wine shops, a Beer Store overhaul evening the playing field for craft brewers, beer and wine, with provisions for local minimums, in grocery stores … oh, yes, his plans were juicy. Real change was coming.

Then the BIG announcement came. 450 grocery stores could bid on licences to sell beer. No private wine shops, no wine in grocery stores, no Beer Store shakeup. Just that. 450 grocery stores would be able to sell six-packs, with a fraction of the space reserved for Ontario craft beers.

Well, Hallelujah, brother! In Ontario this masquerades as progress.

As pathetic as that is, it just got worse. The Toronto Star reported late last week that grocery stores would be limited to selling the equivalent of 46 million six-packs a year spread across 450 supermarkets that will eventually be licenced in the province — if you do the math, that’s a cap of under 300 six-packs per day, per store.

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A larger grocery store would have to put up a sold out sign on the beer aisle an hour after opening with those limits.
And what grocery store wants to go through the expense and hassle to sell 279 six-packs per day? That would likely amount to a loss once everything is factored in.

As one grocery store source told me, it’s all about getting this thing started, getting the ball rolling, but it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to see an upside in terms of having an impact on the bottom line as the hurdles keep piling up.

On Wednesday, Premier Kathleen Wynne stood at a podium at the Mill Street Brew Pub in Toronto’s Distillery District and finally announced the beer deal will be in place for Christmas sales.

“‎It is an exciting day for people who love beer in Ontario,” the premier was quoted as saying.  “By December, the first 60 grocery stores will receive their authorization to sell beer in Ontario,” she said. “Beer in grocery stores could be seen as a holiday present that many people in Ontario have been waiting for for a long time.”

The changes stem from a 190-page agreement between Queen’s Park and the Beer Store, the private company that had enjoyed a de facto monopoly on beer sales since Prohibition ended in 1927, according to the Star.

“It is a complex thing in Ontario to sell beer, apparently,”‎ said Wynne.

The move is a huge victory for Ontario’s craft brewers, who will gain more access to shelves, but a blow to Ontario wineries who, some could argue, are in far greater need of help than craft brewers.

By 2017, there will be 150 supermarkets selling beer, eventually rising to 450 of Ontario’s 1,500 grocery stores.

By the numbers

• Beer will be sold in 450 supermarkets as well as 448 Beer Stores, 651 LCBO outlets, and 210 rural LCBO agency stores.

• Supermarkets can each sell the equivalent of 279 six-packs per day. If they exceed their quota they will pay a penalty worth 1 per cent of the cost of the beer to the LCBO, which will then compensate the Beer Store.

• The 100 Ontario craft brewers, which currently employ about 1,000 people, are expected to double or triple the size of the industry within a decade, meaning thousands of new jobs.

• There will be no private-label beer on grocery shelves, meaning Loblaw’s President’s Choice brews will continue to be sold only at the Beer Store.

• Pubs and restaurateurs which sell fewer than 250 cases of beer annually will no longer be forced to purchase them at the Beer Store for a premium of around $8 per case. They can now buy their brews at the LCBO or grocery stores for the same price as everyone else.

• One fifth of all beer shelving will be devoted to small brewers.

• A new board of directors for the Beer Store will consist of 15 members: eight from Molson and Labatt; one from Sleeman; one from another midsize brewer, such as Moosehead or Brick; one from a craft brewery; and four provincially appointed independent members who are not from the beer industry.

• A beer ombudsman will be appointed to tackle public concerns about the Beer Store and will report to the four independent board members.

• The government expects to make around $10 million auctioning off licences to sell beer in grocery stores.

• Ontarians spend around $3 billion a year on beer, 80 per cent of which goes to the major foreign-owned breweries that control the Beer Store.

The Wine Council of Ontario took a diplomatic approach to the news today, saying it welcomes the changes to beer retailing. Ontario wineries are looking forward to seeing these changes mirrored for our local wine industry — because Ontarians deserve the chance to buy local wine in a modernized retail landscape, a release says.

The wine council said that while producing world class wines, Ontario’s VQA industry is also creating and maintaining made-in-Ontario jobs, and driving economic growth. Expanded access to Ontario wines is good for consumers and good for Ontario’s economy: the VQA industry supports more than 14,000 jobs, and hosts nearly two million tourists annually.

Ontario’s wine industry, the wine council says, has more than doubled in the past decade — from 60 wineries in 2003 to more than 150 now, making a locally grown and produced product.

“My winery is a small business in rural Ontario, and we’re growing, but we need more retail access. In this part of the province, an industry with this kind of growth potential should be given the tools to succeed,” said Caroline Granger from the Grange of Prince Edward County. The Grange is a family run winery, and driving economic growth in Prince Edward County.

“We’re pleased that the government is committed to new retail channels for Ontario wines, and appreciate Premier Wynne’s commitment to growing the industry, said Wine Council President Richard Linley. “Our members are concerned that there may be delays in implementation — that’s why we welcome the commitment to finalize these reforms before the holiday season. We know that Ontarians enjoy VQA wines, and are looking forward to expanded access and more options when it comes to quality, locally made wines.”

Ontario’s VQA industry, by the numbers:

  • Total retail value of VQA sales in 2014: $395M
  • Ontario jobs tied to the continued success of VQA wines: 14,000
  • Value of annual grape purchases: $50M
  • Tax revenue for the government: $600M
  • Economic impact of wine-related tourism: $250M

 From where I sit, this is a government that has totally screwed this thing up from the beginning. Wine doesn’t even get mentioned in the post-scripts anymore. It is a distant memory as is meaningful modernization of the booze industry in Ontario. We continue to live under rules and restrictions that are nearly 100 years old, born out of the ashes of Prohibition and ruled by a government body, the LCBO, that seemingly has more power than the government itself.

RIP privatization.

•••

PondView goes to the Grey Cup

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A little piece of Niagara will be all over the 103rd Grey Cup Festival in Manitoba this fall.

PondView Estate Winery will be supplying the official red and white wines for the annual championship of the Canadian Football League, to be played on Nov. 29 at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg.

Labeled End Zone Red and Goal Line White, the Niagara VQA wines will be available in liquor stores across Manitoba and will be poured at all official Grey Cup events in the weeks leading up to the annual celebration of Canadian football.

“We are proud to represent Niagara as the official wine of the Grey Cup, and to bring the incredible flavours and aromas of Niagara’s appellation to a whole new crowd,” said Marcel Morgenstern, a sommelier and director of sales at PondView.

“The chosen wines have been carefully crafted by our winemaker Fred DiProfio and are a great pairing with sports. They are soft and easy drinking, and are a superb match for the kinds of foods you may find at a tailgate party.”

End Zone Red is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot while the Goal Line White is an off-dry blend of Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Riesling.

Both the red and white wines will be hitting store shelves in Manitoba just after Labour Day, but will only be available for a limited time.

“This is a limited, one-time release,” said Morgenstern. “Once the final whistle sounds and the Grey Cup is awarded to the best team in the CFL, they will be gone.”

•••

Rennie Estate buys appassimento chamber

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Graham Rennie of Rennie Estate Winery in Beamsville has purchased one of the first commercialized appassimento chambers in North America.

This method of drying grapes for the wine industry has been developed and delivered to market through a partnership between Ontario manufacturer MTX Postharvest and Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland).

“I am delighted to be the first winery to order MTX Postharvest’s commercial grape drying chamber, as my collaboration with Vineland helped develop this proprietary appassimento methodology,” said Rennie. “The chamber will allow me to customize specific settings such as airflow speed, temperature and humidity to produce our ultra-premium appassimento wines – Scarpata and “G” Assemblage. The ability to control these settings in an optimal fashion within a secure, airtight, portable chamber will ensure a perfect appassimento result each harvest for years to come.”

The appassimento process allows for enhanced development of flavours, concentration of sugars and contributes to more complex aromas in wines made from high quality grapes harvested in cool climate areas with shorter growing seasons.

“We are excited to have one of Vineland’s original partners in the appassimento research program buying one of our first production units,” said Ethan Strawbridge, Business Development/Engineering at MTX Postharvest. “Graham has had a great deal of success with his appassimento offerings. We’re confident this new technology will give him even further control over his process.”

The 7.2-ton grape capacity appassimento chamber is a modular, self-contained, controlled environment featuring a proprietary ventilation technology for slow uniform grape drying (80 to 120 days) and wireless controls for temperature, humidity and airflow. The system offers a payback of two years or less based on a premium price charged per bottle of final product. It allows winemakers flexibility in their products, from 100 per cent appassimento-style wines to back-blended wines with other varieties to create consistent vintages year-after-year.

•••

New Ontario grape king is crowned

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Farm Credit Canada, the Grape Growers of Ontario and the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival announced that Jamie Slingerland of Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake is the 2015 Grape King.

“It’s really been a team effort to succeed as Grape King,” Slingerland said. “Everyone has given 110% this year, I am expecting a very good vintage for 2015.”

The Slingerland family has been farming in Niagara-on-the-Lake since 1783 and Jamie was raised on the family grape and tender fruit farm. The grape and wine industry runs deep in the family with father-in-law Gary Pillitteri crowned Grape King in 1981. Jamie is Director of Viniculture at Pillitteri Estates winery and his wife Connie and son Richard are also part of the management team. Daughter Rachel is a lawyer with Martens Lingard.

“We are delighted to have Jamie selected as 2015 Grape King to serve as ambassador for Ontario’s grape growers. Jamie is a dedicated grower who believes that great wine starts in the vineyard,” said Grape Growers of Ontario Chair, Bill George. “The annual crowning of the Grape King is recognition of the best that Ontario’s grape growers have to offer,” said Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario.