Part 2 – What about the non-economic impacts of wine tourism?  As studies of established and emerging wine regions around the world have shown, rapid increases in tourism to regions whose appeal depend on their “viewscapes” (in our case “winescapes”), rural character and the sustainable produce of the region can kill the goose that laid […]

Part 1 – What are the economic benefits? The advance trickle of endorsements by the BC government of uncontroversial recommendations from the Liquor Policy Review continued in mid-December. Several of these were warmly welcomed in BC wine tourism circles.  Among the tourism-friendly announcements (also applicable to craft breweries and distilleries) were: streamlining producer licenses to […]

With the delivery of Parliamentary Secretary John Yap’s report on the BC Liquor Policy Review last week to Attorney General Suzanne Anton, it’s a good time to reflect on one of the hotter issues that emerged from the stakeholder (but definitely not public!) consultation.  The words “taxes” and “hot” don’t usually go together – nor […]

October 28, 2013 Hon. John Yap Parliamentary Secretary for Liquor Policy Reform Province of British Columbia, East Annex, Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC  V7V 1X4 Via email to http://engage.gov.bc.ca/liquorpolicyreview/ Dear Mr. Yap: Re:  Comments to British Columbia’s Liquor Policy Review The initiative taken by the Province to review BC’s antiquated liquor laws is welcome – for […]

Two recent political developments have caused BC wine enthusiasts – and winemakers – to get excited about the prospects for the industry.  On the heels of the BC Liberal re-election, the first took place in the heart of the Okanagan, when MLA and winery proprietor Ben Stewart stepped aside for Premier Christy Clark to contest […]

Absolutely we should care! First, a bit of background:  A few agreements already govern Canadian – European trade in wine, including broad international trade protocols relating to taxation, duties and agreements on intellectual property, and more specifically  the 2004 Wine and Spirits Agreement that offered better protection for “geographic indicators” – terms that designate origin […]

A look across the border clearly demonstrates the promise of the direct-to-consumer shipping market (while noting that the US wine market is not without difficulties of its own). ShipCompliant’s 2012 report (available here) finds a “direct-to-consumer wine shipping marketplace that is now well established, though always evolving as new technologies and business models emerge.” The […]

Or rather how can this take place? The BCLDB sales data do not tell the whole story. Taken together, several reports last year on the BC wine industry (discussed in a previous post) paints a disturbing picture: that the BC consumer is nearly tapped out and that the industry is facing a saturation point in […]

In January 2013, Vinexpo – organiser of the immense biennial international wine fair in Bordeaux – released its annual study (here) of worldwide wine trends over the coming three years. Canada, it forecasts, will continue its impressive growth in wine consumption by 14.2% between 2012 and 2016 (it rose 14.5% between 2007 and 2011). This […]

In early December, Business in Vancouver reported the findings of an independent market research survey from 2010 which found high levels of satisfaction with the overall British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch system by its wholesale customers.  According to the Corporate Insights research*, not only were wholesale customers quite happy in 2010, they were happier as […]