Why Ontario’s Liquor Shelves Are Empty
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
3
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Toxicity
1
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Summary
In this episode of Two Guys Talking Wine, Mike talks to freelance writer and wine writer, Andre Prue, about what's going on in the world of alcohol sales and production here in Canada. Andre is a freelance writer, journalist, and wine connoisseur, and host of the popular podcast Two Guys, Talking Wine. In this episode, we discuss what's happening on the liquor shelves, and the wine shelves here in Canada, and why it matters.
Transcript
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some of your uh favorite american alcohols are no longer on the shelves here in ontario i know that
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for sure i hear the complaints uh jim beam has closed up shop south of the border because uh
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apparently canadians drank all the bourbon that they needed to sell and uh it's almost a confusing
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time in the world of alcohol sales and production here in canada the reason that i say that is
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because i really don't follow that industry all that closely i don't drink uh most of my family
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uh you know they they dabble but none of us are really connoisseurs of alcohol save for a tequila
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in my house on occasion uh but that is an ethnic thing that we welcome in our home so i reach out
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today for a better understanding of what's going on from andre prue he's a freelance writer you'll
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find him in toronto life and his podcast two guys talking wine positions him perfectly as the guy we
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need to talk to about what's happening on the liquor shelves and the wine shelves here in canada hey
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andre hey mike how's it going good thanks for doing this i really appreciate it you are the guy in the
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know you you make wine even yes i've got a little company the adx wine company we make about 400 cases
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of a high-end wine per year that you can find on the shelves of some fine restaurants from toronto to
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ottawa to hamilton uh but uh not on the shelves of the lcdo uh making it even more exclusive uh and
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great reviews on it by the way speaking of reviews you're in the know as i point out you're writing
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about what's happening in the wine world on a regular basis and your podcast covers it can you uh sort
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of unpack for me what's going on legally uh here in canada on on the on the liquor shelves oh uh i
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mean where to even begin like the fact that like we have the 13 different jurisdictions i think that
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most people watching this would know is that alcohol sales vary widely from province to province and um
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you know i recently my family is from saskatchewan i live in ontario uh on a visit back home you know was
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shocked to see that things had changed quite a bit it's quite recent that the saskatchewan government
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had opened up their sales to private uh private retailers um i was very excited to see a wine and
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beyond had opened um american products are back on the shelves of saskatchewan stores um and you know
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i'm very much in support of the uh elbows up movement but i could not resist picking up a bottle of
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weller bourbon which is something that even when it did hit the shelves in ontario would sell out
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virtually instantly um so you know apologies that my elbows aren't as high up as many other people
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would probably like them to be um but the thing that i was also very very shocked about was the fact
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that i went into this individual shop you know in the um in the east end of regina and they had at least
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20 different bottles of champagne available for new year's like proper champagne from france from
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france from the champagne region bubbles yeah not not lumping in all the sparkling wines into one
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category where you know even if i set foot in the oakville or the summer hill location of the lcbo in
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ontario and as someone who is a connoisseur and a journalist i do make the tracks to the flagship stores
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in ontario to look for the good stuff for lack of a better term your selection is half what this
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little warehouse type store in the east end of regina has so um you know i'm fairly critical of
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the lcbo and in general and how things are going and you know paying attention to the news right now
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you know as i've said i'm fully in support of what canada is doing with risk or what ontario is doing in
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restricting us alcohol sales because it is one of the very few fronts in this trade war where we
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actually do hold a couple of cards in our hand and it seems to be yeah and i mean it is something where
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you know in states like kentucky and california more so in in kentucky and tennessee where your
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lawmakers are likely to have the ear of the president you have people willing to put pressure on the
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president to eliminate tariffs move tariffs like it's one of the few fronts of this trade war where we
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have an upper hand you know california to a lesser extent because i don't think donald trump is
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paying too much attention to what the californian lawmakers are saying he's made it he's a little
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disconnected there you're with me or you're against me and like this is this is not partisanship in any
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way shape or form it's just a statement of a statement of fact but um so now let me ask you andre
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sorry uh let me ask you then so this this reduction of product on the shelves
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um it seems consumers are missing it there is no doubt about it if you you know i did a little
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bit of reading online is any of this going to change in the next little while here in ontario is is really
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the the question i mean we're starting to see cracks forming a little bit on the patience of the the
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populace like wab canoe in manitoba you know recently announced stocking the american products that
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were in the warehouse and donating proceeds of that uh to charity if i'm not mistaken mistaken which
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which i do think is you know an interesting move because we do have american products sitting in
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warehouse and you know as someone who owns a wine business you know it i don't sell my products out
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instantly when a pallet of adx rose sitting in a warehouse i have to pay my like 12 to 20 bucks a month
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storage fee you know this is going on for most of the year and think about the number of pallets that is
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and you know i'm i'm always critical of how the lcbo is run in terms of it not being an efficient
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operation this is definitely not an efficient way to do business even with a trade war going on
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and there have been calls for for premier ford to you know release the products maybe do something
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similar to manitoba or just sell them out you know um on the other hand though you know as someone who
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writes about wine went to kentucky on his honeymoon and loves american whiskey as i said earlier in this
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there are alternatives from other parts of the world like if you're really jonesing for your
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california cabernet sauvignon you know it might be a time to start discovering australia or south america
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and frankly you might save a few bucks if your go-to is is ultra premium california like
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like i do think that this is where the elbows can and could be up well it's interesting because in
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other industries uh other sectors uh most recently i i did an interview with dan mcteague about oil for
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example it's time for canadians to start to find other markets to sell to and other markets to buy
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from yep that are not so reliant on you know us customers i hope that that happens and so far are you
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starting to see any other um i guess uh manufacturers uh distributors of wines for example starting to
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make headlines or uh headway here in canada um well i know that it is the challenge because making wine
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is climate specific uh and like this is something i've had this is somebody who's covered the ontario
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wine industry quite closely that i still deal with on a regular basis and people say we can't make good
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red wine in ontario and when someone says that to me i ask what they typically drink and they say
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california italy south america it's just like we the reality is we don't have the climate to
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make like big juicy red wines that people love here um so you know if your go-to has been california this
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might not be the the place the place to be but places like bc and whatnot so we we but we are seeing
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you know much to my chagrin like we're seeing people in the ontario wine industry trying to respond
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trying to meet that demand in the hopes that we might discover uh new customers or customers
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might discover new products that they they like um i remain skeptical because during the pandemic in
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2020 we did see an immense surge in local interest and an immense surge in local sales for the local
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wineries in ontario but you know the moment the restrictions were lifted people went back to their
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old drinking habits so you know as much as we're going to weather the storm here even if the
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tariffs are here forever there's no way that this market is going to remain completely closed to the
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americans indefinitely especially with negotiations that are going to take place you know at some point
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like there's no way this market's going to stay completely closed but you know we are seeing the ripple
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effects i did see a news article uh published by um a colleague i've traveled with yesterday saying
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that um ultra premium wineries in california are starting to look at readjusting their prices and as
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a consumer this is something i've been very excited about um the political landscape having a direct
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impact on that tourism from canada to california down 25 tourism from europe down to california 15 and
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this is all due to the current political climate but you know i've been saying for years that you
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know there's a bit of a storm on the horizon for a region like california that doesn't have the pedigree
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of a region like france um with just you know the quality of the product is very good but it's hard
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to justify the prices of some of them and outside of tariffs and i know like that's what brought us
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together to have this conversation is the jim beam story when you and i uh did a bit of a pre-interview
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alcohol consumption has been going down over the past few years and that was my next question it seems
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like you know we keep hearing oh it's bad for your health you know for a long time of course it is uh
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you know it's one of those things uh for a long time and you might recall this we heard you know the
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french live longer healthier lives because they drink wine every day uh we later found out that
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it had more to do with how they categorize morbidity in that country as opposed to the wine having
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anything uh saving grace in there but yeah we've seen uh maybe through the use of cannabis uh in the
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marketplace i don't know if that's had an effect but certainly uh people have a more health conscious
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approach to drinking i i don't think it's just a health conscious approach like there's so many
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facets to this this story um and i've been finding it fascinating because uh in my past life i was a
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news producer at cfrb in in toronto and for the longest time millennials were being blamed for
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everything everything that was going wrong in the media everything that was going wrong with the housing
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market blah blah now people are blaming gen z saying oh it's gen z's fault that wine sales are dropping
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gen z aren't drinking them and it's because of the the healthy lifestyle blah blah blah but you know i'm
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taking the pulse of uh my cohort boomers can't mix it with their medications you understand andre so
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well i mean boomers are still buying the ultra premiums of this is something i recently did a
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trip to portugal um i'm a big fan of port um you know fortified sweet wine you know there's a good
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chance that your grandparents drank it you know my grandparents certainly drank it kept a bottle a
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bottle in the liquor cabinet but like it's really good stuff and when i assembled my piece that i did
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because i i interviewed some winemakers there and visited some of the wineries in in the city which
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just as a quick plug if you're ever planning a vacation the city of porto is one of the most
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beautiful places on the planet um i was expecting doom and gloom when i was doing my research on
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sales stats but i actually wasn't really surprised when i got the numbers back to me it's the entry level
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category you know if you're the owner of yellowtail right now if you're the owner of like seven deadly zins or
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josh apart from the terrace if you're if you're at the bottom of the market and you're mass producing
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what is basically plonk for the masses this is where i'd be worried uh because when i pulled the
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sales stats on porto the entry level market has completely collapsed and is in the process of
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collapsing further but the ultra premium the vintage ports the 10-year the 20-year tawnies the stuff that
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hits the top shelf the stuff that costs a little bit more the category is actually increasing so
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it's more of a a refined or exclusive brand uh uh that people are seeking out they'd rather have the
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premium brands than just uh buy slop and and uh become unwell in the process you well i guess if
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you're not necessarily that but like if your go-to was you know picking up a half dozen bottles of
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yellowtail and having that be your typical wine to have around the house that kind of culture is
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disappearing and like myself included i i don't i don't drink on the weekdays i save it for the
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weekend and even then i preach moderation because frankly i'd rather open a 50 bottle of um you know
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penfolds on a saturday with a really nice cut of meat then you know open up an eight dollar bottle of
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yellowtail on a monday with whatever i'm cooking throwing together quick in the kitchen for me and my
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time right you know and you make it more of a a destination moment uh in your week that has uh
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some some special meaning to it a better meal it comes alongside a special moment just for you it's
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not part of the daily grind as it were for people and i i'm noticing that as well well and we're even
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seeing that in france like in a in a in a country where culturally speaking like you talked about the the
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um the way they they took a look at at how these factors affected their health the french consumption
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of wine is going down when you're in france um they consider wine part of the meal like wine is food
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there that's not something that exists here because of our prohibition history you know wine is one of
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the evil alcohol in general is one of the evil parts of society and then like this is where it's all
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really nuanced and i'm going a little bit all over the place but like when push comes to shove alcohol
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is not good for you but when you take a look at what's on your plate there's a lot of stuff on your
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plate that isn't good for you salt fat carbs calories for that matter if you want to go to a very basic
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level it all comes down to moderation right i think so i think moderation is actually something that's
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hurting many industries uh you know fast food is another one out there that we're seeing a reduction in
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in many ways uh you know in the category of people that can afford other food people are making
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healthier choices uh in that regard well and even better even better choices like we we take a look
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at uh you know like i said i spent a lot of time focusing on on my cohort just because we were blamed
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for so many things for the longest time but you know the concept of farm to table in my household is
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not like a buzzword like it's it's a philosophy um you know i'm not someone who necessarily shops
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organic but you know living in hamilton and having access to a couple of great farmers markets and you
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know a couple of great retailers that focus on purchasing from farms direct from ontario you know
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my elbows were always up in in that matter like i bought local because it feels good to support local
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farmers and even if it costs a little bit more like in the middle of the winter if you can get
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your hands on a tomato that was grown hydroponically in a greenhouse in grimsby versus a bunch of
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tomatoes that were shipped in from mexico and if all you can afford is mexican tomatoes i understand
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fantastic make the choice like like by all means it's a wonderful world that we live in with globalization
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that we can get whatever we want to eat whenever at whatever time of year but when you can taste that
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ontario greenhouse tomato in january february it tastes better and monday monday to sunday like this
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is not a weekend thing for me i want my food to taste good monday like every day of the week hey
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andre you know you gotta be thinking here is there anything you think that the government could be
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doing provincially maybe also federally to help support uh more of a global market for wine makers like
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yourself that are sort of craft wine makers that have made it into the commercial uh side of things the
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the consumer side of things is there something more that could be done to promote within ontario
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uh for wine makers spirit makers uh and and even craft breweries is there something that we're leaving
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on the table yeah well mr mr carney said it from the onset it's an election promise that he still
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hasn't come through with and that's getting rid of inter-provincial trade barriers i've been fortunate
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enough with my little 400 case a year wine company to export and yes that's right it's considered an
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export like to another when it goes to another province when it goes to another province i've
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exported to skatchewan bc and prince edward island and what happens when my case of wine leaves my
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warehouse it gets taxed by the lcbo and when it enters the new province where it arrives it gets
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taxed by their local liquor board as well and you know i've said before like alcohol is not a healthy
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thing alcohol is a drug it needs to be regulated it needs to be taxed it pays for our health care
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i am not whining about the level of taxation that i'm paying but it is hard to compete when something
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gets taxed twice while it's staying in the country so you know maybe not only that but you're paying
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tax on on so many things along the way in the process of actually manufacturing uh you know even
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even growing i would imagine there's uh you know the purchase of grapes all of everything is taxed along
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the way uh to have an additional tax within our own countries that's a tough one to swallow well listen
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my wholesale price on a bottle of rose and this is being completely transparent to everyone listening
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is about 14 14.50 and that's with grapes uh cost of bottle and that includes a tiny bit for me and my
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my three colleagues that run it like it doesn't pay it doesn't pay most of my bills or frankly any of my
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bills we keep the money in the company uh but that's neither here nor there we retail that bottle for
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22 so that's where it's a fine margin when we're doing locally but when we sell it wholesale to say
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the bc liquor board they mark it up uh i believe it's between 80 and 100 percent so when my bottle hits
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the shelf of the bc market it becomes a 45 bottle of rose and you know if we really are trying to support
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the local industry we need to find a better model for fair taxation for the local producers
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uh because frankly it's cheaper to manufacture a bottle of wine in another country even at a small
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scale even at an ultra premium level and it's it's just making it next to impossible to be able to
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compete um what about export to uh to the us and other markets are there uh i mean certainly with the
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us at the moment we have uh tension and and issues there but generally speaking when you're exporting
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to other countries are there challenges that we could overcome here at home it all comes down to
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taxation right like the fact the fact that the the alcohol laws still are prohibition era laws um
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you know we're dealing with hundred year old laws we're dealing with hundred year old levels
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of taxation it does it does make it a challenge i know we have seen a lot of ontario wineries have
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quite a bit of success um exporting to countries in europe i know the uk has been developed as a very good
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market um and that's one of those things where it's a dollar and cents issues like even with the
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level of taxes thanks to the exchange and just the cost of living in the uk you know a great bottle
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of ontario wine becoming 35 40 50 pounds a bottle is in line with what else you can get in that market
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so it's just it it's incredibly challenging to be competitive in foreign markets and when i'm saying
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for and i'm also including other provinces um just because of the amount of taxes that end up on that
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bottle i saw an event uh taking place uh it was a couple of years ago now at canada house in london
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and uh the the event was uh showcasing wines and spirits from across canada and uh there were some
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great reviews i recall that uh more than anything but the one thing that i did note was that uh price
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competitiveness was uh almost the headline uh from everybody who who wrote or or responded to this
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and that was because you know they're the the whole focus was these are great products these are great
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wines and spirits but to get them into this country at a competitive price and uh you know you know up
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against this other brand from france and this other brand from germany and uh it just seemed like an
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impossible market to meet i mean i can't add anything to that beyond the fact that like the the
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producers are jumping up and down trying very hard to shine the spotlight on it but the other thing to
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keep in mind too is i think i think a lot of people think about alcohol and like this is also the global
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shift with how people are are drinking is like once upon a time you know your your liquor cabinet had
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just products from large distillers and i don't want to name any to throw them under the bus but
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you're dealing with you're right but you're dealing with large corporations that provide union jobs and
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make a lot of money for their shareholders but like when you're talking about about craft wine and even
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craft spirits to a certain extent like my company is is four guys like we're that's it we're four guys
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who run the business and then you know whoever we contract our workout to whether they bottle for us or
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sell us or our suppliers like these are small businesses they're mom and pop shops they're
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they're three four four scrappy guys from ontario just trying to make their dream of making wine come
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true we're not we're not a unique story how do you guys do that you got you got two of you loading the
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grapes uh into the vat and two of you stomping the grapes is that uh switch it up fortunately fortunately
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mike um there are machines that were able to rent that take care of more of the the dirty work for
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us but the the structure of the company is two of our partners are are competent winemakers and the
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other two of us take care of the selling of it it's uh okay it's a nice arrangement but i can see that uh
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if we want craft uh product out there in the market we do need to take care of our own i can see
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that that's where i think elbows up becomes most important when it's four guys trying to make great
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product that you couldn't get anywhere else in the world uh by the way if you don't mind sharing with
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us what's the uh what's the wine what's the name uh the name of the company is the 80x wine company
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80x wine.ca is our website uh we called it 80x because all the business partners are born in the
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1980s and the year of the company yeah the year we founded the company um the new york post was blaming
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millennials for the demise of the wine industry much like uh people are doing now so we decided to take
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ownership of it and uh pretty much exactly like i predicted when we founded the company um you know
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our generation is drinking less we're drinking better so you know though i know what i want to
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company is producing as high a quality wine as we can as economically as possible this leads me to
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another question i've been dying to ask you for some time uh even even just away from the show
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you know uh mark walberg's got his own uh tequila now azul uh uh casa azul uh you've got uh george
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clooney with his by the stop mixing me up with george george clooney people uh he's got his own um
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uh tequila i believe uh what's that uh anyway uh uh i i think uh a bunch of uh comedians have their own
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uh sports players there's everybody everybody's got their name on a bottle these days so how do you
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feel about that and and and what's the product like by and large is there is there any sort of like oh
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if it's got somebody famous on the bottle you're gonna want to take a pass or is this pretty good
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product i mean it's it's pure marketing and and you have to you have to hedge your bets on who the
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target market is and what the product is and uh it is it is a minefield right you know like for example
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like the the wine brand 19 crimes um they did a partnership with snoop dog and with martha stewart
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um the martha stewart chardonnay is if you really like oaky chardonnay not terrible and not too
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expensive and um as someone who loves to cook and spend time in the kitchen uh martha stewart is my
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favorite felon i'm a big fan of her the big fan she's a she's a cool felon yeah i also just think
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it's cool how she's just kind of taking ownership of like what's going on um but the same company came
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up with a snoop dog red that was like loaded with sugar crazy high in alcohol and you know it's one
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of those things too where you know as a child of the the 90s it's just like how hard is it to
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to you know if you own a gin company do a gin and juice collab with snoop dog and print money as
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opposed to slapping his face on a wine bottle but on the on the other side of the point on the other
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side of the coin you know um there's a small winery in new zealand called in vivo and they did a
0.95
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partnership with sarah jessica parker you know i enjoyed sex in the city i'm not like the core
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demographic of that but you know she's an actress she's actively involved in the assemblage the final
0.93
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blending of that wine and i remember getting the sample sent to me sipping it in my backyard during the
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summer making some notes being like like holy crap is this good this has way more business um or this
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is no business being as good as it is with a celebrity name attached on it yeah it's it always
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makes me suspect to be honest with you but i have heard that uh um george clooney's which
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george clooney's uh tequila again i gotta look that up i don't i don't know uh it'll come to me while
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we're doing this but i've heard that that and the mezcal both very good uh casamigos that's it yeah
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oh casamigos casamigos is very good stuff uh top shelf top shelf tequila i think a little overpriced
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for what it is but i mean that's the other thing i keep in mind with when i'm i'm shopping brands
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and i think this is just the inherent millennial snob in me is if i'm overpaying for something to pay
00:26:02.960
for the marketing uh i tend to take a pass and try to find a smaller producer that's doing something
00:26:07.920
on a on a comparable level that's a big change i think also as you point out uh the ability to search
00:26:14.400
out understand uh do the research now get a get chat gpt to give you a a pairing suggestion
00:26:21.920
uh and make you more informed i think is also an opportunity of your generation now every generation
00:26:27.600
but not too much gpt make sure you follow me at andre weinerview on social media platforms because
00:26:32.480
you'll get a you'll get personalized recommendations and i offer uh dialogue that chat gpt cannot
00:26:39.680
i will promise you that's true having known andre for many years the dialogue is brilliant i just
00:26:43.840
want you telling people to to to go to the computer uh to to replace the function of us wine writers
00:26:49.360
here no no i i i don't want to do that no i i i understand and the research uh it takes many hours
00:26:55.840
and and uh it's very enjoyable for you but i will say this andre of all the people i've talked to about
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wine um you're really super knowledgeable and unsnobby entirely even the fact that you make your own wine
00:27:08.560
which gets great reviews uh it doesn't seem to uh rattle you into becoming a different guy about
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wine and alcohol you really are looking out for uh the average drinker who who wants to get some good
00:27:21.760
quality product once again toronto life is where you'll find them two guys talking wine is the
00:27:26.320
podcast i would assume that's available everywhere podcasts are everywhere podcasts are available canada's
00:27:31.200
second longest running podcast online i've heard it's the longest running one but you know it's a
00:27:37.760
technicality there that's my opinion uh listen andre i really appreciate this and i hope you join us again
00:27:43.280
uh as we head to spring and uh we start to have a look at the the horizon of what will come out of
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uh the next growing season here in ontario i wish you and your partners great success with your wine thanks like