Corey Pierce

For thousands of Calgarians, packing up the car and heading west to the sunny Okanagan Valley is what summer is all about. At only a half-day drive, the Okanagan is an ideal getaway, boasting hot weather, big lakes and, more recently, great wine. The food and wine scene in the Okanagan Valley has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade and today boasts some terrific restaurants that focus entirely on local wines. For many, these restaurants (combined with visits to favourite wineries) have been an eye-opener to the high quality of B.C. wines. It’s no wonder that sales have soared back in Calgary.

This growth has not come without some pain. The price discrepancy between wines purchased in B.C. and those bought back in Alberta is marked – many costing 50 per cent more when purchased here. This seems a little odd when you consider that Alberta is the only fully private wine market in Canada, and there is no question we boast the best selection at the lowest prices, except that is, when it comes to the wines of our own country.

The major reason for this seems to be that B.C. wineries have enjoyed so much success from their cellar door sales that they see no reason to offer their wines to importers at a wholesale price, which would make them competitive in the Alberta market. Most offer a meagre discount to liquor businesses — perhaps 10 per cent — leaving importers and retailers with slim profit margins. At the cellar door, wineries maximize their profits by marking up their wine from production costs straight to retail levels, but this strategy is dependent on the customer coming directly to them. If the winery doors were to stop swinging open, B.C. wineries would seem to have little in place for marketing their wines elsewhere. Regardless, Albertans are left either buying them at the source and smuggling them back home, or paying a premium for them at Alberta wine stores.

Yet Calgarians seem to have an unquenchable thirst for B.C. wines and apparently don’t mind paying the premium. With the current economic slowdown, one has to wonder if this is a sustainable position. With top B.C. wines now selling for well over $50 a bottle, Alberta consumers may just start looking sideways to see what else is available. A $50 B.C. wine has some serious competition here from stalwarts like France, Italy, Spain, California and Australia — and these wines have proven track records. There is no question the quality of B.C. wines has improved, but has it really caught up with the world’s best? It’s tough to back a wine that is designed to sell for 30 bucks when it’s sitting on the shelf for over 50.

There is no question that Canadians are great patriots — we have proven this with unyielding devotion to our local wine producers. With so many of us trying to live more sustainably and make better use of local products, B.C. wines seem like a great idea. However, it might just be time that those wineries made drinking locally a little easier to swallow.