Maybe in Alberta, but not here in BC. BC has among the highest prices for wine in the western world. Wines coming in to the province are marked up 125%. There is no wholesale pricing for restaurants, so they mark these prices up another 1-200%. Plus there’s minimal available in the way of any back vintages. BYO here has been a godsend.
BC wines can be fine, but for the most part are not to be confused with anything world class. Even though they price themselves that way.
I knew a Canadian couple, she loved wine, he didn’t drink. After trips to Napa Valley, he would carry her wine and when asked if had any alcohol to declare simply replied that he didn’t drink.
We have driven from Washington into B.C. at Osoyoos, and while we were not taking wine in, since that is Canadian Wine Country and our purpose was to taste the local wines, we did get rejected for fire wood and produce. An Onion seemed to be the biggest culprit.
As far as quality on the wines in/from BC, we found several that we thought were worthy, albeit there was certainly a process needed for separating the good from the bad, much easier to do on the tasting trail than staring at a wine list or shopping in Whistler.
It has been a few years but our favorite producers were Fairview Cellars, Road 13, and Lake Breeze.
FWIW, bringing B.C. wine back into the U.S. is easier than getting U.S. wine IN. The tariff for personal amounts is (or was) a couple of bucks per bottle.
The last time I heard from friends from Ontario, every point made above applies to the Ont.
And, as has been noted in many other threads, the US Customs usually can’t be bothered to charge the duties, even on a case or two.
I’m not doubting that there are many good wines in Canada (and I liked most wines that I had last time I visited there, choosing to buy exclusively Canadian wines throughout my visit), but really, the proof is in the pudding. If Canadian wines were so good and such good value compared to what you can buy in the USA, they would not be imposing a 100% tariff, searching people’s cars at the border, enforcing these wine retail monopolies, and so forth. It wouldn’t be necessary.
I don’t say that as a knock on Canada, which I generally admire a great deal, but I’m just saying the fact that Canada takes the aggressive actions it does to prop up its domestic wine industry and to keep out competition from across the border pretty much answers your question.
Chris - You’re right. And before NAFTA, everything was protected (remember “Slightly higher in Canada”).
The retail monopolies are a separate matter. That’s just about provincial revenue, as it is in states that have state monopolies. Pennsylvania isn’t protecting the local winemakers.
I don’t drink a lot of BC wine because it’s always performed badly for the money for me, and maybe I’m missing out with this attitude, but I don’t care. Give me French or Italian wine at half the price any day and I’ll never bore of it in my lifetime. And the few Canadian ITB people I talk with about this subject agree that BC wine is underwhelming and overpriced compared to the world market.
And if you go in to any store in Alberta, there is very minimal BC or Canadian wine selection. US, France, Italy, S. America, Australia and even Germany and Spain are obviously outselling BC wine. Which is great from my point of view.
Americans can bring back cases of wine from Canada, but why would you? And Canadians can’t bring back anything of note from the US.
I know this takes it up about 1,000 degrees of magnitude, but it’s kind of like looking at East Germany and West Germany, or North Korea and South Korea. Which direction did they go to draconian lengths to keep you from emigrating, versus which direction would there be no reason to bother trying to stop anyone from emigrating? People in Ivy League dorm hallways would idly debate which is a better country or form of government/society, but it didn’t take much to look and see what the people who actually lived in those countries thought.
Again, I don’t mean to imply this has any of that seriousness, but it’s just a way you can quickly see what is really the case.
Canada is very sensitive about any and all imports from the US and that’s not dependent on quality, just protection from being overrun by the uncivilized hoards to the south. There are laws governing how much US tv can be shown and very strong attitudes about Americans who might think of moving there (as I was informed when I tried many years ago! ha!) I won’t attempt to argue wine quality with the pros here but I’d put my favorite Tantalus Rieslings up against the US equivalent any day.
The comparison of Canada to North Korea is pretty amazing though … Harper and Jung-Un? separated at birth?
I’m learning so much about my country from all of you. Wonderful stuff.
Well, I think the selection is very good in this Edmonton store. Just click on various spots!
http://devinewines.ca/productList.html?minPrice=&maxPrice=&minRating=&maxRating=
Trade laws usually have more to do with money and politics than the quality of the product. I don’t think your analogy applies, Chris.
Actually, there was a time in the 60s when Americans were flocking north.
Because the ice wines are excellent and the Chardonnay is pretty decent in good years. I’m speaking of Niagara wines, as I’ve not had any BC wines.
I cannot fathom why a US citizen would bring back Canadian wine with them after a trip. Canadian wine has to be about the worst value of any wine producing region in the world.
That’s relative. I would say the same thing about Burgundy, and there would be plenty of people I know and those on this list that would jump all over that comment.
With ice wine, I don’t think a lot of the quality producers in Niagara are a bad value compared with their German ice wine counterparts, or looking at other sweet wines such as Sauternes.
The dry table wines are certainly another story. I’m not sold on the ability for Niagara to do quality Pinot Noir or Gamay. The Chardonnay in great years is actually pretty good and not that expensive for an ageable wine. The other stuff like Riesling, I’m not so sure.
Maybe I’m missing out, but I just want to bring my wines that I have collected and cellared on my vacation. I don’t have much of a desire to branch out or experiment. I would rather just drink what I know I like and already have.
This discussion has me torn as to whether to try and add a couple of bottles in my car.
Chris - It makes perfect sense to bring what you can. You probably don’t want to spend your time trying to find the best BC wines while you’re at Whistler – assuming the available selection up there is decent. You have to work hard to find the good producers even in Vancouver.
Nothing to fear with bringing a few more than two per adult, Chris. If you are asked how much you have, which is unlikely since you are an American visiting Canada, tell them exactly how much you have and they will just wave you through. It’s not worth their time and you’re not a target for taxation/duty like a returning Canadian is.
Not that it should matter, but you might want to stick with bringing up affordable/value wines.
Hope you enjoy Whistler.