All but a handful of BC wineries sell their wares within the
Provincial borders and even fewer truly have the volume to make Canada-wide
sales necessary, let alone worldwide sales. With more and more wineries and
vineyards starting production each year it may one day be inevitable that the
BC market will become saturated with home-grown product and force wineries to
look abroad to sell their wares, but only if that market’s consumption of local
wine doesn’t also grow, which it seems to be doing each year based on BC WineInstitute stats.
I think the real discussion about foreign markets is about
what to get them interested in importing from BC. A handful of icon wine labels
like Mission Hill’s Oculus? A luxury item like Icewine? Or unique expressions
of familiar varieties? For me, the answer lies behind door number 3.
Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Riesling and
Chardonnay are all popular, familiar varieties that perform consistently well
in BC’s cool climate wine regions and showcase the unique flavours of the BC
terroir. BC will never be able to complete with the likes of Chile or Australia
in producing, for example, an easy-drinking, variety-representing, (though
virtually indistinguishable) $15 bottle of Shiraz. And why should they with comparable land and
labour force costs being what they are? But does this mean that BC wines offer
no value to the consumer in their home market? No, the $20-30 range offers
great value.
Given the uninspired selection of big-brand, generic imports
that flood the BC market I maintain that, more often than not, $20-25 spent on
a local wine is worth $30-40 spent on an import when the worth of perceptible terroir is placed at a premium above
accessibility or affordability. The BC government tariff on imported wine is a
stiff 117% mark-up, meaning that a $40 import was likely about $20 in its home
market unless discounts were applied.
However, when the same $25 bottle of BC wine is viewed as an
exported product, the question of value must be reevaluated. Tariffs generally work
both ways, plus one must factor in the cost of shipping and distribution. $25
may become $40 pretty quickly unless a massive wholesale discount is applied
and when the wine has demand locally, what truly is motive for offering a
discount in order to make it affordable elsewhere?
Does BC produce world class wines? Yes, I believe we do. But
at what cost will the world be willing to import the unique flavours achievable
in BC? Feedback from the Wine Bloggers’ Conference may begin to help answer
that, but it will likely take years to make a meaningful entry into foreign
markets – should we even want to.
- Liam Carrier ©copyright 2013 IconWines.ca
