essex wine report

I certainly hope The Star mis-represented the meeting this weekend between the wineries and the provincial government. Let me preface my remarks by pointing out that we have two senior cabinet ministers from our area (Pupatello and Duncan) and a very powerful ex-federal cabinet minister Ms Whelan who undoubtedly still has some favors owed in Ottawa.

What does this get us? The square root of **** all. Oh the other minister (from Niagara by the way) had no sympathy to the request that we may get some off premises licenses. Oh there are many in Niagara, but we can't get them. Oh yes I forgot....Nafta issue. Sure we couldn't get something from the Americans, like in Appellation wine stores. Just too hot an issue I guess.

Let's get to reality. The LCBO makes so much money for the province that they will not sacrifice it one iota. Why should they sacrifice their $8 mark up and help wineries and farmers......Where is Eugene Whelan's legacy????

This isn't funny. I remember a certain wine consultant share with me how the old old store on Dougall was the #2 Vintages. Was he promoted for his good work????? Nope he was fired. Can't have greasy haired Windsorites ( I heard that one from a beautiful Toronto person who claimed that her hair got greasy driving through Windsor) buying more wine than the beautiful people. So now we have a wine region. Does the province do anything to help. Not a bit. Check out their own literature. Prince Edward County gets infinitely more coverage But we win awards. So all the money they suck out of us at the LCBO is more valuable than growing a new industry. Good work Dwight!!! Good work Sandra!!!

I just did a little research at my local store. Not a lot of Ontario wine but a fair amount of Pelee Island and some Colio. Boy shouldn't it be 70% local. At the Roundhouse its much the same. But then again if I owned a winery I wouldn't want to lose money selling to the government. As a result many wineries refuse to sell to the government.

If we had real representation, who actually cared about creating jobs and helping their constituents, they would be fighting tooth and nail for Appellation Wine stores that sell the local wines within the Appellation at rates which make the wineries money. Here's the rub... LCBO would lose wine sales as they mark stuff up so much one would be hard pressed not to buy local. Nafta....yeah right we trade them some trees and some fish and they are all happy....this is nothing to the Americans. It is so tired and just so easy to blame Americans for all of our problems

But I just can't see this adversely affecting the LCBO overall revenues (we just don't have enough people) but it would certainly make some people's live a whole lot simpler. Don't for a second think the wineries wouldn't want to be on LCBO shelves, but they can't afford what the LCBO will pay for the wine. I really think that the LCBO deserve 60% of the selling cost....don't you????. That's really helping us replace lost auto jobs isn't it.

I am dreaming of the day that I can walk into a store (just like the stores in Niagara) and get some local wine, with all of them represented, so I don't have to use up a whole day to get my wine. I want all the wineries to make a lot of money and help rebuild our economy. It is so sad that so many Windsorite who drink a lot of wine (we were #2 remember) know nothing of what we make and when they get some they are happy. But with our current representation, this just won't happen. If we were an hour from Toronto this may be totally different.

Am I advocating voting Tory...nope they did nothing for us for years. Maybe we should succeed from Ontario and have our own province. We couldn't be treated worse.