If recent reports are to be believed, the glamorous, booze-soaked life of an official diplomat can only be outshone by the glamorous life of an LCBO employee. Francois Agostini, along with the help of a part-time waitress, allegedly stole more than a million dollars from the LCBO—and he did it by exploiting a program he oversaw for the liquor board that provides booze to diplomats without tax or duty at a savings of up to 40 per cent (who knew?). Over the course of six years, Agostini allegedly conjured fake sales to fake diplomats. An LCBO affidavit says that “approximately $1.6 million worth of product was shipped to the Toronto warehouse…but the proceeds were not remitted.” That product, according to the board, was then sold out of the back of a truck in Stouffville. The LCBO says they’ve fired Agostini and made drastic changes to the diplomat program to prevent future scams. Meanwhile, we’re sure some booze-swilling attachés are more than a little sore at Agostini for blowing their cover. Read the entire story [Global] »
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Remind us never to get in Martin Regg Cohn’s bad books: this weekend, the Toronto Star columnist followed up his recent screed against the LCBO’s pricing policy with a second rant against the board’s business practices. This time, Cohn took the LCBO to task for selling a covetable Lafite Rothschild 2009 at about 30 per cent below international market price. During the run on the Bordeaux that predictably followed, LCBO stores gave preference to longtime customers, which Cohn interpreted as allowing fancy wine-investor types to profit from a tidy bit of arbitrage. Cohn also argued that the LCBO should stop awarding Air Miles because the program is expensive, encourages alcohol consumption and is pretty much unnecessary for the provincial liquor monopoly anyway, since it’s usually used to distinguish a retailer from its competitors. The man’s got a point, but we’d sure miss those reward miles. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
LCBO confirms Ontarians will have to shell out a little extra for certain beers and spirits
Get ready to pay more for your PBR (Image: rob_rob2001)
Sure, we understand that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario sets minimum prices on booze as part of its mandate to promote social responsibility (translation: to stop us from drinking so much that we forget where we live). But sometimes it’s possible to get a little tired of all the tough love. Late last week, mean mommy the provincial liquor monopoly announced it would raise the price of some beer and spirits starting March 1. Read the rest of this entry »
It turns out all that spiked eggnog and mulled wine really adds up—during the holiday rush, Ontarians dropped $51 million at LCBO stores, helping the provincial liquor monopoly finish the year with a record $4.6 billion in net sales, according to a seething column by the Toronto Star’s Martin Regg Cohn. That boils down to $1.56 billion for provincial coffers, which sounds just peachy. Well, until you remember that the province could have netted a whole lot more were it not for the LCBO’s insane idiosyncratic purchasing policy, whereby it actually asks some suppliers to raise their wholesale prices to match the desired retail price. We humbly submit a New Year’s resolution for the LCBO: work on the bargain hunting. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
12 delicious days of Christmas, from candy cane ice pops to yule logs filled with mousse cake
Bannock’s holiday tourtière
This time of year, it takes a strong will not to indulge, whether it be in the beautiful pastries and cakes spilling out of patisserie windows or the drinks at a holiday party. We say, why even try? We’ve rounded up some of our favourites, along with a few other gifts that your food-obsessed friends are sure to love (including one salve for those who’ve indulged just a little too much).
While craft beer fans are still lamenting the takeover of the old Duggan’s space by Molson Coors subsidiary Six Pints Specialty Beer Company, there was one good piece of news for the province’s microbreweries last week. Due to some last-minute intervention by Liberal MPP Grant Crack, licensed liquor delivery services (yes, they exist) will now be able to purchase their beer directly from small brewers, not just from the LCBO or the Beer Store. This was all precipitated by the shutdown of the new delivery service run by Beau’s All-Natural on the day it was supposed to open. What’s more, the incident has sparked a 15-month full-scale review of liquor licensing practices in the province. Some items on the craft brewers’s wish lists no doubt include: an all-craft beer retail store, to escape the Beer Store’s stranglehold and the vagaries of LCBO listings; the ability to share trucks between small breweries to save on shipping costs; and easier access to out-of-province markets. Not earth-shaking stuff, perhaps, but when it comes to liquor control in this province, things proceed only by baby steps. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Seems no one likes overpaying for booze. Following last week’s auditor general report, which brought the LCBO’s unusual pricing policies to light, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association has registered its displeasure, too. In an open letter to Ontario finance minister Dwight Duncan, the CFRA is demanding that restaurant and bar owners be allowed to negotiate wholesale prices with the board. At present, restaurateurs only receive an HST credit, but otherwise pay just as much if not more than consumers would for a given bottle. “We urge you to follow the AG’s lead and undertake a comprehensive review of the antiquated and unfair policies of the LCBO monopoly,” wrote Ron Reaman, vice-president of the Ontario branch. Under the LCBO’s “fixed-pricing” structure, the agency doesn’t haggle with its suppliers, which sometimes means it deliberately pays more than a supplier’s initial offer (confused? See our primer on how it all works). Likewise, it won’t haggle with bulk purchasers, either. For consumers, it’s not much of a choice: overpay at the store or over-overpay at the bar. (In its defense, the agency does claim to offer the lowest retail prices in Canada.) Read the entire story [The Globe and Mail] »
Booze Economics 101: Why the LCBO happily charges more and earns less than it might
(Image: Mike Gifford)
Better grab a bottle of Wild Turkey and sit down before trying to understand this one. In an annual report released on Monday, provincial Auditor General Jim McCarter sank his teeth into a policy that makes the Liquor Control Board of Ontario pay more than it has to for wholesale booze—sometimes even demanding the privilege. You’d imagine the LCBO, as one of the largest purchasers of alcohol in the world, could, if it wanted to, use its clout to get lower wholesale prices, thereby reaping greater profits for provincial coffers or passing those savings on to consumers. Instead, it ascribes to a mystifying stratagem that brought on the Toronto Sun headline “Welcome to Suckerville, Ontario.”
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David Lawrason reveals his holiday wine buying strategy, along with nine of his favourite festive bottles
What are the best holiday dinner wines? This is a question I get every year, usually at the 11th hour when the asker is dashing off to the LCBO, only to find the selection depleted and the lineups winding back into the beer fridges. To those pathologically last-minute shoppers, I say break the cycle: shop early and shop once. With a little planning and a few extra dollars, you can put together a collection of wines that will make the evening truly remarkable. I’ve chosen nine of my favourites, including an award-winning Ontario bubbly for welcoming guests, bird-perfect pairings and a mellow sipper for after the feast has been demolished. They’re all excellent options for toasting the season of giving and gluttony. Read the rest of this entry »
Latest batch of Samuel Adams Utopias beer sells out in under an hour—at $115-per-bottle
Last Friday, starting at 9 a.m., the LCBO made 150 bottles of Samuel Adams Utopias beer available to the public, with another 60 orders held for liquor licensees. Made from a blend of various batches of beer, some aged for up to 18 years, and weighing in at 27 per cent alcohol, the brew has achieved cult status. Indeed, as Crystal Luxmore explained last week in The Grid, 1,675 people entered last year’s lottery to win one of a mere 70 bottles.
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Weekend Reading List: top stories from our sister sites, from runway panache to butternut squash
Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.
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Why Greek wines are about to become the next big thing
Greek wines are as intriguing as their popular French and Italian counterparts, and they’re half the price
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Pine-scented retsina has left a bitter taste with many wine drinkers, but Greek wine has moved on, and it’s poised to become the next big thing, with more Greek labels making their way into trendy restaurants beyond the Danforth. More than 300 indigenous grapes are grown in the country’s 28 wine-growing appellations, which are home to more than 650 wineries. And the quality and value has only been getting better over the last 10 years. The new Greek wines combine the firm acid and mineral structure of many European wines with the ripe, bright fruitiness often found in hotter New World regions. The country’s core strength is aromatic yet steely whites, like moschofilero and assyrtiko, that will appeal to riesling and gewürztraminer fans. Lighter-weight, complex reds like xinomavro and agiorgitiko are similar to pinot noir and Italian nebbiolo. The LCBO’s selection is still meagre, but Vintages carries some excellent-value bottles, while Kolonaki Group, an Ontario-based Greek wine specialist, offers great buys by the case. Here, nine bottles worth trying, even if you’re not serving souvlaki.
Chris Nuttall-Smith on the craft-brewing movement that’s taking over Toronto
Bar Volo is the spiritual home to many of Ontario’s best beer makers (Image: Igor Yu)
In a dingy former office at the back of Great Lakes Brewery in Etobicoke, nine waist-high, 50-litre fermenters gently burble with what might be some of the most interesting beers ever brewed in Ontario, spitting out carbon dioxide and foam through clear plastic tubes as the yeast in the liquid does its work. There’s a ginger-goosed Belgian saison in the canister marked Ginga Ninja, while the sweet, fragrant, whitish brew in the one called Bag ’O Mango is feeding on a couple of kilograms of chopped fresh fruit. Mike Lackey, Great Lakes’ ball-capped and goateed experimental brewer, has also got a couple of wheat beers going (one of which is marked Miami Weiss), plus four hop-addled, bitter-edged, high-alcohol India Pale Ales (including RoboHop, My Bitter Wife and The Etobichoker) and a cloudy, oaky, slightly cheesy and intensely sour beer—one of the first of its kind in Canada—that’s made with lactobacillus yogurt bacteria and a finicky wild yeast called brettanomyces. (That one is named Heavy Bretting.)
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Introducing: The Beer Boutique, something just a little bit different from the Beer Store
Liberty Village’s new Beer Boutique is the Beer Store’s attempt to craft a more welcoming retail environment (Image: Leo Petaccia)
With the rise of craft breweries, Ontario drinkers have been clamouring for access to a wider variety of brews. The Beer Boutique, which officially opened on Tuesday in Liberty Village, is the Beer Store’s answer to that demand (and to the LCBO’s steady erosion of their market dominance). Targeted at beer drinkers both discerning and recently re-educated, the idea is to turn grabbing a Friday-night sixer into a legitimate shopping experience, perhaps with a a quick lesson in beer appreciation thrown in on the side. According to Ted Moroz, president of the Molson-Coors-Labatt-Sleeman joint venture, “The store was created from listening to our urban consumers who told us they wanted a space where they can learn about new beers, as well sample and enjoy food pairings.”
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Nine West Coast wines that are flying off the shelves
(Image: Jack Dylan)
California wine has always had a certain easygoing appeal, and the region’s big-ticket bottles have been a staple in collectors’ cellars for the last three decades. In my opinion, however, they’ve also suffered from excess—they’re too expensive, too candy-coated, too oaky and too hot on the finish. I get angry when I taste a $300 Napa Valley icon wine and discover it barely deserves 90 points—the quality doesn’t match the price. But a new generation of California winemakers is breaking away from tradition and working with new blends and grape varieties. Regions like Mendocino County, the Sonoma Coast and Paso Robles, which typically live in the shadow of Napa and Sonoma, are producing wine that’s more refined, better balanced and much more affordable (in the $20 to $40 range). This improvement, combined with a strong Canadian dollar, has boosted sales at the LCBO’s Vintages stores, where, for the first time ever, California wines are outselling those from Italy and France. In 2010, they brought in $70.8 million, which is a 21.5 per cent increase from 2009 and accounts for a fifth of all Vintages sales. I recently tasted several dozen of these top sellers and picked the best of the bunch.
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