How to get Ontario wines in Ontario
NOTE: I am not in any way paid to make wine recommendations, or for use of my website to promote Ontario wines. I alone will make decisions as to which suppliers show up on this page. Larry Paterson, May 21, 2007.
It is a sad fact that in Ontario the government run LCBO only supports a very few wineries. Most of the wineries in Ontario do not have sufficient sales channels for their products. In many cases, this means that they are selling for less than they are worth.
The single best thing you can do to get good Ontario wine is to visit your nearest small winery, try their wines, purchase if you like them, and if not, try something else that they sell. Support these people, they are your neighbours, they may hire your niece, or support the charity you work with. They help pay the same taxes you do...
For a brand new and an exciting concept, visit Wine this Week, a weekly release of limited availability wines. I hope, from time to time, to help with the tasting panel for this group, and to help them make connections to rare items from very small wineries. Time will tell, give them a try. My great prayer is that this will become a channel for the smallest producers to sell their best productions throughout the province. See their original press release.
Winery to Home is another source of Ontario wines online, with a track record going back a few years. Much of what they sell is also from the same larger producers that are commonly found at the LCBO, though often wines other than the LCBO standards are available here. Their experts - Tony Aspler, David Lawrason, John Szabo and Zoltan Szabo have a good grasp of the industry to say the least!
Another highly useful way to access limited wines is to visit the websites of the many small wineries across the province, select the product(s) that most appeal to you and order from them directly. When a winery makes the sale themselves, they get about 2/3 of the retail value of the bottle, with the rest headed for taxes. When the LCBO sells a bottle of Ontario wine, taxes remain the same, but the LCBO takes about 1/3 of the retail (more, actually) as a kind of "commission". No wonder they have record profits! Buying directly keeps the monies in the hands of the people who have grown the fruit, made the wine and provided the overall experience.
Please follow my tasting notes to their websites to find out how to order from each producer.