A B.C. ban on U.S. alcohol sales in the province would hurt small wine-import businesses and potentially the Vancouver International Wine Festival, which is set to launch Feb. 22 with the U.S. as the theme region.
B.C. Premier David Eby earlier this week floated the idea that he could direct the province’s monopoly liquor buyer, the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB), to stop purchasing American alcohol if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on a promise to levy 25-per-cent tariffs on all Canadian imports.
All B.C. alcohol sellers must buy their products from the BCLDB. That includes restaurants, pubs, government liquor stores and private liquor or beer and wine stores.
The Canadian government could theoretically ban Canadians from bringing home American alcohol purchased stateside but no official representative has yet floated that idea.
“Our decision not to purchase American alcohol would definitely send a message,” Eby said at a Jan. 21 press conference. “It is one of the things that could be on the table to respond to these tariffs.
A ban on U.S. alcohol sales would particularly hurt B.C.-based wine importers who specialize in bringing U.S. wines to B.C. retail store shelves.
Vintage West Wine & Spirits managing partner Matt Thirlwell said a ban on U.S. alcohol sales would cause widespread job losses in his sector.
“It would be devastating for the industry if this has any kind of long term sticking power,” Thirlwell told BIV.
His 20-employee company generates between 60 and 65 per cent of its revenue from bringing in U.S. wines to sell to retailers via the BCLDB. Government-run liquor stores and private liquor and wine stores carry his products.
Some of his biggest sellers are from California’s Bread and Butter Wines. He generates a cut from all sales, so his revenue goes up when sales volume rises, he explained.
“You absolutely have the potential to put hundreds of people out of work, if not thousands, as well as potentially risking bankrupting companies on the import side of the business,” he said. “I’m not saying that will be true for mine but I’m saying that as a general facto given the weight of the U.S. category.”
BIV crunched numbers to determine that B.C. restaurants, pubs, government stores and private stores bought $128,068,408 worth of U.S. wine in the year ended Sept. 30, which, as of yesterday, was the most recent wholesale data that the BCLDB has released.
Those sales are about 11.65 per cent of the $1,099,417,854 that local wholesale customers spent on all wine in that year.
B.C. is the region that sells the most wine in B.C.: $513,478,964 worth, or 46.7 per cent of all wine wholesales in the province in the year ended Sept. 30.
Thirlwell told BIV that he pays to subscribe to get access to other BCLDB data, which separates Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) wine from what is called cellared in Canada (CIC) wine. VQA wine comes from grapes grown in B.C. while the CIC wine comes from imported and cheaper juice.
That data shows that about 41.6 per cent of the B.C. wine sold is CIC, while about 58.4 is VQA wine.
British Columbians overwhelmingly buy B.C.-made beer already. Local buyers only spent $2,179,702 on U.S. beer wholesales in the year ended Sept. 30. That is about 2.08 per cent of the money B.C. wholesale buyers spent on all beer that year.
In contrast $780,819,659 was spent on B.C. beer wholesales, or 74.86 per cent of the $1,042,990,372 spent on all beer wholesales in that year.
Wholesalers spent much more on American whiskey than that country's beer.
In the year ended Sept. 30, local buyers spent $12,163,340 on American whiskey and $25,720,500 on bourbon, which has specific requirements and almost always comes from Kentucky. That combines to be $37,883,840, or 14.08 per cent of the $268,957,111 spent on all whiskey and whisky, as the Scots spell it, wholesale in the year ended Sept. 30.
Marquis Wine Cellars owner John Clerides told BIV that his store has a significant supply of U.S. wines.
“If that runs out, customers will shift to Italian and French and Spanish and Portuguese and Greek and so on,” he said. “We're good for a little while.”
Ban on U.S. alcohol could complicate the Vancouver International Wine Festival
One thing that remains unclear is how the ban could impact the Vancouver International Wine Festival, which runs Feb. 22 through March 2 and has the U.S. as its theme region.
The festival’s executive director, Harry Hertscheg, was not available for an interview. Neither was U.S. consul general Jim DeHart, whose consulate is involved in the logistics of bringing wine to the festival for events.
BIV asked the wine festival in an email if it had made any contingency plans for the possibility that B.C. would ban U.S. alcohol starting when Trump first made his tariff threats in late November. The wine festival's response did not mention any ways it could pivot. In part the response said that the festival was "continuing our day-to-day work to ensure that Canada’s premier wine festival will be ready to welcome the wine world to Vancouver."
BIV also asked if the wine festival was in contact with the B.C. government to try to get an exemption from any provincial ban on U.S. alcohol.
"We have begun conversations with our stakeholders and will continue our discussions with them as the situation develops," it said.
BIV asked the BCLDB if it might be possible for the wine festival to get an exemption from any ban on U.S. alcohol and it similarly did not make anyone available for an interview. It said in a statement that it would "be premature to speculate on the potential impacts" of a B.C. ban on U.S. alcohol "without first understanding what/if any US tariffs are imposed and what options are available for the province to respond."
Hertscheg last year told BIV that this is the first year that the U.S. has been his festival’s theme region. California has been a theme region on its own, but never the entire country.
He noted that there could be wines from New York state and other states that rarely bring wines to B.C. That has changed because no such wineries wound up being willing to come to the festival. As such, all of the U.S. wineries will be from Washington, Oregon and California.
The festival plans to feature 122 wineries from 15 countries, including 20 wineries from B.C.
