From our Jan. 26, 2010 edition

We all know that when it comes to buying wine, or any other alcohol in this province, the only game in town is the LCBO. Over the last number of years, privatization of the monopoly has been talked about, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon. Therefore, familiarize yourself with all the ways it offers you to buy wine. Aside from local producers who can sell their wine at the winery, or for a select few, who because of their licence and when they obtained it, can sell through off-premise boutiques, all the rest, especially imports, must be sold through the monopoly. Here are your options.

First and foremost is the General List. This is the main retail outlet of the monopoly. Wine that gets listed here is somewhat commercial and must be available in large volume. Smaller producers will not find this the way to go, as they simply cannot supply the quantities needed for this outlet. The General List can be very lucrative for wine agents because, with a good commercial product and high sales, they stand to make more money as larger producers usually have huge advertising budgets to help promote them.

An interesting note about General List wines is that as long as sales quotas are met, regardless of vintage changes on bottles, the wine continues to be sold. Thus, one year could be great while the next mediocre, yet the product remains on the shelves. Restaurateurs and hoteliers will utilize some product from this venue for their wine lists.

Then there is Vintages, which is a specialty division. Here, limited availability, small production, specialty and niche market items are sold. This is a great venue for smaller producers who don’t produce the volume that the General List demands. It’s also a great “proving ground” for certain wines. If a wine can do well here, then it might make the leap to the General List. However, if it does, more volume is required and quality might suffer. I’ve seen this happen numerous times.

Unlike the General List where vintage changes don’t affect listings, here in Vintages for most wines, each vintage is tasted for quality and reconsidered separately. There are a number of products called ‘Vintages Essentials’ which have proven themselves over the long haul and are always available, regardless of vintage change. In this venue, more support from the agent is required, as well. The monopoly expects the agent to be out at restaurants, hotels, clubs, etc. pumping the product, trying to get them to list the wine on their menus. Many licencees utilize lots of product from Vintages for their wine lists, because the inventory is always changing.

The Consignment Warehouse is an interesting concept. Here, each agent is allowed to bring into the LCBO warehouse a certain number and volume of product that they are directly responsible for selling to licencees and consumers over a specific timeframe. These are unusual and rare wines, often with extremely limited production and availability, not sold through any of the monopoly’s other outlets. The main drawback is that there is no retail outlet or actual list of product available to the public. The consumer basically has to approach agents to find out what they have. Numerous licencees purchase wine this way for their wine lists.

Finally, there is Private Stock. Anyone can order a wine from anywhere in the world through the LCBO that is not available in any of its outlets. You simply provide the monopoly with the product name, producer’s address and contact information, buy at least a case and pay for all the taxes, freight, etc. You’ll probably have to pay a deposit and the remainder when the product arrives. It could take months but this service is available to you.

Catch Doc's weekly radio Wine Features on Boom 97.3 (formerly EZ Rock) on the FM dial every Wednesday between 5:15 and 5:30 pm.