A Huge Collective "Phew!"

I kinda thought I might venture back into the blogosphere during this year, but there's no possibility that my Bingo Card would ever have suggested that my first post would find me reflecting on American tariffs and how they might affect the upcoming Vancouver International Wine Festival.

The Vancouver Festival likes to refer to itself as being "Canada's premier wine show and widely considered to the best wine event in North America." This year is going to be its 46th edition and they expect 122 wineries from 15 countries to participate. Each year, the Festival has a feature region and this year's region is to be the United States and, in particular, the wines of California, Oregon and Washington. 

Since the Festival is set to start just over a couple of weeks, all the planning has long been in place. I'd be willing to bet a case of wine, however, that, as those plans were being made, none of the organizers were considering the possibility of a certain president (who shall not be named) making a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods a major plank of his first 100 days in office.

Everyone in this country knows that there's been a last-minute, 30 day reprieve on the introduction of tariffs; however, that didn't prevent a lot of musing as to what might happen if, indeed, the tariff had been introduced. Both the British Columbia provincial government and the Canadian federal government had published intended responses. 

In fact, news got out that the BC government and the province's monopoly liquor buyer, the BC Liquor Distribution Branch "BCLDB"), had already decided to stop buying American alcohol. Taking things a step further, they started immediately removing all product from the five biggest selling American brands in the province - Jack Daniels, Bacardi, Tito's, Jim Beam and Bulleit. The remaining product lines would remain on the shelves until all inventory had been depleted.

There was no commentary forthcoming from either the province or the Wine Festival as to how this might affect this year's festival though. It might prove difficult to feature American wines when American wines were no longer being allowed into the country.

Then, as more news became available, it was announced that BC was only going to target states governed by Republican leadership. Wine from blue states like California, Oregon and Washington would be safe for the time being. Yay! 

I couldn't even think of any wines in our market that hail from red states. When I took a look at the list of products that would no longer be imported by the BCLDB, there actually were about a half dozen wines from two wineries in Arizona - Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyard - and three from Lone Star Winery in Texas. Maybe there's a couple restaurants specializing in BBQ or southwestern cuisine who bring in those specific wines but I can't say that I've ever heard of, seen or tasted any of them.

I did find it interesting that the provincial boycott list included three wines from Georgia. I think they mistook the country for the state however.

That Blue State reprieve, at least, made it appear that the Wine Festival wouldn't be affected by the new tariffs. 

Or did it?

The federal government's tariffs could still kick in and they propose a 25% tariff on ALL wine coming in from the US - whether the grapes were blue or red. That wouldn't exactly make those featured wines bargains to be fought over. Indeed, I already tend to avoid American wines in our market. Not because I don't like the wines. I just don't like the prices. With the widening exchange rate between the American and Canuck bucks, those American wines just seem to exceed my budget. I might have splurged some with the Festival wines but an extra 25% would definitely place even more wines out of reach.

So, as the heading suggests, I'm hoping that the delayed introduction of tariffs - even if it is only for 30 days - will leave the Wine Festival, its events and its prices at the same levels they would have been even if the US hadn't voted orange last November. Good thing the Festival wasn't in April.