Hi all

Don't get me wrong, I'm no wine snob, but I do like a nice bottle of french wine, or decent Italian, come to that, especially the lighter reds. I find the New world wines very heavy and headache-inducing!!

Question is, how much of a range of European wines can you get in the average LBO? From what I remember on past 'stocking-up' visits with friends, there is a lot of generic Australian/ Chilean, US wine, but not much from smaller vineyards, let alone tasty little french ones.

I am sure there are places that import french wine, but surely it becomes VERY expensive?

Is it worth joining some kind of wine club before we emmigrate? And is it worth sticking loads of bottles into our shipping container? If so, how many am I allowed?...!

Any advice gratefully received!

Snowqueen (only 1 day after PPR and as you can see I'm getting my priorities straight!)

hiya from rainy houston...we much prefer the french red wines however like you said they can run a tad expensive certainly the way we down them the chilean reds come a very close second...don't rate the nth american wines at all...lol they don't even know what a true champagne is...so sad..lol besides red vino we love tattinger champers and so prior to our move took a trip to rheims to stock up at tattinger after first checking with our removers that we could bring in alcohol to houston. it was not until our container was sailing the seven seas heading toward houston that our shipping agent called and said they had made a mistake, no alcohol into texas our container was practically full of tattinger stock..lol luckily we managed to get it off loaded at Louisiana the stop before ours and then had it brought across the border...and so to answer part of your question, pls do first check with your shipping agent

In Ontario, the LCBO are the only importer of wine. As, they claim, the world's largest buyers of wines and spirits, they can get hold of pretty much anything they want. LCBO's vary enormously in what they carry in stock. They tend to stock what the local population wants (they do a lot of post code surveys at the checkouts to see what items are popular and where).

I've found most to have a pretty good selection of French wines. They have a website.

You can probably bring in as much as you want. You'll have to pay the duty on it, though. The shipping could also work out expensive. They go by weight.

So long as you're in Toronto there's a pretty good selection. I go to Queen's Quay or Summerhill where they have big stores. Once you get out of town, and especially when you get to places where the LCBO agent is also the gas station, the choice is dismal. The liquor prices are outrageous everywhere in Ontario but then the only retailer is the government, NS is even worse. We mainly buy in the US and pay the duty, wine from the 7/11 ends up at about the same price as the LCBO while wine from the discount warehouses is much cheaper. Single malts are, literally, half the LCBO price where we buy them in the US. btw, the Duty Free stores are very little help, as they don't have any selection to speak of.

I would bring anything you have for which you produce the original receipt. Vintage wines are a problem here as the LCBO gets all bent out of shape if there's no proof of manufacturer ; a quirk of the bootlegging laws.

Where are you on California Zins? Some of those are light, good, and sensibly priced here.

But, to cover their huge staff, the high wages and the benefits they have to charge a bundle and they only import things that appeal to their buyers. It's a good arrangement for the LCBO but not for the public.

The SAQ isn't much better. Pimm's? Long Island Iced Tea? Madiera? Not much call for it around here, so you can't have it. Tart fuel? Sure. See aisles 7 through 26.

'shti de tabernac!

Maybe you would like to join the Opimian Society. We used to belong and I am thinking about rejoining. You can take a look here

http://www.opim.ca/

They do have meetings but we never went. We just ordered wine.

We joined the German Wine Society and belonged to that for years. If you are interested in wine you might check to see if there is a chapter where you live. We really enjoyed it.

Thanks liz for that link, and thanks all for your advice. I will obvioulsy have to check out the range locally and maybe stick some decent bottles (keeping the receipts!) into our container as well. I don't have an vintage wine to bring. Anything we had been keeping has been quiety consumed already!

Wine is expensive in Ireland too - most drinkable stuff is bout ten euro a bottle, but I tend to go for promotions and stuff when a 15 euro bottle is selling for 10. That way I get more bang for my buck. Suppose those kind of promotions/offers also happen in LCBO's?

Thanks
SQ

There are some promotions like that, not very many though. Usually they just knock a buck off twenty-five dollar bottles but two weeks ago I saw a Chilean cab discounted from $27 to $9.95. I bought all they had.

I have to add that I often think French wines are over-rated. When we did blind tastings at the German Wine society - which did not always consist of only German wines - we often liked cheaper wines from other countries better. I think there is a lot of snob value in French wines. There are some really good Canadian Wines. We like Iniskillen and Pelee Island and some of the Okanagan wines are really good too.

Not surprisingly. The Chileans produce some great stuff.

Choice and prices are pathetic at most LCBO stores. Since we go to the US regularly, we always bring back our 2 bottle duty free limit purchased at one of the excellent liquor stores there. Prices are a much as half what they are at the LCBO and the selection is much better once you find where the good stores are located. If you go to Niagara Falls, be sure to check out SuperMarket Liquors & Wines as it is really a great store. http://www.smlonline.com/