B.C. winemakers fight for shelf space at liquor stores
The Okanagan has been dubbed the "Napa of the North" — but many of B.C.'s wineries are struggling to get a spot on the shelf at local liquor stores.
There are nearly 300 wineries in the province — the most in all of Canada. But unless you decide to go on a wine-tasting tour through the Okanagan valley, a lot of products aren't within reach.
"[B.C.] makes, in a good vintage, two million cases of wine [each year], and it's really hard to get attention and shelf space in the government stores or the private stores," said wine instructor DJ Kearney on CBC's BC Almanac.
"What that means is that consumers don't have quite the choice of 273 wineries, and wines just really, really fight for attention from consumers," she said.
The government-run B.C Liquor Store is the primary distributor of alcoholic beverages in the province. But for producers to get into their stores, they need to offer a steady and reliable stream of their products so shelves stay consistent.
For wineries trying to get their foot in the door, the conditions can be a challenge. And that doesn't include the plethora of other wines — both domestic and international — they have to compete with.
"You really are competing against the entire world," said Rhys Pender, owner of Little Farm Winery in the Similkameen Valley.
"There's hundreds of wineries making dozens of wines, and that's just the local wines — we've got the whole international world we're up against as well."
According to Pender, less than a fifth of all the wine sold in B.C. comes from provincial wineries, and selling consumers on your product is all part of the agony and ecstasy of wine-making.
"That's probably the hardest part — if you think about the wine business, you're in farming, you're in production, you're in marketing, you're in sales — you're in every different field," he said.
"That sales part can really be a challenge for a lot of people."
With files from CBC's BC Almanac
To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: Wine-making: the agony and the ecstasy
