{"id":3333,"date":"2010-04-02T00:03:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T04:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=3333"},"modified":"2021-05-07T16:58:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T20:58:17","slug":"qotd-the-kgbo-er-i-mean-lcbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2010\/04\/02\/qotd-the-kgbo-er-i-mean-lcbo\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: The KGBO, er, I mean LCBO"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Because we live under a monopoly regime that has no intention of loosening restrictive laws, we will never see \u201cwine bar\/stores\u201d like this. Americans are jaded to these luxuries of free market access to wine and loads of selection. You read magazines where they tell you to talk with your retailer about finding the best wines from out of theway places and dedicated small producers, and the knowledgeable Ontarian\u2019s reaction is \u201cYeah, right not in my lifetime will I see that.\u201d While in the U.S. the \u2018little guy\u2019 whose passion for wine you can feel the moment you walk in the door and engage in a \u201cwhich wine should I get\u201d conversation. A recent discussion with an ex-pat American wine collector and drinker (just recently moved north of the 49th parallel) elicited disgust about the LCBO and its selection. \u201cI\u2019m from Chicago,\u201d he tells me, \u201cand I can\u2019t find a decent bottle of wine up here and the selection is . . .\u201d he trails off and shakes his head. Ontarians are used to it. We\u2019ve grown up with Big Brother\u2019s iron fist clamped firmly around our throat and his sweaty palm covering our eyes to what the world outside our borders is doing with booze (wine in particular).<\/p>\n

I usually urge you to take a trip to wine country, but this year I want you to take a trip abroad, not to a wine country or region, but to a U.S. wine retailer or specialty shop, a grocery store will do in a pinch (yes I did say a grocery store). Check out, not only the selection but the price, what\u2019s on sale and for how much, wines for under $4, 2 for 1, 3 for 1 or sometimes more for one low price. Discounts for multiple purchases, sale prices that actually seem like you are saving money and not just a dollar or two off. Pay attention to what you see, then ask yourself, \u201cwhy don\u2019t we have that here in Ontario?\u201d You know the answer, it stares at you with big white letters on a big green background and they go by a four-letter acronym (do I really have to spell it out?) How about this, their first letters are L.C., although they should be K.G. If you are any kind of oenophile, be it novice or pro, you\u2019ll realize that a trip across the border is enthralling and liberating — but then it\u2019s back to the oppressive world of Ontario with Big Brother\u2019s hands shielding you and stopping you and then you tell me honestly, which system would you like to live under?<\/p>\n

Michael Pinkus, “Is it a Shop or is it a Bar? Whichever it is, I want one here”, Ontario Wine Review<\/em><\/a>, 2010-04-01<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because we live under a monopoly regime that has no intention of loosening restrictive laws, we will never see \u201cwine bar\/stores\u201d like this. Americans are jaded to these luxuries of free market access to wine and loads of selection. You read magazines where they tell you to talk with your retailer about finding the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,9,41,131],"tags":[395,469,87],"class_list":["post-3333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucracy","category-cancon","category-law","category-quotations","category-wine","tag-lcbo","tag-monopolies","tag-ontario"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-RL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65596,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions\/65596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}