While drinking a bottle of wine over a nice dinner at home it is easy to regale oneself with thoughts of an idyllic landscape of undulating hills covered in vines where the grapes soak up the sun in preparation of delivering their delicious nectar to your palate.

It is easy to forget that wine must travel through a series of links in a supply chain that extends from the cellar door of the winery, to the truck that carries the wine to the docks, to the shipping container slowly making its way across the ocean, and then into the local distribution warehouse, which then processes orders from and delivers to retailers.

Thus, experiencing a taste of bottled Tuscan sunshine in your home in Vancouver is a far different experience than drinking it at the winery, and each part of the supply chain process can impact both the quality and the healthfulness of the seemingly innocent bottle sitting on your dinner table.

How does the shipping of wine have anything to do with your health? Let’s take a closer look.

Do You Like Carcinogens in Your Wine?: Understanding Ethyl Carbamate

In 2007 and 2008 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a scientific opinion on the impact of ethyl carbamate and hydrocyanic acid in food and beverages.[¹] Ethyl carbamate and its precursor hydrocyanic acid occur naturally in fermented foods and alcoholic beverages including wine, spirits and beer. Previous studies have already established that ethyl carbamate is a carcinogen in animals and is probably carcinogenic in humans.[²]

Ethyl carbamate occurs in wine as a natural by-product of the fermentation process. In particular, the use of certain substances for yeast nutrients and particular strains of yeast impact the concentration of this chemical. However, in all cases, the formation of ethyl carbamate increased exponentially at elevated temperatures, prompting the EFSA to find that controlling the temperature of a liquor or wine bottle is essential to reducing the concentration of the dangerous chemical in the final product ingested by consumers.[³]

The EFSA study found that consumption of alcoholic beverages including wine introduced an increased risk of cancer in humans and concluded that “mitigation measures should be taken to reduce the levels of ethyl carbamate in certain alcoholic beverages.”

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) contributed significant data to the EFSA study based on a concern for the health of the Ontarians to which it sold liquor. Since the findings of the study the LCBO has implemented measures to reduce the concentration of ethyl carbamate in liquor sold to its customers.

There is also federal legislation that sets maximum permissible limits of ethyl carbamate of 30 parts per billion (ppb) for wine, 100ppb for fortified wine, 150ppb for distilled spirits and 400ppb for fruit brandies.

Of Provenance and Parsimony: Temperature in Sea Containers

Wine is a fragile thing. When exposed to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius the quality of a wine can be altered negatively after only a very short exposure of a few hours. Even at temperatures over 25 degrees Celsius, wine will degrade after longer exposure of days or weeks.

Accordingly, it is essential both for maintaining quality and for avoiding the formation of ethyl carbamate that wine be shipped from the winery to the final customer in a temperature controlled environment. For wines being sent from Europe, this means shipping in temperature controlled containers (also known as “refers”) to ensure optimal quality for the duration of the voyage on truck and over seas.

Shockingly, only 1% of the wine shipped into British Columbia is shipped in a temperature controlled container. This may in some ways be due to the increased costs of shipping in refers, which cost $16,000 versus the $13,000 for regular containers (note that containers hold 12,000 cases of wine so costs per bottle increase if you can’t fill them up).

In 2008, the Wine Supply Chain Council published a summary of various studies that had been conducted measuring the temperature of wine shipped in non-temperature controlled containers. The results were shocking and disturbing.[4]

Wines shipped from Adelaide to the Napa Valley saw wines heat up to 30 degrees Celsius, with the roof of containers reaching levels as high as 50-70 degrees Celsius, especially when in direct sun exposure.[5]

Another experiment found wine shipped from Australia to the UK, Singapore, the USA and Japan fluctuating from 18-30 degrees Celsius. The temperature of the wine changed gradually over a number of days, but the results are clearly well above the appropriate threshold for wine temperature.[6]

Ultimately, the report concluded that exposure to sunlight at some point in the supply chain was inevitable and that as such all wine shipped in non-protected containers would likely be exposed to elevated temperatures. This brings with it the risks of wine flaws and increased levels of ethyl carbamate.[7]

Other studies have shown that wine shipped to cold destinations can reach as low as -15 degrees Celsius in the winter, and wines shipped to and from hot destinations can reach as high as 80 degrees Celsius.[8]

Of Inefficiency and Carelessness: Temperature in Warehouses

Currently there is only a single government bonded warehouse that acts as the distribution hub for all wine shipped into the province: Container World. In addition, all wine sent out for delivery is not shipped directly from the central warehouse, but rather travels through one of several BCLDB distribution warehouses.

Investigation into the warehousing conditions at Container World revealed that they do not use any temperature control in the warehouse. However, the warehouse is of such size that it generally stays at an ambient temperature of 15 degrees Celsius through the year.

However, none of the BCLDB warehouses or the trucks used to ship the wines from Container World to the BCLDB warehouses and then on to the retail customers are temperature controlled. These warehouses are not at all close in size to the Container World warehouse and as such are far more likely to see elevated temperatures.

In addition, while the BCLDB insists that it is their policy to turn wine over in 24 hours, most of my industry sources inform me that this is rarely the case. It is not uncommon for wines to take 1-2 weeks to deliver. This means that some wines will be sitting around in the non-temperature controlled LDB warehouses for enough time to do considerable damage if there is ever a heat spike.

Making the Sale: Temperature and Wine Quality

Cancer isn’t the only hazard posed by poorly shipped and stored wine. As is well known in the wine industry, high temperatures negatively impact the quality of a wine. This reflects negatively both on a winery’s brand and on the retailer and may ultimately turn some consumers off a particular wine forever.

Some of the negative effects of shipping or storing a wine at a high temperature include:

• Maderisation (baked taste)
• Oxidised
• Flat
• Lack of fruit
• Decrease in intensity of young wine bouquet
• Increase in the intensity of the maturation bouquet
• Decrease in overall wine quality
• High volatile acidity
• Re-refermentation
• Changes in total acid.[9]

Since almost no wine shipped into B.C. has any guarantee that it has not been exposed to elevated temperatures, it is not uncommon to find these faults in wines in the province. While experts may be able to detect these flaws and return bottles, the average consumer is unlikely to recognize a fault and is more likely to simply write off the wine as a ‘bad wine’, never to purchase it again.

It is simply not possible to have a real wine culture in British Columbia when the basic fidelity and provenance of the product cannot be guaranteed.

Conclusion

Since the EFSA study, the LCBO requires that all liquor be shipped in refers and stored in temperature controlled warehouses. It routinely conducts random tests of wine and liquor for the presence ethyl carbamate and hydrocyanic acid. Why has the BCLDB failed to do the same?

Currently, the warehousing and distribution policies of the BCLDB almost guarantee that wines and liquors will see increased exposure to elevated temperatures and it is likely that wines and liquor sold in B.C. contain higher levels of ethyl carbamate than those products sold in jurisdictions where temperature is controlled all the way.

This, of course, does nothing to protect against wines shipped in non-temperature controlled containers, like 99% of the wine and liquor sold in British Columbia.

Even progressively minded private companies who wish to ship in refers cannot remedy the problem since there is only one bonded warehouse (Container World) in the province and this warehouse is not temperature controlled. Further, the BCLDB warehouses through which all wine must be “distributed” (a supply chain step that makes no sense whatsoever), are not temperature controlled at all. Of course, neither are the trucks by which wine and liquor is delivered from the LDB warehouses to retail.

It may even be that a considerable amount of wine and liquor sold in British Columbia exceeds the maximum permissible level of ethyl carbamate set by the federal government since the BCLDB does not test liquor for the presence of these chemicals. When I called the BCLDB to confirm this, they referred me to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency who told me they do not do any routine inspections on wine or liquor imported into British Columbia.

The failure of the distribution system to protect a wine against elevated temperatures both increases the health risk of exposure to ethyl carbamate and is a fundamental disservice to wineries, wine importers, wine retailers and consumers.

One of my clients likes to remind me that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In British Columbia, the wine and liquor distribution system has a plethora of weak links that all need fixing. If these issues are not addressed, then all consumers could very well be exposed to an increased risk of cancer. Is that an acceptable personal and social cost British Columbians are prepared to take? I suspect not.

References

1  The EFSA Journal (2007) 551, 1-44 (“EFSA Study”); also see Michael Waldner and Ockert Augustyn, “Ethyl Carbamate in South African Wine” of ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch and Woolworths Foods Laboratory, Cape Town.
2  EFSA Study p. 28-31, 37.
3  EFSA study p. 19-20.
4  Rene Weiskircher, Wine Supply Chain Council, “Summary of Prior Experiments Regarding Temperature in Sea Containers” August 8, 2008 (“WSCC Study”); also see Leorey Marquez, Simon Dunstall, John Bartholdi and Alejandro McCawley, “Keeping Australian wines ‘cool’ for the world”, CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics and the Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
5  WSCC Study at p. 4.
6  WSCC Study at p. 5.
7  WSCC Study at p. 7.
8  Danie Meyer, “A Study on the Impact of Shipping/Transportation Conditions and Practices on Wine”, Wynboer (December, 2002) p. 2.
9  Ibid.

It is 1986. Expo is in town. Row upon row of Fosch vines blanket one of a handful of wineries in a small corner of the Okanagan Valley. Bars in Vancouver can only have tiny TVs and only a small handful of tiny wine stores, having bid for “independent liquor store” licenses, just opened this year selling only Mission Hill wines. Of these first independent stores was a small shop sitting flush at Davie and Burrard, started by an enterprising Greek restaurantuer and his son, John Clerides, who had been exposed to wine through his father’s restaurant business.

And Then Came NAFTA

In 1994, Canada and the United States ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which required that tariffs on a large number of goods be removed between the two countries. This meant that U.S. wines could now be sold in Canada and it meant that shoppers could bring back wine from the United States (back then British Columbians paid only a flat 15% duty on all wine brought across the border – this changed to the current 123% after lobbying by the Province’s biggest wine agencies (importers) who had a vested interest in preventing true free trade).

NAFTA brought with it stiff competition and serious challenge to B.C.’s wine industry, which had until then relied on protectionism to sell their decidedly very poor quality wines. Government sponsored replanting programs led to thousands upon thousands of old vines being ripped out and vineyards being replanted with today’s Vitis Vinifera varieties.

Along with the replanting of B.C.’s vineyards came government liberalization of the private sector, which could now sell international wines in their retail stores. Thus the original Independent Liquor Stores became bastions for bringing in challenging and high quality wine into the province. Perhaps the most important and innovative of these stores was Marquis Wine Cellars.

Back in the 1980’s and early 90’s, John Clerides at Marquis started bringing in classic wines from California, including some of the top Cabernet blends and the then yet undiscovered great valued Zinfandel wines. True to his Greek/Cypriot roots, John’s mantra has always been to overdeliver to his customers no matter what the price point is and back in the 80’s and 90’s Zinfandels sold for a tiny fraction of what they do today (as did some of the top wines from France’s Rhone Valley). The proximity to California made it easy to bring these wines into the province and so John did (along with Australian classics Peter Lehman and Penfolds), and in the process started building up not only clientele but also an important community of wine lovers in B.C. that would start spreading their influence across the province over the next two decades.

Growing and Building

As his business grew, John, a man with almost no formal wine training, took a course on how to detect flaws in wine. He now likens tasting wine to a top chef tasting ingredients. “You don’t try to sell rotten meat to Hawskworth” he told me, “so you better not try to sell me flawed wine”.

Over time, John expanded his reach, deciding to create shifts in the market rather than wait for them to happen. He began by first sending Michelle Bouffard (now of House Wine consulting) to Burgundy to taste and import some of the great wines of this region. Thus did John begin his stint as one of the top purveyors of Burgundy wines in British Columbia. This continued with trips to Bordeaux (John ships all his wines in separater refer containers from the government supply), the Rhone, Spain, and now the Loire, Oregon and New Zealand.

John, a Hockey fanatic, likens B.C.’s wine industry to the 1972 series between Canada and the U.S.S.R. Everyone thought Canada was the greatest hockey country in the world, and then they were annihilated by completely unknown players from the then Soviet Rupublic. This shook Canadian hockey to its core and sparked huge innovation and increased quality. B.C., says John, is just like Canada’s ill prepared gold medal team – we are comfortable where we are, but we have yet to confront what the world has to offer.

I find myself agreeing with John’s sentiment, particularly considering that it was NAFTA rather than any innovation in the B.C. industry that spurred the change that grew the Province’s wine industry into its now 200 wineries, many of which are producing exceptional quality wines compared to what was happening pre-NAFTA. The question is, will it take another external trauma to take our industry to the next level or will a true visionary emerge that can preempt the next great industry shock? These are the sorts of questions that define an industry, and we’re still waiting here in B.C. for our visionary.

Retailing Wine in 2011

Today, the legacy of the original Independent Liquor Store licensees is the life blood of the private retail market in Vancouver: Marquis Wine Cellars, Kitsilano and Dundarive Wine Cellars (now unfortunately owned by Liquor Stores GP income fund), Broadway Wine Cellars, Everything Wine, and Liberty Wine Merchants. These licensees were given the capability of placing “special orders” for their store (which none of the modern Liquor Retails Store (LRS) licensees can do), meaning that they can source unique wines and order them directly to the store without needing listing approval from the BCLDB and are given a 30% discount off of the BCLDB retail price (LRS’s have 16%). This is the basic reason why these stores have greater selection and better prices. In other words, it was the more liberal and business friendly policies that led to the greatest innovation in the Province’s wine industry. It was, in fact, the bar lobby, who benefited from “off-sales” (i.e. the right to sell liquor to patrons to take-away when the government liquor stores were closed) that prevented the continued issuance of independent liquor store licenses.

The lessons are clear: if we want to grow ourselves into a wine destination, it is time we trust passion over apathy and big business. It is not a question of private vs. public (as it is obvious vested interests in the private sector have impacted the regulatory regime more than any bureaucrat); rather, it is a question of finding the visionaries and the industrious passionistas amongst the banal and profit-driven. Regulate fairly, but let the industry discover itself and innovate. This will only create greater diversity of jobs and a much higher proportion of higher quality wine sales.

Are we ready to convert from Kokanee to small producer wine just as in a country like France? Even the U.S. is rapidly converting into a country of wine drinkers as France, which has seen pressure from various puritanical anti-alcohol groups, is retracting into hard liquor and cheap beer. I don’t think we need statistics to tell us which one of these demographics is about intoxication and which is about community.

Importing Wine in 2011

It is not only the retail sector that has seen change, but also the import sector (Tied House laws prevent retailers from importing wine – unless they can special order through their ILS license – and vice versa). In the past 15 years, the number of agents has exploded from a handful to literally hundreds upon hundreds. It is often the little guys, who start out of passion rather than to make money, who bring in many of the more interesting wines. Yet it is often the little guys who fail and have almost no impact on buying patterns in the Province.

This is a Province dominated by big business interests. The top 5% of importers make 90% of the profits. Most liquor stores, including the government stores and the majority of LRS stores are beholden to these importers and what they bring in, accepting the simple high volume sales mentality that now dominates B.C.’s liquor industry: yellow tail, oyster bay, etc. etc. These are wines that you can sell at massive volumes. And you need massive volumes in order to make the profits to sustain your business (at 16% discount) and repay the cost of your license.

Several years ago the government put a moratorium on new retail licenses. The result? These licenses are now traded for astronomical prices, often in the range from $500,000 to $1,000,000, simply for the right to sell someone a bottle of wine. Thus today’s industry is predominated by stores that sell mass produced high volume wine. Do I blame them? Not really, they have no other option if they want to make a profit.

The Tremors of Change

Even successful independent stores like John Clerides’ Marquis Wine Cellars fight for mainstream recognition. John, an avid user of social media, says that it is hard to get the word out about his store. Sure the industry types and hardcore wine geeks know about his store, but the average person is consistently unaware that his store exists. John puts some of the blame on the media, which simply do not review his wines. Why not? Because there is a strange attitude that media must review what is widely available to people in the government and mass-product liquor stores. Of course, this mentality means that those stores will never stock anything interesting or other than what they are already stocking. The result? A classic race to the bottom. John puts it well when he says “Walmart success is not the success of a city. It is the small businesses that give a city its culture and make it what it is.”

Luckily social media is starting to change this dynamic. Since twitter came on the scene, more and more wine lovers are connecting with each other and with industry types. More and more vision is developing as is more and more solidarity. One need only look at the recent openings of restaurants like l’Abbatoir and Hawksworth to see how the wine scene is maturing. The increasing discussion of liquor reform is also a sign of promise. Yet, it will still take a few visionaries to push the industry to the next level, forcing the bovine BCLDB to adapt to changing circumstances instead of waiting for them to act – an eventuality as likely as the second coming.

Today’s Challenges

So what are the challenges today. Today, very few retailers bother to send employees to travel and taste. Why? because they cannot import wines themselves anyway. The result is a depressingly uneducated retail sector.

What about the customer? As John noted to me, customers have not been taught that wine is about culture and food rather than inebriation. There is a culture shift waiting to happen, but until it does we remain stuck.

Media? The LDB provides sponsorship dollars to certain media and most are poorly paid. As I discussed with John, it is easy in the wine and food industry to give up ethics for free stuff. Journalistic ethics flow easy compared to reporting on politics or business. But there is no valid reason for this to be true. John was particularly unimpressed with the Georgia Straight calling his store “elite”. Anyone who has actually spent any time in Marquis knows that it is not about elitism, but about providing the customer with great value and quality – just like a great butcher would never sell the kind of meat that you can buy at Safeway.

The Future

So how do we move forward?

Embarrass the government. When Jancis Robinson and the Economist lambasted B.C. as a nanny state for allowing Cellared in Canada wine to be sold as B.C. wine, the government moved and made a change. Christy Clark’s government is clearly of this ilk. Embarrass and they shall come.

Cataclysmic failure of the B.C. wine industry. No one wants this to happen. But if it did? Well it would prompt a serious rethinking. If product remained unsold because of the failure to diversify. If GATT rules or a NAFTA challenge required B.C. and the other provinces to eliminate their illegal alcohol markups on foreign grapes, then B.C. wines would not be able to compete for price. This would require a dramatic refocus for both the industry and the regulators.

Consumer revolt. Similar to embarrassing the government, a consumer revolt would force the government’s hand. As an example, there is no reason right now that corkage is illegal except for the fact that restaurants rather than consumers have the ear of the government. These are the things it is time to change. If we do? Well, then the private sector and the government will start listening.

The Final Thought

We have come a long way in 25 years. The question is: are we up to making the next quarter century a cornerstone of Canada’s growth into an internationally respected wine culture? I’ll get back to you in 2036.

While B.C. is a region that focuses mostly on easy drinking young wines, there are a few wineries in the Province that have pretensions of doing something greater. In most cases these aspirations go hand in hand with considerable price tags. Tasting big red wines meant to age young is extremely difficult. It is hard for most inexperienced tasters (and even many experienced ones) to determine how a wine will turn out after a decade of aging. So how can we tell whether a producer is puffing smoke or giving the goods? In my case you get a bunch of wine geeks together and put together a vertical.

Bordeaux in British Columbia

Osoyoos Larose is one of the biggest names in the Okanagan. A joint venture between Vincor and Groupe Taillan, the winery represents B.C. making a splash on the international stage, with winemaker Pascal Madevon hailing from Bordeaux. These are wines that have purportedly always been built to age. However, with the vines being planted in 1999, the first few vintages came from purchased fruit, and you have to wonder whether the vines’ youthfulness support making a sophisticated red for long term aging. The winery is located in the Southern Okanagan on the west-facing slopes of Osoyoos Lake. If you want to read about the winemaking techniques, go here.

Unfortunately, on tasting every vintage that Osoyoos Larose has made, it seems as though these wines do not age very well at all. This is surprising since very time I tasted these wines young they seemed to have a density and structure that supported aging. The latest vintage I tasted at Bloom also impressed me for the intensity of its fruit. However, this vertical suggested that these wines will actually fall apart with time.

I note as an important caveat that I do not know what the storage condition was for all these wines, and as such this could have played a role in some of the vintages. Nonetheless, the consistently unpleasing flavours and complete lack of balance in any of the older wines does not bode well.

I also hate criticizing a winery without as full an objective an analysis as I can muster. The results from this tasting, however, were so consistent on both initial tasting, with decanting and with food and across such a wide array of vintages that I feel I have a responsibility to report exactly what I experienced with the wines.

My conclusion? A distinct do not buy. However, that the newer vintages are better may not just be the result of their lack of ageability, but it could also have to do with the increasing age of the vines and the winemakers’ tinkering with the blend and the oak treatment. In other words, there may still be hope.

The Wines

2001: 66% Merlot, 25% Cab Sauv, 9% Cab Franc. Cedar and blackberry chocolate on the nose. Bell pepper palate but pretty good length. The aromatics are actually quite lively. However, this really dries out on the finish and it is well past its prime. No Good.

2002: 57% Merlot, 19% Cab Sauv, 12% Malbec, 7% Cab Franc, 5% Petit Verdot. Quite youthfully dark in colour. This is way more integrated than the 01; however I would not describe this as pleasant to drink and it is still very dried out – i.e. the tannins have overwhelmed the fruit and the wine is on its path towards oblivion. No Good.

2003: 75% Merlot, 11% Cab Sauv, 6% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Cab Franc. This is fruitier on the nose; but when you taste this it is like drinking battery acid – blowsy and unbalanced. No Good.

2004: 68% Merlot, 21% Cab Sauv, 5% Petit Verdot, 4% Cab Franc, 2% Malbec. A meaty and vegetal nose. Smoky. Dry but less drying than the 01 and 02. This is a little green on the palate, but it is not offensive. An ok bottle. I think this is the year that Osoyoos Larose started to get their blend and proportions right. Fair to Good.

2005: 67% Merlot, 23% Cab Sauv, 4% Petit Verdot, 4% Cab Franc, 2% Malbec. Lots of oak and greenness here, and a wet cardboard aroma that suggests this is actually a flawed bottle. Very drying, screwed up palate. Flawed – Not Rated.

2006: 69% Merlot, 20% Cab Sauv, 4% Petit Verdot, 4% Cab Franc, 3% Malbec. Huge oak and a bit bitter. This is more sophisticated than any of the previous vintages, but it is still drying on the palate. Ultimately, though, the wine is somewhat boring – though at least drinking more like a proper wine. Good.

2007: 68% Merlot, 19% Cab Sauv, 6% Malbec, 4% Cab Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. Unequivocally the best wine of the vertical. This had richer, darker fruit and was far more balanced than any of the previous wines. This is definitely a bit oaky, but it is built in a more opulent style. An ok wine, though perhaps not really that enjoyable. The wine is still drying on the finish. Good+ to Very Good.

All the wines are around $50.

The fact that every single vintage had overly drying tannins suggests to me that they are having problems with texture and tannins. Hopefully this will improve as the vines age. Right now, however, I was actually shocked at how poorly these wines showed, particularly those with age. The 2001 was far past its prime, and it was not until the 2006 that I felt these tasted like something drinkable. I wish I had better things to report, but these are the results of this disappointing, and fatiguing, tasting.

The poor quality of these wines stood out even greater after we opened a lower-end 2005 Bordeaux, I took my first sip, sighed and said ‘now that’s wine’.