Canadian Whisky News

Vol. 5 No. 5               –               December 2016

Mark Your Calendars
7th Annual
Canadian Whisky Awards Banquet
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Hotel Grand Pacific
Victoria, British Columbia

Join us in Victoria B.C. to celebrate the best Canadian whiskies in the world. We’ve really upped our game this year and would love to have you with us as we celebrate the very best whiskies of the year.

Tickets for the gala banquet and awards presentation may be purchased for $65 from James Burrough at the Hotel Grand Pacific. Your ticket includes an entertaining gala awards ceremony and a full hot and cold buffet.

Reach James by e-mail at jburrough@hotelgrandpacific.com

The Canadian Whisky Awards help keep the world talking about the very best Canadian whiskies.

Winners will be announced at the ceremony and through major press across Canada and the U.S.

We hope to see you in Victoria.

Ontario Bill 70 – a step towards equitable taxation for beverage alcohol makers

Ontario Minister of Finance, Charles Sousa has introduced Bill 70, in part, as an incentive to the province’s burgeoning micro-distillery sector.

Consumers, and many micro-distillers alike are heartened to learn that Charles Sousa, Ontario’s Minister of Finance will introduce new measures to reduce taxes on spirits that are distilled in the province. This move by the provincial government helps all distillers and since it applies to in-house sales, it is particularly beneficial to Ontario’s burgeoning micro-distilling sector.

The biggest winners? Consumers, along with those businesses that supply the distilleries, and myriad spin-off industries. We applaud the Minister because Bill 70 is a long-awaited step in the right direction. Still, it is a relatively small step and much less than consumers and distillers might have hoped for – and could have achieved – had the consultations with key stakeholders been more effective.

Bill 70 will modestly increase the profitability of distilling in Ontario, and that’s a good thing. But I wonder how much more the fires of provincial commerce would be stoked if government had accorded spirits the same tax rates and incentives that wine and beer already enjoy.

Those of us who appreciate wine have benefited tremendously from the tax treatments that allow small, independent, Ontario wineries to thrive as they bring us new products. In addition to sales, the spin-off benefits of wine tourism have helped build a strong economy in Niagara and other parts of the province. Ontario wines that would not have existed without the support of favourable taxation are now winning international awards that bring acclaim and additional sales to the province.

Beer lovers have also been rewarded by the innovations of small, producers who flourish in a less generous but still favourable tax regimen.

Like their brewing and winemaking counterparts, Ontario’s emerging distillers make noteworthy, innovative products. Unlike the big wineries and breweries of the past, however, Ontario’s large traditional distilleries already provide consumers with a broad range of world-class spirits. And perhaps this is why legislators have tended to overlook the new distillers.

Why not take this opportunity to help the smaller distillers develop into the powerhouses that their provincial wine and beer making counterparts have become?

Let’s look at the wine industry. The government’s graduated “nurturing” tax environment has not only encouraged small producers, it has also resulted in increased selection, which benefits consumers as well.

We enjoy our wines, beer and spirits because they contain alcohol. Through our wallets, we Ontarions have demonstrated that we want a broad selection of products within each of these categories. Beverage alcohol is a luxury and an inevitable target for taxation. It seems self-evident that taxes, provincial levies and incentives for beverage alcohol should be the same regardless of whether the delivery medium is wine, beer or spirits. But in Ontario, this is not the case.

Let’s look at the math: When you add in federal and provincial taxes along with beer store levies, the combined taxes paid by Ontario distillers are double what Ontario brewers pay and four times those paid by wineries. Bill 70 addresses only part of this larger problem, but it does so by reducing distillers’ remittances to 61.5% of their distillery store sales, while wine makers remit only 6.1% of theirs.

It is inevitable that Ontario will eventually accord equitable tax treatment to all beverage alcohol categories, and logical that it will provide graduated taxation to encourage smaller producers in each category: wine, beer, and spirits.

Perhaps outright equity cannot be achieved in one fell swoop, but Bill 70 is certainly a step in the right direction. Wouldn’t it make sense though to seize this occasion and make it more than a tentative baby step?

Seagram’s Charles Bronfman Reminisces

Taken directly from Harper Collins website. Why not write my own review? I think the Bronfmans are one of the greatest whisky families that ever lived and I don’t want to spoil the surprise if I find a copy under the tree Christmas morning. So:

“While much has been written about his father, Sam, a titan of industry, there is no public record of Charles Bronfman’s thoughts on his own life, family, career and his significant accomplishments in sport and philanthropy.

“Distilled does just that, chronicling key events in the life of the heir to one of Canada’s great fortunes. Born in 1931 to the fabulously wealthy Bronfmans, Charles grew up in a 20-room mansion with many staff. Via their control of the distilling giant Seagram, the Bronfman family dominated the liquor business with brands such as Crown Royal, V.O. and Chivas Regal. By the 1980s, Seagram was also the biggest shareholder of DuPont and by the 1990s, the family’s wealth was in the billions, culminating in the $35-billion sale of Seagram to France’s Vivendi, which turned into a financial and family disaster.

“In Distilled, Charles reflects on all of it – his relationship with his parents, his brother Edgar, working in the family business, landing Canada’s first big league baseball franchise (the Montreal Expos), leading a philanthropic life by promoting Canadian identity through Heritage Minutes and supporting Israel through countless innovative initiatives including the globally respected Birthright Israel – and to how the Bronfman family splintered over the sale of Seagram.”

And speaking of whisky books

Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert has sold out! It’s gone. The warehouse is empty. Good news though: a second edition is coming in the Fall. It’s called, appropriately enough, Canadian Whisky: The New Portable Expert.

Like the earlier edition, Canadian Whisky features fascinating stories about the history of Canada’s unique spirit stretching from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.

Among many revisions the book reports surprising, new science on how flavor develops in whisky and also how our brains process its smell and taste. It’s a lot more complicated than we thought even just a few years ago when the first edition was published.

All-new chapters include Canada’s recent micro-distilling phenomenon along with new photos and illustrations that provide the most complete and up-to-date information on Canada’s burgeoning micro-distilling scene.

Over 100 all-new tasting notes throughout, are accompanied by a checklist for readers who want to keep track of their progress through a curated selection of old favourites and exciting new Canadian whiskies.

Fall 2017 can’t come soon enough!