(I’m not sure who to give photo credit to. Just to be clear, I wasn’t clever enough to invent this.)

Mark Hicken has posted on his site winelaw.ca, what appears to be some revolutionary news in the primitive Canadian wine scene. FedEx has just announced that it will begin shipping direct orders from US wineries to consumers in BC, Alberta, and Ontario at a 1 case minimum and 5 case maximum. I’ll most likely never use this service, because as you’ll see, the Canadian government is still making damn sure that they get their sin tax. However, this may be a sign of things to come. Check out FedEx’s news page for more information.

Now I’m not a lawyer or a wine agent, but this seems to be good for the following reasons:

1. Complete transparency.
You can download the cost calculator in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, where it clearly states that you will be charged 117% ‘taxes’ on the wine you import into British Columbia. I know this isn’t a secret, but more people will see this that don’t already know how bad we’re getting screwed when it comes to wine and money. Hopefully this will make more people as mad as I am.

2. More Changes to Come?
Mark makes the point that it doesn’t make much sense to allow this new shipping access, but to continue to prohibit inter-provincial shipping. Will this open up as well?

3. Additional Access to Wine.
You are no longer restricted to the American wine which is currently available in Canada. If you want to import wine from Donkey and Goat or Broc Cellars, you can now do that.

4. Some Discounts.
If you’re in Ontario, you can use the Private-Order process, where your imported wine will only be charged 64% tax instead of the usual modest tax of 102.2% I think this is the first time I’ve ever been envious of anyone in Ontario.

5. Reliability and Speed.
Anyone in Canada who has tried to order wine from a retailer in the US, knows how difficult and complicated it is. This is basically a guarantee that FedEx will make sure the wine ends up in your hands when they say it will. The delivery time looks like it will be 6 business days.

Sign up for winelaw.ca’s newsletter for prompt alerts of all things Canadiana wine law related.