About Us
Mission Statement
Bottling in Ontario (BIO) is an organization of wine industry professionals committed to (a) lowering carbon emissions of wine shipments into Ontario and (b) growing jobs in the Ontario economy. This would occur by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and government changing the laws and practices around the bottling of bulk wine in Ontario and the placement of such wines in LCBO stores.
Current Status of Imported Bulk Wine in Ontario
Imported bulk wine is currently allowed to be imported into Ontario and bottled, but it must be blended with at least 30% Ontario wine in order to be then sold as a "Cellared in Canada" wine at the LCBO. Brands such as Peller Estates French Cross, Colio Dry White, L'Ambiance and many Jackson-Triggs wines are produced and sold this way and are an important fabric of the Ontario wine industry and the 30% rule helps use up much of the grapes grown in Ontario. VQA certified wines are 100% Ontario grown grapes. However, if imported bulk wine is brought into Ontario and bottled 100% unchanged, then that imported wine is not allowed to be sold in the LCBO under its country of origin and will not be purchased by the LCBO. As an example, if a large Australian brand was made at its winery in Australia and shipped to Ontario and bottled right in Ontario from that bulk wine, unaltered and ready to go, that wine is not allowed at the LCBO.
Emissions Savings on Glass being Shipped all around the World
The current ban on imported bulk wine being bottled unaltered in Ontario and sold at the LCBO as a product of its originating country forces wine to be shipped in glass bottles from all around the world into Ontario, which is a far less efficient and much more emissions heavy system than if the wine could be shipped up in bulk in Flexibags and bottled in Ontario using locally sourced glass. Many countries, including Sweden, England and Germany, have robust industries for bulk wine to come in and be bottled and then sold in their markets. The most common form of shipment of bulk wine is 24,000 Flexibags. These Flexibags are loaded into containers, do a great job of preventing any oxygen from getting into the wine to keep it fresher, and are then emptied into tanks at the end winery and the wine is ready for bottling. Large shipping companies like Hapag Lloyd have eco-calculators and the general consensus is that shipping wine in bulk has 43% less emissions than shipping wine in bottles, owing to the fact that you can ship as much wine in a 24,000 Flexitank than 2 containers of 1440 cases of bottled wine. Using the May 2023 LCBO sale of data of imported wines, the shipments of imported wine into Ontario contribute approximately 15,618 tonnes of C02 emissions.
Allowing a system of bottling this bulk wine in Ontario saves 57% of the CO2 emissions (therefore 8,902 tonnes of C02 emissions saved), examples of saving include 20,590 barrels of oil consumed, 1732 homes usage of electricity per year, or 36,513,139 kms driven by standard gas powered cars.
Job Creation in Ontario
The Ontario wine industry is an economic powerhouse that is often overlooked and needs to be further supported. Recently, the Wine Growers of Ontario has published a report by Deloitte entitled "The Niagara Cluster: Ontario's Untapped Economic Engine" that highlights over $1 Billion of economic benefit provided to Ontario by the Ontario wine industry and an incremental $4 Billion that would have been realized from 2009-2019 with incremental government support.
Bottling in Ontario does not intend to detract from any of the Ontario wine success or support, but to enhance this industry and its economic benefits to the Ontario economy with additional jobs in bottling, quality control, warehousing, label printing , carton manufacturing and other linked industries.
We do not believe that the bottling of some larger imported wine brands in Ontario would change consumer habits or choices for such wines, given that the underlying wine is still 100% the same imported wine and only now bottled in Ontario. Of all wines sold in Ontario over the past 10 years, Cellared in Canada wine has held a 23-26% market share, VQA has held a 6-7% market share and so the total market share has been between 29-33% of "Ontario" wine and imported wines have constituted 67-71% of all wines sales in Ontario. Given a 10 year pattern, we do not foresee this pattern changing materially and instead we need to move the bottling, warehousing, labelling and other jobs to Ontario for these imported wines by allowing them to ship up in bulk and be bottled in Ontario. This format also allows Ontario wineries to own their own brands of imported wine, bottled in Ontario, and take on imported bottled wine brands with wines bottled in Ontario.
Glass Recycling - Look to the Wash and Re-Use System used by Beer in Ontario - the Home Run!
One longer term benefit of implementing this Bottling in Ontario system for bulk wine would be to require a standard wine bottle for any wines participating in this program. This bottle would need to be locally sourced (Canada or north-east USA) and that would then allow for the bottles to be washed and re-used by the Ontario bottling facilities, similar to the system used in Ontario for beer bottles. Using the published standard of 0.905 kg of CO2 for each bottle of wine produced, the imported wines coming into Ontario used 117,763 CO2 of emissions to be produced. As an example, allowing the standard bottle to be reused 8 times, this would save 103,042 of CO2 emissions of glass production. This is the environment "Home Run" in the near future once the Bottling in Ontario proposal is allowed and a standard wine bottle is mandated and bulk wine can be bottled in Ontario and sold as a product of the country of the originating wine.
Quebec and British Columbia are leading the way - Ontario needs to catch up
Quebec is leading the way on bulk wine being bottled in Quebec and sold as a product of the country of the bulk wine and British Columbia is now catching up.
For years there has been the Depanneur market of corner grocery stores that has been allowed to sell bulk wine that is bottled in Quebec. Over 800,000 cases of wine per year are sold in Quebec in this market, creating jobs in Quebec and lowering the carbon footprint of with less bottled wine shipments and more bulk wine shipments. Recently, the Societe des Alcools du Quebec (SAQ) has started allowing a few select wines to be bottled in Quebec and sold in SAQ stores as the product of their bulk wine country and it is our understanding that the SAQ is looking to expand that program. British Colombia has also recently started to allow this. A B.C. example is a brand called Neon Coast by Andrew Peller Wines, made with imported California wine and bottled in B.C. and being openly marketed as having at least a 30% carbon footprint reduction. Congratulations to Quebec and British Columbia for this foresight! Bottling in Ontario encourages this same foresight by the LCBO and Ontario government as a method to increase jobs in Ontario and materially lower the carbon footprint of wine transportation.
Next Steps
We hope that Bottling in Ontario can be given a seat at the table during the upcoming consultations to change the Alcohol Master Framework Agreement, that is due to expire in September 2025 but the government must give notice of such expiration to the parties no later than September 2023. This review is seen as the next big opportunity to amend and update the Ontario system and policies around beverage alcohol, including the bottling and sale in Ontario of 100% imported wine.
Contact Us
For further information, pls contact agreen@greengiantenv.com