'Wine on tap' program in jeopardy in Ontario
Joanne Oliver and Brent Hillier built their restaurant and wine bar on the premise of serving wine on tap instead of bottles, their wine comes in kegs.
“It has a longer shelf life, you don’t have to open bottles and have it go bad. Each keg holds about 29 bottles in it and the keg maintains its freshness better than opened bottles,” said Oliver.
But the wine taps at ‘Olio Too’ in Bayfield, may soon run dry. Oliver has been told by her wine keg suppliers, that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is ending its four year pilot project to carry and distribute wine kegs.
“They’ve told us it just doesn’t belong in the LCBO, and we don’t really understand what that means, or where it can go, because the LCBO is a monopoly in Ontario,” said Melanie Kobelka, managing partner with Vinolution, a Canadian wine keg distributor.
Oliver says ending the wine keg program in Ontario, while it’s flourishing in other parts of the country, is frustrating. She says a return to bottles would hurt her business and other wine on tap restaurants, greatly.
“For us, the wine keg program is really important. It’s the model we built ourselves around. So if it goes away and the LCBO decided they don’t want to provide this program there will be a lot of small businesses that will probably have to do some big pivoting, and that’s expensive,” said Oliver.
CTV News London reached out to the LCBO for comment but they’ve not yet provided any information on the fate of the program.
“We’ve had the opportunity to show growth with the opening of the market in Ontario and we’re hopeful that we can find a solution quickly so that we can communicate to our customers, so they can maintain and continue to grow their businesses, like Olio Too,” said Kobelka.
“We’ve invested in the wine taps, we’ve invested in the technology and we’d like to keep it going,” expressed Oliver.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
BREAKING McGill University seeks emergency injunction to remove pro-Palestinian encampment from campus
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
U.S. says Israel's use of U.S. arms likely violated international law, but evidence is incomplete
The Biden administration said Friday that Israel's use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but wartime conditions prevented U.S. officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
'State or state-sponsored actor' believed to be behind B.C. government hacks
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
Mother assaulted by stranger while breastfeeding baby in her car: Vancouver police
A person was arrested in East Vancouver Thursday after allegedly entering a car while a mother was breastfeeding her four-month-old boy.
Rare severe solar storm Friday could bring spectacular aurora light show across Canada
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
More than half the Canadians once detained in Syrian camps for suspected ISIS family members have returned home
A total of 29 Canadians have been freed from detention camps in northeast Syria and brought back to Canada since human rights advocates began lobbying for their release years ago.
Canada abstains from Palestinian UN membership vote but supports two-state solution
Canada was one of 25 countries that abstained from a United Nations vote on Palestinian membership that passed with overwhelming support on Friday.