Bargain-hunting MLCC uncovers cheap booze

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This article was published 14/10/2011 (5308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liquor Control Commissions stores will never be mistaken for Costco outlets but that doesn’t mean they’re not on the lookout for a deal.

The Crown corporation has taken a page out of the discount retailers’ handbook as it searches high and low for wine and beer that needs a last-minute place to sell. It could be a private wine store in Alberta that placed an order and later changed its mind or a California winery that is winding down and needs to get rid of its inventory. It’s all part of the MLCC’s “one-time purchase program.”

“We’re saying to the industry, anywhere in the world, if you have some inventory on good-quality product that you can’t use for whatever reason and you’ll give us a great deal, we’ll take it,” said Steve McConnell, MLCC’s manager of marketing.

For example, last week MLCC advertised bottles of Bleasdale, an Australian blend of cabernet sauvignon, malbec and petit verdot, for $18.99. (A supplier had three palettes up for grabs, or about 168 cases.) The same bottle sells for $28.99 in American liquor stores, the MLCC said.

“We tasted it, it’s outstanding and we’re confident that even though it’s at a high price point, it’s outstanding value. People will pay more as long as they’re getting a deal. If it’s $19 here and $29 in the U.S., that’s pretty good savings,” he said.

Private liquor stores can play this game, too. George Andrews, owner of G.J. Andrews Food & Wine Shoppe, said liquor agents will occasionally ask him if he’d be interested in buying an odd lot.

“I just picked up 10 cases of $80 wine that I got for $30 a bottle,” he said.

And last year, he purchased three palettes of an Australian wine after a winery offered to put a mid-range wine into a different bottle with a different label and charged $8 per bottle rather than $12.

MLCC’s deals are for wine and beer exclusively and do not include spirits. It is also about to do some exclusive promotion of some different beers. First up is Fort Garry Brewing Co.’s Munich Eis Bock beer, a small batch brew sold in a 650-millilitre bottle. Made with ingredients imported from Germany, the 9.5 per cent alcohol lager is a “strong beer that doesn’t taste strong,” according to Orest Horechko, general manager of Fort Garry.

It’s the first of the Winnipeg-based brewery’s “Brewmaster” series and Horechko said he hopes to bring out a new beer every three or four months.

“The MLCC has been trying to get different beers (offered) exclusively so we thought we’d give it a try,” he said.

McConnell stopped well short of saying liquor outlets in the U.S. or Alberta, where the industry was privatized many years ago, represent the MLCC’s competition.

“It’s about offering good value. It’s not convenient to go to Calgary for a bottle of wine,” he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca