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Headlines J ANU AR Y NEWS A UGUS T NEWS NEWS BY TE S S British Columbia's Tinhorn Creek offered a free shipping promotion to celebrate Canada Day. Canadian Winery Tests Shipping Law O liver, British Columbia—Tinhorn Creek Vineyards in British Colum- bia's Okanagan Valley offered free shipping as well as 10% off the purchase of cases of wine July 1, Canada Day, "to celebrate the recent passage of Bill C-311, which lifts restrictions on inter- provincial purchasing and shipping." Bill C-311, which became law June 28, amended federal laws governing interpro- vincial shipments of wine to explicitly al- low the transport of wine between prov- inces "if the individual brings the wine or causes it to be brought into another prov- ince in quantities and as permitted by the laws of the latter province, for his or her personal consumption and not for resale or other commercial use." Prior to September 2008, when the boards overseeing liquor sales in Ontario and Manitoba warned British Columbia's wineries against shipping wine to cus- tomers in their provinces, Tinhorn Creek had shipped a small amount of wine to customers outside British Columbia. Last month, with the change in federal legisla- tion opening the door to the interprovin- cial shipment of wine, Tinhorn staged a one-day sale. 14 WINES & VINES AUGUST 2012 BC winery makes move to ship wine to other provinces Contacted after the sales event, Sandra Oldfield, winemaker at Tinhorn Creek and an advocate for interprovincial shipping, said only one jurisdiction asked the winery not to ship to their customers. "We con- firmed we would not, but we did not get any orders from that jurisdiction so it was a moot point," she told Wines & Vines. "Other than that it went smoothly for the one-day-only shipping across Canada." Before the promotion, Rowland Dun- ning, executive director of the Canadian Association of Liquor Jurisdictions, which has been speaking for Canada's provincial and territorial liquor boards, said there were no plans to intervene until wineries took action that con- travened provincial laws—or, more to the point, cut into provin- winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keywords "Tinhorn sale." cial revenues from alcohol sales. Alberta had been the sole jurisdiction that allowed unrestricted wine imports by individuals for personal use, while British Columbia amended its rules at the begin- ning of June. The change brought the policy in British Columbia in line with Ontario, Nova Scotia and the Yukon. —Peter Mitham STONY HILL OFFERS FIRST RED WINE tony Hill Vineyard, a 3,500-case win- ery founded in 1952, made its reputa- tion with Chardon- nay. Owner Peter McCrea planted winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keywords "Stony Hill." 5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon in 2004 and released a red wine made with grapes harvested in 2009 to celebrate the win- ery's 60 years of business. "We decided to do a little something to change the mix," McCrea said. LABOR MARKET TIGHTENS rowers in California reported trouble finding sufficient labor for spring vine- yard operations, and some are concerned there could be a lack of workers through harvest. Workers this spring received higher wages, and G winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keywords "Spring labor." some managers reportedly offered bonus- es to crews to secure adequate labor. "This year has definitely been worse," said Greg Hibbits general manager of Mesa Vineyard Management in Templeton, Calif. DTC VOLUME AND VALUE RISE t ShipCompliant's annual Direct Sales Seminar on June 14, Kent Nowlin of ShipCompliant and Danny Brager of The Nielsen Co. presented data developed by Wines & Vines and ShipCompliant with Nielsen research about direct-to-consumer sales. The survey confirmed that DtC sales are a robust and growing trade. While com- prising only 2% of total wine sales, the seg- ment accounted for 11% of total value. Di- rect shipments were up 8.2% in volume and 11.5% in value for the year ending in April. Wine produced in the United States for domestic consump- tion totaled 262 million cases, according to Nielsen. Of that total, 80% was sold through retailers and 20% on-premise at restaurants and bars. A winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keywords "DTC value." CHRIS MASON STEARNS