British Columbians can now wine out when they dine out.
BC foodies have been given the option to bring their own bottle of wine into restaurants.
"I helped change it. I was the first one in P.G. to ask about changing these regulations," said Ryan Cyre, proprietor of the White Goose restaurant. "It's awesome news, I'm very happy. People can finally match the wines in their own cellar with a dinner that can match the quality of that wine."
Cyre was a step ahead of the regulation change, which nearly got him into regulatory trouble. About five months ago he advertised his location as being wine cellar friendly, inviting customers to bring in their favourite vino and have a discussion with him about what food it would best suit.
"It was brought to my attention by some customers, actually, that there were rules against doing that so I had to pull all my ads and call the liquor inspector for clarification, and that's when I started asking about changing the rules," he said.
Other restaurants were doing the same, since the carry-in wine practice is allowed and common in other jurisdictions.
The carry-in wine privilege applies only to licensed premises and only to wine. All the traditional rules apply for things like age limits and over-service obligations.
However, as the businesses are privately owned, the proprietors have every right to dictate the terms of the self-provided wine, such as how many bottles at a time, what brands, even the right to refuse service on an individual basis if they see fit.
They also have the right to charge a corking fee, to prevent people bringing their own bottles of wine to avoid paying higher bills. That corking fee has no government-imposed limit. A restaurateur may charge a nickel or a thousand dollars, or a percentage of the meal's value, or pick a random number every five minutes.
Cyre said he would find it financially viable to provide the carry-in wine service at a rate of between $15 and $20.
"It is a modern innovation to update our liquor laws," said Jennifer Brandle-McCall, CEO of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce. "The Chamber has been actively advocating for some changes to some of the archaic laws around wine. The inter-provincial cross-boarder rules about movement of wines are crazy, and we have added our voice to change them. We should be looking for ways of supporting the wine industry and the food industry, they have so many obstacles already, and this is one more way we can do that. The next test is the interprovincial barriers."
Brandle-McCall said, after consulting with some Chamber members involved in the local food industry, that the biggest benefits - other than the consumer, whom she called the clear winner in this announcement - will likely be the mid-level restaurants who cannot afford to have a large or diverse wine cellar of their own. Now the customers themselves can be the wine cellar and they can put their focus on pairing that incoming wine with what they do best: meals.
Cyre said he was expecting more attention from his high-end customers who had expensive and even obscure tastes in wine, and can now look to him in a good-natured challenge, to cook something that measures up to their most exotic vino.
