TORONTO - Canadians may still love a good brew, but over the course of a decade, market share for beer has dipped while wine has been on the rise, according to new statistics. And insiders say the changes are likely linked to an emerging sophistication in consumer tastes.
Popping open a cold one still holds appeal for the majority of Canadians. Almost 2.3 billion litres of beer were sold in 2006-07, amounting to $8.4 billion in sales - an increase from the previous year.
But over a 10-year period, beer has seen a decline in its market share, according to figures released Monday by Statistics Canada.
In 1997, beer accounted for 52 per cent of dollar sales, spirits for 27 per cent and wine for 21 per cent. By 2007, beer had dipped to 47 per cent and spirits had slipped to 25 per cent, while wine had captured 28 per cent of dollar sales.
As more people discover wine, there's been a "trading up" phenomenon, where people step up to higher quality wines as they grow more knowledgeable about the products, said Chris Layton of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.
This, in turn, tends to increase net sales, he said.
"I think all those factors are at play pretty much year after year," Layton said. "Just as the marketplace gets more sophisticated, people's knowledge of the products increase, so definitely I think that was in place back in 2007."
In the case of the LCBO, one of the world's largest purchasers of beverage alcohol, the retailer saw a more than 13 per cent increase in its fine wine and premium spirit sales from its Vintages products in fiscal 2007-08, while wine sales rose almost six per cent.
Wines priced between $15 and $20 had the greatest growth, up 19.3 per cent.
Tony Aspler, a Toronto-based wine writer for the past 30 years, agrees the figures reflect a growing sophistication in the Canadian consumer. He said part of wine's appeal is that it lends itself readily to be enjoyed as part of a social ritual.
"With wine, it's much more of a social engagement that you're sitting at tables, you're having food, you're talking, there's conversation and interchange, and I think wine sort of oils the wheels of social connections," said Aspler, co-author of "The Definitive Canadian Wine & Cheese Cookbook."
The introduction of new packaging, such as the move to Tetra Paks and plastic bottles, as well as easier to understand labelling has all helped to lessen the "intimidation factor," Aspler said.
"I think the pretense has gone out of wine," he said, adding that the presence of young, hip sommeliers in restaurants who are willing to explain wines without being snooty is making a difference as well.
As one of the principal investigators at the Consumer Perception and Cognition Laboratory at Brock University, Isabelle Lesschaeve is focusing her research on understanding consumer behaviour in terms of purchases, choices and preferences when it comes to wine.
Lesschaeve said they've read of similar trends in the U.S. with respect to the rise in market share for wine, and said the movement could be part of a generational shift.
"Maybe it reflects the fact that the wine consumer, the consumers who are really interested in wines, (who) are buying most of the wines are the baby boomers," said Lesschaeve, an associate professor with Brock's Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute.
