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Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist - Michael Vaugan

SAQ Signature Tackles the LCBO Classics! ©

Original Unedited Article (2244 words) for Saturday, May 27th, 2000

Classics Catalogue Cutline: Pretty But Not Enough Between the Covers

National Post

It’s Classics Catalogue time, time to seriously scrutinize the just released 88-page big glossy Spring/Summer Catalogue which now appears three times a year. While the cut-off time when the LCBO starts processing orders was last Tuesday, don’t worry that you might have missed the boat. I am confident that most of my recommendations below will still be available by the time you read this. Fax in your orders today without fear!

Rather than repeat the list of Classics shortcomings itemized last February; here’s a new take on its strengths and weaknesses. Lets compare Quebec’s new SAQ Signature Catalogue with our own. For those who don’t know, Signature is the Quebec equivalent of the LCBO Classics, except that the SAQ also operates an extraordinarily gorgeous store (1700 rue Metcalfe) by the same name in Montreal.

To begin with, the Classics Catalogue is much bigger, glossier and more beautiful. It greatly outweighs the puny SAQ contender coming into the ring weighing 14.3 oz vs. only 8.6 oz. Now than may be a cause to celebrate, but it makes me nervous! Why? Because my first question is how much did it cost us anyway? I say "us" because it is we the taxpayers who are footing the bill! Hopefully there were lots of competitive bids by printers to net this job.

By contrast the SAQ produces a very simple and straightforward. It doesn’t have expensive colourful labels or glossies of its purchasers, nor does it provide us with Robert Parker or Wine Spectator scores. Now don’t get me wrong, I think many Ontario purchasers value the information that the Classics provide. The bottom line, however, is that Signature manages to cram four times as many selections into their book which is two-thirds the size of ours with 12 less pages. Our Classics offers us some 365 items of which about 300 are new, while Signature 1400! In other words, Signature offers a significant collection of great wines and spirits - something that our Classics fails miserably in doing!

Let’s talk about space, there is a whole 9 1/2" by 13" page devoted to the only three spirits that are deemed worthy of being listed - two Cognacs - Frappin XO at $198 and Louis XIII at $1,599 plus a 1893 Armagnac at $3,210! Unfortunately there is seems to be a lot of deja vue here. Yes indeed, all three spirits appeared in last Fall’s issue. Certainly the total lack of any new spirits is one of the most obvious shortcomings. Compare this to the 450 spirits offered by Signature. And one other thing, at Signature that same Louis XIII which sells here for $1,599 goes for $104 less plus you get a special case with two crystal glasses!

Indeed, other than good looks, the Classics Catalogue gets an F for "failure" in terms of bringing Ontario wine lovers the real goods. Two Cognacs (vs. 80 at Signature), 2 Ports (vs. 37), one Madeira - a 1900 Verdelho which happens to be miraculously cheaper in Ontario at $545 (vs. $650), one Tokaji Aszú, three German whites (only one at Signature), four different Champagnes (vs. 52 at Signature), two Canadian entries, etc. does not add up to anything "Classic."

Indeed, while the Classics may well have some rare gems, unfortunately I haven’t tasted them. In fact, its Bordeaux selection is extraordinarily shabby when compared to the extensive selection at Quebec’s SAQ Signature at 1700 rue Metcalfe in Montreal. A single bottle of 1996 Chateau Mouton Rothschild costs $395 in Toronto, while the SAQ lists a magnum (1500-ml) at $495 (or $249.50 per 750 ml). Moreover, as opposed to the LCBO’s single vintage selection, Signature offers us 16 vintages, some in various sizes! The largest selection from the Classics are three different years of Chateau Margaux (vs. 16 at Signature) - a 1995 Chateau Margaux fetches $700 at the Classics (vs. $995 per magnum or $497.50 equivalent at Signature), a 1985 at $750 (vs. $595) and a 1979 at $1599 for a magnum (vs. $995 or $500 for 750 ml). In general, the prices are more competitive at Signature and the selection really has much greater depth, especially when it comes to French wines! When compared to Signature, the only area where Vintages excels is when it comes to New World wines.

I called 1-888-454-7007 to check out some other items from wine consultant Jean Pierre Monpetit. He explained that all these special products stocked for immediate purchase in their sumptuous new retail store where you can actually go and caress them prior to purchase. At the Classics, you can’t see them until after you order them! Monpetit went on to elaborate "the balance of our inventory is kept in a ‘bunker’ 3 kilometers from here - we have a dedicated chauffeur who will pick them up within half an hour if they are not in the store!" Wow, that’s service.

If you were to order next Monday morning from the Classics, assuming the product was in stock, you couldn’t pick up your "rush" product until after 12 pm the following day (and only at Freeland Street behind the Queens Quay store in Toronto). In Montreal you can get it when you want it seven days a week plus Signature offers free delivery anywhere in the province - your home, your office, you name it! Even better, there is a constant stream of special new products is arriving daily at the Signature store. Feel tempted? Unfortunately, Toronto buyers will have to go to Hull or Montreal to pick up their goodies, they don’t deliver to Ontario addresses. Better yet, get you relatives or friends to ship you the items you want.

The more I picked at the Classics Catalogue, the sadder I got. If you are looking for Sauternes/Barsac, the Classics has bumped up its paltry pre-Christmas selection of only two half bottles to 11 - all halves! By contrast, the SAQ Signature offers 50 selections - including 17 from 7 different vintages of Chateau d’Yquem alone. None are in half bottles, which speaks volumes about the level of sophistication of the enlightened Quebec imbiber! The Classics sole half bottle of 1990 Chateau d’Yquem jumped from $189 last Fall to $250, while a 750 ml bottle from Signature fetches $475 ($237.50 per half).

The problem lies in our inadequately staffed LCBO Vintages department. It’s a shame that gifted tasters are forced to waste scare hours doing mindless secretarial and administrative chores. Indeed Vintages lack of focus, slowness of action and inability to execute has become the standing jokes among wine distributors around the world.  For some unknown reason Vintages expects producers to save their best wines for the LCBO. "They’re nuts," says the owner of one well-known house who wishes to remain anonymous. "I can sell all my stuff many times over and yet the LCBO waffles about placing orders and has asked me to hold wines only to cut the order many months later."

This was brought home while I attended last March’s Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne, a special trade event that only takes place every two years. It featuring tastings of some 10,000 Burgundies over eight days. I saw two SAQ tasters scurrying around like mad beavers buying fine wines on the spot! This was the 5th time this event has been held. And despite numerous invitations to attend, nobody from the LCBO has ever bothered to show up. It’s ironic that the first three words in the new Classics Catalogue are "I love Burgundy." You wouldn’t know it from the scant appearance of only 44 items, which is a fraction that appears in Quebec.

Getting great wines is not easy - you have to work hard and move very quickly to get them. There are three steps. Go to where the wines are being made. This entails building bridges with various suppliers. Second you have to order or at least put them on hold them immediately and on the spot when you find them. Third you have to pay for them promptly. The LCBO Vintages department has often failed on some and occasionally on all three of these fronts. Many Burgundian producers who currently sell wines to the SAQ told me personally that they do not want to sell to the LCBO! It’s a very scary situation!

Meanwhile the LCBO complains that they can’t buy the high quality products they need because the local wine importers apparently instruct their principals to say the wines are out of stock! Why would an agent do that?  The reason is simple. The wine agents import these premium, hard-to-get products for themselves and then sell them at a much more profitable price directly to their best accounts by the case (usually the restaurants).

This problem explains why so few excellent small producer wines are available through the Classics. Some suggest that the LCBO was forced to cut deals with certain houses and give them listings for some of their rather ordinary products in order to get hold of the better products for the Classics. And while I personally applaud the "Classics" picking up excellent bargains and/or overlooked items that doesn’t attract the label hunters, the bottom line is that there still isn’t enough fine wine being listed. Worse yet, these obscure wines don’t have the chance of being tasted.

I have argued in the past that the Classics should abandon its three-times-a year fancy catalogue and release new products monthly in the current existing monthly Vintages catalogues. Not only will it save money, but it will also put continuous pressure on the Ontario agents to provide some marketing efforts on behalf of these wines. The "Just In! another new feature of your Classics Catalogue" section on page 38 of the Vintages May catalogue (which features only four Italian reds) is a tiny step in the right direction. Unfortunately, none of these products were sampled by the LCBO wine consultants and/or wine writers meaning that they do not receive much exposure. Indeed, of some 300 new Classics products, 31 have been put out for preview!

There are also a number of previously released Classics items put on sale on May 1st at $5 off per bottle (pages 35-37). While I really liked (and recommend) the approachable Marimar Torres 1997 Sonoma Pinot Noir Don Miguel Vineyard when I tasted it last year (now only $40), I doubt that this $5 discount will have much of an impact on the 1994 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou which is down to $122 from $127!

I believe that what the LCBO should do is abandon the Classics concept as it now operates and go for monthly releases. This offers terrific savings in terms of printing and personnel costs! Moreover, it will put balanced pressure on the Ontario agents to provide some continued sales efforts on behalf of these wines, which are more often than not simply forgotten about.

Another great move would be to have a comprehensive table listing "by product" all the items currently available at Vintages perhaps with an estimate of remaining quantities on the Vintages website. This would enable anyone to immediately see the full extent of products available for sale. It’s terribly frustrating, for instance, not to be able to look up all the white Burgundies available at any point in time.  And because people don’t know that certain wines from previous releases are still available, they are left forgotten languishing on the shelves. The LCBO’s failure to provide such information makes everyone a loser!

As for Classic must buys, let me repeat one of my recommended Burgundies from February’s Winter Supplement - the very well-priced ($32) 1997 Savigny-Lavières 1er Cru Domaine Tollot-Beaut whose medium bodied, spicy, ripe, charming red cherry flavours leapt out of the glass. A lovely wine to drink now. Another wine that didn’t sell out is the wonderful 1998 Rasteau Gourt de Mautens at $37 which is great drinking value with its gently spicy, sandalwood and jammy dark cherry flavours. The Classics was only able to get 50 cases and it’s shameful that any still remains today.

Of the new items tasted, don’t miss what might seem to be an "everyday" Cotes-du-Rhone Villages - 1998 Domaine La Montagnette (non-filtré et mis en bouteille à la propriété par les Vignerons d’Estézagues) a truly great buy at only $15. This remarkable blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 20% Mourvèdre has surprisingly well structured, expansive, slightly earthy, roasted plum flavours that go on and on. Happily Classics has good quantities of this one.

For whites, there is an interesting selection of 8 Chardonnays from the Macon, which may well be worthy of a detour. The only one presented was quite remarkable - the Domaine de Roally 1998 Macon-Montbellet by Henri Goyard at $23 which was rounded and smooth with gentle honeyed citrus and pear flavours followed up by a hint of spice, nuts and melon on the lingering finish.

While the Classics does have an interesting selection of wines, more has to be done about building up a core of genuine items and a more effective way of presenting them. In essence, it’s time to get them out of the dead zone warehouses and into the hands of prospective buyers. Interaction with the consumer is critical. Signature, for instance, was able to sell twice as much 1997 Cave Springs CSV Chardonnay (and in Quebec!) than the Classics because they were able to sample it in their store. The message for the LCBO should be obvious.

© Michael Vaughan 2000