We're excited and relieved to share that the Alberta government's ad valorem wine tax has been recalled! In its place will be a slight increase on the “flat” tax that wine has traditionally been subjected to in the province, with positive effects on pricing incrementally working their way through retail shelves and restaurant lists over the weeks and months following April 1, 2026.

Each wine lover carries within them a short, cherished list of names that inspire emotional, spiritual, and literal salivation. As a veritable cornerstone of German Riesling, the name Dönnhoff has long stirred this sort of awe and wonder in me. 

The ad valorem wine tax is an unprecedented change in Alberta’s 30+ years of privatized liquor history. We have never had a system different to the standard flat rate. Therefore we are calling for this new ad valorem tax to be reviewed and revised a year after its effect. There are a plethora of small independent businesses in Alberta that will not be able to survive the 5 years before this change is reviewed. The continued erosion of businesses and wines in our province will lead to a sterile landscape where Albertans have little choice. This is detrimental to the livelihoods of Albertans both economically and culturally.

One evening this week I was completely spellbound by the beauty of a wine that came my way. It was a mature bottle from a producer whose lofty reputation I had long felt was unjustified, and the experience changed my mind by blowing it. But I've been writing too much about wine lately and would rather share another example of the disarmingly auspicious impact of unexpected profundity.

It's well known that the wine industry is in crisis, and for myriad reasons of varying complexity. As a noun, "wine” seems to be stigmatically burdened in many ways, and I wonder if it's time to take everything that's beautiful about this inimitable gift from nature and start over with a new name.