"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> No regulations, I doubt that has anything to do with it. The US dollar
> has been falling compared to Canada for a few years, I bet it's on the
> order of 15% right now. I used to travel a lot to Toronto and the rate
> was 1.47 for a long time, now it's around $1.30.
>
> As to California, they are big into home winemaking from Modesto to
> Lodi, not to mention Brehm. The Central Valley grows and sells a lot
> of wine grapes; they are used throughout California and elsewhere as an
> adjunct to local grapes and in jug wines.
>
> They do sell a lot of wine and kits. Most of the stuff that is
> available from the Central Valley is sold fresh to home winemakers in
> boxes or 6 gallon pails. California Concentrate owns Alexanders Sun
> Country and Home Wines, they are a concentrator. If grapes did not
> ripen in California it is illegal to use sugar so they would add a
> concentrate. (It doesn't happen much, it's not hard to get grapes to
> cooperate in California.)
>
> Pailed juice is pretty economical too, we get 6 gallon pails in
> Pittsburgh for $30 to $40 here because so much comes our way. That's
> really cheap considering pailing costs. It makes good wine too. If
> well made it's comparable to most $10 bottles.
>
> Canada is big on the 'brew on premises' process too and it really makes
> it easy for someone to get into making wine. You have a built in
> expert at your side the whole time. That lends itself to winemaking
> year round.
>
> I'm not saying your price increases are justified, just that it makes
> some sense to me. When I traveled in Canada the thing that struck me
> was that only food was a little more costly, compared to home, a dollar
> in Canada got me about the same as a dollar in the US. That made it go
> way further at $1.47. It's not like I was buying houses or cars though,
> just stuff you buy in a week or so.
>
>
> Joe
>
>> Our friendly neighborhood brewer's supplier has raised its prices,
>> supposedly because the weak dollar is making it more expensive to buy
>> wine kits from Canada. That got me wondering why the wine kit
> industry
>> seems to be almost entirely based in Canada. Wine is one of the
> larger
>> industries in California. You'd think that some of the vineyards in
>> Napa or the central valley would try marketing grapes in the form of
>> wine kits. (Sounds like a natural for Bronco - How do you follow two
>> buck chuck?)
>>
>> Is there some regulation that makes it difficult for American
> vineyards
>> to produce wine kits?
>

Strangely enough, wine kit prices here in Canada remain the same. And Joe,
while in Canada maybe you didn't see the price of gas compared to the good
old US of A? We pay over $3 a gallon for gas here these days.

KD