Free the Wine!

Here's how you can help Free the Wine and why it is important to do these things.

• Contact Your MLA. The only way that meaningful change will occur for BC wine lovers is if you put pressure on your government to change the laws and the tax rates. If you don't complain, nothing will happen. So please, you can do it right now by email ... contact your MLA.
• Join Free the Wine! Join Free the Wine - click on Register in the box to the left to create a free account. You can also sign up for our free newsletter to stay up to date on Free the Wine's activities.
• Buying a Bottle of BC Wine? If you buy a bottle of BC wine directly from the winery or from a VQA wine store, the BC government gets far less tax than if you go to a government liquor store. So whenever possible ... buy your BC wine direct from the wineries or from VQA or private wine stores. Do not buy from government liquor stores.
• Buying a Bottle of Imported Wine? It's not so simple with imported wine but generally the government gets less hidden tax if you buy the wine from a private store than if you buy the wine from a government liquor store. So whenever possible ... buy your imported wine from private wine stores.
• Do NOT buy Cellared in Canada Wine. These wines are sometimes labelled as "Cellared in Canada" and sometimes labelled as "A blend of international and domestic wines". They are usually packaged and displayed as if they were BC or Canadian wines. They are NOT. These wines are made by importing cheap bulk wine or juice from outside Canada and then bottling it here usually with little or no domestic wine (in Ontario, some domestic wine is required to be included in the blend, in BC there is no such requirement). The government makes a huge amount of tax revenue from this category. Please, do not buy this product.
• Donate. Free the Wine is now raising funds to launch a public awareness campaign designed to educate wine buyers how much tax they are really paying in BC. Please contact us if you would like to donate or assist with the campaign.