Six months after halting orders of Norman Hardie wines in the wake of widespread allegations of sexual misconduct, the Ontario liquor board is making plans to restock, and warning its employees who are uncomfortable with the decision to keep their opinions to themselves.

Owners of wineries and vineyards on the Skaha Bench of the Okanagan Valley have overwhelmingly voted in a plebiscite to create a sub-appellation, or as some call it in the wine industry, a sub-geographic indicator, according to vote results announced December 4.

Premier Doug Ford recently announced that, starting now, alcohol retailers will be permitted to keep their doors open from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. The extended hours will be in effect seven days a week.In the province's 2018 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review, the government it's "further modernizing alcohol sales" by letting The Beer Store, the LCBO and other authorized retailers such as grocery stores and agency stores sell alcohol for longer.

The new regs cap the number of stores that can be owned and operated by a company at 75 but place no limits on licensing or franchising of Big Bud brands through storefront operations

Shares of Constellations Brands Inc. stz-0.23% slid 2% Thursday, after Macquarie downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform, and said it has become more wary of the company's $4 billion investment in Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth Corp

Canadian winery icons Donald Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser, who revolutionized an industry and then helped create Brock University's renowned grape and wine research centre CCOVI, have been honoured with the first Lifetime Achievement Award ever presented by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. The partners were feted as "the pioneers of Ontario's wine renaissance" at a gala at Toronto's Exhibition Place, where Ziraldo was joined by Andrea Kaiser, who accepted on behalf of her late father. The award was sponsored by Brock University.

Washington winemakers have chafed for years over the unequal treatment their bottles receive in grocery stores in British Columbia. Imported Washington wines can't sit on the shelves next to B.C. wines. If Washington wines are sold in grocery stores, they have to be located in a "store within the store," a requirement that physically separates imports from domestic wines and requires a separate checkout. The proposed U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement would end that practice by November 2019, giving equal treatment to wines from Washington and other states on the grocery aisle.

Consumers in Vancouver can now have booze delivered to their door with the arrival of an app-based service that includes age-verification software. The Boston-based Drizly website and mobile app promises to deliver consumers beer, wine and spirits from select Liquor Depot locations in under 60 minutes. The company first partnered with Canadian retailers in 2016 when it launched for the Alcanna-owned Liquor Depot and Liquor Barn stores in Edmonton.

The SAQ has announced that they will be increasing the retail prices of over 800 products at shops across Quebec. This news has conveniently come right around the holiday period, when we all plan on drinking the most. Although the price increases are not terribly drastic, considering the already steep prices we pay for alcohol in Quebec, it's still a significant change.

Meads have been around for a long time, but there hadn't been a craft meadery in Saskatchewan until Prairie Bee Meadery opened in June 2016. The province has always been a leading producer of honey, which is combined with water to make mead - a liqueur also known as honey wine. There's been several variations of mead produced by Saskatchewan breweries over the years, but never a dedicated meadery.

The prominent Vancouver, B.C., family that owns the Canucks hockey franchise is preparing to build a major wine production facility and tasting room near Benton City. Aquilini Red Mountain Vineyards, a holding of Aquilini Investment Group, will build a 170,000-square-foot wine production facility, tasting room and a home for the owners at its property in the Red Mountain American Viticultural Area, according to plans submitted to Benton County.

Join us at one of Canada's best new restaurants of 2018 to highlight the joys of pairing both wine and beer with a delicious 4-course menu. Created and prepared by JC Poirier, Chef/Owner of St. Lawrence Restaurant, and Neil Taylor, Executive Chef of Home Block Restaurant at CedarCreek. Each course will be expertly paired with CedarCreek's Single Block Platinum wines chosen by winemaker Taylor Whelan. They'll go head-to-head with Strange Fellows craft beers selected by brewmaster Iain Hill.

Tourists to Canada's Okanagan Valley can thank the glaciers for carving the wonderful views in southern British Columbia, but local growers look to the future by growing new varieties and crops on the fertile benches the glaciers left behind. On the first day of the 2018 International Fruit Tree Association study tour in July, Carl Withler, an industry specialist for the Canadian Ministry of Agriculture, summed up what we'd learn over the next couple of days: B.C. growers are facing change head-on.

B.C. wine fans take note, the B.C. Wine Institute is inviting consumers to "Search Near Not Far" and explore the unique differences coming from our defined wine-growing regions. The campaign invites consumers to explore the character within each B.C. wine region and to learn about the Okanagan Valley, Similkameen Valley, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands and the four new regions of Thompson Valley, Kootenays, Lillooet and the Shuswap.

Joe Pantoliano will star in the whimsical Italian vineyard drama From the Vine Came the Grape, directed by Sean Cisterna (Kiss and Cry, Full Out). Pantoliano, best known for his star turns on HBO's The Sopranos and in the film Memento, plays a downtrodden corporate executive who suffers a crisis of ethics, retreats to his family's hometown in southern Italy and discovers a vineyard on its last legs.

U.S. President Donald Trump is partly right but far from completely correct when he says that France's "big tariffs" make it hard for American vintners to sell their wines here: Wrong because customs duties on imported wines are applied not by France but by the European Union. Right because American tariffs are "globally" less than what Europe charges, the French customs authority says.

The Somm360 Congress releases its full program between Nov. 25-27, 2018, at Le Grand Quai in Montreal's Old Port. The inauguration event will present a 3-day educational trade conference, offering a series of exclusive masterclasses, tastings, and training sessions.

Canada is pushing back against U.S. attempts to change the text of its September trade pact and the issue may have to be referred to ministers to settle, a Canadian source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

Meads have been around for a long time, but there hasn't been a craft meadery in Saskatchewan until Prairie Bee Meadery opened in June 2016. The province has always been a leading producer of honey, which is combined with water to make mead - a liqueur also known as honey wine.

Leamington, Ontario-based cannabis producer Aphria has made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange and promoted former Diageo North America executive Jakob Ripshtein to president.