Some good news is that the new generation of wine drinkers, the 20-somethings, have brought with them amazing responsibility with regard to alcohol. It's quite remarkable what's happening.
Of course, the dark cloud that always hung over wine and liquor was that it was damaging relationships. It was the carnage on the highway. What we're seeing now, and what the restaurants are telling us now, is that people are drinking and eating locally. In other words, they're walking to their restaurant, they're consuming between them a bottle of wine, or having a couple of glasses, and walking home. They're not getting behind the wheel. It's quite remarkable what's happened.
That was an organic process. Nobody legislated that; it happened on its own. We're seeing wines on tap, which is a really cool thing. People can taste small amounts of wine just to see which ones they like.
There are just two things. One is that I can still go to Toronto and go to a certain wine bar on lower Church Street and say to the bartender, “Do you have any of that Riesling from British Columbia?” Like a speakeasy from 1928, that bartender will reach down between his feet and will pull out a long-neck Riesling that everybody is after. There's sort of a bootleg version of 1928 all over again that's kind of goofy in this country.
Finally, just know this: there's an entire industry, a wine industry, that is afraid to speak out and speak up because of the repercussions from doing that. That's not the way we should be running our business, and that's not Canada. If you can help change that, it'll be a high watermark for me, and hopefully for you.
Thank you.