By Andrew Macdonald
I asked Terah McKinnon, spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, to detail the top three selling Nova Scotia-made wines.
“Our top selling Nova Scotia wines from fiscal 2024, which represents sales from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, were Benjamin Bridge’s Nova 7 (750ml), Jost L’Acadie Pinot Grigio (300ml), and Jost Tidal Bay, (750ml),” she reports.
“These three products were part of the Nova Scotia wine sales increase of 1.8 per cent to $17.1 million,” in the fiscal period.
“While wine that was bagged and boxed in Nova Scotia is not included in that number, this category also saw growth. In fiscal 2024, Nova Scotia commercial wine grew 4.2 per cent to $24.5 million, compared to the year before.”
That figure would include sales of Peller Estates wine. The firm is Ontario-based but produces wine in Truro.
Benjamin Bridge relies on 100 per cent grown Nova Scotia grapes, while Jost uses grape juice imported into the province.
“Jost L’Acadie Pinot Grigio meets the province’s Nova Scotia Wine Standards Regulations made under the Agriculture and Marketing Act and is aligned with the 85 per cent grape content rule to be classified as Nova Scotia wine,” says the NSLC’s McKinnon. “For exact percentages of Nova Scotia grape content for a particular product, that information would need to come from the producer of that product,”
Further details about the Wine Standards Regulations are available at https://novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/amwinestds.htm#TOC1_2
“Now, regarding sales of Nova Scotia farm wine and Nova Scotia commercial wine over the last five years, we have seen an overall increase of 8.2 per cent in sales from April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2024. For Nova Scotia farm wine specifically, there was an overall sales increase of 36.1 per cent, and a 2.3 per cent increase for commercial wine sales from the same five-year period,” says McKinnon.
The NSLC recently released its fiscal year figures. For the fiscal year April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, total sales were up 1.6 per cent to $874.5 million, with an increase in both beverage alcohol and cannabis sales compared with the previous fiscal year.
Beverage alcohol sales increased 0.5 per cent to $753.4 million, and cannabis sales increased 8.9 per cent to $121.0 million.
Profits decreased 0.3 per cent to $238.8 million.
Sales of Nova Scotia products increased 7.4 per cent to $133.9 million. Local beverage alcohol products increased by 3.5 per cent to $94.4 million, while local cannabis led the growth of Nova Scotia products overall with a 17.9 per cent increase to $39.5 million.
Other local product sales results include:
- craft beer – up 5.7 per cent to $30.3 million
- wine – up 1.8 per cent to $17.1 million
- spirits – down 0.3 per cent to $12.8 million
- ready-to-drink products – up 4.1 per cent to $34.3 million.
Gerry McConnell, founder of Benjamin Bridge with his twins, Devon, left, and Ashley McConnell-Gordon, who also work at the Valley winery.
