Atlantic Canada prides itself on many things, whether it’s people, history, or geography. An unspoken addition to this list would almost always be its booze. Whether you’re talking about of stories about rum-soaked coves or hometown brews, Eastern Canada is inseparable from its myths and legends of liquor.

Into this heady mix comes Craig Pinhey, Atlantic Canada’s self-styled “Wine, Beer & Spirits Writer.” A sommelier, wine consultant, educator, beer judge, lover of fine food, and pop culture critic, Pinhey is something of a renaissance man when it comes to all things bottled and boozy. A regular columnist for the New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, CBC Radio, TAPS (Canada’s Beer Magazine), Wine Access, The Coast, East Coast Living, [here] Magazine, and Progress Magazine, he is also a prolific blogger and reviewer. In addition to his extensive writing career, Pinhey strives to educate Atlantic Canada in private and in public about the virtues of wine. An engineer by training, he is now called to judge at the Canadian National Wine Competitions, the International Value Wine Awards, the Atlantic Wine Awards, and the Canadian Brewing Awards. Running his business Frog’s Pad from his home in Rothesay, New Brunswick, Pinhey is a member of and teacher with the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers.

The Atlantic region is important to Pinhey, and not just for his business. He’s as keen to dispel myths of Atlantic booze culture (for example, that people there didn’t make wine ten years ago) as he is to instil new ones (ask him about cask-conditioned ale sometime). One of his “2010 Drink and Food Resolutions” is to “Buy Local,” which he describes as “practically possible,” while another is to “Take the Time to Holiday in New Brunswick,” including “live music festivals and regular visits to the excellent pubs and restaurants that exist in sometimes unlikely places.” Mistrustful of elitism and convinced that average people can appreciate “fine” products, Pinhey is a passionate advocate of Atlantic brewers, winemakers and distillers. He’s also a fierce critic of certain vested interests in the business, and uncompromisingly believes free enterprise is a key to success in maturing the culture in the region.

ECC’s Alex Willis spoke to Craig Pinhey over a pint of Pale Ale at the Big Tide Brewery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Alex Willis: When did you realize that you actually loved beer?

Craig Pinhey: My first love of beer was English-style beer from the Granite Brewery in Halifax, around 1985. It was an epiphany – “oh, this is what beer’s supposed to taste like!”

AW: You’ve been a judge several times for the Canadian Brewing Awards. I heard there was some controversy at this year’s event.

CP: There sure was – and it never got resolved. Some people got left out of categories, and we in the beer community just thought they didn’t enter. This wasn’t the case. Greg Nash [brewer at the Hart and Thistle in Halifax and formerly of the Pump House], previously a regular winner, this year didn’t even get a medal. Greg makes extremely hoppy beers – he puts in the hops at every stage, to get it even more bitter. Beyond the bitter taste, it’s just flavour after a point. But Greg was wondering why his beer didn’t get a medal, and why the Garrison beer didn’t get a medal. He posted a rant about it on his webpage. So there was an underlying suspicion that whoever was judging the IPA beer category this year didn’t like really hoppy beers. This was made even more confusing by the fact that the beers that didn’t win scored very high numerically.

AW: Beer judging seems like a pretty confusing business.

CP: You have no idea. There’s a lot of arbitrary decisions that go into this process. This controversy I’ve been discussing is made even more ironic by the fact that the beer that won the Gold Medal was a double-IPA, which is a strong and very hoppy beer. My brother, who is also a beer judge, was attending this year’s event, and he had the impression that the judges were anti-extreme beer. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you still have to judge fairly.

AW: So finding an “objective palate” must be a challenge.

CP: It can be very difficult. I mean, I really don’t like smoked beers. But when I judge a smoked beer category, I have to ask myself if there’s more to it than the one quality I don’t like.

AW: “Wine culture” seems to be exploding in popularity on the East Coast, for the first time, arguably. What do you think about Atlantic Canadian wine culture? There seems to be a wide assumption that it is “new.” Is that a misconception?

CP: It is a misconception. My sommelier instructor was Adam Dial, who is the son of Roger Dial, one of the founders of the Nova Scotia Wine industry, and one of the founders of the California wine industry before that. The premium wine industry in Canada – BC, Ontario, Nova Scotia – started in the late 70s and early 80s. BC and Ontario definitely took off, and Nova Scotia lagged behind. It’s only recently that Nova Scotia has found the wherewithal to make progress based on that early pioneering work. But if you look in the Gaspereau Valley now, things are really happening. In the last five years, Nova Scotia has really broken out, getting national exposure.

AW: Certainly, regionally, Nova Scotia has solidified its position.

CP: Yes, but they don’t sell it here in New Brunswick.

AW: And not in Ontario, either – at least, not visibly. The wine cartel in Ontario seems to have a stranglehold on distribution.

CP: Sure, but I have a take on this situation. I think that the Atlantic wine industry should be locally focused. This is true in a larger Canadian sense, too. If Canadians only bought Canadian wine, we’d run out in three weeks. The maximum volume just can’t meet the potential demand.

AW: But Ontario’s approach seems to be to go national, and even further abroad. You’re saying that the “local model” can be even more successful than it currently is?

CP: You have to set the conditions first. Hans Christian Jost, a player in the Nova Scotia industry, will tell you that the real struggle has been to get Nova Scotians to drink their own wine. You have to claim that before you can think about exporting. Now, the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission has made a groundbreaking change towards achieving this. They’ve chosen to sell Nova Scotia wines without the regular markup. Now, all European countries do this. Sometimes, Canadians can be idiotic in how much they’re willing to pay – we’ve been run by liquor boards for so long we don’t know what’s what. Now Nova Scotian wineries can think about selling through the commissions, where before it was wasted energy to do so, because the markup priced the wines way out of their quality range. If you make a $12 wine, you don’t want to see it advertised for $17 or $20.

AW: So while the wineries’ profit margins are remaining the same per unit, their market share is increasing.

CP: Right. The whole theory behind this change is for wineries to increase production of premium wine to meet a new demand, and to attract investment. Someone looking to set up a Nova Scotia winery now has the prospect of provincial distribution, without markup. That’s a big carrot. Jost is a big fan of the “local” theory, though: where if you make wine in a town, you identify and label it separately, and only sell it in that area. This way, you increase a “regional” trend, and build regional brands.

AW: From an adjudicator’s point of view, how do you address this concept of the local with Atlantic Canadian wine?

CP: I try to make people think about their trips to Europe and when they see the relationship between the ground and the wines there. When I wrote recently about the first Atlantic Wine Awards, I was trying to explain how wines should be different wherever you go. The weather’s different, the soil’s different, different grapes grow better in different climates, the food may be different, and so on. If you’re in coastal Spain and having some of their wine, you’ll find it’s an acidic white, because that’s what people drink. The climate is cooler, and you’re also probably drinking it with a meal of fish. Many of the Atlantic wines are like that, in terms of climate and lifestyle.

As a consumer, your expectations should be somewhat educated. Hopefully, you don’t expect PEI wines to taste like Aussie Shiraz. If you do, you’ll be disappointed. Our wines tend to have lower alcohol, and while they have fruit tastes, they’re not overly jammy. They don’t tend to have a lot of oak. If you tasted L’Acadie Blanc blind alongside a Chardonnay, it would stand out like a sore thumb. A lot of new wine drinkers were weaned on cheap New World wines like cheap Australian Shiraz. So that’s their idea of what wine is. You kind of have to “re-learn” wine in order to appreciate our wines. But you also have to be critical if the wine isn’t good.

AW: So the danger, then, is to be “local” without being “relativistic” when judging the wines.

CP: Sure. I’m loyal, so I’m sure I’ve been guilty on occasion of being too “nice.” But to take it from the other end, my palate has grown on and become attuned to acidic wines. I’m more accustomed to those sorts of wines than the high-alcohol Cabernet-Sauvingnons. I like those wines, but I don’t tend to drink them with food – they’re more for sitting around and sipping. When it comes to my meal, I want something that complements the food well. Nova Scotia wines are great for that. But you also have to get to know the grapes that are from that region. Ten years ago, people wouldn’t have known much about L’Acadie Blanc, but now it’s becoming known as a key grape in the industry here. So it’s part of my job to educate consumers, to explain local wines for what they are, and what they’re not.

We’re always sure to let people know that there’s no “right” or “wrong.” We’re just trying to expand their vocabulary. And one way to do that is by knowing the wines that are made in the area you live in.

AW: You feel very strongly about privatizing liquor sales in Atlantic Canada. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a scheme, and do you think Atlantic Canada is ready for this change?

CP: I am 100% in favour of privatizing liquor sales. Government commissions have no business being in this sector. These commissions may have served a historical purpose, but once we as a culture were through that time, they should have relinquished their share. It’s ridiculous: you can’t legally bring a bottle across a provincial border. It’s an unenforceable law. What is more important than privatization, and what should precede it, is the opening of the borders.

I’d like to think we’re ready, and in my opinion there aren’t many drawbacks. If you talk to the folks at the liquor commissions, they’ll disagree. Obviously, the factors beyond wine selection or beer culture are the people who are worried about their jobs. But the experience in Alberta has taught us that there are actually more jobs in the industry when it’s privatized, though those jobs are with lesser pay. The big advantage in privatizing is to the licensees and to wine and beer and spirits lovers, especially in urban areas. In an urban area you have a diverse market, and you can specialize.

AW: Interprovincial trade barriers and tariffs are obviously related to trade monopolies. How do you confront these entrenched interests?

CP: Average people crossing the border break the rules all the time, but a restaurant can’t. That’s ridiculous. Removing these barriers is just common sense. I won’t even write about it because I can’t bear the thought of wasting print and paper on it, but it seems so obvious. It would really help the small wineries, too. Wine collectors and wine lovers and restaurants may not seem like important consumers, but to a small winery, they can make all the difference. If these groups “find” a premium producer they really enjoy, they tend to buy way out of proportion to the average consumer.

Independent Atlantic producers don’t make enough to sell abroad through other commissions. Sometimes they can’t even make enough to supply their own provincial demand. If you sell to a different provincial commission, you’ve got to have a pretty large stock to supply their provincial chain. With a private distributor, you can make a small and private deal.

AW: You’ve written about “NB Liquor's lack of craft beer and wine from other parts of Canada.” Why is product diversity important to the industry?

CP: Well in my case, it’s simple. When I’m drawing up wine lists for a bunch of restaurants, I don’t want the same wines on every list! I mean, I understand that the commission’s job isn’t to always be providing the most exciting selection. They see their job as making sure people don’t drink illegally, and to provide funds for the government.

AW: Although the “diversity” argument is something they’ve used to rationalize the existence of commissions. That is to say, if you live in a smaller or rural area, you get access to products you would not normally have.

CP: That is true, and you are allowed to mail alcohol now, so it has marginally improved. In Nova Scotia, private stores offer free shipping if you buy a certain amount. But they cut back on the diversity of their stocks, and I’m sure there was some solid reasoning behind that, but it really hurt the “educated” market, and that market is growing, especially in Atlantic Canada.

But there needs to be a commitment from the people in charge for diversity to work. I’m not sure things are going well at NB Liquor on that front. Their sommelier, Robert Noël, just quit. So they’ve pretty much given up that experiment, of having somebody on staff who can source and recommend premium wine.

AW: Anything happening in the spirits industry in Atlantic Canada?

CP: I do reviews of spirits, and the biggest story I covered this year was about a PEI distillery that makes premium vodka from PEI potatoes. It’s called the Prince Edward Distillery. It’s a very traditional, Polish-style vodka. They also do a blueberry vodka, made from island berries. The newest bit on the distillery issue is the opening of a rum distillery in Lunenberg. That’s pretty exciting.

AW: What do you think was the worst trend in beer or wine in 2009?

CP: I’m still confused by low-carb beers. It’s a growing market. It doesn’t taste anything like beer. It doesn’t taste bad, it just doesn’t taste like beer. If you don’t like beer, why are you drinking this? It’s a product created exclusively for social reasons.

AW: What are you most looking forward to in 2010?

CP: I’m lobbying for local pubs to put cask-conditioned beer on the lists. You prime and carbonate it in the cask and serve it from the cask. It’s unfiltered and unpasteurized. But once you tap it, you have to drink it within three or four days. It’s a hundred years behind the times, but this kind of “retro” trend fits in with the local movements. I’m being selfish: I just want a pub I can go to with cask beer!