I work in the wine trade in Ontario and can give you a breakdown of the costs. Let us assume that a winery's wholesale price for a bottle of wine would be $1 per bottle U.S. For the sake of convenience the U.S. and Canadian dollars will be at par. (Actually this would not be the case because the L.C.B.O. has an "official" exchange rate for a 3 month period to cushion against currency fluctuations.) Add 15% commission for the agent (that's me!), freight, applicable taxes, excise, L.C.B.O. markup of 64% across the board and the retail cost works out to $6.55 per 750ml bottle including $.20 deposit. The licencee cost (what the restaurant pays the L.C.B.O.) is $5.94 including deposit.

By the way, the L.C.B.O. has one of the lower markups in Canada among the provincial liquor control boards.

Now, let us take your 2 buck chuck and put it on a winelist. For the house wine, a 200% markup is relatively common, although it can be 300%. The approximate cost on the winelist would be $17.25 (actually $17.22) before 5% G.S.T. and 12% P.S.T. Hey presto, the total cost would be $20.18.

A few years ago the L.C.B.O. lost the distinction of being the single biggest purchaser of alcoholic beverages in the world. That distinction belongs to one of the U.K. supermarket chains.