The short list, presented by réZin

Lately, it's just been lists and more lists. While you wait to get your name on the list for the class action suit against the SAQ, the time is at hand to get your name on réZin's guest list.

Tomorrow, the private importer and supplier's agent known as réZin is opening its doors for its annual open house. A selection of their listed products will be available to taste and the $10 entrance fee goes towards any order you place that is $200 or more. But remember, this year is an RSVP event so they only ask that you contact them before showing up.

Alright, so enough with all the LISTS!! What is réZin? With Quebec's monopoly in place for wine sales, réZin is basically as close as it gets to a "Feel the Love" topic for Wine Blogging Wednesday (well I guess I'm a week too late to get mentioned for this one). So réZin is an agent, but not just any old agent. While it represents several products that the monopoly carries, the two guys that run the operation, Jean-Philippe Lefebvre and Éric Beaudoin have a personal interest in bringing quality organic wines onto the market. This job seems like a big one, but already réZin features more than 200 products. Lefebvre and Beaudoin offer a love of wine that is a needed in the marketplace right now. And Thursday evening, they are willing to prove it.

Besides a surprise, here's what is promised:

• Sancerre 2004 - G. Boulay


• Chapeau Melon 2004


• Vin de pays d'Oc sauvignon 2002 - Domaine la Madura


• Cuvées réZin 2004


• Morgon 2004 - M. Lapierre


• Gigondas 2001 - Domaine des Vins de Vienne


• Crozes-Hermitage - Domaine des Vins de Vienne


• Stump Jump red D'Arenberg 2004

(Okay, I swear that's the last list for long long time.)

I'm hoping to attend if at least to sample the Chapeau Melon, which was personally recommended to me by the venerable Caveman. Cheers!

Backwash
Taking another gander at réZin in light of the recent malfeasance at the SAQ has caused me pause. Some of the terms I have been using may not have been the best-chosen ones. I now understand, for instance, that though réZin may be the Quebec agent for any given wine supplier, the SAQ will still handle all the work regarding the supplier's contract: promotional activities, shipping and distribution, retail pricing, which naturally includes the price-fixing duties too. Well done SAQ.

Here's more in the way of clarification.

State-owned corporation: This is the best (and perhaps politest) way to describe what the SAQ (Société des Alcools du Québec) is. I have referred to it as a liquor board, which isn't necessarily wrong because the Quebec government appoints to it directors and yes, they do sit on a board. But mixed in there is the SAQ's "senior management" people who also help to establish strategies to run the joint, so corporation pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Government agency: Since réZin is an agent, I wondered whether I should turn around and call the SAQ an agency. Of course a government "agency" does not denote a collection of government "agents". Au contraire! Really a government agency just implies a division of the government, and if the SAQ is more of a corporation then really the agency involved in the situation is the Régie des Alcools, Courses et des Jeux (RACJ). This regulatory body is actually a branch of the government, unlike the SAQ. What's more, the RACJ refers to itself on its site as a big-B "Board" ... Whoa, sorry! Self-important much? I guess that's bureaucracy for you.