A glass of wine may help: Quebec’s cure for coronavirus blues
Analyzing wine consumption and coronavirus cases in Quebec during lockdown
with Claudel Rheault
At the end of March, Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault’s message to the people was clear: stay inside. But he didn’t stop there, offering a tongue-in-cheek remedy to the anxiety of lockdown: “a glass of wine may help”.
Since SAQ (Quebec’s central wine stores) remains open as an essential business, we were curious to see whether people were taking Legault’s advice. We’ve been scraping data from the SAQ website since the start of April to take an inventory of the stock and understand whether more people are turning to Cote du Rhone or Chardonnay to take the edge off their isolation.
How wine works in Quebec
Quebecers already had a history of drinking a bit more frequently than in other provinces (source), contributing to the famous joie de vivre that Canada’s Francophone province brings to the table. We spent about 2.39 billion Canadian dollars on wine in 2019 (source). SAQ represents the largest selling point, accounting for 86% of sales (alongisde grocery and convenience stores) (source).
