Wine drinkers in Quebec will soon see a drop in prices on almost 600 wines at the province's liquor stores.

The Société des Alcools du Québec is taking advantage of the stronger Canadian dollar when it buys wines from some European suppliers.

Prices will drop in February

The price of any wine the SAQ pays for in euros will drop by eight per cent.

"It [is] possible for us to take advantage of a rise in the Canadian dollar to negotiate better prices with our suppliers," says the liquor board's vice president of merchandising, Alain Proteau. "The end result is that the retail price is lower ... for our consumers."

Sour grapes?

The lower prices come after criticism that the SAQ reportedly asked some European suppliers to raise their wholesale prices to counter the stronger dollar.

The end result would be that the SAQ would pay less for the wine, but make more by keeping the retail price frozen.

Proteau denies those claims, noting the liquor board wanted to negotiate lower prices with suppliers.

"They might have misunderstood. We might have misjudged the way we explained it to them," Proteau countered on Thursday.

Normand Bélanger, a professional somellier figures the SAQ is simply lowering prices to appease angry customers.

"This is the answer to very bad publicity they had a couple of weeks ago," Bélanger suspects.

Problem fermented for weeks

In late December, the SAQ found itself denying allegations that it was trying to coerce some European suppliers to take part in a price-fixing scheme.

The story surfaced in a news report in the Dec. 28 edition of Montreal newspaper La Presse. In the article, unidentified suppliers came forward to denounce the alleged plan.

They approached the Association québécoise des agences de vins, bieres et spiritueux, claiming the SAQ had asked them to hike their wholesale prices so as to counteract the impact of the new exchange rate with the euro.

The suppliers said raising wholesale prices would mean the SAQ could keep retail prices frozen, meaning it could avoid the revenue cut.

At the time, the SAQ denied the suppliers' claims, and said reports of the alleged scam were the product of a simple misunderstanding.

The lower prices will come into effect in February.