Buy the Case – September 2021

Great wines to buy by the case

These are not 97 point wines.

With the recent proliferation of online wine sales, our inboxes, like yours, are overflowing with offers that look too good to be true. It’s tempting to click and purchase. But if you’ve lost all confidence in hyper-inflated scores and florid descriptions, we can’t blame you. In fact, we agree with you. A few wines are worth it. Many are not.

But we have a solution to buying wines by the case with confidence.

WineAlign was established a dozen years ago to help consumers make better, more informed wine purchases at the LCBO. Then we introduced the WineAlign Exchange, our curated wine subscription service of mixed private imports. Now, we’re going one logical step further: making the best of the best private import wines available to you to buy by the full case. The WineAlign crü tastes hundreds of wines each month to find a small handful on which they all align; they’re a demanding bunch. That’s why you trust them. And these ‘aligned wines’ are what we can now offer to you by the case.

We’re delighted to introduce this service to help you drink better wine with the convenience of home delivery, while eliminating the hazards of the unknown. From the hundreds (thousands) of wines imported into Ontario each month, the WineAlign crü tastes and cherry-picks the best. To make the cut, we require unanimous consensus (rather rare!). Many of these wines already make it into the WineAlign Exchange subscription service. But some we find some good enough to buy by the full case. These are the wines we’d like to offer you from time to time.

Wines are sold in 12 bottle cases unless otherwise indicated. Click on the [Buy A Case Now] button to purchase a case and have it delivered directly to your door.

Disclaimers: Don’t expect 97 point scores, or daily offers. We don’t import wines and have no inventory to move. We have no exclusive allegiances. We are the most dreaded cherry-pickers. We apply the same rigour to this selection process that we do for everything else published on WineAlign. When we find wines that are worth it, we’ll let you know. Otherwise, we’ll be one less sensational headline in your inbox.

Featured Wine:

Because of shipping difficulties due to Covid we were unable to include this wine in our June Discovery case as we had planned. The wine has now arrived and we are pleased to offer it as a special bonus. This is also the same Chénas that is in our (now sold out) Passport to Cru Beaujolais case.

Stephane Aviron Chénas Vieilles Vignes 2019, A.O.C. Chénas, Beaujolais, France
($27.26/bottle, $327/case, Nicholas Pearce Wines)

About Stéphane Aviron: Stéphane Aviron has painstakingly sought out parcels of old vines throughout the region and in all crus, the youngest of which are 35 years (used in the Beaujolais Villages bottling), and the oldest of which were planted in 1913 in the cru of Chénas. Stéphane can be considered a pioneer in his approach to winemaking in Beaujolais, but he would just tell you that he is simply returning to the traditional practices that have always made fantastic Gamay wines.

Review: This is a Chénas of real depth and succulence, generosity and density of fruit, very ripe, while still respecting the freshness of gamay and the region. There’s a real liquor-like density of the grape here, also stemmy-leafy character in line with the appellation. Length and depth are quite exceptional. There’s a terrific amount of wine here for the money. 92 points, John Szabo, MS (See more reviews here.)

Food Pairings: perfect with a wild mushroom salad or salmon with beurre rouge.

Drink: 2021 – 2024

Quantity: 15 cases