Get to know your Vintages wine essentials
If you’re reading this column, you’re probably well aware the LCBO divides its wines into two categories, General List and Vintages. But did you know the division is a bit of a ruse?
General List wines are shelved en masse and upright in the Walmartesque main section of the store where everything about the merchandising says, “These items are nothing special.” This area is the cavernous grab-and-go-land of categorically large-production, moderately priced wines.
Step into the Vintages section and everything changes to make it perfectly clear that this is where the hushed-tone, upmarket, serious wine shopping takes place.
The angled shelves display single bottles at eye-level to encourage you to browse with utmost attention to detail, scanning labels with properly pursed-lipped consternation.
The few horizontal shelves that do exist here are narrow affairs with strategic protrusions for display bottles — you know, to cue your attention and ensure you don’t mistake these wines for General List items. And of course, prices are higher.
In short, everything about merchandising and pricing would have you believe these two sections are galaxies apart. But they’re not.
General List offers some serious gems that overperform for the money as well as notoriously cheap and cheerful juice.
And Vintages releases a lot of mediocrity at inflated prices along with some very fine wine.
But one thing is certain: when it’s time to gift the hostess, fire up that hot date or get out of the doghouse, you know very well which part of the store you have to be shopping in. It just feels right (for a million concretely imposed reasons).
But shopping Vintages isn’t easy. Every other Saturday, the LCBO releases an average of 110 new wines in Vintages in limited amounts. Holy hell.
Following which wines are best as well as where and when they’re available is a full-time job. My bet is that’s time, know-how and energy you don’t always have.
But there’s a trick. Wines that sell well on the regular become “Vintages Essentials,” meaning they’re always stocked in that section and are more widely available than other Vintages wines.
In fact, some of these wines are even stocked in stores that don’t have designated Vintages sections.
For instance, Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio (an excellent wine I’ve recommended before) is available in 606 LCBO stores in Ontario. This is the not only the bestselling Italian Pinot Grigio in North America, it’s a bargain at $18.95 given its average price in the U.S. is $25 (U.S.).
You can see why knowing your Vintages Essentials can up your wine shopping game.
Of the current 106 Vintages Essentials wines now listed, I’ve selected five of the best-value bottles for you.
You know, so you can beeline to the best bottle to bring to the party/ pour your hot date/use to get out of the doghouse with maximum efficiency. Carolyn Evans Hammond is a Torontobased wine writer. She is also a Londontrained sommelier and two-time bestselling wine book author. Reach her at carolyn@carolynevanshammond.com.