There aren’t sweeping clearance sales of our favourite libations – perhaps it’s from our somewhat puritan liquor laws. However, there are a few times when our guilty pleasures go ON SALE at the LCBO. If you consider the time of year, post-Christmas, where the credit card bills come in, money is a bit tight. You may have received more than a couple of bottles as gifts which means there is less of a need to shop. The stretch from New Years Day to Valentine’s Day is the slowest time of the year at the LCBO. To entice you to come out and shop there are many sales, clearances, and just plain good value deals. Here are some of the places where you can look both inside and outside the LCBO for good value and the pros and cons of each.

Are you familiar with the wine’s style and is it something that you would consume, serve, gift often enough? Perhaps it has the ability to age well. 

Buy direct from the winery (online or in person)

• Pros: mix-and-match, can order less than one case, mailing list alerts for clearances or pre-release
• Cons: Canada only, you’re on your own for selecting the ‘great’ wines.

Buying from an agency (typically by order form)

• Pros: International and domestic, professionals selecting the ‘great’ wines, can represent broad or focussed portfolios
• Cons: Often need to buy a case or half case of the same wine, no mix-and-match.

Brew-your-own, brew-on-premise

• Pros: the cheapest option for frequently consumed wines (from $3 per btl), have a professional guide you to the right wine and leave the work to them.
• Cons: Up front cost (bottles), buy in 30 bottle batches, quality may not be what you expect compared to wineries, not meant for ageing yet the fresh wine needs at least 6 months rest to become palatable.

Futures (buying pre-harvest)

• Pros: discount on ultra premium wines from noble vineyards (e.g. Bordeaux), can be a form of investment (keep half, sell half – use the profit to buy the next case and so on)
• Cons: so many opinions from critics, need knowledge of the vineyard more than the region and to follow regional weather, 2-3 year wait for release, minimum 3-bottles

Auction

• Pros: Access to rare wines, can be a source of savings, ageing is already done for you.
• Cons: Need to know enough about the specific vintage, age-ability and how the wine was kept.

Maybe you’re not ready to waive your paddle for that $10,000 lot of rare 1982 vintage selection of premier cru Bordeaux. What if you not as familiar with the wine or not willing to invest by buying in bulk at the moment? There are a good few options at your local LCBO and other retailers.

Discount prices

• Pros: LCBO regularly offers 5%-10% off on a rotation of bottles to help move stock especially in slow seasons
• Cons: Generally limited to wines that are available in larger quantities

How to find?  Online search, shelf signage

Clearance

• Pros: The wine didn’t sell well and is offered at a deeper discount (e.g. 20% off)
• Cons: There is a reason it didn’t sell – Of course the wine will be palatable but is the wine to your taste?

How to find?  Online search, shelf signage, may be separated from its usual location or placed in an ‘end cap’ at the outward facing tip of an aisle.

Bin ends

• Pros: A form of clearance at ‘store level’, the ‘last bottles’, some of the deepest discounts can be found
• Cons: They will be complete surprises, only found at the store you are in, not typically found online, limited to wines offered by VINTAGES.

How to find?  Loose bottles, in a basket, typically near the VINTAGES section, with a price sticker

So how do you go about finding deals? Do you ever stock up when that special item you’ve been waiting for finally does come on sale? Name your favourites and how you scored them in the comments.

Sparkling wine is not just for toasting, it’s for any part of the meal. With the wide variety of flavours, levels of sweetness, light-bodied or full-bodied, a sparkling wine can be chosen to complement each part of the evening from the welcome tipple for your guests to the dessert finale. All you have to remember is to match the weight of the food with the weight of the wine and to make sure the food you serve is not sweeter than the wine you pair it with. A lighter-bodied and dry (‘brut’) Cava might be better suited to the lighter fare than the full-bodied vintage champagne. The sweetness of Moscato d’Asti or a wine labelled that is ‘demi sec’ or ‘doux’, is a great match for fresh fruit or dessert.

The corks and cages of sparkling wines are really a work of art as much as they are functional. From the bottom right moving clockwise: Segura Viudas Brut Reserva (Cava, Spain), Château de Montgueret Brut (Crémant de Loire, France), Mumm Cuvee Napa Brut Prestige (Napa, USA), Tarlant Brut Reserve (Champagne, France). Centre: Batasiolo Bosc dla Rei (Moscato d’Asti, Italy)

Complexity – there’s more to it than just the ‘pop’

Sure, green apples and pears are notes found in many white wines, but sourdough bread, mushrooms and truffles? Yes! Sparkling wines typically have more complexity than their non-sparkling counterparts. This is mainly due to the effect of the second fermentation in the bottle or tank which not only creates the bubbles but also the autolytic aromas which can be described as “yeasty”, “fresh baguette”, or “truffle”. Depending on the base wines that are used, all sorts of fruit, floral, spice and oak characters can be achieved. The autolytic notes, which only come about by aging on the exasperated yeast cells (lees), add that extra depth of character. Generally, the longer the yeast remains in contact with the wine, the more complexity can be achieved.

Bargain bubbly? You bet!

Looking to set the scene and not break the bank? For the wines of Champagne there are many quality examples under $50, and when it comes to the sparkling wines from everywhere else, the majority of them can be purchased for half this amount. Start by looking for non-vintage champagne. Although by law the Champenoise need to rest their wines on the lees for a minimum 15 months, many, if not all the producers will surpass this – the Reserve Brut from Tarlant is aged for a whopping 60 months and is $44.45 at the LCBO. For the rest of France, there is great value in crémant [“cray mahn”] and it comes in a variety of grapes ranging from sparkling Chenin blanc and Cabernet franc from Loire (Crémant de Loire), Riesling, Pinot gris, and Gewürztraminer from Alsace (Crémant d’Alsace)  or even the traditional champagne grapes (Chardonnay and Pinot noir) from Burgundy (Crémant de Bourgogne). They are all made using the same method as champagne and for $30 or less.

Think outside the boîte!

Sparkling wine can be had from pretty much any winemaking country. We’ve touched upon Cava, from Spain and Moscato d’Asti, from Italy, but there are many more examples such as Prosecco (Italy), or wines labelled sekt (Germany) or cap classique (South Africa). There are many others from the rest of the new world countries where you can find fine wines. California and Australia both make outstanding wines suitable for sparkling and even France has taken an interest in them – Mumm and Domaine Chandon to name a couple. In the southern latitudes of Chile, Bío-Bío valley has some fine examples of Chardonnay and Riesling.  Their sparkling wines are gaining popularity for their crisp feeling and elegant bouquet. Last, but certainly not least, are our homegrown wines. Canada has more than a knack for producing great Chardonnay, Riesling, and Pinot noir, but the transformation of these into sparkling wines makes for amazing results. There is a lot to offer and there exists a coveted rare wine that can really be found only in Ontario, sparkling icewine.

Experiment, experiment

Purchase a still wine and a sparkling wine made of the same grape. Ask about the methods by which each wine was made and how it was aged – in a tank, barrel, on the lees or all of the above. When you enjoy each pair, note how the sparkling wine differs from the still wine in both smell and taste. It will help you to learn about which grapes impart certain characteristics to sparkling wine. Over time you will begin to appreciate how a particular grape changes when it is transformed into sparkling wine through various processes. This way, you’ll be better able to confidently know a little something about a new wine you may have never tried before and you’ll know what to expect in that particular winery’s style.

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Methods on sparkling production and vocabulary