FAQ

Account Setup: Profile, Passwords and Preferences

• How do I add my picture?

  
  To change add your picture, click on the Account tab(found on the top right corner) and then click on the Profile Photo link.

  Click on browse button to find a picture on your computer and then press SAVE to upload it to WineAlign.

  

• How do I add my Twitter account?

  
  By adding you Twitter credentials to WineAlign we will automatically post wines you review to your Twitter account.
  

  
  To change add your Twitter credentials, click on the Account tab(found on the top right corner) and then click on the Twitter link.

  Click on "Yes! Send me a test Tweet" checkbox to send out a single tweet. You can include a hash tag in all of your reviews, we will automatically prefix it with the pound sign #.

  

• How do I change my email notification settings?

  
  To update your communication preferences, click on the My Profile link (found on the top right corner) and then click on the Communication Preferences tab.

  

  There are two notification options in the Communication Preferences. Click the checkbox if you wish to be emailed when someone either recommends a wine to you and/or sends you a friend request. Once you have changed your settings, click Save.

• How do I change my favourite stores?

  
  To change your Favourite Store settings, click on the My Profile link (found on the top right corner) and then click on the Favourite Stores tab. From here you can select the LCBO stores that you frequent most often and/or the ones most conveniently located to your work or home, for example.

  

  To choose your favourite store(s), click on the Store City drop down list and select a city. Then, from the Store Address drop down list, select the stores’ address. (Note: The Province will default to your home province based on your postal code.)

  You may repeat the above steps to add more than one store. For the store you frequent the most often, click the box for “Make this my primary or default store”. You may also choose to enter a Nickname for each of your favourite stores (optional).

• How do I change my Password?

  
  To change your Password, click on the Account link (found on the top right corner) and then click on the Passwords link.

  Simply enter you new password twice and press SAVE.

  

• How do I change my rating display options?

  
  To update your Rating Display Options click on the My Profile link (found on the top right corner) and then click on the Wine Preferences tab. The Rating Display Options are found on the bottom half of the Wine Preferences tab in My Profile.

  

  We introduced our own ratings display system as most wines in our system are between 4 and 5 stars or 85 and 95 points.
  The grape scale helps to easily visually differentiate between the ratings.

  If you would also like to see the ratings in Stars (out of 5 stars) or a Score (out of 100) just click on the one you prefer, then click Save All.

• How do I change my wine preferences, region, or price range?

  
  To update your Wine Preferences (wine, region or price), click on the My Profile link (found on the top right corner) and then click on the Wine Preferences tab.

  

  From the Wine Preferences screen, you can choose your favourite wine selections, countries/regions and price. These settings will load every time you access your Top Picks. Click on each of the 3 drop down menus and select your preferred Wine, Country or Region and Price.

• How do I edit My Profile?

  
  To edit your profile settings, click on the Account tab on the main menu.

  

Find Wine

• How can I Find or Search for a wine?

  There are two primary ways to find wines on WineAlign:

  1) You can Find a particular wine type or varietal using the wine filters on the Find Wine page. You can narrow your search using Country/Region and Price. The wines that are displayed will be based on the selections available in your favourite stores. Note that the Find Wine page only displays wines that are in stock at the selected store.

  2) Use the Search found in the top right corner of the screen. You can search on a variety of keywords including: LCBO number, name of the wine, wine producer, varietal, type, region and/or vintage date.

  NOTE: All wines in the system meeting your criteria will be returned using this search method and not based on availability of these wines at your favourite stores.

  

  To find a wine using this method, click on the name of the wine (to show the details) and then click the “Find this Wine” button on the right.

  

  A list of stores will be displayed. Stores are listed by proximity to your postal code.

  

• How do I notify you of a mistake?

  
  We strive to be as accurate as we can with our data. If you see anything wrong with the wine, like the name, image, vintage, region etc you can let us know by clicking on the Update Image and Wine button. Tell us what is wrong or upload a new image.

  

• How do I use the Find Wine feature?

  When you click on the Find Wine feature in the Wine tab, the wine results displayed will be based on the settings you have defined under Wine Preferences in My Profile.
  
  

  The top wines will be listed based on their rating and the price category you have selected. The quantities available at the stores you defined will also be listed.

  From here you can change, or further refine, your wine search by changing the type of Wine, the Country/Region, the Price or the Store. You can also used the Advanced Search feature found on the top right of the screen.

  

  To view details on any wine in the Find Wine list and read our Critic’s Reviews, click on the link of name of the wine. From the Wine Details page you can Add or Remove Bottles from your Cellar, Rate and Review the wine, Find this Wine in a store other than your Favourite Stores, Recommend to a Friend or Update the Image and Inventory of the wine.

  

• Why can't I find a wine?

  Not all wines are in our database... yet. We’ve been focused on Vintages (which is well covered) and then adding wines from the general list that have been well reviewed. Our next project is to round out the general list with all inventory.

Friends, Followers & Following

• How do I invite a friend?

  Inviting friends to join you on WineAlign will allow you to share wine recommendations and wine reviews with each other. To invite a friend to join WineAlign, go to the Friends tab, type in their email address, along with your message and click send. An email will be sent to your friend with a link to WineAlign, inviting them to sign up for the service.

  To check to see if you have friends already using WineAlign, you can search by using the Search for Friends box to the right. Once you find people you know and that you'd like to add to your friends list, click the Add button beside their name. A friend request will be sent to them.

  
  

• What's this Followers and Following stuff?

  
  WineAlign allows wine scores you see to be influenced by others.
  
  
  
  People can choose to be Followers of your scores. When you rate a wine it will have a larger than average impact on the scores they see. These people are shown as Followers.

  You can choose to Following someone by changing the influence/weighting that others have on your wines. Whenever you change their influence level (None, Low, Medium, High) you vary impact that their scores have on your wine ranking lists. These are shown as people your are Following.

• Why should I invite a friend?

  
  Once friends you invite register with the service you will be able to easily share wines with your friends and share in their activities. In addition, for every friend you invite who registers with WineAlign you will receive one free month of our premium service.

Icons & Symbols

• What do the thumbs up, thumbs down icons mean?

  Beside each wine review you will see a small thumbs up and a thumbs down icon. By clicking on either icon you can indicate whether you agree or disagree with a review.

  

  You can vote on reviews and over time we will use these statistics to better tune our service to meet your needs.

• What do those Drinkability icons mean?

  There are there drinkability icons.

  Drink Now - Hey, it's time to enjoy
  Drink now or Cellar - Enjoy now or Enjoy later
  Cellar - Not time to drink yet

• What do those inventory symbols mean?

  There are four inventory symbols. The amount of wine in the bottle represents the number of bottles at that particular LCBO store. Note that you can click on the bottle image at anytime to find the inventory levels of the stores based on proximity to your postal code.

  Empty (no inventory at that location)
  Low (sess than 12 bottles)
  Med (between 12 and 48 bottles)
  Full (more than 48 bottles)

  The letters after the inventory number help you find the bottles in the store:
  V = Vintages
  E = Vintages Essentials
  G = General List

• What is that Add To... icon?

  
  The Add To... icon is actually a widget. We use this widget everywhere on the site to allow you to quickly add wine to your an area we call My Wines .

  To use the widget just click on it and it will expand. Just click on any of the check boxes.

  

• What is the Reviews(x,y) button?

  
  This button shows is a quick link to wine details and shows the number of critic's reviews X and user reviews Y.

  

• What is your WineAlign Score?

  
  
  

  
  The WineAlign score is our way of ranking wines. The grape scale helps you to easily visually differentiate between the ratings. The grapes populate from the bottom to the top with a full bunch being our highest rating of 95+ points or 5 stars.

  We introduced our own ratings display system as most wines are between 3 and 5 stars or 80 and 95 points. The grape scale helps to visually differentiate between the ratings.

  If you would also like to see the ratings in Stars (out of 5 stars) or a Score (out of 100) you can do so in your Wine Preferences .

  

Mobile

• How do I access the Mobile version?

  The WineAlign has a website that is optimized for mobile browsers.

  Simply point your mobile device to here: m.WineAlign.com and sign in with the same email and password you do on the web version.
  

  From the mobile version you can do almost everything you can in the web version.

  

Not Registered Yet?

• Do I need to Sign Up for the service?

  No. You can use the "Find A Wine" section of our home page to access our basic service without Signing Up. By completing the quick registration process, you will gain access to additional features and added conveniences including:

  • A personal profile outlining your preferences so you don’t have to re-enter information each time you use the system.
  • Ability to see detailed notes and descriptions of the wines as well as input your own notes and ratings.
  • Access to a virtual wine cellar where you can store, organize and rate your wines as you purchase and consume them.
  • Access to reviews and ratings from other users.
  • Ability to connect with friends and recommend wines to each other.
  • Access to the mobile version of the service which you can use while shopping in your local government wine store.

• How do I find a wine if I’m not a member?

  
  To find a wine is simple! You don’t need to member of WineAlign to find a wine, but as a member you will enjoy many additional features and signing up is Free!

  To find a wine, go to: www.winealign.com

  Simply enter your Postal Code, select your price range, select a wine..... and click Go. It’s that simple.

  

  
  
  
  Your wine results will be displayed and the quantities in the liquor stores in your neighbourhood will be listed. From here you can further refine your wine search by changing the Country or the Store you prefer to shop at.
  

• What will you do with my information?

  In a word: Nothing. We will not sell or distribute your detailed personal information to any 3rd party. We will not use your email address to send you any unsolicited offers. We may use your information, in an aggregated and non-personalized manner, for targeted messages while you are using our site.

Palate Profiler & Influence Levels

• How do change my palate profiler, add critics or add users?

  To change your Palate Profiler settings, click on the Account menuand then click on the Palate Profiler tab.

  

  The Palate Profiler allows you to vary the amount of influence a certain critic, or friend, has on the consensus or aggregate score of a wine.

  

  By varying the weighting you can change the level of influence of critics, friends or other users.

  

  Click the “Add User” button in the top right to adjust your own level of influence or add others to your unique Palate Profile. Upon clicking the Add User button you will be required to search for the WineAlign user. Enter the person’s name and click the Search button.

  

  When you see the name of the person you wish to add, click the Add button to the right of their name. To change the weighting or influence of a critic or a user, click the Edit Weighting button.

  

• What is a Palate Profile?

  
  If you are a subscriber to WineAlign you have the ability to vary the influence that reviewers have on your wine rankings.

  With this feature you can tune your palate to those critics and members who tastes you align with. By doing this you also prevent a 'rogue' review from canceling out a review from a respected critic.

  There are four levels of Influence:
  None - One weighted score
  Low - Currently worth about 5 weighted scores
  Medium - Currently worth about 10 weighted scores
  High - Currently Worth about 25 weighted scores

  As an example, if you really like David Lawrason's reviews set him to HIGH and all other critics to LOW. Your wine lists will closely correspond to David's reviews. The other critics will have influence as well.

• Why can't I change influence levels?

  
  

  If you are unable to adjust your influence levels and they are disabled it means that you are not a subscriber to WineAlign. The ability to change influence levels is restricted to those members who pay. We think it only fair that if you do not value the reviews of our critics then their views will have the same influence as everyone else.

Subscriptions and Gift Certificates

• Paying a Subscription with PayPal

  PayPal handles our Gift Certificates and Subscriptions. In essence, it is our cashier. You will leave our site temporarily to use PayPal and then return after your transaction is complete. PayPal is safe and secure and is used by over 153 million people worldwide. PayPal handles Visa, Mastercard,American Express, Discover Card or Bank Card (interac/debit).

  

  You need a PayPal account to do any sort of financial transaction with us. If you do not have a PayPal account you will be asked to create one when you subscribe to the service. You will be asked for a credit card for security purposes. The process is very simple and quick. Remember that PayPal is safe and secure and used by over 153 million people. Once you have a PayPal account you can use it on most sites on the Internet.

  

• Redeeming Gift Certificates

  You redeem a Gift Certificate when you subscribe to the service. Just like when you present your Gift Certificate at the checkout at a store. Our checkout is handled by PayPal and you will be asked to present your redemption code. The redemption code was included/printed on your Gift Certificate.

  

What are My Lists?

• How do I build and share a List?

  You can create lists of wines to share with others. If you have friends who never know what to buy for your 'discerning' tastes, make your Favourites list public and send them the link. If you want to build and share a list of your favourite Pinots at the LCBO you can do that too.

  

  New Wine List Menu

  

  There is a new Add To... button menu and a new link to My Lists which contains all of your lists: Cellar, Favourites, Shopping and all of your new custom and shareable lists.

  

  We've updated the list screen with a new drop-down to make it easier to navigate between your lists.

  

  If you wish, you can click on "Share this list" to make a list public. Simply copy the link (web address) from the screen and send it to friends.

  

  What's cool is that people who click on your link will be presented with the availability of those wines at their local LCBO(s). They don't even have to be a registered user of WineAlign (although we hope they will be some day)

  

• How do I use My Cellar?

  My Cellar is a virtual wine cellar enabling you to keep an inventory of all the wines you have in your cellar. In My Cellar you can update the number of bottles you have and add manager your own ratings and wine reviews.

  

  You can add wines that you find in the system, or add your own private, or custom, wines that you may have received as gifts, or purchased privately through a wine agent. To make a custom wine entry into My Cellar, click the Add tab and search for the wine.

  

  You can add wines from most menus using the Add To... widget.

  
  

  Or you can search for wines by Name, Wine Producer, Varietal, Region and/or Vintage Date. Examples: Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon, or Rhone 2004, or De Latour 2003. Once you’ve found the wine you’re searching for, click the Add to Cellar button.

  

  If you don’t find the wine you are looking for in WineAlign, you can make your own custom wine entries into My Cellar. First, from the My Cellar, Add tab, search WineAlign to see if a wine exists in our system.

  If it is, Add it and customize your wine if you wish.

  

  If our system does not return any results, simply click the Add New Wine button to make a custom entry into your cellar.

  

  Once you’ve clicked on Add New Wine, you will be able to enter the details on the wine including the price, drink dates, a rating, your review and you can even upload an image of the bottle if you have one!

  

  Once your wine is in your cellar, you can enjoy your bottles and manage your inventory levels by clicking on the Drink/Rate/Edit button.

  

  ENJOY!

• How do I use My Lists?

  You use lists to manage your Cellar, your Favourites and your Shopping List. In addition, you can use My Lists to build and share custom Wine Lists.
  

• What are Favourites?

  
  Favourites is a storage list for wines that you really like. Stick them here and you can access them quickly from your mobile. Best of all, you can share your list with friends so they always know what wine to bring over. YOU'RE WELCOME!

  

• What is a Shopping List?

  
  When you see a wine you want to purchase just click on the "Add To..." widget.
  .

  
  When you are at the LCBO you can use your mobile phone to access your shopping list while standing in the store.

  

  Optionally, you can go to My Lists -> Shopping List and print your list off before you go to the store.