Buyers Guide to Vintages August 15th Release

Take-Out Nation: Why Ontario Is Ordering In — and What to Pour with It; Ancient Roman Grand Crus, and Best of Campania 2026

By John Szabo MS, with notes from David Lawrason, Sara d’Amato, Michael Godel, and Megha Jandhyala

The numbers are impressive: in the past year, 55% of Canadians have used SkipTheDishes, 54% have dialed up Uber Eats, while 49% opted for DoorDash. According to information gathered by Made in CA, a majority of adult Canadians regularly use at least one of these platforms to order in food. And if you are among them, you won’t be surprised to learn what most Canadians are ordering in, according to data compiled by SkipTheDishes in 2020, Chinese food was the long-standing leader and remains a top choice today. Italian food came second, led of course by pizza. Thai ranked third in national search/interest data and Indian fourth, followed by Mexican and Middle Eastern.

As far as specific dishes go, the leader board looks like this:
1) Butter chicken
2) Poutine
3) Pad thai
4) Shawarma
5) Sushi
6) Chicken sandwiches, burgers & fries

Sound familiar? So, what’s a wine drinker to enjoy at home with these non-European cuisines (Italian aside) that have no obvious regional wine logic? Read on for a few suggestions from the Vintages August 15 release, whose thematic is, you guessed it, take-out wines.

I’ve also just published my annual Campania report, fruit of a visit in May, with over 200 wines tasted and with a buyer’s guide featuring the best sparkling, white, rosato and red wines. The annual event was hosted in the province of Caserta this year, so I decided to explore three ancient native varieties found only in this corner of Campania, which could well have featured in ancient Rome’s most celebrated crus: pallagrello bianco, pallagrello nero, and casavecchia. Never heard of these grapes? Read the article to learn more and discover which to try.

Spotlight on Caserta: Roman Era Grand Crus

If you want to taste two thousand years of “grand cru” Italian wine, go to the province of Caserta in Campania. The Romans called this corner of the Medio-Alto Casertano the Ager Falernus, and Falernum was the great prestige wine of the late republic. Pliny lavished praise on it. A wine list still visible on the wall of a tavern in the ruins of Pompeii shows that Falernum commanded four times the price of the day’s regular vino da tavola in 79 C.E. Today, a clutch of estates on the slopes of Monte Massico still trade on the name as Falerno del Massico DOC. The ancient city of Trebula Balliensis sat just east, near present-day Pontelatone, and some scholars believe Pliny’s Trebulanum, a wine mentioned in the Naturalis Historia, refers to the ancestor of what is now a red wine bottled as casavecchia.

Read the full article on Campania Stories 2026 including Part One: Buyer’s Guide to Red and Rosato, with Spotlight on Caserta and native pallagrello bianco, pallagrello nero and casavecchia. Part Two features a buyer’s guide to the top sparkling and white wines.

Take-Out Nation: Why Ontario Is Ordering In — and What to Pour With It

There’s a particular kind of denial that grips an industry right before it changes shape. Ask any Ontario restaurateur how business is going and you’ll likely hear “busy” — and on paper, they’re not wrong. Restaurants Canada’s own data shows Canadians still walk through restaurant doors roughly 23 million times a day. What that daily tally obscures is where the actual growth is happening; not at the table, but on the couch, where folks — fork in one hand, phone in the other — track a delivery driver’s icon across a map.

The numbers tell the story plainly enough. Canada’s online food delivery services — essentially non-existent as a consumer demand a dozen years ago, when SkipTheDishes was a Winnipeg startup and Uber Eats hadn’t yet arrived in Toronto — pulled in roughly $26 billion (Canadian) in 2024, according to statistics gathered by Grand View Research. That’s up from about $4.7 billion in total online food spending as recently as 2019. Call it a five-fold increase in five years, which is the kind of growth curve wine regions can only dream about. Forecasts have the market climbing to $39 billion by 2030. This isn’t a pandemic blip that failed to unwind; it’s a permanent recalibration of how Ontarians eat on a Tuesday night.

Ontario’s own dine-in restaurant sector, meanwhile, is having a considerably rougher time of it. Industry watchers have called 2025 one of the toughest years on record for the province’s independent operators, and 2026 hasn’t offered much relief: walk-in traffic remains soft, food and labour costs keep climbing and — per Restaurants Canada’s national Q1 figures, which Ontario operators echo closely — roughly a third of restaurants are now breaking even or operating at a loss, triple the rate seen in 2019.

Cost, unsurprisingly, is the villain of this story. TouchBistro’s 2025 survey put the average dine-in check at $63, up $7 in a single year. Ordering in, by contrast, runs about $38 on average — and that figure actually dipped slightly year over year, as diners get savvier about which apps and which orders offer real value. When the math is that lopsided, “let’s just order in” stops being an excuse for laziness and starts being a rational economic decision.

What’s notable, and relevant to anyone who cares about what’s in the glass, is what Ontarians are actually ordering. The cuisines dominating national delivery data — butter chicken and naan, pad thai, shawarma and mixed grill platters, sushi and miso soup, poutine, and the ever-present chicken sandwich-burger-and-fries trinity — have almost nothing to do with the wine world’s traditional regional pairing logic. There is no appellation that was built to answer to butter chicken. I suspect nobody in the Loire ever workshopped a cuvée against a donair. This is the current reality of contemporary Canadian drinking: a plate built from Punjab, Bangkok, the Levant, and a fry truck in Northern Ontario, with a bottle expected to make sense of all of it.

The simplest answer is to stop looking for the “correct” regional match, because it doesn’t exist, and just drink something you enjoy. But if you want to take your pleasure a little more seriously and increase your chances of discovering new flavour synergies in untraditional places, start pairing by structure and intensity instead. Conveniently, the LCBO’s August 15 Vintages release gives us a working shortlist — proof that you don’t need to match a regional appellation to a dish’s origin, just a clear-eyed read on texture and flavour and a sense or adventure. What’s the worst that could happen?

Here are a few wine suggestions from the release to try with Canada’s most ordered takeout dishes.

For butter chicken and naan, national takeout’s perennial number one or two: Jules Taylor Pinot Gris 2025, Marlborough, New Zealand ($22.95). Its round, creamy texture and the faintest suggestion of sweetness (a measured 4 grams/litre, nothing alarming) mirror the dish’s richness, while the white-fleshed orchard fruit and a pleasant varietal bitterness on the finish cut straight through the buttery, spiced sauce.

For red-sauced pizza, Ontario’s second favourite after Chinese, there is at least a clear regional map to follow, and an obvious choice for both style and value from the release is Ricasoli’s Antico Feudo Della Trappola 2022, IGT Toscana, Italy ($15.95). It’s a fine, plump, sangiovese-based Tuscan red that brings savoury, dusty-earth and dried-cherry flavours to the table at an easy Tuesday night price, and its brisk acidity settles in comfortably alongside a simple pie’s char and tomato. For something a little more upscale, in the same stylistic universe if not the same country, try Apostolos Thymiopoulous 2022, PDO Naoussa Greece ($27.95). Fans of Italian reds will feel right at home with this savoury, firm and dusty red made from xinomavro, a natural stand-in for sangiovese or nebbiolo-based wines.

Poutine, the domestic comfort-food constant, can go in several directions. Sparkling wines are a sommelier favorite, elevating the occasion, but you could just as easily go with Redstone’s Gamay Noir 2022,VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Niagara Peninsula ($25.95). Silky and fully mature, with fine, fading red fruit shifting into savoury territory, this lightly chilled Niagara gamay has exactly the finesse and levity needed to sit alongside gravy and cheese curds without adding unwanted weight.

Shawarma and mixed platters call for something fleshier and bolder in flavour, like Montes Alpha Carmenère 2022, Colchagua Valley, Chile ($21.95). This is textbook carmenère, fruity and herbal with resolved, powdery tannins and a velvety, sweet-oak-touched texture, with the structure and flavour intensity to see eye-to-eye with shawarma’s char, garlic, and spice without being pushed around.

Pad thai finds an almost too-obvious partner in Domaine Welty Bélénus Gewürztraminer 2023, AOC Alsace, France ($23.95). Its rich, off-dry palate of lychee cream, elderflower and rose candy plays directly into the dish’s sweet-spicy, tamarind-and-chili balance. The wine’s sweetness tempers the dish’s heat and its umami finds a contrasting fruitiness of equal intensity in the wine.

And for sushi, where (refreshingly) the old logic still holds and any bone-dry, high-acid white or sparkling wine will do the job, it’s worth taking a detour from classics like Champagne or Chablis to try this Greek white beauty: Mega Spileo Assyrtiko 2024, PGI Achaia, Greece ($21.95). Dense, structured and bracingly fresh, this is one of the better bottles I’ve tasted from the estate, with a level of complexity that comfortably outruns its price.

Chicken sandwiches, burgers, and fries — the actual volume leader by raw order count, don’t need anything so considered: a juicy fruit-forward red, chilled lightly, will always get the job done, as will a crisp or creamy white with your chicken burger. I’d try something like the Alain Jaume Grand Veneur Côtes Du Rhone 2024, AOC Rhône France ($19.95). It’s an attractive white CdR, soft and creamy, with pleasant botanicals and bitters serving the purpose of refreshment rather than acids, more of a complementary than contrasting paring and as comforting as the crispy chicken.

And if takeout takes you literally out for a picnic and convenience enters the equation, consider a versatile, and easy-to-transport option like Hinterland Borealis Rosé Sparkling 2024 VQA Ontario ($7.95/250 mL). What’s of note here is not the wine itself, necessarily — this fruity charmat-method bubbly has been around, and consistent, for many years and is not intended to change the world. But it now comes in a handy 250 mL single-serve aluminum can, attractively dressed up. It’s an ideal format for beach/picnic/patio/park/dock or wherever — for sipping in lieu of a beer or soda or seltzer. The wine inside is fresh, frothy, bubbly, easy and fruity, of no great shakes for complexity, but that’s not the point. This is about simple pleasure and convenience. Drop in the cooler bag and go.

The dazzling growth of takeout foods shouldn’t be mistaken for a crisis for wine. It’s really an opportunity. The dinner table hasn’t disappeared — it’s just moved to the coffee table, and it’s carrying dishes from three different continents at once. The fun now is matching what’s in the glass to that reality, not to some imagined regional orthodoxy that never had shawarma on the menu to begin with.

Buyer’s Guide Vintages August 15: White, Rosé & Sparkling

Stars Brut Nature Reserva Cava 2023, Spain
$17.95, Hanna Neal Wine Merchants (John Hanna & Sons)
Michael Godel – Emblematically Cava in style, authentically honest and proper. A terrific price for a dry, traditional method sparkling wine.

Alain Jaume Grand Veneur Côtes Du Rhone 2024, Rhône, France
$19.95, Vin Passion (The Case For Wine)
John Szabo – Textbook white CdR, soft and creamy, with pleasant botanicals and bitters serving the purpose of refreshment rather than acids. I love the violets and yellow-fleshed fruit, the generous proportions, and the length and depth in the price category. I’d buy a few bottles of this to enjoy when comforting whites are the order.
Megha Jandhyala – White blends from the Southern Rhône transcend seasons, transitioning perfectly from warm days to chilly, snowy evenings by the fire. The Grand Veneur is a classically styled example — a bewitching perfume, floral and botanical, with undertones of Amalfi lemons and tangerines. I love its gently curvy texture and refreshingly bitter finish.
David Lawrason – Inexpensive Rhone whites can be bland. This offered more than expected with ripe white apricot, melon and honeysuckle florality, plus a hint of tobacco-like spice. It is medium weight, fleshy and nicely balanced with moderate to low acidity, 13% alcohol.

Planeta La Segreta Grillo 2024, Sicily, Italy
$19.95, Noble Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.
David Lawrason – A bright, fresh and exotic white from one of Sicily’s best producers. It captures grillo so well, with complex fresh fig, melon, honeysuckle and banana bread aromas. It is medium weight some viscosty, but only 12.5% alcohol, and lively acid line that brings refreshment and some lemon peel bitterness to the finish.

Marquis D’Aqueria Tavel 2025, Rhône, France
$21.95, Noble Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.
Sara d’Amato – Just a touch less expensive than the winery’s flagship bottling of Tavel, d’Aqueria blends a cast of co-fermented red and white varieties, delivering a generous, palate-filling wine that marries the freshness expected of rosé with the warmth and substance that make Tavel so distinctive.

Jules Taylor Pinot Gris 2025, Marlborough, New Zealand
$22.95, Vinexx
John Szabo – A pinot gris in the softer, richer style, with round and creamy texture and the vaguest of sweet sensations (though just 4 grams/liter of sugar measured). It would be a pleasure to sip alongside not only butter chicken, but also rich seafood dishes, risotto, soft cheese and more.

Vesevo Greco Di Tufo 2024, Campania, Italy
$22.95, Profile Wine Group (Barrique)
Megha Jandhyala – For its invigorating acidity, delicately fleshy body, and finely textured, grippy finish, this greco (a local white variety from Campania) has made its way onto my shopping list this week! Juicy citrus fruit flavours and pleasant stony undertones only add to its appeal.

Domaine Welty Bélénus Gewürztraminer 2023, Alsace, France
$25.95, The Kolonaki Group Inc.
John Szabo – Textbook Alsatian GW with its rich, off-dry, opulent palate and creamy, fullish texture and pure lychee cream, elderflower and rose candy flavours. It’s at the crossroads of a sweet-savoury-spicy dish like pad thai, and full dessert serving, perhaps best with a varied cheese board. An impressive wine for $24.

Bortoluzzi Pinot Grigio 2024, Venezie, Italy
$23.95, Woodman Wines & Spirits
Sara d’Amato – This pinot grigio borrows a page from pinot gris — it’s richer, rounder and more expressive than expected. White peach, lemon blossom and elderflower are sharpened by lively acidity and a gentle mineral edge. There’s even a faint Bellini-like impression, minus the sweetness. Floral, energetic and thoughtfully made, this is a decidedly un-neutral take.
David Lawrason – An unusually rich, almost exotic pinot grigio, that tastes as if made from later-picked fruit. I really like the lifted peach, lemon aromas with a sake/rice pudding scent. It is light to medium bodied, slender and a bit tart-edged with some richness (13.5%) and sweetness as well. Excellent flavour depth.

Mega Spileo Assyrtiko 2024, Peloponnese, Greece
$24.95, The Kolonaki Group Inc.
John Szabo – This could stand comfortably next to wines at twice the price without any complexes. It’s a creamy, flavourful and structured example of assyrtiko from the northern Peloponnese, one of the best wines I’ve tasted from this estate.
Megha Jandhyala – Priced at under $25, this is an impressively concentrated and complex assyrtiko. Its texture is especially intriguing, balancing luxe richness with tautness, leaving a finely grainy, grippy sensation in its wake.

Keint-he Portage Chardonnay 2023, Ontario, Canada
$24.95, Nicholas Pearce Wines Inc.
Sara d’Amato – Fresh off a silver medal at the latest National Wine Awards of Canada, this chardonnay stays true to Prince Edward County’s signature stye: light, ethereal and mineral. Remarkably poised at 13.7% alcohol, it’s elegant without pretension, approachable without sacrificing complexity, and is best enjoyed while its youthful energy still abounds.

Markus Huber Grüner Veltliner Terrassen 2025, Niederösterreich, Austria
$24.95, Rogers & Company
Michael Godel – Deeper character, and complexity than most at this price point. One of the more underrated white wines anywhere, made by a thoughtful and cerebral winemaker.

Marynissen Estates Heritage Chardonnay Grimsby Hillside Vineyard 2023, Ontario, Canada
$27.95, Michael Andrew Brands
Sara d’Amato – Where Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment draw close on Niagara’s western edge, the 90-hectare planted Grimsby Hillside vineyard has attracted top producers of late, and now Marynissen. This expression is succulent, a touch savory, and distinctly mineral, with a lightly viscous palate and the structure to age gracefully. A compelling value that speaks to both the pedigree of the site and the strength of the vintage.
David Lawrason – This very special site in Winona continues to deliver its core elegance, finesse and minerality no matter who is steering the winemaking. Fruit is sold to several Niagara wineries. There is a delicacy yet mineral firmness that is remarkable and distinctive. The balance and length are excellent. Great value too in that most GHV chardonnays from other producers are twice the price.

Mullineux Old Vines White WO Swartland 2025, South Africa
$39.95, Nicholas Pearce Wines Inc.
John Szabo – The Mullineux’s Old Vine White remains one of the massive values of the wine world — where can you find a wine of this depth and magnitude, and complexity and seamless density, at $40? It’s just hard to fathom, let alone match. This 2025 is yet another genuine beauty; buy a case of it and follow over the next decade.
Sara d’Amato – This old-vine Swartland blend is anchored by chenin blanc, with clairette, viognier, grenache blanc and the lesser-known sémillon gris adding a wealth of complexity. Powerful yet sophisticated, it delivers impressive concentration with a silken, mineral-laced texture. It already shows beautifully, but patience will be rewarded. At this price, it’s hard to think of a more compelling cellar candidate.
David Lawrason – Yet another classic and profound chenin from Mullineux of Swartland, the arid, interior region producing mineral, somehow parched and powerful wines. This shows a very generous nose of yellow pear, papaya with lovely clover honey, subtle fresh herbs, barrel spices and wet stone. It is full bodied, warm (14%) open knit yet so well structured, with outstanding length.

Buyer’s Guide Vintages August 15: Reds

Heartland Stickleback Red 2023, South Australia, Australia
$16.95, The Vine Agency   
David Lawrason – Great value, honest. shiraz-cabernet blend from the small Langhorne Creek appellation near the coast of the Southern Ocean. There is a nice cohesion and proportion here with raspberry, menthol, herbals and peppery spice. Medium-full bodied, easy bit not at all glam and sweet. Aussie to its boots, very together with length well beyond $17.

Ricasoli Antico Feudo Della Trappola 2022, Tuscany, Italy
$17.95, The Case For Wine
John Szabo – A fine, plump, easy sangiovese-based Tuscan red, authentic at a nice price, drinking perfectly right now. I like the savoury, dusty earth and dried cherry flavours in the classic idiom.
Sara d’Amato – A tasty Tuscan steal from Barone Ricasoli, this is mostly sangiovese, with dashes of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Grown on calcareous clay and aged in older tonneaux, it’s juicy and savoury, with a mix of red fruit, black cherry, wildflowers, salumi and a hint of dried mushroom. Surprisingly engaging for under $16, with just the right amount of rustic charm.

Gérard Bertrand Heritage An 560 Tautavel 2022, Roussillon, France
$18.95, Family Wine Merchants
John Szabo – A terrific wine from Bertrand, fleshy, succulent, smooth, wild and dark fruited in the regional idiom, but also polished and well-made. I find it has massive appeal and drinkability, approachable but regionally authentic, without overt rusticity.

Kinast Ckc Edition Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon/petit Verdot 2022, Curicó Valley, Chile
$19.95, Vin Passion (The Case For Wine)
Sara d’Amato – Spirited without being showy, this blend of Bordeaux varieties cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot from the warm Mediterranean climate of the Lounté Valley offers bright acidity, ripe, fresh fruit, gentle spice and an abundance of character for the price. Carefully crafted with just the right amount of maturity for drinking now.
Michael Godel – Cool, almost salty air taste with balance between the elements, incising acid and inviting tannin. Quality wine to be sure.

Montes Alpha Carmenère 2022, Colchagua Valley, Chile
$21.95, Profile Wine Group (Vin Vino)
John Szabo – Textbook carmenère from the Colchagua Valley and the reliable house of Aurelio Montes, complete with powdery tannins, supple, velvety texture and integrated sweet oak flavours.
David Lawrason – An impressive carmenere with oodles of fruit. The nose bursts with blackcurrant jam, lifted rosemary/thyme herbals and wood spice. It is full bodied, open knit, fairly dense, chewy and tannic. A touch green, sappy and bitter on the finish as carmenere can be. Lamb on the BBQ.

Gran Alambrado Malbec 2024, Mendoza, Argentina
$22.95, The Bacchus Group Inc.
Michael Godel – Solid and ultra correct varietal wine, and quite a bit more interesting than that. A vertical malbec, quite serious and yet without any sort of impenetrable wall to scale.

Redstone Gamay Noir 2022, Ontario, Canada
$25.95, Tawse
John Szabo – Drinking perfectly, this is a fine and silky, mature but not old wine, with lovely texture and fine, fading red fruit profile shifting into more savoury territory. It’s surely at peak drinking; chill lightly and enjoy over the next 6–12 months.

Lafage Narassa 2023, Roussillon, France
$24.95, Glencairn Wine Merchants
Megha Jandhyala – As the end of summer approaches, I am tempted to stock up on this plush and cozy red blend from the Roussillon. Warm and voluptuous, saturated with flavours of cherry compote, violet essence and woody herbs and shrubs like juniper, it is a perfect addition to a “hygge” winter afternoon.

La Nerthe Les Cassagnes Côtes Du Rhône-villages 2023, Rhône, France
$27.95, Woodman Wines & Spirits
John Szabo – A very attractively priced CdRV from the ever-reliable La Nerthe, overdelivering on finesse and refinement in the category, an admirably delicate, gentle but complex expression. Such a sophisticated and enjoyable wine for the money. Drink or hold short term — no need to wait for this as the beauty is all nigh.
Sara d’Amato – This Côtes du Rhône Villages from Domaine de la Renjarde is managed by the Richard family of Château La Nerthe fame and is the kind of red that knows how to make an entrance without hogging the room. It blends grenache, syrah, and mourvèdre grown on sand and limestone into a juicy, supple, ready-to-drink package, with plentiful red fruit and just enough tannic grip. Substantial but not heavy, polished but not prim.
David Lawrason – A perennial favourite offering classic southern Rhone character with better complexity and more elegance than many peers. Expect lifted, aromas of peony, plum/cherry jam, pepper, tobacco and vanilla. It is medium weight, smooth and almost juicy, with quite fine dusty tannin and some heat at 14% abv.

Apostolos Thymiopoulos 2022, Naoussa, Greece
$27.95, Victory Wine & Spirits
John Szabo – Pours a medium red-garnet very much in the xinomavro varietal spectrum and offers a maturing aromatic profile with red cherry fruit shifting into the puréed, dried spectrum alongside savoury herbs, plum, strawberry fruit leather. A sharp value all in all, well worth discovering, especially for fans of Italian reds — this will feel right at home.
Michael Godel – Apostolos Thymiopoulos has really refined his craft and honed in on grape plus place, eschewing the natural volatility of his early hands-off winemaking years to emerge with one of the more finessed, cleanest and sharpest varietal wines. Also as one of superb value.
Megha Jandhyala – This is an enchanting xinomavro, fragrant with the scent of red fruit, violets, and herbs, etched with nuances of age. It is charming now with a balanced, succulent palate, though it can be tucked away safely in your cellar for a couple of years.

Negretti Bricco Ambrogio Barolo 2021, Piedmont, Italy
$76.95, Liquid Portfolio
Michael Godel – This 2021 from the Negretti boys is grippy and tight, and still not ready for prime time. Two years forward will see to great nebbiolo times. Great stuffing matched by complexity.

That’s all for this report. See you ’round the next bottle. 

 John Szabo, MS

Use these quick links for access to all of our August 15th Top Picks in the New Release. Non-premium members can select from all release dates 60 days prior.

John’s Top Picks – August 15th
Lawrason’s Take – August 15th
Megha’s Picks – August 15th
Michael’s Mix – August 15th
Sara’s Selections – August 15th

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