Let the WineAlign Critics help you find the Right Wine
for the Right Price, Right Now!
Top 5 Brunello at the LCBO
Buyers’ Guide to VINTAGES July 11th, 2020
Ten cool years of chardonnay kicks off this weekend, eight groovy examples, a Barolo primer and top critics’ picks from the past weekend’s VINTAGES release by Michael Godel with notes from David Lawrason, John Szabo M.S. and Sara d’Amato Beginning this Friday there will be events playing on Zoom screens across Ontario, throughout Canada and […] More
Barolo DOCG previews and retrospectives: 2016, Riserva 2014, 2006 and 2004
A WineAlign critic’s January 2020 journey to Alba in Piemonte and his assessment of 230 Barolo at Nebbiolo Prima 2020 by Michael Godel Preview of Barolo DOCG 2016 Nothing in the behaviour of these nebbiolo consents to their age. Too serious, too impenetrable and at the same time terribly sharp, focused and severe. Wines as […] More
A Toast to Cool VQA Chardonnay – July 18, 2020
Join WineAlign critics Michael Godel and John Szabo MS for a virtual, interactive Zoom tasting of top Ontario wines, part of the i4C 2020 (International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration). Purchase your favourite cool VQA Chardonnay, gather your bubble, bring your burning wine questions, and tune in for a mostly fun, but accidentally educational cocktail hour […] More
National Wine Awards of Canada
Discover Canada's best wines! In 2016, 22 judges tasted 1,535 wines from 230 wineries across the country to identify Canada's top wines.
View Award-Winning Wines
World Wine Awards of Canada
Seventeen judges tasted 1,000 wines in 21 categories in 2015 to find the world's best wines sold in Canada under $50.
View Award-Winning Wines
Brunello di Montalcino is one of the most prestigious appellations in Italy, born in the 19th Century in its present form thanks to the efforts of the Biondi-Santi family, who defined its rules and have largely guided it to the present day. The wines are made from 100% Sangiovese grape, in particular from a clone called Sangiovese Grosso, or also as Brunello - hence the appellation's name. Traditionally, the wine goes through an extended maceration period where color, tannins and flavour are extracted from the skins. Following fermentation the wine is then aged in oak. Traditionally, the wines are aged 3 years or more in "botti" - large Slovenian oak casks that impart little oak flavour and generally produce more austere wines. Some winemakers will use small French barrels which impart a more pronounced vanilla oak flavour and add a certain fruitiness to the wine. Whatever the approach, wines must be aged for for years (with a minimum of two years in barrel) before being released, according to appellation rules.
