Let the WineAlign Critics help you find the Right Wine
for the Right Price, Right Now!
If I Could Buy Only One – June 23rd, 2018 VINTAGES Release
As part of our VINTAGES recap, we asked our critics: “If you could buy only one wine from this release – which one would it be and why?” Our picks from the June 23rd VINTAGES release: David Lawrason: Rioja remains my go to region for mature reds off-the-shelf, which is the whole point of the long ageing […] More
Buyers Guide to VINTAGES – June 23rd, 2018
A Canada Day Salute By David Lawrason, with notes from Michael Godel and Sara d’Amato We send this report from Penticton, B.C. where we are in the thick of judging the 2018 WineAlign National Wine Awards. It is too early for results (which will start to flow in mid-July) but I can tell you that […] More
Canadian Wine Report, June 2018
Keeping Pace with Canadian Wine, Plus Ten Really Notable Wines So Far in 2018 By David Lawrason It was like Christmas morning. As I helped unpack 100s of boxes during the set up for the WineAlign National Wine Awards in Penticton, I was amazed by the number of new wineries, new wines, and even new […] 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
Gamay is a purple-coloured grape variety used mostly to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. It is sometimes used to make rosés as well as sparkling wines such as Cerdon de Bugey. Gamay-based wines are typically light bodied and fruity. Wines meant for immediate consumption are typically made using carbonic maceration, where the grapes are fermented in whole bunches under a blanket of CO2, before being pressed, a method that emphasizes a bright fruitiness (and sometimes gives less desirable notes reminiscent of bananas). Wines meant to be drunk after some modest aging tend to have more body and are produced by semi-carbonic fermentation, where fermentation starts in whole bunches, before the grapes are gradually punched down, in a winemaking style closer to the burgundian approach. The latter are produced mostly in the designated Crus areas of northern Beaujolais (Morgon, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent, etc.) where the wines typically have the flavour of strawberries, cherries and spices.
