Let the WineAlign Critics help you find the Right Wine
for the Right Price, Right Now!
Brunello di Montalcino 2021: Fragrant, Refined, and Not Quite Slender
By John Szabo MS Montalcino is essentially a hill: a 17-by-18-kilometre block of southern Tuscany with a fortified village at 564 metres and vineyards spilling down all four flanks. As Michael Godel reminded a full room at the recent Brunello Forma masterclass in Toronto, the commune is defined as much by what isn’t vineyard as […] More
Spotlight on The Barolo Wines of Serralunga d’Alba and the 2023 Vintage
By John Szabo MS Serralunga d’Alba is the easternmost and, in the eyes of most tasters, the most classically powerful of the Barolo communes. The village grew up around its well-preserved fourteenth-century Falletti castle, and for much of Barolo’s early commercial history its high, elevated ridge supplied négociants with the structural backbone for their blends […] More
Buyers Guide to Vintages October 24th Release
John Szabo’s Vintages Buyers Guide October 24: Niagara Unicorns By John Szabo MS, with notes from David Lawrason, Sara d’Amato, Michael Godel, and Megha Jandhyala Stocking up for the Holidays With the holidays fast approaching, this release is a fine opportunity to stock up, and the WineAlign Crü’s picks align neatly behind a handful of […] More
National Wine Awards of Canada
Canada's premier wine awards. In 2022, 24 judges tasted over 1,900 wines from 250 wineries across the country to identify Canada's top wines.
National Wine Awards of CanadaExchange Wine Club Subscription
The Exchange delivers an exclusive curated, mixed case of top quality wines directly to your door once a quarter. Mixed, All Red and All White options.
Exchange Wine Club Subscription
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.
