It should come as no surprise that we here at View the Vibe adore our wine. It’s the perfect best friend, always there for us after a bad day, or ready and waiting to celebrate an awesome business coup, or simply the perfect escape from the doldrum of winter’s breath. And once we find that perfect match, our soul-mate of a wine, we like to stock up… heavy. So when we heard about WineOnline.ca, we pulled out our credit cards and got to online shopping faster than we could even open a cork!
The 411
WineOnline.ca is a novel concept that actually isn’t so novel: it launched a few years back, before online purchasing had permeated the marketplace as wholly as it since has. The service – available both in Ontario and Alberta, with plans of provincial expansion – lets users order cases of vivacious vinos directly to their homes whenever they’d like. The best part? Many of the wines found on WineOnline.ca aren’t even carried in the LCBO, which means you get to order rarer varietals and snob it up at your next holiday shindig.
The Goods
Naturally, we were a li’l hesitant when we first heard about this service. (We get egregiously concerned when the too-good-to-be-true bell rings in our noggins.) But WineOnline.ca has an impressive portfolio of wines (we lost count but are guessing a few hundred wines at minimum are on offer) for order. And aside from the many bountiful cases you can have dropped at your doorstep, you can order decanters, Zalto glassware (revered as likely the best in the world), wine books, wine carriers… pretty much everything except your own personal sommelier. Though their Wine Club is sort of like that…
The Wine Club
We never really cared to join clubs in high school, but that’s likely because there were no booze-related ones. (Darn legal drinking age!) However, now that we’re older, we’re totally okay with signing up for WineOnline.ca’s version. The coolest part about their club is there are four tiers: Discovering Wine (a two-bottle sampler of Ontario wines for $50/month); Exploring Wine (six bottles of Ontario wines for $130/month); Grow My Cellar (12 bottles of wines that will age nicely for $250/month); and the Collectors’ Choice (12 bottles of what we like to call ‘classy’ wines for $600/month). You can pimp out your wine collection in no time with WineOnline.ca’s Wine Club!
The Verdict
So, while WineOnline.ca isn’t the best bet if you need a glass, like, now, if you can wait the short few days it takes for your first case to arrive you’ll be in wino heaven by week’s end. But be forewarned, like many other new things in life after which you’ll never go back (wink, wink), once you order by the case, the idea of buying single bottles shall be erased!
