quote:

Originally posted by Wine Canuck:
Crazy.

Way to marginalize everyone that lives outside of TO.

I get your point. What are you recommending?

That is a crazy tasting bar lineup. I'm going to check it out today. The big decision for me is whether I go with two 1 oz pours or four 1/2 oz.

quote:

Originally posted by Wine Canuck:
Crazy.

Way to marginalize everyone that lives outside of TO.

Also, I can understand why they put wines on the tasting bar that are available, but it seems to me that many of these aren't available. I wonder why they would put them out?

EDIT: on second thought, I'm not sure I would want to run up a $50 tab trying measly 1/2oz pours where I can barely get a read on the wines.

This is not something they do on the regular. It was a special thing they decided to trot out for the holidays. I'm pretty sure they they had inventory of these bottles for sale, but not very much I will assume. I saw some in the cabinets.

As for your comment about "marginalizing everyone that lives outside of Toronto," I think that's a bit of sour grapes (no pun intended). Toronto is the most populous city in the province, and Queens Quay is one of the flagship LCBO stores. Why not put out a tasting bar like that? Besides, how would it be any different if a private store in the US decided to open a bunch of special bottles for tasting in store? Let's face it, if all these bottles were opened in Peterborough, for example, most of the wines would go to waste because there simply wouldn't be a large enough volume of people going through the store to drink the wine.

Besides, if I didn't post about it for the courtesy of everyone on the board, you wouldn't even know. If you feel so aggrieved at not being able to taste the wines on offer, drive to the store or move to Toronto where you'll have access to a greater selection. We all know how the LCBO operates. Just because it's a government operation, it doesn't mean every store will have identical stock.

quote:

Originally posted by futronic:

quote:

Originally posted by Wine Canuck:
Crazy.

Way to marginalize everyone that lives outside of TO.

Also, I can understand why they put wines on the tasting bar that are available, but it seems to me that many of these aren't available. I wonder why they would put them out?

EDIT: on second thought, I'm not sure I would want to run up a $50 tab trying measly 1/2oz pours where I can barely get a read on the wines.

This is not something they do on the regular. It was a special thing they decided to trot out for the holidays. I'm pretty sure they they had inventory of these bottles for sale, but not very much I will assume. I saw some in the cabinets.

As for your comment about "marginalizing everyone that lives outside of Toronto," I think that's a bit of sour grapes (no pun intended). Toronto is the most populous city in the province, and Queens Quay is one of the flagship LCBO stores. Why not put out a tasting bar like that? Besides, how would it be any different if a private store in the US decided to open a bunch of special bottles for tasting in store? Let's face it, if all these bottles were opened in Peterborough, for example, most of the wines would go to waste because there simply wouldn't be a large enough volume of people going through the store to drink the wine.

Besides, if I didn't post about it for the courtesy of everyone on the board, you wouldn't even know. If you feel so aggrieved at not being able to taste the wines on offer, drive to the store or move to Toronto where you'll have access to a greater selection. We all know how the LCBO operates. Just because it's a government operation, it doesn't mean every store will have identical stock.

Way to marginalize everyone who does not live in Downtown T.O. might be more accurate. It's same as the ISD policy, going to 3 or 4 of the same stores every time. Store consultants outside GTA or within who are not at those stores can't even request ISDs. They have to wait until 2 weeks after the release and then ask if one of the 'flagship' stores is willing (their choice) to ship some of their remaining stock, if there is any. Hardly seems equitable. At least it fulfills the LCBO mission of controlling/limiting alcohol consumption to some extent.

Nice call on the 'response to Hudak' OTW!

Wah wah wah. You guys want some cheese with that whine?

People who buy >$100 bottles of wine complaining about being marginalized.

You can't fault the LCBO for following the 80-20 rule, it's just common business sense.

I certainly don't fault them for putting a tasting bar like that in Toronto...gotta go where the money is, and that money ain't in KW.

agree with aml.

but also, they have so much high end stuff that doesn't move. how long was that '98 lynch bages sitting in the cabinet occupying space? if nobody is going to buy it, what do you do? you have people buy 1/2 oz of it and make $$ that way, instead of letting it go passed its prime - which would be a complete waste.

anyway .. back to the topic at hand.

it's an expensive month so i'm going to have to go conservative:

lorentz riesling
dr. pauly berweiler - yes, another riesling

wynns cab sauv
innisfree cab - may be the closest i ever get to trying something from joseph phelps. from what i've heard, insignia is somewhat overrated/overpriced. i've never had one though.
clavel pic saint loup - if i can squeeze it in.

'98 lynch bages going passed its prime? Really? Cork included?



This is getting better and better...

Be nice, otw. She's new here.

TallGirl - I think what he meant was that the '98 L-B still has years to go before it's anywhere near past prime. But more to your point, a business like LCBO needs to be turning its inventory quickly and can't really afford (from a cash flow perspective) to leave a bottle sitting in a store cabinet year after year. So I agree with you in that if you can make the same margin selling it half an ounce at a a time as you can selling the whole bottle, why not? Or even if you make half as much you still turn the inventory and free up some cash to buy something else.

quote:

innisfree cab - may be the closest i ever get to trying something from joseph phelps. from what i've heard, insignia is somewhat overrated/overpriced. i've never had one though.

If you want to taste wines you never thought you'd get a chance to taste, join the local crowd at an offline event. Folks around here are exceedingly generous with their cellars, and those cellars contain some pretty amazing bottles.

quote:

If you want to taste wines you never thought you'd get a chance to taste, join the local crowd at an offline event. Folks around here are exceedingly generous with their cellars, and those cellars contain some pretty amazing bottles.

+1

quote:

Originally posted by VinT:
TallGirl - I think what he meant was that the '98 L-B still has years to go before it's anywhere near past prime. But more to your point, a business like LCBO needs to be turning its inventory quickly and can't really afford (from a cash flow perspective) to leave a bottle sitting in a store cabinet year after year. So I agree with you in that if you can make the same margin selling it half an ounce at a a time as you can selling the whole bottle, why not? Or even if you make half as much you still turn the inventory and free up some cash to buy something else.

^^^ this was my point - not suggesting that l-b is passed its prime .. the '98 L-B just happened to be the oldest wine that was listed in the previous post.

geez, the looks i'd get if i had said "boy, that '06 palmer is getting up there".

Is there any way of knowing ahead of time what the LCBO will be pouring on a certain date, or is this something you stumbled into?

quote:

Originally posted by TallGirl:

geez, the looks i'd get if i had said "boy, that '06 palmer is getting up there".

quote:

Originally posted by VinT:
Be nice, otw.

OK, OK, but the way this thread is going... it's just so hard...



Like the others said, Tallgirl, do come to an offline and drink their wine.

I think it's good that they're offering top notch wine to taste, even though I agree it's hard to get a read off of 1/2 oz pours. my concern recently with the LCBO is the reluctance to put on a big tasting like they used to for the Classics collections. I used to go to 2 of these a year plus the UGC. Now it's just the UGC. unprofitable I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by vijay:
You can't fault the LCBO for following the 80-20 rule, it's just common business sense.

Hmmmm, someone using the phrase common business sense and the LCBO in the same sentence. Have to say that's a new one for me and one I never thought I'd see.

I think what I don't like about this is that the LCBO can make a tasting of high-end wines available to a subset of their market and then have absolutely no means of doing the same thing for the remaining 10 million of their consumers, granted I'll admit most of their ultra high-end market is within Toronto. I realize it will never be possible for the LCBO to make all consumers happy and this is generally a step in the right direction, however a few ideas for how they could have made this move more equitable:
- Email to vintages subscribers: "hey, were piloting a new program in Toronto to taste high-end wines"
- Install enomatic machines in key stores outside of the GTA. Even pretty high-end stuff could turnover in the 30 days it takes for the wine to oxidize, especially if there was only one key store all consumers in the region went to to taste.
- If they don't want to install enomatic machines in medium sized markrets (KW, Hamilton, London, Ottawa) put on tasting events. For a set fee open a few great bottles. Existing small marketing tasting events are a joke.

Regarding the LCBO making money on tasting bar wines. Last time I was at a tasting bar I did the math and found that on most higher end offerings they were not recouping their retail cost, not to mention the loss that can happen if the machine malfunctions (I have seen this twice now). I remember seeing Far Niente Cab for $1.25/oz about a year ago. Perhaps they are keeping tighter tab on pricing these days.

I do appreciate you posting on the availability however Futuronic. I might try to make it to that store this holiday season.

i've actually seen one of those enomatic dispensers at a non-GTA store. but the # of offerings are no where near what they offer in toronto.

The LCBO is recouping the cost of the bottles on the Enomatic.

Consider the Masseto. $500/bottle retail, and tastes were $11.25 per 1/2 ounce. Let's assume there are three ounces of loss per bottle. 23oz = 46 1/2 ounce samples.

46 * $11.25 = $517.50.

The other wines were also covering their costs. Usually the LCBO uses a price bracket where wines in a certain price ranges cost $x.xx per sample, and others cost $y.yy.

And once again, this "high end tasting" wasn't a pilot program or anything of the sort. It was a one-off where they decided to put a bunch of great wine in for the holidays. The tasting bar usually has a selection of wines from the current Vintages release and is rotated bi-weekly at a variety of price points.

It's too bad the Store Locator on the LCBO/Vintages websites doesn't filter properly when searching for tasting bars. It used to, but now the new search doesn't work properly in that respect.

Tallgirl: The Oakville store at Trafalgar/Cornwall has more wines on tap than Queens Quay. Twice as many, I believe?

quote:

Originally posted by Beta P:

quote:

Originally posted by Fowler52:

quote:

Originally posted by Beta P:

quote:

Originally posted by Fowler52:
Not sure if this interest anyone, but the following wines are in store discoveries.

Ramey Napa Valley Cabernet 2008 $59
Larrivet Haut Brion 2009 $53

These look to be decent values, but we'll
likely need to go to Oakville for ISDs. For
some reason, Burlington gets left out.

Or Stoney Creek, not to far of a drive.

Agreed, but still frustrating that Burlington's not included.

OMG, there are actually WS Forumites in Oakville/Burlington?! We must offline!!

quote:

Originally posted by futronic:
The LCBO is recouping the cost of the bottles on the Enomatic.

Consider the Masseto. $500/bottle retail, and tastes were $11.25 per 1/2 ounce. Let's assume there are three ounces of loss per bottle. 23oz = 46 1/2 ounce samples.

46 * $11.25 = $517.50.

The other wines were also covering their costs. Usually the LCBO uses a price bracket where wines in a certain price ranges cost $x.xx per sample, and others cost $y.yy.

And once again, this "high end tasting" wasn't a pilot program or anything of the sort. It was a one-off where they decided to put a bunch of great wine in for the holidays. The tasting bar usually has a selection of wines from the current Vintages release and is rotated bi-weekly at a variety of price points.

It's too bad the Store Locator on the LCBO/Vintages websites doesn't filter properly when searching for tasting bars. It used to, but now the new search doesn't work properly in that respect.

Tallgirl: The Oakville store at Trafalgar/Cornwall has more wines on tap than Queens Quay. Twice as many, I believe?

First time I walked into the Oakville store I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. If it was closer to my condo I'd stop in every night on my way home. That said, last time I was there, about two weeks ago, 80%+ of the wines were low-end But I'm gonna stop in next weekend to see for myself!

quote:

Originally posted by bman:

quote:

Originally posted by Beta P:

quote:

Originally posted by Fowler52:

quote:

Originally posted by Beta P:

quote:

Originally posted by Fowler52:
Not sure if this interest anyone, but the following wines are in store discoveries.

Ramey Napa Valley Cabernet 2008 $59
Larrivet Haut Brion 2009 $53

These look to be decent values, but we'll
likely need to go to Oakville for ISDs. For
some reason, Burlington gets left out.

Or Stoney Creek, not to far of a drive.

Agreed, but still frustrating that Burlington's not included.

OMG, there are actually WS Forumites in Oakville/Burlington?! We must offline!!

I'm down for an introduction to an offline. My cellar is very young, but I'm sure I could find something (depending on the grape).

quote:

Originally posted by on the wine:
Like the others said, Tallgirl, do come to an offline and drink their wine.

i'll see. still just a newb around here and getting used to the crowd. besides, looks like most people are in the gta. i'm not exactly in the area that often.

quote:

Originally posted by futronic:
Tallgirl: The Oakville store at Trafalgar/Cornwall has more wines on tap than Queens Quay. Twice as many, I believe?

really? did not know there was a "flagship" store out in oakville .. i will have to check it out the next time i'm in the area.