Travel may be off the books for a while, restaurants and bars closed, but eating and drinking obviously are essential to all. We can all help restaurants, wineries, distilleries and breweries stay afloat by ordering in. The good news is many are offering free delivery, reduced prices or throwing in goodies like charity donations or free hand sanitizer with your order.
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery in BC is providing free delivery across Canada and in addition has partnered with The BC Hospitality Foundation (BCHF) to donate $10.00 per online order to the BCHF (minimum 4 bottles per order) to support the many hospitality workers facing severe financial distress. The wines are available online at www.township7.com under the code SUPPORT10.
Joie Farms is another BC winery offering complimentary delivery across Canada based on a minimum order of six bottles, which can be a mixed case so you can pick and choose which you’d like to try. www.joiefarm.com
Benjamin Bridge in Nova Scotia, one of Canada’s best producers of traditional method sparkling wine is offering complimentary delivery across Canada until May 1. www.benjaminbridge.com For those who live in the province, 10% of every bottle or can sold through the Nova Scotia liquor stores (NSLC) until June 7, 2020 will be donated to hospital foundations in the province to support front-line health workers in the community fight against COVID-19.
Tawse Winery in Ontario is offering 20% discounts on wine and merchandise and 15% off spirits for curb-side pick up or free delivery in Ontario. (They are still considering whether to extend free delivery to the rest of Canada as of April 1st.) www.tawsewinery.ca
WineAlign lists a growing number of wineries offering free wine delivery in Ontario, now over 130 at its website: https://www.winealign.com/articles/2020/03/18/wineries-offering-free-shipping-in-ontario
This is a great time to support the local wineries and also to take advantage of the opportunity to sample products from wineries in other provinces without having to pay shipping.
Many wine agents are also struggling to stay profitable as their restaurant sales have pretty much dried up. As a result, a good number of them are offering wines to the public that normally are reserved for their licensee customers only and adding the bonus of free delivery.
Woodman Wines and Spirits lists eight wines they will deliver by the case for free in the GTA. They can also add in a bottle or two of El Dorado Rum, Old Pulteney 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch, or Writers Tears Irish Whiskey amongst other spirits if desired. Email Jason Woodman for details: jason@woodmanws.com Website: http://www.woodmanwinesandspirits.com
Noble Estates has joined up with WineAlign (as have a number of other agents) to offer a mixed case of 12 bottles of their best selling private import wines at an average price of $18.26/bottle. They call it their “Stay at Home” case. Ontario wine importers are only allowed to sell by the case i.e. cases of six or 12 depending upon how it was shipped to the province. Partnering with WineAlign makes it possible to sell mixed cases. https://www.winealign.com/exchange/116-Noble+Mixed+Sampler+Case (You’ll need to create an account to access WineAlign info)
On the high end, The Small Winemakers Collection is offering up rare wines such as 2017 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon $122.60/litre bottle reserved for their restaurant sales that will not be available once the normal flow of business resumes. www.smallwinemakers.ca
A list of the close to 50 agencies offering free shipping in Ontario is available at: www.winealign.com/articles/2020/03/19/wine-agents-offering-free-shipping-in-ontario
That brings me to WineAlign and a personal interest alert. I’m a shareholder in this online company that offers wine and spirits critiques and curated by the case wines through their wine Exchange Club and have written many columns on spirits for them. I’m also a regular customer and have signed up for several of their Exchange subscriptions delivered every three months to my door (Discovery all whites $25/bottle, REAL wines which are organic, biodynamic and all-natural and now the one time offer of Le Sommelier’s agency case). Need I say that I highly recommend them? For the Exchange: https://exchange.winealign.com
Distillers and brewers including brewing giant Labatt and distillers Dillon’s, Corby, Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery in Windsor, Spirit of York, and Kinsip have added hand sanitizer to their production line. The ever growing list of distillers in Canada stepping up to Covid-19 is listed here: https://canadiandistilleries.com/blog/canadian-distilleries-step-up and for artisanal distilleries here: https://artisandistillers.ca/news/artisan-distillers-disinfectant Corby is donating their production to the TTC garages and at collector booths in Toronto to help workers keep their hands clean. Dillon’s, an excellent Ontario craft distiller, is currently offering free delivery on orders over $50 (FREEOVER50) and throwing in complimentary hand sanitizer. https://store.dillons.ca
Regarding restaurants, as venues close across the country, those that can are offering takeout, delivery or curbside pick-up. We can help them stay alive in these troubling times by ordering in, buying gift cards and contributing to the hospitality industry’s various GoFundMe efforts that keep popping up.
Some of these restaurants are national chains, for example Earls which has now closed the doors to all of its 66 locations across North America. However its kitchens are still operating and takeaway and delivery are available. Others are local owner operated places. The best way to find them is to google your city and type in take-out delivery, coronavirus. For example doing this for Toronto I found: https://torontolife.com/food/toronto-restaurants-and-food-shops-offering-takeout-and-delivery-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic
As the country turns to essential services only allowed to stay open, remember you can eat, drink and order in the comfort and safety of your home while helping to support others in need.