Collection: Wine Gift Baskets

Recent baskets have carried bottles from Bench 1775 Winery on BC's Naramata Bench, Reif Estate Winery on the Niagara Parkway, Strewn Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Okanagan Crush Pad out in Summerland, in the Okanagan Valley. Each one was that month's featured winery in our regular subscription, so the lineup changes as the calendar does.

All of it is VQA-certified. Under Ontario's certification rules, as VQA Ontario describes them, a tasting panel checks the wine for faults before the label goes on, and the British Columbia Wine Authority runs its own version of the same process. That panel review is the point of the seal.

Reds tend to lean Cabernet Franc and Baco Noir from the Niagara Escarpment. Whites lean Riesling and Chardonnay, sometimes an aromatic like Gewürztraminer if that month's winery grows one. Each bottle comes with a tasting note our team wrote after trying it themselves.

A red basket suits the person who orders Cabernet before the server even asks. Maybe that's a dad who grills through October, or a client dinner that's landing on steak. Niagara reds lean savoury rather than jammy, so they sit well next to Alberta beef or a peameal bacon sandwich if the night's more casual than a boardroom.

Already know they drink red? Grab this one. Same single-winery sourcing as everything else here, just narrowed to red.