One of this fortnight’s eight drinks is a Sauvignon Blanc kept fresh with green tea instead of sulphur. It’s also the priciest pick at $29.95. The list runs down to an $8.79 zero-sugar cranberry sparkler for anyone skipping alcohol, with two Monin syrup collections for café-quality drinks at home. Only one pour comes from Ontario, a Niagara Cabernet Franc built for the grill. A Rioja Reserva closes things out for the roast on the table.
Your barista may know your order better than most of your friends do. Chances are, they’re reaching for Monin, the French family company Georges Monin founded in 1912. He loved hosting family dinners, and he wanted the drinks to taste as good as the food. Three generations later, Monin is still a family company. The Autumn Collection’s five mini bottles cover Pumpkin Pie, Cinnamon Bun, Caramel Apple Butter, Cranberry and Brown Butter Toffee. There’s enough here for about fifteen drinks. Stir them into lattes, hot cider and mocktails, or drizzle them over dessert. Add Pumpkin Pie syrup to half-and-half and club soda, and you’ve got a pumpkin pie cream soda. For a toast, stir a little Caramel Apple Butter into a glass of sparkling wine, or use sparkling apple cider for anyone who isn’t drinking. There’s no alcohol, dairy or gluten in them, and they’re kosher and non-GMO. Small enough to tuck into a carry-on, they make a handy host gift for holiday travel. Pair it with apple crisp.
Monin • $18.00 • 94 points
Pour a shot of espresso over ice, top it with cold milk and stir in a splash of Monin Hazelnut. The result is a nutty iced latte with a rich, caramelized finish. Hazelnut is one of five café classics in the Monin Coffee Collection, alongside Caramel, Amaretto, Irish Cream and Vanilla. Your barista never needs to know you’ve learned their secret. The syrups are kosher, with no gluten or dairy. Wrap the box up for the coffee lover on your holiday list. Pair it with dark chocolate truffles or a cinnamon streusel coffee cake.
Monin • $18.00 • 94 points
Most of us eat turkey as an excuse to double down on cranberry sauce. Why not have it in the glass too? Ocean Spray is a co-op owned by the family farmers who grow the berries, including growers across Canada. This Sparkling Zero Sugar Cranberry is zesty and bright, sweetened naturally with stevia. Pour it into a wine glass for a toast. Designated drivers and anyone skipping alcohol get the festive bubbles too. Over ice with a squeeze of lime, it makes an easy mocktail. It’s one of three zero-sugar sparkling flavours, including pineapple passionfruit and mixed berry. Pair it with baked brie and maple pecans or a pear and goat cheese salad.
Extra Dry • Non-alcoholic • Ocean Spray • $8.79 • 90 points
The nose opens on summer berries, wooden spice curling in as it sits in the glass. The palate turns broad and smooth, lively acidity keeping the fruit focused throughout. This is a wine built for BBQ, and it’s just as happy an hour later when the evening cools and everyone drifts toward the fire. Pair it with a rack of ribs off the backyard grill, roast duck with cherry reduction or lamb chops with herbs.
Dry • 12% • LCBO# 594127 • Vineland Estates • $15.95 • 93 points
Toi Toi is a family-owned New Zealand brand named after a native flowering grass. That grass thrives in all kinds of landscapes. It inspired wines that taste of where they grow. This Reserve comes from several blocks of their Calrossie Vineyard in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley. They bought the vineyard in 2022. These are the parcels they chose as their top expression of the 2025 vintage. The grapes were picked in the cool of the evening to keep them fresh. Most of the wine was made in stainless steel, with a small amount fermented in barrel for texture and complexity. Reserve doesn’t mean heavy or oaky. This wine is still lively, unmistakable Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. You’ll get lime, fresh green herbs and a hint of jalapeño. Then comes nectarine with a subtle coastal note. It’s bright and refreshing, with enough texture to hold its own beside a meal. Serve it chilled, around 8 to 10 degrees. Pair it with a warm goat cheese salad with roasted beets, grilled whitefish or grilled prawns.
Extra Dry • 13.5% • LCBO# 32554 • Toi Toi • $24.95 • 96 points
More than a century ago, Don Melchor Concha y Toro hid his finest wines in a cellar behind a wrought iron gate. Then bottles started disappearing. So he spread a rumour that the devil lived down there to scare away thieves. Every echo in that cellar made the story bigger, and it gave the wine its name, Casillero del Diablo, the devil’s cellar. It went on to become one of Chile’s best-known wine brands around the world. Now that we’re in spooky season, it’s a perfect seasonal pick too. With cassis, cherry and plum aromas, it’s medium-bodied with a long finish. Serve it at room temperature. Pair it with herb-roasted turkey thighs, bacon pan gravy and a big scoop of sage stuffing.
Dry • 13.5% • LCBO# 278416 • Concha y Toro • $14.95 • 91 points
Loveblock is certified organic, with very low sulphur. Their Tee bottling even swaps sulphur for green tea, as a natural preservative. Loveblock is owned and run by married couple Erica and Kim Crawford. They built the famous Kim Crawford brand and sold it. Then they started over from scratch, farming organically in Marlborough. This is their labour of love, thus Loveblock. This one’s close to my heart. My mom raised me on her own. She was a schoolteacher, so every Thanksgiving we’d go home to her parents in Cape Breton. We had our own tradition: lobster sandwiches with lots of mayo at lunch. A crisp Sauvignon Blanc like this would be perfect with them. It’s bright and zesty, with white peach and a fresh, herbal snap. Pair it with lobster sandwiches, seared tuna or vegetable kebabs.
Extra Dry • 13.5% • LCBO# 14568 • Loveblock • $29.95 • 93 points
This wine started with a group of friends who loved to cook together. They founded Beronia in 1973. They wanted wines to go with their food. A Reserva has to age at least three years before release. Beronia gives it 18 months in oak. Then it rests another 18 months in bottle. The barrels are a hybrid. The sides are American oak for vanilla and sweet spice. The ends are French oak for silky tannins and toasty notes. Their new winery was the first in the world to earn LEED v4 Gold certification for its leadership in energy conservation and environmental design in new construction. It has a green roof and recycles rainwater. It’s mostly Tempranillo, Spain’s signature red grape. The colour is a deep, dark cherry. You get black fruit and cinnamon on the nose. The tannins are soft, so it has a velvet-smooth texture. There’s cacao, roasted hazelnut and a pinch of pepper on the finish. Pair it with dark turkey meat and a sausage and sage stuffing, or blackened steaks and smoky burgers from the grill.
Extra Dry • 14% • LCBO# 50203 • Beronia • $23.95 • 89 points
Natalie MacLean offers Ontario’s most popular online wine and food pairing courses, tasting classes, expert reviews and mobile apps at nataliemaclean.com. Follow her on Instagram at @nataliemacleanwine. She is the author of Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much, and a 2026 finalist for the International Wine and Spirits Competition Wine Communicator of the Year.
