Wine Rack Raises a Whopping $70K for Feed Ontario, Crushing Fundraising Goals

In mid-May, our Wine Rack team set out with a goal of raising $50,000 to support Feed Ontario’s Emergency Response Initiative.

In response to COVID-19, Feed Ontario created an Emergency Response Initiative to better support communities in need. The charity is working together with its partners to create pre-packaged emergency food boxes for food banks across the province. These boxes help Ontario’s food banks support their communities while minimizing exposure to COVID-19.

In just one month, our stores – with the support of our customers – raised $70,000 to Feed Ontario, far surpassing the original goal! “Our customers understand there is a significant need to support Food Banks across Ontario and individuals’ small donations can add up to something big and impactful,” said Stephen Murphy, Director of Retail Operations.

“We are so grateful to Wine Rack and their employees and customers for their generous donation,” said Carolyn Stewart, Executive Director at Feed Ontario. “Their support goes a long way in helping us meet our goal to ensure everyone in our province has access to enough food to stay home safely during these uncertain times."    

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to our Wine Rack merchants and store managers – none of this would have been possible without them!

We’ve shared the news on LinkedIn & Twitter, but you can also share this on Facebook and other social media streams by downloading the Facebook and Instagram image.

Jul 6, 2020 at 9:44 AM

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Select Wine Rack Stores Now Accept Monetary Donations for Feed Ontario

As we are all trying to navigate the impacts of COVID-19, Wine Rack has partnered with Feed Ontario to support the communities in which we live and work. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has started, our parent company, Arterra Wines Canada, donated $25,000 to support local food banks. Now, we’d like to invite you to be part of this initiative. Wine Rack has donated over $40,000 so far, and you can make a donation to Feed Ontario directly at select Wine Rack stores listed below. Or you may donate online by visiting Feed Ontario. 

Jun 8, 2020 at 7:30 PM

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How Wine Rack is addressing COVID-19

Thursday April 9th, 2020

On Saturday April 11th, we are re-opening select Wine Rack street and strip-mall stores across Ontario.

The Province of Ontario has deemed our stores an essential service, along with grocery stores. While continuing to follow Public Health recommended protocols, we have consulted with our teams and have now implemented increased safety measures for both our people and our customers when visiting our stores.

Those measures included:

• Plexiglass installed at the cash-out area in all street and strip-mall stores
• Installed longer pin-pad cables allowing customers to pay while maintaining a physical distance from Wine Rack employees
• Physical distancing decals on the floors to remind customers to maintain a safe distance from others
• Limiting the amount of people in a store to ensure physical distancing can be maintained

Previous measures already implemented include:

• Our store teams regularly clean their workspaces including the register keyboard and are encouraged to wash or sanitize their hands on a frequent basis.
• We have reduced hours of operation to allow our teams to rest and recharge
• We are paying our Wine Rack front-line employees a “hero premium” during the COVID-19 pandemic
• We have suspended our wine sampling program
• We are only accepting credit, debit and Wine Rack gift cards
• We have stopped accepting product returns and/or refunds

To find out if your local store is open, please contact them directly.

Our priority remains to create a safe working and shopping environment for all. Thank you for being a loyal customer. Since this is an evolving situation, we will continue to provide information as it becomes available.

Regards,

Stephen Murphy
Senior Director of Operations, Retail 
Arterra Wines Canada

Wednesday March 25th, 2020

At Wine Rack, the health and safety of our customers and employees is foremost in our minds.

We have made the decision to close all our Wine Rack street and strip-mall stores as of Friday March 27^th, 2020 at 8:00 P.M., for two weeks.

Considering the safety of our employees and consumers, we felt it was time to focus our efforts in supporting our grocery store locations and take this time to develop additional safety measures required for those street and strip-mall locations. Our plan is to re-open our street and strip-mall stores and get everyone back to work when it is safe to do so.

The Province of Ontario has deemed our stores an essential service, along with grocery stores. Together with our grocery store partners, we’re going to meet your needs through a one-stop shop, in an orderly and safe environment.

You can also purchase many of our wines online through Great Estates Niagara or for our Toronto and Ottawa customers, you can also choose to shop through www.foodora.ca

We are continuing to follow Public Health recommended protocols and wanted to let you know how we are continuing to keep you and your safety top of mind:

• We regularly clean and sanitize the common areas – door handles, fridge door handles, automatic door operator plates, pin pads, countertops...basically anything your hands generally touch.
• Our store teams regularly clean their workspaces including the register keyboard and are encouraged to wash or sanitize their hands on a frequent basis.
• As a precaution and to ensure customers have confidence in our sampling program, we have suspended our customer sampling for now.
• We will no longer be accepting cash. Only debit, credit and gift cards will be accepted.
• The health and well-being of our customers and employees is our priority. As such, we are communicating regularly with our Wine Rack store employees to ensure they have the information and support they need to stay healthy during these unusual circumstances. Employees who do not feel well have been instructed to stay at home.
• We are no longer accepting customer product returns to reduce the amount of product handling. Returns will be honoured at a later date.
• We are asking our customers to respect social distancing and will limit the amount of customers in our stores at any one time.
• We have reduced hours of operation to eight hours a day to allow our teams to rest.

Our priority remains to create a safe working and shopping environment for all.

Thank you for being a loyal customer. Since this is an evolving situation, we will continue to provide information as it becomes available.

Regards,

Stephen Murphy
Senior Director of Operations, Retail
stephen.murphy@arterracanada.com
Arterra Wines Canada
441 Courtneypark Drive East
Mississauga, Ontario L5T 2V3

Apr 9, 2020 at 9:00 AM

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Debunk 10 of the Most Popular Wine Myths

1. Serious, ageworthy wines are always sealed with cork

“Actually, screwcapped wines can age just as well as—some would argue even better than—wines finished with cork. Some wineries, like Australia’s Peter Lehmann, use screwcaps exclusively, except for wines being shipped to the United States. But even here, more super premium red wines are using screwcaps. There is no technical reason that those wines won’t age just as well as those finished with cork.” – Wine Enthusiast Magazine

2. Aged wine is better

“Much of the time, that's simply not true, since most wines are made to be consumed within a year or two of their release. The rare exceptions come with a lot of responsibilities attached, beginning with proper storage and a group of knowledgeable and appreciative friends to drink them with when the time comes.” – O Magazine

3. Boxed wine sucks

“Aside from my own personal love for boxed wine, there are myriad reasons to branch out and try wine in a box (or can). Our sommelier friend told us that serving wine from a box is actually pretty common in Europe – where culture was born – and there are some incredibly delicious boxed wines you can be drinking without guilt.” – Yahoo.com

"As you pour it from the spigot, the bag is collapsing around the wine to give it that seal — very good packaging […] Not elegant in some people's mind, but actually very practical and lighter to carry than the equivalent 5.25 bottles. The four-litre box is the standard." – Natalie MacLean for Inside Toronto

4. Always drink white wine cold and red wine warm

“In general, reds with really bright acidity, reds made from thinner-skinned grapes like pinot noir and dolcetto that have more tart cherry than cherry jam notes -- all those taste better when they’re cool. And then you get the joy of watching it unfold and change in the glass as it comes to temperature.” – Thrillist Magazine

5. Dessert should be paired with a dessert wine

“Almost all sweet desserts will overwhelm even the most intensely sweet wine and end up killing the fruit, resulting in a wine that seems like it's all acidity. If you insist on drinking wine with dessert, try a sparkly Moscato, it's low in alcohol and not terribly sweet, with lots of bright, juicy flavor.” – O Magazine

6. Sweet wines are for beginners, not educated palates.

“Some of the greatest wines in the world are sweet. Sauternes, ice wines, trockenbeerenausleses and so on are decadently sweet, immensely flavorful and also quite ageworthy. And generally the more educated palates are the ones that they most appeal to.” – Wine Enthusiast Magazine

7. The cork should be sniffed when the server opens the wine

“This doesn't indicate a wine's quality […] But holding the cork to ensure it doesn't crumble isn't a bad idea. If the cork has dried out, the wine might be oxidized.” – Natalie MacLean for Inside Toronto

8. All wine should be decanted

“The main reason to pour wine into a carafe is to expose it to oxygen to smooth out the tannins, the natural compounds in red wine that give bitterness and astringency as well as complexity. Some older red wines and vintage port may have sediment — the natural particulate that can fall out of wine from grape skin and colour — and should be decanted carefully to separate it.” – Inside Toronto

9. White wine with fish, red wine with meat

“A good rule of thumb is, "What grows together, goes together," so whenever I'm thinking about wine pairings, I'll think about what they're eating in that region.

Pairings can also depend on the chef. I worked with this great chef in New York, Gabriel Kreuther, and his food was so balanced that you could always find a great rosé, white, or red to go with the dish. It was colorblind cooking, in a way -- the color didn’t matter, you just had to match the texture.

And, lastly, it can be all about the sauce, not the protein. If you get a white wine sauce, even if it's a beef dish, then it's a white wine situation. Or if you do a white fish with an oxtail red wine ragu, then you're totally in red wine territory.” – Thrillist Magazine

10. Canada is too cold to produce great wine

“The truth is that Ontario excels not [exclusively] in icewines (which represents a small proportion of what they do) but, rather, in Chardonnay, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir, as well as with some very impressive sparkling wines thanks to their superb Chardonnay. The Okanagan Valley, for its part, is more a mixed bag, with some surprising (there's that word) success with Syrah, to say nothing of Gamay and Pinot Noir.” – Wine Spectator

Canadian wine is award winning in many international categories with Jackson-Triggs, being Canada’s most-awarded winery. Check out some of their many recent awards here. 

Jan 2, 2017 at 9:00 AM

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