Here are the 3 Best Online Wine Delivery Services in Vancouver, British Columbia.
This post is the most recent update of another one where I reviewed the top places to order wine in Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler, BC. You can see the original post here.
But since pandemic regulations has caused so many changes to stores and their polices, I thought it was best to come back and refresh this information. So this post is only about ordering wine in Vancouver which can be shipped anywhere in the province of British Columbia, Canada.
The places that made this list have an excellent wine selection, an easy to use online user experience, and/ or have fantastic rates and quick delivery times. No money was taken for these posts. However, [full disclosure] after publishing my last post, Marquis Wine Cellars did send me a bottle of Champagne – which I obviously accepted with great thanks ☺️.
Marquis was in the top spot in my last post and remains there (not because they plied me with amazing wine,) but because they deserve it.
Please Note:
- the law requires a person of legal age to be physically at the address when the product arrives in order to receive it. Couriers and Canada Post are not allowed to leave liquor at your doorstep
- you must be 19 years of age or older (in BC) and present id when wine and alcohol are delivered
Vancouver
Large cities have advantages. The have a vast selection of products and businesses are quick to adopt to new technologies.
Marquis Wine Cellars, Vancouver BC
Wine Delivery: all over BC
I purchase a LOT of wine for my WSET classes and for blind tasting groups at Marquis Liquor Store. I can research the wines from home from their website which has an advanced user interface with fast loading times. That, their top-notch selection, and having the easiest, fastest and best priced delivery system – keeps them at #1 for the best online wine delivery store in Vancouver.
Pros
- The most developed online user experience. Marquis was an early adopter to online wine delivery and this shows when you search through their website. It’s fast and intuitive.
- Each wine contains a useful description.
- Includes special categories for wine nerds such as ‘Grower Champagne’ section, an ‘Organic/Biodynamic’ section, and a ’95+ points wine’ area
- wide selection of wine
- also sells cider and now sells beer and spirits too
- Free if you spend over $200 + tax = $230!!
- If you create an account, you may check the status of your order, gain and manage ‘MarquisMiles’, and get special offers
- search tab is intuitive so you can find what you are looking for easily
- has their own in-house delivery system and just uses Canada Post for shipping outside of Vancouver. This means that you have a direct service line to what’s happening with your delivery by calling the store.
Cons
- none
Example of a wine description on Marquis Wine Cellars website
A beginner level course for those wanting to dip their toes into the world of wine.
4-week course
followed by exam
$349 CAD
An intermediate level course for those wanting to to dive head first into the world of wine.
5-week course
followed by exam
$699 CAD
Price
- If you spend over $200 + tax = $230), online wine delivery is free to one address.
- For smaller orders, there’s a flat rate charge of $13.99 + GST
- Marquis offers priority shipping for $30 when the wine needs to arrive the same-day or the next-day – as long as you order before the day’s cut-off time at 11 am
- for deliveries in rural areas – like if your postal code starts with ‘V0’ – wines will need to be shipped with ‘Priority Shipping’; additional charges apply
How long do online wine deliveries take?
- Downtown Vancouver – Same-day/next day by courier, Vancouver – 1-2 business days, Rest of BC – 2-3 business days within 2 business days (via Canada Post)
- if you need it the same day, select Priority Shipping for your wine deliveries for $30
- online orders available 24/7. Store hours are 11 am – 9 pm for telephone enquiries and for pick up
- no deliveries on weekends
- you can find updated shipping policies here.
Everything Wine in Vancouver, BC
Everything Wine has a fantastic wine selection and I’m happy to say that they’ve made a few changes since the last time I wrote about them.
With many locations in the Lower Mainland and 1 in Langford on Vancouver Island, it means that more people will be able to take advantage of their ‘free wine delivery when you spend over $200’.
It looks like they are just starting to write descriptions for the wines, too. Bravo! They are pretty simple descriptions so they won’t be enough for the serious wine afficionados. But I think they will be extremely useful for most people.
When descriptions are there, they have beautiful images to go with them. See the example below.
Example of a wine description on Everything Wine
Pros
- wonderful wine choices
- free wine delivery and shipping to anywhere in British Columbia when you order over $200 + tax
- great user experience and interface
- lightning speed loading times
- search tab is the most intuitive one I’ve used which is a huge plus + !!
- purchase 12 or more bottles are receive 5% off 😁
- pricing to your location is calculated at the cart checkout
- delivery by Fed-Ex so you get a tracking number which allows you to change delivery times or add specific delivery instructions
- read their current shipping policies here.
- orders now take 3-5 business days so big improvement from my last post!
Cons
- still missing tasting notes and descriptions of most wines
- searching for wines can be frustrating since many of their listed wines are in fact unavailable after you click on them. This is the process: when you search, you need to choose a store location. Therefore, ‘unavailable’ wines may be ‘available’ in another store location. This may be fine for those searching for personal use. However as a wine educator who needs to source a ton of wine at a time, I can’t do it.
- although a great website overall, there are limitations. Categories of wines are only listed by grape variety and lack the country of origin/ appellation approach. This is a serious setback for people who love to order wines from the Old World (like France, Italy and Spain). This means that you won’t be able to click on Burgundy or other regionally named wines (Brunello di Montalcino, Bordeaux, Dão). However, the intuitive search bar means you can locate these wines easily if you know what you are looking for.
- although Fed-Ex is a reliable service, it’s unfortunate that deliveries go through them. Fed-EX gives you a large delivery window which may not work for some. You can request a morning or afternoon but they may not be able to accommodate. If you’ve ever tried to call Fed-Ex, you’ll know what a pain that is. So make sure you log on and put your delivery details right after you get the confirmation details. Because phoning Fed-Ex (as Everything Wine’s website recommends) afterwards would really suck. Just count the minutes it takes for you to get to where you need to go via telephone.
How long do online wine deliveries take?
- online wine deliveries take 3-5 business days
Price
- free online wine delivery and shipping to many places when you order over $200 + tax – unfortunately, the website isn’t clear which areas are not included
- but shipping is done by Fed-Ex and is calculated when you get to the cart checkout so you can see for yourself the charges upfront
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Legacy Liquor Store, Vancouver BC
Wine Delivery: all over BC
Pros
- Legacy sells not just wine, but also has a HUGE selection of beer, coolers, ciders and spirits and all of these are available for delivery
- You can search for products online
- Online experience has vastly improved since the publication of my original article here. In fact, it’s an entirely new shop design. I originally listed their online user experience in ‘Cons’. It has now rightly been moved to a ‘Pro’. Way to go, Legacy!
- Wines and other items now have useful descriptions
- They will ship anywhere in British Columbia
- 5% discount is applied to cases of wine 😁
Cons
- ‘search’ bar still needs a little work, although this has improved vastly as well. Now you can type in your search (good!). But if you search for ‘BC wine’ by typing it in the search bar, it yields only 4 results (although Legacy has tons of BC wine to choose from) however…
- As you can see pictured below, you can still search for BC wines (and get around the sites limitation) by utilizing the left sidebar. For example, first click on the upper menu on ‘wine’, ‘beer’ or whatever item you are searching for. Then head over to the left sidebar and choose your ‘type’ if necessary. Underneath, select ‘Canada’ as the country and then another option to select the province of ‘BC’ pops up.
- pricing system is complex for deliveries
- pricing system is difficult to find on their website
- Ordering online asks if you want to to leave a tip – uhhh, I just don’t feel right about this. For one, it’s asking you to tip before any service has been delivered. Who does it go to? The delivery person, the cashier, or the person who puts your order together?
The best way to search for BC wine on Legacy's website
Price
- varies depending on weight. These estimates are for a 10lb piece.
- $15 flat rate for same day (within 4 hours) delivery to Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Burnaby (cut-off time is 1 pm)
- Same day Rush Order $30 (must order by 4 pm)
- $40 to deliver same day (within 4 hours) to the rest of the Lower Mainland (cut-off time is 1 pm)
- next day delivery – flat rate of $25
- rest of BC – the online ordering system will figure out the shipping costs at the time of ordering
How long do online wine deliveries take?
- same day or next day within the Lower Mainland
- you choose time slots for your deliveries either 10am to 2pm, 3pm to 6pm and 7-10pm, 7 days a week
- the person who orders the wine, must be the person who receives it and ID will be checked
- In December, time slots are 10am to 5pm or 5pm to 10pm because it gets so busy
- if you miss that cut off, you may choose a ‘Rush Order’ for same day, or wait until the next day (see above for pricing)
- wine delivery is available from 10 am – 5 pm, Monday to Friday but you can order online at any time
- store hours are 10 am – 11 pm daily
Summary
Overall, we are pretty darn lucky to be living in this beautiful province as there are excellent wine stores that have stepped up during lockdown to service our communities.
I still have Marquis Wine Store in first place for this post. Indeed, they were the early adopter setting up their online store well in advance of Covid. Their website has amazing wine descriptions to satisfy the most ardent wine afficionado and their shipping fees are the simplest. Furthermore, as shipping in Vancouver is done in-house, you can call the store directly if you need to know anything about your delivery.
And it’s been wonderful to see how the other two stores (Everything Wine and Legacy) have made changes in leaps and bounds over this same period.
Everything Wine has reduced their delivery times and has started to put descriptions of the wines online. Their website is beautiful! They lost points because very few wines have descriptions still and because of them using a third party (Fed Ex) as their delivery partner and not doing this in-house.
Legacy Liquor Store has completed a total overhaul of their website! Wines now have fantastic descriptions and their delivery process is much smoother. Their website is not as intuitive as Marquis Wine Cellars or as Everything Wines. So although they are in third place, they still made it on this list as being one of the Best Online Wine Delivery Services in Vancouver, BC servicing the province.
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