They taunt us from behind the glass. Expensive, stoic, often somber bottles showcased in the locked cabinets at the LCBO. Most range from $100 to $500, but there are also legen­dary names at impossible prices, like a seven-vintage vertical of Château Haut-Brion for almost $4,000, or the bottle of Château Le Pin 2000 for $5,899. Are they worth it? For intrinsic quality, almost never; like art, many high-end bottlings are bought as investments. That said, all should be excellent wines, nuanced, elegant and hauntingly long on the finish. And wine drinkers should brush up against them occasionally: to indulge a fantasy, to establish personal benchmarks for quality and value. Kept at the larger LCBO stores, including Queens Quay, Summerhill and Bayview Village, the cabinets are temperature and humidity controlled; at Summerhill, they’re set on shock absorbers to reduce vibrations from the trains that thunder overhead. Some of the bottles they contain—most often first-growth bordeaux, grand cru burgundy, noble Italians and cultish New World wines—are truly momentous; others are vastly overrated. This month’s picks peek into the cabinet and include top guns that join the ranks November 25 in Vintages’ “Our Finest” release, plus five widely available fine reds under $50. And none of them are delusions of grandeur.