Tasting through Portugal and the VINTAGES May 26th Release
Three thematic release posts done, Lytton Springs, Chardonnay and Tuscany, 16 more tasting notes to go. Shout out to Anne Yarymowich and Annick Le Goaix for some splendid Portuguese gastronomy last...
View ArticleBurgundy crush course: Get your learn on
by featured writer Jascha Baraness Crush Wine Bar 455 King Street West, Toronto, (416) 977-1234 Executive Chef: Trista Sheen It had been many months since my last ‘producer specific’ wine dinner, so I...
View ArticleFour alternative whites from the Vintages June 9th release
A world awaits outside the white wine box of Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. There are aromatics unsniffed, flavors not yet tasted, varietals unexplored. Coming this weekend to a stadium...
View ArticleThe Wine Diaries. VINTAGES June 9, 2012: Whites and Rosés
Two Niagara wines top this list. Coyote’s Run Black Paw Vineyard is a legend in the making. Hinterbrook blows me away with a world-class Rosé. Nino Franco Faive Brut Sparkling Rosé 2010 (31567, $19.95)...
View ArticleEssential wine for Father’s Day
What to get dad this year for Father’s Day. Perhaps not the gifting conundrum that is Mother’s Day but no walk in the park either. The obvious gadgets present themselves; iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Nook or...
View ArticleThe Wine Diaries: Around the world in 20 whites
In sweltering times like these the refreshing vigor of white wine is irrefutable and necessary. I would steer you to just about any global example from this list. Standing tall above is a 20th choice,...
View ArticleSeasonal Sips: Autumn Apple White Wine Sangria
Try our autumnal sangria blanca, which combines some of the best flavours of the season: apple, cranberry, pear, grapefruit and spice. Related – more Seasonal Sips The Riesling lends a light touch...
View Article100 kilometre wine for spring
If you adhere to the 100 km rule, this wine’s for you. Riesling. Can there be a more versatile white grape? From natural, mineral spring, bone-dry to concentrated, candied sweet, this grape runs the...
View ArticleNine big November best buy wines
Like it or not, the first week of November demands that we begin planning for the holiday season. The wine industry’s senses in Canada are highly acute to the preparations, as witnessed by the...
View ArticleFriday wine bites
It would seem that 99 per cent of the time wine columns are composed of a particular thematic that weaves facts, theories and tasting notes and into one tight, informative package. Most would consider...
View ArticleA wine sign of the apocalypse?
Every once in while events come along in a confluence of conspicuous timing that just seem to indicate “a sign of the apocalypse.” Today is both the first day of the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah, the...
View ArticleTop 20 under-$20 wines of 2013
Last year I chose to highlight wines that fell into the under $15 niche. A subsequent column focused on the $30 threshold as the next level to make picks for wines of the year. In retrospect that made...
View ArticleTop ten wines $30 and under for 2013
Folks like best of lists and I for one am happy to offer them up. Historical farsightedness can be one of life’s great pleasures so cue the retrospective view. The $20-30 category brims to overflowing...
View Article2013: It was the best of wines
The long and wine-ding road of 2013 began with a personal plea for it to be the year of drinking better wine. I wrote about iconic wines at affordable prices and a personal hermeneutic public service...
View ArticleThree Rieslings to believe
There are many reasons to believe in Riesling, that versatile and brutally honest grape. Riesling holds no punches, speaks its mind, tells it like it is. Grown worldwide and vinified in so many varying...
View ArticleDeep freeze: Controversies, polar vortex and icewine
The physiological and emotional roller coaster heaped upon grapes and growers these past 55 days has been nothing short of exhilarating, frightening and exhausting. First this monster climatic Dementor...
View ArticleWhat’s in a wine vintage?
There was a time when Ontario wine held no candle to my thoughts, filled no glass in my tasting regimen and occupied no place in my cellar. My how time and five years of enlightenment have changed me....
View ArticleWhen experts break wine together
With frozen Pond Inlet at Brock University as the backdrop to the 25th anniversary of the Cuvée 2014 Expert’s Tasting, 160 industry professionals gathered to break wine together. The original congress...
View ArticleAre you getting your daily serving of wine?
I know you are about to scream at your screen. Not another column about the health benefits of drinking wine. Delete. Wait, hear me out. Related: A wine prescription for cold and flu and Feeling under...
View ArticleAre you wine experienced?
Wine knowledge, or gaining an understanding of wine, is like marriage. You have to pay close attention to detail, be open-minded, have patience and persistence, hang in there and endure the long haul....
View ArticleVINTAGES February 18th Release, Wines Tasted
13th STREET OLD VINES RIESLING 2010 (272617, $23.95) carries on in the tradition of the house style. Eerily similar to the Palette, reeking of Viognier and Gewurztraminer. It’s round, easy to like, if...
View ArticleOntario Wines Won’t Break The Federal Budget
March 29, 2012 The first true Harper majority government budget will be unveiled this afternoon while VINTAGES product consultants stock their shelves with the March 31st release. The budget will...
View ArticleOf Budgets, Bohemian Rhapsody, Intrigue and Curiosity
Saturday March 31, 2012 Search the newswires, blogosphere and the world of internet forums and you will sense, as my friend DL would say, a “guttural sadness” and general discontent. Talking here...
View ArticleApril Wine: Top VINTAGES Values to Buy Right Now
April 12, 2012 How many times have you found yourself standing in the LCBO dumbfounded and lost in ambient wine distraction? Do you feel knocked upside the Medulla Oblongata by a monopoly’s shelves...
View ArticleSpring Scion Search Leads To Wild Leeks
Field of Dreams/Michael Godel April 18, 2012 The subdivisions and four-lane roads loom close by but down here on the forest floor you would never know it. Protected land descendant and magical,...
View ArticleWild Leek Week
Ramped Brisket Tacos and Sliders April 20, 2012 Leek week. All leeks, all the time. Every dish gets ramped up by the foot soldier, pugilist and grognard of the onion family. “As long as I was in for...
View ArticleVINTAGES May 12, 2012 – Wines for Mother’s Day
May 9, 2012 Chardonnay. So often velocitized by toasted oak that a rise against it became known as the ABC movement. Trust me, Chardonnay is back and like City TV (thank you JB), it’s everywhere....
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