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Feeling under the weather? Drink wine
A year ago today the lead to my January 15th, 2013 column spoke succinctly to the mantra. “A glass or two of wine might just be the thing to help ward off the common cold and the flu.” In that rant...
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Deep 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...
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Gripping wines from Spain and Italy
Winemakers in the most famous regions of Spain and Italy have gone pro in the practicum of wine that speaks loud and clear. If there is a downside it is the blurring of lines and overlapping of...
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In a Pinot Noir province of mind
No other grape causes more of a stir, is responsible for more hair to fall and breaks more hearts. It doesn’t play well with others. It refuses to share, to be blended, to give anything less than 100...
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Super Bowl XLVIII wine odds
As a Super Bowl libation of choice do you consider wine a foray into the arena of the absurd? If so, you may be right, but you may be wrong. The Super Bowl is absurd. So, what are the odds that wine...
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A taste of New Zealand’s Villa Maria
Villa Maria Production Winemaker Josh Hammond had to be on the verge of exhaustion when he sat down with John Szabo and I at the WineAlign office last week. Hammond was a Montreal stop away from a near...
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What’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....
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Big houses, bigger wines, big-ish prices
If you live in Canada, purchasing wine ties you directly to a monopoly. There are exceptions, though still imperfect ones, like the free market culture of Alberta and the developing tiered system in...
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You can kiss my sweet pink wine, Valentine
Friday is Valentine’s Day, again. May as well be Groundhog Day, only the movies aren’t as good. You do know that songs about Valentine’s Day rarely look at the bright side of life. Case in point David...
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Synchronicity in three terroirs
Thomas Bachelder is a quote sprinkler. Like this: “It’s not because you can’t tell something blind that it doesn’t exist.” On Monday, February 10th, the Quebec native courted and mesmerized a room of...
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Three-chord wines, hold the rants
The world’s most famous wine critic is not happy. His claim of “wannabe” scribes hell-bent to focus on obscure wines most consumers can never find has raised a maelstrom of retort. Robert Parker...
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From Cinquante to wine with Canada-U.S. hockey
I hope the Canadian men’s hockey team was watching the women this afternoon. Lesson number one: Play to the last friggin’ millisecond. Canada versus the United States is hockey incarnate. The games are...
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Grapes of dreams: Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay
Sometimes you can go home again. Too often we forget to do just that. As wine agitators we yearn to be blown by a birr to scour the world’s rarely visited vineyards for pearls of indigenous excellence....
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Are 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...
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Wine experts Brock and roll, Brock on
Part two: 25th anniversary of the Cuvée 2014 Expert’s Tasting at Brock University Flights three, four and five: Pinot Noir, Red Blends and Wine Options. Related – When experts break wine together The...
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When 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...
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Telmo’s Spanish dream
Telmo Rodríguez the company is a small wine producer fashioning meager quantities from more DOs (and DOCAs) than can fit into a 620 x 400 jpeg. Telmo Rodríguez the man finds himself at the 20th...
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Winter white out wine, beer and food conditions
The winter that never ends. White out conditions, snow squalls, wind advisory and chill warnings. Everything just feels heavy. The OPP’s request? Just stay home, Ontario. Prepare for the worst, hunker...
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Godello’s excellent Cuvée adventure
Doesn’t every local wine writer’s pilgrimage begin this way? There’s 130 kilometres to Niagara Falls, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes (not really – the only thing we smoke is...
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Bottles, barrels, tanks and a vertical
Listening to Flat Rock Cellars’ winemaker Jay Johnston rattle off the numbers and particulars of his 2013 Pinot Noir harvest you can’t help but survey the odds of something preternatural. Vintage...
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