What a spectacular evening we had in Toronto last week at the Wolf Blass tasting! A full-house of 90 guests packed the waterside restaurant Against the Grain. As I interviewed Wolf about his experiences, we tasted his wines and some delicious tapas. More details on the event as well as the Canada AM clip below [...]

By Pat Anderson I’m sure most people who have grown zucchini have had the experience of finding the zucchini they missed… which has grown to a massive size, is seedy, and too big to be used in the normal way. What do you do? Here’s what I did: Serves 4 Ingredients: 1 massive overgrown zucchini… [...]

I’m not letting go of summer until the first official day of fall, which is still a few weeks away. Now is the time to enjoy luscious tomatoes, sweet corn, grilled steak, field berries and other late summer treats. I’ve paired them with wines in the latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine. Carpe diem!

Join Natalie MacLean and Wolf Blass in Toronto Sept 10 and Ottawa Sept 17 for a tasting of 12 Wolf Blass wines, a range of sumptuous tapas dishes prepared by Toronto’s award-winning Against the Grain Restaurant and a personally signed copy of Natalie’s book Unquenchable. Natalie MacLean, named the World’s Best Wine Writer at the [...]

By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print and will show you LCBO stock availability. GPCi top 4 for up-to $22: #1 choice – Italy – Abruzzo – 2008 Barba I Vasari Old Vines Montepulciano D’Abruzzo – $18.95 It’s not every day that [...]

We continue our video chat below with Master Sommelier Bruce Wallner about Canada’s Best Sommelier Competition in Halifax this month. We find out why the Quebec sommeliers are such fierce competitors (think Cobra Kai in the Karate Kid) and the next competitions for the successful candidate. You can also watch part one of our video [...]

Here are my top picks from the September 15 Vintages Release. You can also get all 54 of my Best Value Wines and Top Rated Wines for red, white, rose, sparkling and dessert wines that encompass many price points, styles and regions. I’ve also posted my wine reviews for the September 29 release. You can [...]

In the video chat below Bruce Wallner, recently named Ontario’s Best Sommelier, talks about participating in the Best Canadian Sommelier Competition this month in Halifax. He’s already a certified Master Sommelier and has worked in restaurants around the world, including Australia, Spain and the UK. We also talked about what made him want to become [...]

In the CTV News video clip below, we chat about the exciting development in Atlantic Canadian wines, including those from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. From the Olympics to a Tidal Bay of refreshment, it’s worth taking a second (and fifth) sip of these wines … Here are my wine reviews for Jost Vineyards, [...]

I love tasting and writing with tongue in cheek. Here’s my summer column in More Magazine about so-called women’s wines. Personally, I can’t resist a pink label or cuddly squirrel. I guess I’m just at the mercy of those intrepid marketing teams … it’s like they read my mind after I had been drinking too [...]