Director James Cameron Buys BC Winery

Director James Cameron recently bought Beaufort Winery in Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia for an undisclosed price. (Wouldn’t we like to know.) Cameron joins a growing roster of movie celebrity winemakers. Husband-and-wife team, Susan and Jeff Vandermolen, founded the winery in 2006, and will consult for at least a year. James, the director of blockbuster movies such as Avatar ($2.7 billion), Titanic, Aliens and The Terminator, wanted to buy agricultural land in the region as a way of spending more time with his family in Canada; he was born in Chippewa, Ontario. Even though winemaking wasn’t his first […]

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Benchmark Red Wines France, Spain, California: LCBO Vintages Feb 15

A terrific collection of both red and white wines from most regions of France is featured in this release. There are also terrific, full-bodied reds from several New World regions, such as Australia, California and Ontario. This is just a sampling of wine ratings, the most quoted Canadian source of reviews in the Vintages Magazine. I’ll be posting the rest soon. In the meantime, you can access the 65 wines that I reviewed for February 15 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches and the stock for each bottle in their closest LCBO stores. […]

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Wine Bottle and Label Images

Why do I need a bottle image for my wine review? A picture of the bottle for the wine you’re reviewing makes a big difference to how polished and professional your review looks. Compare a review with no image (the default generic bottle — please don’t update it ;) and one that has both the bottle shot and label image (click on the magnifying glass under the bottle to see the label). As well, a bottle shot makes it far easier for readers to find the wine you’ve reviewed when they’re in the liquor store and to remember it afterwards. […]

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