There’s nothing that says luxury and the good life more than sitting down on the patio and sipping a glass of good wine on a hot summer’s evening. I used to think that being a Budget Smart Girl meant that I’d either have to forgo this one little pleasure, or be forced to buy a [...]

How long do wines keep once opened? The answer is a highly subjective, according to both the wine and the drinker. Generally, dry white wines have the shortest life once opened. I find they lose their character after even one or two days, especially cheaply-made, oaky New World whites. (Whites with good acidity and lots [...]

What does it mean to decant wine and how do you do it? Pouring wine from its bottle into some other container: a carafe, a decanter, even a water jug. Make sure the decanter and the mouth of the bottle are clean. To decant a bottle with sediment, first leave it upright for about a [...]

Raise a glass of great vino with help from Chatelaine’s wine expert Natalie MacLean. Here are her tips to serving – and enjoying – a perfect glass. 1. Decanting Pour wine out of the bottle and into a decanter, which can be a water jug, specially designed wine decanter or another large vessel to soften [...]

Many people rely heavily on the information on wine labels to help them in making a purchasing decision, but what if the consumer is sight-impaired? An item on wine writer Natalie MacLean’s Web site calls attention to several producers who are using Braille on their labels to feature the winemaker, appellation, name of the wine, [...]

The July issue of Chatelaine has a terrific article by Anne Kingson on how women connect over wine: it brings them together for conversations (and wine-fuelled confessionals) and connection through shared emotions. She says that women, who now account for 80% of wine purchases, tend to browse when buying wine and are more open than [...]