When I went to listen to Oprah Winfrey talk last night, I expected to hear cliches about believing in yourself and taking a positive attitude. However, her insights were incredibly more practical, grounded, and ultimately, inspirational. She used the rise and fall and rise again of her own network to make her advice concrete: “I live a big life,” she observed. “My mistakes show up on the evening news. But that can force you to dig deeper, move in a new direction and do the next right thing.” She also talked about Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook whose […]
Events
The Great Canadian Wine Match: Recipe Cards, Bottle Neck Tags
Neck tags will be available to wineries and agents whose wines are either nominees and or winners in The Great Canadian Wine Match. These would have the competition logo and category in which the wine is a nominee or winner, such as Best Canadian Beef Wine, etc for seafood, chicken, cheese, pizza or dessert. Please provide your feedback on how to make these as effective as possible: Would you use a neck tag if it were designed for you? Do you prefer portrait (above) or landscape (below) for layout? Both orientations would open to 2 panels inside and there would […]
Wine Tasting Dinner with Canada’s Best Sommelier Veronique Rivest
Join celebrity-sommelier, Véronique Rivest, for a unique tutored wine tasting and small-plates dinner on April 10 at 7 pm. Véronique is the winner of Canada’s Best Sommelier and of The Best Sommelier of the America’s in 2012, as well as a top 12 finalist for The Best Sommelier of the World competition in both 2007 and 2010. Watch Véronique in action and learn from the master how to taste and pair wines with a variety of dishes. Novice and seasoned wine-lovers will enjoy this evening that will be a memorable experience.Wine Tasting and Small-Plates Pairing Dinner April 10, 2013 – […]
Importing Wine for Pleasure & Profit Seminar
IMPORTING WINE Spirits & Beer FOR PLEASURE & PROFIT Presented by C.S. Trenholme & Associates Saturday June 8, 2013 The Old Mill Inn & Spa – Toronto 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM Learn how to import wines, spirits and beers for your own collection or as a fascinating business opportunity. During this one-day seminar, you will be guided through the process of importing beverage alcohol in a professional, and entertaining manner. This seminar is organized in two parts. The morning session has been prepared especially for those individuals who have little or no knowledge of the wine, spirit and beer […]
BC Wines Toast Large Twitter Tasting
BC wineries celebrated a vibrant wine tasting on Twitter last night. The positive energy and support from the wine community coast to coast poured out in tweets that came rapid-fire one after the other. A tasting event like this proves what we can build and create together using these new social media tools. Not only did we support our homegrown producers, but we showed our strength and commitment to having access to all of our wines across this country. Ontario wants more BC, BC wants more Ontario and Canada wants more Canada. We were fortunate to have @DanAlbas join us […]
Canadian wine community gets behind (and into) BC wine
Here’s a toast to the terrific team of wine reviewers who joined in a terrific wine tasting on Twitter last night. Their enthusiasm and positive energy came through in both their tweets and their reviews for these incredible BC wines (scroll down on the page for each wine to see their notes and scores): Mission Hill Reserve Chardonnay 2010, BC VQA Gray Monk Gewürztraminer 2011, BC VQA Quails’ Gate Chardonnay 2011, BC VQA Eau Vivre Pinot Noir 2008, BC VQA Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin 2008, BC VQA Mission Hill Quatrain 2009, BC VQA I raise my glass to an […]
Sommelier Guild Honours Wine Person of the Year Dan Albas
The National Capital Sommelier Guild is delighted to honour Mr. Dan Albas, Member of Parliament for Okanagan–Coquihalla, as its 2012 Wine Person of the Year. The award was presented at the Guild’s annual gala dinner at the National Arts Center on January 19. Mr. Albas introduced and was the driving force behind Private Members Bill C-311, which passed with unanimous support of the House of Commons and Senate on June 28, 2012. The bill amended the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act and removed federal restrictions prohibiting Canadians from moving wine purchased for personal use from one province to another. […]
Women’s Executive Network Wine Tasting
I’m looking forward to hosting a wine tasting at the Women’s Executive Network Summit on Wednesday. More than 500 power drinkers … should be fun! Here are the speakers throughout the summit … an inspiring group of women and topics. Canada’s Most Powerful Women Summit Speakers Arlene Dickinson CEO & Owner Venture Communications Arlene Dickinson is a judge on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, the television phenomenon that has ignited a national conversation about entrepreneurs in Canada. Dickinson — aggressive but fair, kind but practical, serious but fun — is the show’s marketing expert, its lone female judge, and one of […]
Italian Wine Tasting with Airmiles at Willow Park Wine & Spirits
It was a spectacular evening of Italian wine and food this past weekend at Willow Park Wine & Spirits in Calgary, Canada’s largest wine store. More than 450 Airmiles Gold Members came out for two evenings, the largest wine and food events that Airmiles has ever hosted. Here’s a short clip from the evening. We’ll post the longer version tomorrow. Below are the wines we tasted… Barone Ricasoli Rocca Guicciarda Riserva Chianti Classico 2007, Tuscany, Italy Generous, even and balanced with classic dark fruit, sun-dried tomato and mouth-watering acidity. Medium- to full-bodied with smooth texture. Perfect for […]
First Wine Competition: Southern Ontario Sommelier Alliance
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the Southern Ontario Sommelier Alliance as well as how the competition was organized and the scoring system. I must say that I was impressed with the level of professionalism and thorough evaluation of the wines involved. Read the results of the wine competition here. I look forward to more great initiatives from this group that will support the Ontario wine industry. What would you like to see this group do? What Is SOSA? SOSA is, the Southern Ontario Sommelier Alliance. We are a group of Certified Sommeliers, educated in Ontario, certified by both the Canadian […]
