Here’s a list of LCBO stores in Toronto and Oakville that offer regular tastings of premium wines. I’ll update this as I get new lists of the wines on offer. You may also want to inquire about the classes held at these stores that provide additional opportunities to taste more wines. Here are the wine tastings in Ottawa and Gatineau (SAQ). I find it doesn’t take long to taste the wines and I fit it in when I’m doing errands in the neighbourhood where the store is located. There is a minimum fee to taste the wines that varies […]
Wine Articles
Best Places to Learn About Wine: Toronto Star
We were thrilled to be featured on the front page of the Toronto Star recently in a story on the best places to learn about wine, along with George Brown College which offers the sommelier certificate program and The Independent Wine Education Guild that teaches the respected Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) courses. Want to expand your wine knowledge but can’t afford the classes? Sign up for Natalie MacLean’s free e-newsletter and learn all about finding the best wines for your taste and budget. Natalie is a certified sommelier and has been named the World’s Best Wine Writer. Her […]
Posting Wine Reviews and Tasting Notes: Quick Tips
Here’s how to post your wine reviews and use the site features to share them with friends, create your own tasting journal and track your progress over time. Let me know if you have other tips to add here. You’ll also find tips on writing wine reviews. Here’s a short video to get you set-up quickly and optimize your profile: Quick Start: How do I post a wine review? First, download this custom wine toolbar for your browser to make finding wines and adding reviews fast. It works on all browsers except Safari, so if you use that one, skip […]
Wine Reviews and Tasting Notes
Here are some quick tips on writing wine reviews and tasting notes. I’ll be adding new tips to this list regularly. Got one to add? Please post it below. You can also find tips on posting your reviews on this site and how to get the most of the site features to organize your reviews. Have fun! Cheers, Natalie What information should be in every tasting note? The smell and taste of the wine are essential: aromas and flavours. This doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it gives people a sense of the style of the wine. The Wine Aroma […]
Wine Magazine Video: Canadian Food + Wine Contest
In the video below, I chat with Theresa, editor of Great Wine News Magazine, about The Great Canadian Wine Match, now in the last day for nominations for your favourite wines. The competition has been fierce, but so has the fun as wine lovers from coast to coast rally behind their most-loved wines. Get your final nominations and votes in today before we move to the finalist showdown phase!
Wine Blogger Conference Comes to Canada
In two weeks, the city of Penticton, BC will be flooded with intrepid wine bloggers swarming the area with glasses in one hand and iphones in the other, tweeting and instagraming the Okanagan Valley into Internet fame. In case you haven’t heard of it, the Wine Bloggers Conference is a combination press junket, wine expo, and MacWorld, with shades of Meetup in between. After five years in the States, the Wine Bloggers Conference will finally cross the Canadian border, and Penticton organizers are working in overdrive to make sure the blogger’s impressions are favorable. There is still time to register […]
Grassroots Video for The Great Canadian Wine Match
Love this! Wine Blogger Joe Hache took the initiative to create this video about the 6 Prince Edward County Wines that he’s nominated for The Great Canadian Wine Match. It’s awesome to see the people behind the labels… however, you don’t have to live in wine country, as Joe does, to create a simple video of your favourite wines. Download the free YouTube app on iPhone, Android or Windows and take a quick video clip from your smartphone of your wine(s), or do it from your laptop using your built-in video camera and YouTube recorder button. Either way, just takes […]
Canadian Wine Featured in Food Pairing Competition
The Great Canadian Wine Match was our topic on CBC Alberta at Noon yesterday, a radio show broadcast across the province. You can click on the arrow below to listen to our chat. We talked about how the contest involves wine pairings for six food categories with voting done online with real-time results reflected in the number of votes for each wine and its relative ranking in the competition. Full engagement of social media is at the heart of this food and wine pairing competition. Posted with permission of CBC.
Online Battle of Bottles in Canadian Contest to Match Food and Wine
The Canadian Press (CP) news service syndicated this story to newspapers and web sites across the country on May 2. OTTAWA – Oenophiles can vote for their favourite food and wine pairing with a new online competition that launched Thursday. Instead of experts weighing in with their choices, The Great Canadian Wine Match lets ordinary wine drinkers from coast to coast vote for their favourite wine and food pairings. Natalie MacLean, who has combined the old world of wine with the new world of technology and social media with an app, blog and website, will moderate the competition, including coast-to-coast […]
Great Canadian Wine Match Challenges Social Media Users to Drink and Vote
You don’t need to tell me that wine is the most important meal of the day. The question is, which type of food do you prefer as a side? That’s the question being asked by Canadian wine writer Natalie MacLean who has worked up a time-sensitive way to pit region against region in The Great Canadian Wine Match, the object of which is to pair your favourite wine with a particular type of food, eventuating in a winner at the end to be voted on by participants in the social media campaign. Crowd-sourcing competitions like these have flourished in recent […]
