We had a lot of fun this past Sunday sipping on our favourite Ontario wines and chatting about the New Ontario Wine Specialist Certificate! Click on the arrow above to play the video. You can read the 138 comments here (and comment yourself). Share your thoughts on your favourite Ontario wines and discover which wines others love that you might want to try. Also find out how you can become a Certified Ontario Wine Specialist. Sip with you soon! P.S. If you click on the “Like” and “Share buttons on Facebook now, you’ll get the heads up when […]
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Top 100 Wine Blogs: New Ranking from Feedspot
Feedspot, which replaced Google’s RSS live feed for blog updates last year, has just published a new report on the Top 100 Wine Blogs. A friend nudged me about it on Twitter, as it’s not something you can enter. According to the editors of Feedspot: In the world of wine, these are the best of the best wine blogs who run their craft and work hardest to improve the entire wine industry. They are the most influential to both the trade and consumers. Their voices influence thousands of other wine personalities and tens of thousands of wine professionals. These wine blogs […]
Wine Talk on Bell Media’s New TV Show “The Drink”
By Alex Powell & Priya Rao, A Vine Romance It’s finally here–August 2nd brings the launch of our new show for Bell Media called, The Drink. In it we explore the best that Toronto has to offer in terms of beer, sake, scotch, cocktails and of course, wine! In fact, one of our 4 episodes in dedicated to this glorious beverage from Mother Nature! The episode is called, quite appropriately, “Calling All Wine-o’s!” In it we visit a super high-tech private wine storage facility, we trace the roots of a bottle of wine in a vineyard-to-restaurant segment, Alex breaks down how to taste […]
Marco de Grazia: Coaxing Wine from Contradiction (and Lava)
Part 2: Sicily’s Volcanic Wines Sicily is also known as mezzogiorno, “the land of the midday sun”—and of the midday nap. This April afternoon is so warm that I decide to take la pausa before my next visit. I love that notion of an afternoon pause: it doesn’t sound lazy, just meditative. I retreat to my dark hotel room and flop on the cool bed sheets, mesmerized by my ceiling fan as its breeze evaporates the sweat on my arms and legs. Outside, a dog barks, someone laughs, a door slams. Then quiet. After several hours of drugged sleep, I […]
Airline #Wine is Taking Off
Natalie MacLean is an accredited sommelier, wine journalist and author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. I understand you travelled extensively to research your book. Yes, I spent three years sipping and spitting my way through various vineyards around Europe and around North America – Burgundy, Champagne and California, among others. How do you research your stories? You can only say so much about wine by just opening the bottle: it’s wet, it’s fruity, it tastes good or it doesn’t. The story of wine is the story about the place, where it’s […]
How to Get the Most from Your Winery Visit: 20 Tasting Room Tips
1. Plan your visits Visit wineries clustered together, such as the ones in Niagara-on-the-Lake area. Visit no more than three to five a day: two in the morning, one for lunch and one or two in the afternoon. That leaves you time to taste and talk. (I know, I crammed in more visits, but a drink writer in wine country is like those stunt drivers in car commercials—you’re not really supposed to do those tricks in real life.) Go to both small and large places to get a sense of the range of wines produced. 2. Designate a driver […]
