By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print and will show you LCBO stock availability. GPCi top 4 for up-to $22: #1 choice – Italy – Abruzzo – 2008 Barba I Vasari Old Vines Montepulciano D’Abruzzo – $18.95 It’s not every day that you see Gambero Rosso giving a high 3 out of 3 glasses rate and for a $19 (!) bottle of wine. Besides… I have a very soft spot for Montepulciano wines. Seems like an excellent QPR wine-of-the-house option. I’d buy 3-12 bottles. #2 choice – […]
Wine Bloggers
There’s a Buzz in the Air at Rosewood Estates
By Susan Desjardins While working as a high-tech executive, Eugene Roman was also developing his skills as a master beekeeper and dreaming big about creating a winery and meadery in Niagara. In 2000, he and his wife Renata purchased 40 acres on the Beamsville Bench, an ideal site for producing cool-climate wines, and backing onto the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. A further 45 acres was subsequently purchased in Jordan. Construction of the winery began in 2005, the design of the building reflecting the family’s European heritage, as do the Renaissance-style parterres and exquisite rose gardens. 2006 marked […]
Italy’s Verdicchio: A Country with a Grape for Everyone
By Holly Bruns It’s hard to believe that with hundreds of indigenous grapes, Italy is not the birthplace of winemaking. Thus far that credit goes to Georgia where along the slopes of the Caucasian Mountains, perhaps, there was one mother of a vine that gave life to the multitudes of grapes that now grow worldwide. When exactly Vitis Vinifera were transplanted to the Italian peninsula is not known exactly, but Greek traders back in 800 BC certainly helped the process along. Today, as the wine industry in Italy continues to go through a renaissance, the shelves of Pinot Grigio and […]
Ribera del Duero, Vina Tarapaca, Capraia Classico Riserva: Best Cellar Wines in LCBO Vintages Release September 1
By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print and will show you LCBO stock availability. Spain – Ribera del Duero – 2008 Legon Crianza (276089)-$15.95 This is my #1 GPCi choice of the Sep 1st, 2012 release. 2008 was a very good vintage in Ribera del Duoro region (wait for the 2009 wines – they are even better!). RP gave this Legon Crianza 90 with a 8 year cellaring window (until 2020), which makes the GPCi almost par with 2 (remember, any GPCi below 3.5 is a good […]
Verbena Brunello De Montalcino, Domaine Roche Cairannie, Bosquet Des Papes: Best Cellar Wines in LCBO Vintages Release August 18
By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print and will show you LCBO stock availability. Spain – Montsant – Celler Besllum Besllum 2008 (283515) – $15.95 My #1 “must try” wine of this 8/18 release. RP gave it 93 and its GPCi is “crazy” (1.45!) – can be cellared until 2023. I was looking for the meaning of the word Besllum and found two interesting definitions: 1 – Besllum is a Catalan word with no literal translation meaning ‘imperfect, uncertain understanding of something’ 2 – Besllum means “a […]
Spanish Wines Scoring 97 Points at Incredible Prices
By: Travis Oke Week one of my own version of Euro 2012. This one involves my family and I eating our way through Spain and France. We are in Malaga, an historic city on the Costa del Sol in Spain. What is silly about this country is the price of wine. At the local grocery store – Mercadona – my brother found a Comportillo Rioja Gran Reserva 2005 for 8 Euro. This vintage year is rated a 97 by a certain Robert Parker Jr – but the vintage has still not reached its maturity date. That didn’t really concern me. […]
Patrizi Barolo, Benmarco Cabernet Sauvignon, McManis Family Vineyards Viognier: Best Cellar Wines in LCBO Vintages Release August 4
By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print. Italy – Piedmont – 2008 Patrizi Barolo (653527) – $23.95 Barolo for $24? My #1 choice for this Aug 4th release. The Manfredi Family has a long history with wine. In the Second World War, they delivered wine by wagon. 2008 was an outstanding vintage in Piedmont – RP rated it 93 indicating that the wines are age worthy. Argentina – Mendoza – 2004 Cicchitti Gran Reserva Malbec (155713) – $21.95 My #2 choice of this release. Yuval, this wine […]
A Rose of a Wine from Navan, Ontario
By: Holly Bruns Navan, Ontario is a small village in the Ottawa Valley. It’s an area of the world where the wind blows and temperatures drop to well below freezing in winter, but heat and humidity can bolster the thermometer to the mid-30s in summer. This is farming country and it’s an everyday agrarian landscape that greets the eye: rather flat with a few gently rolling hills, a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, a patchwork of fields. But something is happening in those fields. It’s a slow event, and only discernible to those who are paying attention, but grapevines […]
Bring Your Own Wine to BC Restaurants
By Mari Kane Friday night marked a turning point in our seven-year-long Vancouver dining experience – we brought our own bottle of wine into a restaurant. One day after the new Bring Your Own Wine (BYOW) law went into effect in BC, my husband and I proudly marched into a restaurant bearing a bottle I had purchased in a VQA store not 3 hours before. We set it on the table and the maitre d’ approached our table, saying “I talked to you on the phone. This is our first BYOW.” I told him it was our first BYOW as […]
Summers Cabernet Sauvignon, Fantino Barolo, Buller Victoria Tawny: Best Cellar Wines in LCBO Vintages Release July 21
By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print. Wines for up to $20: France – Midi – Le Cirque Carignan/Mourvedre/Syrah 2010 – $14.95 With such review by RP (90) and for such a beautiful blend and for only $15, that’s one of the wines at the top of the buying list from this release. This is a great example that demonstrates that treasures can be found in the Vin-de-Pays “entry level” classification. France – Loire – Domaine Des Ouches Igoranda Cabernet Franc Bourgueil 2009 – $15.95 Cab Franc […]
