Jim Cuddy, lead singer and guitarist of the band Blue Rodeo, didn’t grow up in a wine-drinking family. In fact, his first alcoholic drink of choice was beer. “When you start playing in bars, you get paid in beer,” Cuddy explains. “At first, I was excited: free beer! But after five years, I couldn’t take any more beer. That’s when I got into wine.” And into it he is. Cuddy has partnered with Niagara’s Tawse Winery to create a new wine brand, Cuddy by Tawse. “Moray and Joanne Tawse are friends of mine,” Cuddy says. “I had played at their winery […]
Food and Wine Mobile App Leads the Charge in the LCBO
Foodie apps for iPhones and Androids are all the rage of late (PC Magazine recently did a roundup of their favourites), and leading the charge is sommelier and “unapologetically tipsy” wine lass Natalie MacLean. She recently launched a mobile wine app, offering roadside assistance for LCBO-goers moored hopelessly between the Argentina and Vintages racks. The app allows users to pair food and drink from anywhere using a smartphone, then share the results via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, text or e-mail. The app is available on the iTunes App or Google’s Marketplace for Android Apps, and provides access to the 200,000 wine reviews she’s […]
Wine Mobile App Features 400,000 Wine and Food Pairings
Reuters: Don’t know which wine to have with a pepperoni pizza? There’s an app for that — as well as websites and Twitter. The number of ways to discover the most suitable wine for a particular dish can be as overwhelming as walking into a large wine shop. More than a dozen apps claiming to be the equivalent of a sommelier in your pocket are available for iPhones and iPods. And there are others for the Android and other mobile devices. But among the most popular is writer Natalie MacLean’s Wine Reviews and Label Scanner App. If you want to find […]
A Wine App We Love: Condo Living Magazine
Having friends over for a dinner party, BBQ or for drinks on the patio can sometimes be more stressful than it should be. It can take a lot of careful thought and planning to find the perfect combination of food and drinks to serve that all your friends and family will like. With that in mind, we found some great apps that will help you plan the perfect meal. Natalie MacLean’s Wine Reviews & Label Scanner The app uses the GPS technology on your phone to connect with real-time inventory numbers at your local LCBO store. It also gives you the […]
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 […]
A Tale of Two Niagara Wineries: Ravine Wines Have Deep Roots
By Trish Kroeger As a relatively new lifestyle and travel photographer, the opportunities I’m about to embark on while visiting far away destinations and delightful wineries will undoubtedly be the envy of many wine connoisseurs. Luckily for me as a proud Canadian, I will never have to venture too far away from home to experience the thrill of visiting world class wineries and meeting passionate and inspirational people along the way. So it made perfect sense to me, with the imminent end of summer fast approaching, that I grab my camera and head off to the most picturesque place I […]
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 […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings August 20
You can access the 115 wines that I reviewed for August 20 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for July 23. If you are a Paid Member, you can add my wine picks to your custom shopping list with one click and access that list on your smartphone to find the stock for each wine in your closest LCBO store. These are just some of the benefits of supporting out wine community as a Paid Member. Inventory stock numbers are usually posted online a day […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings September 3
You can access the 128 wines that I reviewed for September 3 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for August 20. If you are a Paid Member, you can add my wine picks to your custom shopping list with one click and access that list on your smartphone to find the stock for each wine in your closest LCBO store. These are just some of the benefits of supporting out wine community as a Paid Member. Inventory stock numbers are usually posted online a day […]
How to Send Back a Bottle of Wine in a Restaurant (without crying)
I’d tell you where this happened, but I don’t want to blacken the reputation of an entire nation. I was travelling abroad on a magazine assignment and dining in the four-star restaurant of my hotel. I decided to treat myself to a special wine that I had first tasted just three weeks earlier … the memory of its smoky cassis aromas still lingered. So what if it cost $150 for a half bottle? So I summoned the sommelier. Unlike his confrères—the maître d’, the head waiter and a junior waiter who had brought me bread and water with civility—this functionary was a […]
