Less than 24 hours after launching our new iPhone wine app, Apple has selected it to be one of the Best New Apps on the iTunes Storefront. Our team is mighty proud to be there with apps from the New York Times and CBC FIFA World Cup. (Wine pairs nicely with both.) However, it took 9 months of labour to welcome this new member to our family. We could have delivered this baby earlier, but we decided to hold off in order to create the list of new features below that’ll help you find a great wine in just a […]
10 Best Amarone Wines to Buy Now + 5 Surprising Facts about Amarone
Amarone della Valpolicella, which roughly translates to “strongly bitter,” describes this robust, rich red wine made in Valpolicella, in the northeast region of Italy called Veneto. You’ll find my top 10 Amarone reviews and ratings here. 5 Surprising Facts about Amarone: 1. The best and ripest of the dark-skinned grapes that are blended to create Amarone include Corvina, Molinara and Rondinella. These are carefully selected during harvest and gently stored for several months after harvest in cool, well-ventilated rooms on straw mats so that they dry, dehydrate and concentrate their sugars and flavors. 2. When they’re almost shriveled like raisins, they’re […]
Canada Day Wines Featured in the LCBO Vintages Release June 21
This is just a sampling of my reviews for June 21. You can access the 88 wines that I reviewed for June 21 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches and the stock for each bottle in their closest LCBO stores. You can also see my wine reviews for June 7. You can add my wine picks to their custom shopping list with one click and access that list on their smartphone. This is one of the benefits of becoming a Paid Member. Inventory stock numbers are usually posted online a day or two […]
Surprising Canadian Wine Pairings for BBQ: Radio Chat Tips
This chat with CBC radio in Ontario was one of 26 interviews with the morning and drive-home shows on Friday about terrific (and surprising) pairings for Canadian wines with barbecued food. We also kicked off The Great Canadian Wine Match: BBQ Edition. Got a wine to nominate? Or maybe you’d like to see which wines others have nominated and vote for them. Check out the race so far here with lots of great ideas for July 1 barbecue wines. Read more about the wine competition here as well as prizes for those who nominate wines, including a $3,000 Weber Summit […]
The Great Canadian Wine Match: The BBQ Edition
In May 2013, we launched the first People’s Choice Wine Awards with The Great Candian Wine Match. Thousands of wine lovers from coast to coast (and around the planet) voted for their favourite Canadian wines online and via social media. This friendly (and increasingly social ;) competition brought wine drinkers and winemakers together to celebrate the best of what we produce in this country, and garnered considerable media recognition for both nominees and winners. We’re building on that success this year with The Great Canadian Wine Match: The BBQ Edition, pairing Canadian wines with your favourite grilled or barbecued foods, […]
Win a $3000 Weber Summit Gas Grill + Prizes in The Great Canadian Wine Match
Nominate your favourite Canadian wine in The Great Canadian Wine Match: BBQ Edition, and you could win the Grand Prize, The Weber® Summit® S-670™ gas grill, Weber’s top-of-the-line grill worth more than $3,000! You could also wine one of 25 Weber Cookbooks or one of 5 sets of grilling utensils. Nominate your favourite Canadian wines today! Grand Prize: Weber® Summit® S-670™ Gas Grill The Weber® Summit® S-670™ gas grill takes normal grilling up several notches with Weber’s innovative Sear Station™ technology. The Sear Station™ is a dedicated area in the middle of the grill which reaches temperatures of 800 to […]
Rhone Red Wines from France Featured in the LCBO Vintages May 24
Rhone wines from France are the focus of the LCBO Vintages Release on May 24. This is just a sampling of wine ratings, the most quoted Canadian source of reviews in the Vintages Magazine. You can access the 81 wines that I reviewed for May 24 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches and the stock for each bottle in their closest LCBO stores. You can also see my wine reviews for May 10. You can also add my wine picks to their custom shopping list with one click and access that list […]
Australian Shiraz, Cabernet, Chardonnay: LCBO Vintages June 7
Shiraz, Cabernet and Chardonnay from Australia hit the spotlight in the LCBO Vintages Release June 7. This is just a sampling of wine ratings, the most quoted Canadian source of reviews in the Vintages Magazine. You can access the 66 wines that I reviewed for June 7 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches and the stock for each bottle in their closest LCBO stores. You can also see my wine reviews for May 24. You can also add my wine picks to their custom shopping list with one click and access that list […]
20 Red Wines Under $20 > Nat’s Conscious Coupling of Quality and Price
I’m always making lists of wines for different occasions and different price points. Ever since my second book, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Search for the World’s Best Bargain Wines, was published, I’m frequently asked for the best wines priced less than $20. Here they are … I’ll be updating this list monthly. (My thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow for the inspirational title ;) Here’s your shopping list showing your closest liquor stores that have these wines in stock, and how many of each bottle. Cheers! Oscar’s Estate Vineyard Shiraz Viognier 2011 Barossa Valley, South Australia $17.95 This could be the ultimate hamburger […]
Wine Review of the Week: National Waiter’s Day Wine
Steve Cranny, a graduate of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS) program, has selected our Wine Review of the Week to celebrate National Waiter’s Day, May 21. A toast to all those hard-working heroes of the restaurant industry! #NationalWaitersDay Here’s Steve wine review and rating: Until I became involved in the Industry I had no idea how hard service professionals work to make other people happy. So in honour of National Waiter’s Day and all of those great service people I would like to recommend a wine that I have enjoyed across several vintages. The Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino […]
