A few days back, the folks at Winecouver put together a post about struggles that retailer Firefly Fine Wine and Ales has had with the government’s hate for their high tech Enomatic machine. Among other points, the liquor board states that the wine must be served in plastic cups (our government is anti-environment and anti-the [...]

Despite being about olive oil, this does have a strong wine connection… wait for it…
The southern Spanish olive oil producer La Amarilla de Ronda has enlisted the help of two very famous outsiders. One is French industrial designer Phillippe Starck, who has designed everything from juicers and stools to hotels and is responsible for the [...]

Marcel Lapierre’s life-changing Morgon
Because I noticed I hadn’t talked about Beaujolais in far too long…
I’ve been hearing plenty of hype for the 2009 Beaujolais vintage and this makes me very happy. Jancis Robinson recently raved about it, while mentioning that the prices will see hardly any rise. I still haven’t tasted any of the ’09s [...]

And, you thought it was over…
Jancis Robinson’s post yesterday “Canadian ripples - the response” includes letters from people with pretty extreme (and conflicting) views of the current Cellared in Canada situation. It makes it difficult to group together what is happening on opposite sides of the country as one issue - in Ontario a bottle [...]

I’m all charged up on coffee (some of you will understand how serious of a matter this is) and once again have been stewing over the ridiculous laws British Columbian wine lovers are burdened with.
Why is it illegal for restaurants in BC to buy wine from private shops? Who does this restriction benefit? The Government [...]

Image borrowed from the VancouverSun.com
I’m sure by now many of you have heard about the lost ground the provincial liquor monopoly intends to make up through raising the wine markups from 117% to 123% (because the new Harmonized Sales Tax would have actually saved BC wine lovers 3%, god forbid). At what point will the [...]

While flipping through the 2nd Edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine, I found this picture accompanied by the caption:
Each year Robert Parker visits a class of six-year-olds in a private school in Bordeaux to give them a talk about France’s Vineyards
What the hell? I hope he doesn’t still do that, because that’s kind of [...]

Image credit.
I’ve intended to bring this topic up with the next local BC winemaker I run into, but a recent article in the SF Gate has again sparked my interest. In San Francisco, a trend towards serving kegged wine from a tap, as you would beer, is gaining steam with many sommeliers. Carl Sutton is [...]

In case you missed it, my pal Kurtis took home some much deserved hardware from the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival yesterday.
Get the details on Scout Magazine, plus his interview in a little newspaper called the Globe and Mail.
Congratulations my friend!!
Power ballads below…

I’m not too sure who Giles Cadman is or whether we should trust him, but he is offering to give away a bottle of 1969 Lafite-Rothschild on his blog. Bad vintage or not, all you have to do is follow him on twitter, guess the 2009 release price of Lafite and leave your twitter name. [...]

Check out yesterday’s post from BC’s wine authority, John Schreiner, on expecting more Vancouver Island wines to pour into Vancouver’s market. Averill Creek produces one of my top BC Pinot Noirs from the Cowichan Valley and I’m looking forward to trying more of their wines and the new vintages when I get back. Yes, it [...]