The dining trends section inside the latest edition of enRoute Magazine includes a few favourite natural wine picks chosen by wine people across the country. Yours truly got a plug in there for Jean Foillard’s Morgon, and they miraculously spelled my name correctly (something that happens quite rarely when a printing press is involved). I’d [...]

Why is there a picture of Blackwood Lane’s ’04 Alliance Bordeaux blend? You’ll have to read on to see If you’ve checked out C&C lately, you may have seen little other than cyber-tumbleweed, a phenomenon that has occurred from time to time over the past 3+ years since Kurtis and I have started our modest [...]

After a good night of sleep that followed 29 hours of travel time, I find myself writing this post at the beginning of summer on a sunny 27° day, mere minutes from the Indian Ocean in Perth, Western Australia. (Incidentally, the Moselland 2010 Kabinett Riesling, loaded with apple, lime and a hint of petrol, paired with [...]

A few months back, I started taking a program offered by Wine Australia called the Sommelier Immersion Program. Prior to it, I had been critical and cynical about the vast majority of Australian wine for a while and attempted to distance myself whenever possible. Thinking back, my sentiment was largely influenced from the timing of [...]

Totally love this chart from last week’s fantastic New York Times Magazine Food & Drink Issue, a compilation by Alice Feiring of global wine experts’ (cheap) wine recommendations to go with a wide array of meals. Big props to our pal Linda, the only one who brought sparkling to the party!

Mark Oldman from the NY Times I love this story from wine writer Mark Oldman in the NY Times: Bordeaux? Sediment? Tell It to the Judge. Mark was leaving an engagement party in Manhattan with an empty bottle of 1970 Palmer for a souvenir when passing police stopped him. Spotting the sediment in the bottom [...]

I can’t even remember where I’d actually seen it, but it clicking through a few wine websites earlier, I’d seen mention of ‘Sultana Wine’, wine that’s made from the table grapes (Sultanas) commonly used for raisins. I’d never heard of wine officially being made from them (they’re also known as Thompson Seedless), but its a [...]

He should really be doing that off the front of a yacht. I just found this fun article with memorable service experiences anonymously shared by Manhattan sommeliers. Who doesn’t want to hear about that time a 6-litre bottle of Moet exploded when you tried to saber it at a wedding reception and glass shards cut [...]

Recycled Rippon bottle shot… While I give New Zealand’s Pinot Noirs much more sense-of-place credit than Eric Asimov seems to, I like the message of his NY Times article this week: In Wine, Friendliness Isn’t Always Enough. I appreciate his quest to drink wines with a sense of place. This is something I’m seeking, and [...]

I know, I know — the Downfall meme jumped the shark long ago, but for relevance in the wine world, if this isn’t an “It’s funny ’cause it’s true!” kinda parody, then I don’t know what is…

The Sept. 2011 edition. Nope, that’s no magnum on the right. How good could a $125 Cab Franc from BC be? The short answer is very very good. There were 25 cases made (that’s 300 bottles) with yields of 1.2 tons per acre. This is a very full and New World approach to Cab Franc [...]

Image from saignée. I have met Joe a couple times and knew his son Jules from being in San Francisco. Joe is responsible for bringing some of the coolest wines into the US. The kind of wine that I like to drink and, I suspect, many of you reading this blog like to drink (check [...]

I haven’t even tried it yet, but I totally adore the package on Rob Van Westen‘s new “Vice”, a Viognier icewine. Rob’s ‘regular’ Viognier wine is consistently one of my favourite drops across the entire Okanagan, so I’m quite intrigued as to how this style, his first dessert wine, plays out. Sharp lookin’ bottle, uh?

Two things I noted from Joe Bastianich’s NBC Today Show segment on Autumn wine picks: Matt Lauer is a Sancerre fan, and it would be kinda fair to describe rosé wines as ‘bisexual’…

A little behind-the-scenes peek at how the recently-presented Decanter World Wine Awards are judged…

Gorgeously stinky red from Emilia-Romagna enjoyed at Osteria Morini. I’ve just returned from a gluttonous week in New York which was inspiring and mentally refreshing. Yet, my first day back to work, digging through the cellar and poring over the numbers, had me feeling more than a little deflated and depressed. I love what I [...]

Tissot – great wines for consuming moderately. The US Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study highlighting four low-risk lifestyle behaviors that essentially reduce your likelihood of dying. Among three of the obvious – having never smoked, eating a healthy diet and regular physical activity – was moderate alcohol consumption. By moderate [...]

The latest Wired magazine does a brief and tidy piece on what’s in your wine. Like what’s REALLY in your wine – the natural chemical make-up and what each component contributes to the final product. From resveratrol to catechin and caffeic acid, it’s all laid out right here…

As we head into the home-stretch of what’s been a pretty crap vintage in the Okanagan this summer, comes a hefty one-two punch of news that’s had many people, both within and outside of our industry, reacting with everything from dismissive eye-rolling and encouraging words to a good smattering of schadenfreude, particularly from those who [...]

From Anthony Gismondi today, some pretty harsh news on behalf of Johannes Selbach, sharing that an intense hailstorm wiped out around 40% of his vintage on Germany’s renowned Mosel Valley. The video above gives a good idea of the storm’s fury, you can read Gismondi’s news right here… (Jake attended a pretty rad Selbach-Oster tasting about [...]

Image from the NY Times Adding a new twist on the process of making traditional-method sparkling wine, Ligurian producer Piero Lugano (of Bisson), has taken to aging his wine off the coast of Italy, 200 feet under the sea. Born out of necessity, the idea came to Piero after struggling to find storage space for [...]

Puttin’ on this sweet little event Labour Day weekend and thought you’d like to know!

A few years back after I’d been discussing how Elephant Island Orchard Winery‘s Del Halladay was a professional lacrosse player in a past life, I can’t remember who it was that said to me how awesome it would be if someone made a documentary about the different careers people left to become winemakers. If I [...]

I have yet to find an iPhone wine app that I would consider great. Most often it’s an issue of them not having enough listings in their databases (“Sorry, your search did not return any results”) or a lack of interesting content besides label info and where bottles can be purchased. However, every few weeks [...]