Jan. 4 LCBO Wine Picks: Smart Buys

This is the first LCBO Vintages release of 2014 and, as always, is the annual "Smart Buys" release. New wines will be on shelves across Ontario on Saturday, January 4. There are 27 wines featured in the "Smart Buys" section and 8 made my list. For some (strange?) reason, it's extremely rare that a "Wine of the Month" makes my list of wine picks, but this time it did. Perhaps...

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Remhoogte Estate Wine 2006 (South Africa) - Wine Review

I thought it would be appropriate to finally open this wine last night as a tribute to Nelson Mandela, on the day of his memorial. Ironically, this winery began its new life when current owners Murray and Juliet Boustred purchased the land in 1994, the year that apartheid ended in South Africa. This red wine was purchased earlier this year from the February 2nd LCBO Vintages...

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Aimery Grand Cuvée 1531 Crémant De Limoux (Southwest) - Wine Review

This is the second wine sample from the fine folks at Philippe Dandurand, and just in time for the peak season of sparkling wines. It is not widely known that in 1531 the Limoux region was the first to create sparkling wine - a full one century prior to Dom Perignon - using what is now known as the "Traditional Method". The Grande Cuvée 1531 is a tribute to that first wine...

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Dec. 7 Wine Picks: Festive Gatherings + Sparkling Wines

The final release of 2013 will arrive on LCBO shelves on Saturday, December 7th. No surprise that this Vintages release focuses on "Fine Wines for Festive Gatherings", while the sub-focus highlights 20 Sparkling Wines for celebrations. We'll begin with the Sparkling Wine section as three wines from this feature made my list of wine picks below. All three were picked with...

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