May 11 LCBO Wine Picks: Australia + Rosé

The next batch of wines from LCBO Vintages release will be on shelves on Saturday, May 11, 2013. The major focus of this release is on the "great, powerful and diverse" wines from Australia. However, in my opinion, the majority of these wines are rather uninspiring. So, we'll focus on the secondary feature - Rosé wines that are food-friendly. Rosé wines are generally blends...

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Apr. 27 Wine Picks: Appassimento + Organic Wines

The next Vintages release will be on LCBO shelves on Saturday, April 27. The main feature in this release is on Italian wines that use the appassimento method to make wines, while the secondary feature is on organic wines. Appassimento-method wines involve drying the grapes prior to pressing and fermenting. There are various ways to dry grapes, such as laying on racks or...

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Napa Valley Wine Tasting

The California Wine Institute has been heavily promoting their wines all over Canada throughout March, and will continue to the beginning of May. Included among this promotion were the major features on California wine in the March 2nd and 16th Vintages releases, and the rather large promotion in the General List wine section at the LCBO titled "California Style". The recent...

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Diamond Estates + 7 Deadly Zins Wine Tasting

Earlier this week I hosted a small wine tasting. Invited were a few of our neighbours to taste some media samples of local Ontario wines from Diamond Estates Winery, and a red Lodi Zinfandel from Michael David Winery out in California. Paired with these wines were some blueberries, watermelon, the L'Extra Brie, and the Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar. This cheddar from PEI has...

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Apr. 13 LCBO Wine Picks: New Zealand + Portugal

The next Vintages release focuses on wines from 4 "premium" producers in New Zealand, while the secondary feature is on wines from Portugal. In Local Talent, Prince Edward County is featured - probably to coincide with the upcoming PEC in the City tasting - with 4 premium wines. From New Zealand, a trio of Sauvignon Blancs from two producers are worth checking out. Both...

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Dinner & Wine at ORO Restaurant

We recently dined out at ORO Restaurant in downtown Toronto to celebrate a birthday. The service was impeccable right from the get-go and continued to the end of the evening, when we were the last patrons to leave before they closed up. The wine list is quite extensive and focused on wines from Italy. They also had a couple of private label "ORO" wines that are produced...

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Southbrook Triomphe Organic Cabernet Franc Rosé 2011 (Niagara) - Wine Review

I'm not much of a Rosé-in-winter kind of guy, so when I purchased this Rosé wine last December, it was with the idea of opening it when warmer climes eventually arrived. Today's temperature of 10°C is a very good day to open this delightful organic wine. Grapes for this wine were sourced from Southbrook's own organically certified vineyards. SOUTHBROOK TRIOMPHE ORGANIC...

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