There’s a sea change happening in Italian wine: more and more producers are returning to the 500+ native grape varieties found in Italy alone. No other country can claim such a sheer diversity of grapes. Consider that 90 percent of French wine comes from only 15 grape varieties and 90 percent of Californian wine is... Continue Reading →
Alberta wine goes international
Spirit Hills just put Alberta’s cottage wine industry on the world stage. Or on the Japanese stage, at least. The southern Alberta honey winery just became the province’s first cottage winery to export its products internationally. In a press release yesterday, Spirit Hills stated that its wines will be available in high-end department stores, five-star... Continue Reading →
If I have to write another rosé wine article I’m going to scream
I’ve written about a dozen articles on rosé wine. For years it was one of the most dependable signs of spring. Forget robins or daffodils: when I found myself sitting down to write yet another story about pink wine, I knew summer was just around the corner. And if I had to do it one... Continue Reading →
How to taste wine and influence people
People ask me fairly regularly how I learned about wine and how they might go about learning more themselves. Proper tasting method is often at the top of their list of wine skills to master, and I agree that following a standard tasting protocol is a good way to start amping up your personal wine... Continue Reading →
You look like a Tempranillo to me
I’m sure I’m not the only writer who looks back on their past work and shudders. Fortunately for me, everything I wrote as a fledgling writer has disappeared from the internet (along with everything else that was published by SEE Magazine). I still have copies of everything, in both PDF and actual paper – I... Continue Reading →
Alberta Cottage Wine & Mead Directory
The following is a listing of Alberta’s current cottage wineries. Alberta introduced the cottage winery licence (Class E) in 2005 as a value-add proposition to diversify existing agricultural operations, such as U-pick fruit farms (which often barely break even). Initially there were minimum production requirements attached to the Class E licence, which were removed in... Continue Reading →
Book review: Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th edition
If there’s one book I recommend all wine enthusiasts possess—no matter their level of knowledge or interest in wine—it’s the Oxford Companion to Wine (OCW). Yes, it’s an encyclopedia: bloody heavy and astonishingly comprehensive. It’s also fun to read, despite what you might expect from such a weighty tome. The entries are frequently entertaining reads... Continue Reading →
Vancouver Island wine & spirits
The thing about being an editor for an alt weekly paper while maintaining a full-time day job is that it's really difficult - okay, almost impossible - to get enough ahead on your writing that you can break free of the weekly article grind and also publish stuff on a blog that pays you in... Continue Reading →
Is Edmonton’s Wine Industry Lazy & Entitled? (Northern Lands Fest)
I knew it would piss off a lot of people. My most recent cover story in Vue was about the Northern Lands Canadian Wine Festival, which is a super exciting event happening this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. (I'll definitely be posting some coverage of the event afterwards, both in Vue and... Continue Reading →
The Definitive Ranking of Wine Gadgets
Wine aerators are the worst. No other wine gadget has been able to pique my involuntary hate reflex as much as these things. (And yes, I do seem to be on a bit of a pessimistic jag lately; blame the doldrums of late Canadian winter.) I wrote about wine aerators in a Vue column just... Continue Reading →