CHATEAU YVONNE — SPIRITUALLY, CRIMINALLY GREAT
A wandering priest, a criminal, and a nun walk into a vineyard… In the Middle Ages, around the time and place that Graham Chapman’s King Arthur (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) was galloping the countryside with coconuts, receiving visceral taunts from a thick-accented Frenchman, and being attacked by a carnivorous rabbit, monks were […]
TWO OF BURGUNDY’S BEST HAVE JOINED WISDOM
What if Toni Morrison and Harper Lee wrote a book together? Or Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali opened a boxing school? There are few names you can mention in any field that everyone with even a little exposure will recognize. Yet at Chateau des Quarts, two of Burgundy’s best have joined wisdom. In the […]
ISOLE E OLENA — PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
We all have it. But what do we learn from it? The first time I met Paolo de Marchi, owner of Isole e Olena in Tuscany, I was an insignificant young wine seller working the floor in a shop in south Calgary. I’d recently tasted his Chianti Classico and had been astounded by its elegance […]
WHEN GREAT WINE IS POINTLESS
Recently, a more-than-credible wine competition recognized one of our wineries. Weingut Rabl was named best white wine winery and awarded best Grüner Veltliner at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London for 2019. Masters of Wine review for seven months of the year to determine their choices. But when we searched for Rabl reviews on the main review […]
RETHINKING CAHORS TERROIR AT TERRACAË
Did you notice the label? The words “Cahors” and “Malbec” have equal real estate and the same style. This sums up how Pascal Verhaeghe and Frédéric Brouca are rethinking Cahors terroir at Terracaë. Terracaë is the charming, honest, precocious vinous lovechild of two giants of the south: Pascal Verhaeghe of Chateau du Cèdre in Cahors and Frédéric Brouca of […]
THE ELEGANCE OF BARBS
Silly reasons to try new wine One of our favourite things about wine is that it’s your journey, so you can take whatever route you want. We like to have some fun finding unusual angles to approach it. Today, we’re looking at the elegance of Barbs. What does that even mean? Well, ever notice the […]
WINE AS PART OF OUR DAILY LIES
Do you lie about your products? Hey, booze industry peeps. A question: When you’re selling, how much is it OK to misrepresent your product? A little bit? Maybe a medium amount? Or a lot? And what would that look like? Can you say it earned an award it didn’t or name a grape or hops […]
THE 2019 VINTAGE ON THE BRACKETS OF IBERIA
The grapes are in and converted and the wines are now resting in their vessels over the winter. Spring is coming. Cellar temperatures will start to uptick and dormant fermentations may begin again, at least in the traditional places. Our wineries Mas Martinet and Niepoort sent us their takes on the 2019 vintage on the brackets of Iberia in […]
TIBERIO FROM ABRUZZO IS MAKING YOUR NEXT GO-TO WINE
Abruzzo-cadabra—pulling great out of seemingly nowhere When was the last time you sought out a wine from Abruzzo, never mind kept some at-the-ready? The truth is, it’s never been a default drinking option beyond satisfying a curiosity or including it in an educational tasting. The closest it’s come to staplehood are some fairly mass bottlings […]
WORDS LIKE NO OTHER FOR CHÂTEAU DE SAINT COSME WINERY
With her, and Saint Cosme, having dinner, in Toronto She sat across the table, her usually carrot-red hair more copper in the candlelight. It’s not curly and big like a lot of hair that colour. Rather, it’s naturally pin-straight and falls well past her shoulders. That shimmer set off the tiny, bright, dancing squares of […]