15 Sommeliers + Bloggers, 60 Wines, 700 Wine Reviews Live Posting + Tweeting Today

Heather Wall, wine columnist for the Huffington Post and a frequent contributor to our review site, talks about our tasting yesterday with 15 sommeliers, wine writers and bloggers working their way through more than 60 wines. More than 700 wine reviews will be posted online and shared on social media, including Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for our next tasting! Martha Kelly is the regular wine expert on the Rogers Daytime Television Show in Ottawa, as well as a regular writer for our site. She is the owner of Capital Wine School, teaching the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) […]

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Thanksgiving Wines: Live Video Chat

  In this Facebook Live Video chat, we discuss terrific wines for Thanksgiving.   You can click on the arrow above to play the video.   If you’d like to read the comments, or make a comment yourself, visit:    https://www.facebook.com/natdecants/videos/10154411500734845   You’ll find the most recent live video wine tasting at the top of the timeline here:   www.facebook.com/natdecants   We taste every Sunday evening at 6 pm eastern so add us to your calendar and grab a glass of wine.    Click on Follow, Like and Signup on the page above to get notified when we go live.

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Pairing Wine with 7 Turkey Dishes from Bacon to Turducken

Yesterday, Leanne and I chatted about great wine with Thanksgiving turkey on CTV. We started with “basic” roast turkey, but went way beyond with citrus and Cajun turkey, and even that oddity turducken. Click on the arrow above to play the video. You can also watch our second chat about pairing wine with turkey left-overs from turkey tetrazzini to (oh yes) turkey pizza!     Roast Turkey               Santa Margherita Brut Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Veneto D.O.C.G., Italy                   Wits End Luna Shiraz Mclaren Vale, South Australia, […]

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How to Import Wine into Canada for Pleasure and Profit

Importing Wine, Beer & Spirits for Pleasure & Profit Seminar Saturday November  5th, 2016 Novotel Toronto Centre 45 The Esplanade – Toronto 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM Join Charles Steven Trenholme for the day-long seminar Importing for Wine, Beer & Spirits For Pleasure & Profit, which provides insights into the dynamics of importing wine, craft beers & spirits into Canada. Charles Steven brings to the seminar 35+ years of experience working in various capacities including managing national sales agency, brand management, sommelier and as educators. Charles Steven knows first-hand that there are still hundreds of suppliers around the world actively […]

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Chilean Cool Climate Wines at Casas del Bosque Have Historic Roots

Canada’s top wine writers and sommeliers gathered in our nation’s capital recently for a tasting of Casas del Bosque Chilean wines with head winemaker, Grant Phelps. Grant’s presentation style is a perfect blend of wit and education.   Monique Sosa Wine Columnist, Ottawa Family Living Magazine Have you ever met someone when, after hearing them speak for like five minutes, you think, “What a smart dude, and funny too!” Imagine meeting a winemaker like that. It sure made a portfolio of wine tasting both refreshing and fun. Our group of Ottawa-based sommeliers and wine writers got a real treat meeting Casas del Bosque’s […]

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Kim Crawford Wines: Blending Passion and Place

In the video above, Kim Crawford Winemaker Anthony Walkenhorst explains how blending works at the winery as we try our own hand at it. Canada’s top wine writers and sommeliers met in our nation’s capital recently for a fascinating tasting, and blending exercise, with Kim Crawford wines.     Jennifer MacDonald Havers Wine Columnist, Ottawa Citizen         Upon entering a beautiful dining room at Courtyard restaurant, our group knew our tasting with Kim Crawford wines was going to be a unique experience. A huge table set with multiple glasses, all but one at each setting containing a sample of […]

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Tania’s Magical Matches: Wine Pairings for Thanksgiving Turkey

By Tania Thomas Thanksgiving is the time of the year when we remember what we are thankful for and a celebration that captures holiday spirit of home cooking like no other. Sharing this day with family and friend is what makes it even more special. The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving can be traced to two separate events in our history. The arrival of the explorer Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century, who came with the French settlers to New France and celebrated their successful harvests, even sharing food with the indigenous peoples of the area. The second is […]

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Top 100 Wine Blogs: New Ranking from Feedspot

Feedspot, which replaced Google’s RSS live feed for blog updates last year, has just published a new report on the Top 100 Wine Blogs. A friend nudged me about it on Twitter, as it’s not something you can enter. According to the editors of Feedspot: In the world of wine, these are the best of the best wine blogs who run their craft and work hardest to improve the entire wine industry. They are the most influential to both the trade and consumers. Their voices influence thousands of other wine personalities and tens of thousands of wine professionals. These wine blogs […]

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Wine Talk on Bell Media’s New TV Show “The Drink”

By Alex Powell & Priya Rao, A Vine Romance It’s finally here–August 2nd brings the launch of our new show for Bell Media called, The Drink. In it we explore the best that Toronto has to offer in terms of beer, sake, scotch, cocktails and of course, wine! In fact, one of our 4 episodes in dedicated to this glorious beverage from Mother Nature! The episode is called, quite appropriately, “Calling All Wine-o’s!” In it we visit a super high-tech private wine storage facility, we trace the roots of a bottle of wine in a vineyard-to-restaurant segment, Alex breaks down how to taste […]

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Is Zinfandel the World’s Most Misunderstood Wine?

ZINZEN, ZINZEST, ZINFUL: The licence plates in the parking lot warn me that this is no tweedy wine tasting. Closer to the wharves, a line of three thousand people, thick as an anaconda, snakes its way along San Francisco’s waterfront. Behind them soars the Golden Gate Bridge; Alcatraz Island sits brooding in the distance; and the glinting bay is dotted with tiny tissue sails. But no one’s admiring the postcard view: all eyes are fixed on the warehouse’s paint-peeled doors, waiting for them to open on the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers tasting, the world’s largest single-varietal wine event according to […]

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