Introduction How does blending grapes impact the flavour profile of wine? What can blends give you that a single varietal can’t? What can you learn about wine from reading the Drops of God manga series? Why should you engage your creative side when it comes to wine? Why do you need to dive deeper into wine scores before buying? In today’s episode, I’m chatting with you about the power and problems with wine scores, whether single vineyard or blends are better and the viral sensation of the Manga wine series called Drops of God. Enjoy! Highlights What can you […]
Wine and Art
National Wine Day Prompts These Thoughts
Introduction May 25 is National Wine Day and in honour of that, I think it’s worth exploring how wine, as a beverage, has influenced our culture. Wine has been an integral part of human history from ancient civilizations right through to the modern day. It has become deeply associated with culture, power and prestige in a way that no other beverage has. Most of what I’m going to share with you today is based on a magazine piece about wine and civility that I wrote two months after 9/11. However, the search for civility in everyday life has more resonance […]
Kim Crawford Wine Tasting: Blending with an Eye Dropper
By Mymi Myriam The room at Frank at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) was flooded with light entering from large panel windows on a late weekday afternoon as I sipped on a glass of the Kim Crawford Fizz Methode Traditionnelle 2009. I took my place at the table and was quite puzzled at finding an eye-dropper amongst my tasting glasses. What kind of experiment would we be conducting? Our host for the event was Anthony Walkenhorst, Kim Crawford’s senior winemaker, who led us through the most memorable wine tasting I have ever attended. In front of each attendee were […]
Pairing Wine + Art: Sommelier Courtney Henderson
Courtney Henderson, sommelier at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Frank Restaurant in Toronto, shares tips on pairing wine with art, finding the gems on a restaurant wine list and the artist with whom she’d love to share a great bottle. What makes your wine list unique? We have thirty red wines, thirty white and six sparkling, with six by the glass for red and white and three for the sparkling. More than 85 percent of them are Canadian. We feature Vintner Quality Alliance (VQA) wines that includes lots of local gems such as Niagara’s 13th Street Pinot Gris, Nyarai Sauvignon […]