Leanne and I chat about the winners of The Great Canadian Wine Match, including how thousands of Canadians engaged in the intensely competitive voting for the best Canadian wines, representing almost every winery across the country. Find out why a robust red from Nova Scotia pairs well with beef, how Prince Edward County showed strongly in all categories and how several Canadian flagship wines can be enjoyed all the more with a simple dish, slice of pizza or cheese. Here’s a shopping list of the finalists to taste your way across Canada. Indeed the people have spoken, and who are […]
Ontario Wine
Norm Hardie Wine + Pizza Pairings
After winning the Best Canadian Wine with Pizza for his County Pinot Noir in The Great Canadian Wine Match, Norm Hardie has shared with us his favourite wine and pizza pairings based on the pizzas made daily at his winery in an outdoor wood-burning oven from May to late fall. Like his wines, Norm says, there is no exact recipe for the pizzas, which vary based on seasonal ingredients as well as the daily heat and humidity. Here are Norm’s favourite pizzas with his County Pinot Noir: Margherita: tomato, fior di latte, basil Cochon: tomato, fior di latte, basil, salami […]
1000 Islands Wine & Food Festival
What better way to enjoy a weekend than with a visit to a beautiful waterfront community, a fiesta with some friendly faces, and a good glass of your favourite wine? And that’s just what The Volunteer Centre of St. Lawrence-Rideau is offering the weekend on June 14th and 15th in picturesque Brockville, Ontario at the fourth annual 1000 Islands Wine and Food Festival. This delicious event is taking place at the Brockville Memorial Centre, and is working in partnership with Brockville’s Tall Ships Festival and 1000 Islands Jazz Festival, making this one weekend event you do not want to miss! […]
Ontario Wines Fight for First in Pairing Competition
In our second chat, Leanne and I discuss the economic value that domestic wines have in our economy, the dramatic rise of BC wines and how well Canadian wines pair with a variety of dishes, the focus of The Great Canadian Wine Match. There’s still time to nominate and/or vote for your favourite Canadian wines. It just takes a few clicks and every wine is celebrated on the nomination wall. Leanne also announces the launch of the wine of the week feature that I’ll be doing for CTV News starting on June 1. These will include both Canadian and international […]
Ontario Wine 2012 Vintage is Great: CBC News
Last year’s drought was good for grapes, winemakers say Grape Growers of Ontario say 2012 crop was biggest and best in more than 60 years Raymond Huneault says 2012 was the best year for producing wine he’s ever had. Last summer’s drought, while bad for most of the province’s agriculture sector, turned out to be a great thing for grapes. “2012 is the best wines we’ve ever produced,” said Raymond Huneault, a winemaker in Aylmer, Que. “For us it was perfect, it was good for us to have very dry weather because the vines, they love to grow grapes in […]
Canadian Wine & Cheese Pairing: Go Local for Taste
The Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz (above), was among hundreds who gathered near Parliament Hill in Ottawa last night to celebrate Canadian cheese and wine with the terrific pairings below. It was a privilege to meet the farmers and producers across this country who create these artisanal cheeses. It proved to me, once again, just how well our own food and drink pairs together, and the incredible range of styles and flavours we create. Le Mont-Jacob Fromagerie Blackburn Jonquière, Québec The Blackburn Farm has been in the family for over 80 years. In 2006, 4 generations later, the […]
How to Buy a Gift Wine (Screwcaps are Fine): CBC Fresh Air
In this chat below with CBC Fresh Air host Mary Ito, we discuss how to choose a great wine as a gift for someone depending on their taste and style preferences, or when you don’t know those details. (Hint: Try wrapping a story around the bottle.)Wine is the ultimate gift: doubles are okay, one size fits all and re-gifting is easy! We also chat about screwcaps, whether you can get a good wine under $20, underrated wines, wine and food pairing, low-alcohol wines, the differences between Ontario’s regions and some of my favourite Ontario wines, including those below. Listen by […]
Konzelmann Estate Winery: German pedigree, Niagara flourish
By Susan Desjardins The Konzelmann family delivers consistently good and good-value award-winning wine—10 medals at this year’s Ottawa Wine Challenge and 5 at the Canadian Wine Awards. It’s hardly surprising considering the focus and dedication of 75-year-old Herbert Konzelmann, and his extensive winemaking pedigree. His great grandfather, Friederich, a successful restauranteur and wine connoisseur, created the Konzelmann Estate Winery in Germany in 1893. Friederich was soon producing over 200,000 litres of wine, and the successful business was passed from one generation to the next. Herbert joined the family business in 1958 and continued its growth, almost doubling production. But as […]
Ontario Produces Such Great Wines – Maclean’s Magazine
This story about Ontario wines by Jessica Allen in Maclean’s Magazine deserves to be shared widely: she makes some excellent points about Ontario wines … By I spent American Thanksgiving with friends in Washington D.C. They’re enthusiastic wine drinkers and the last time they visited this side of the border they couldn’t contain their excitement over a variety of Niagara wines they’d enjoyed. So, I brought along a couple to share. They did not disappoint. But I did: when they asked me how it’s possible that cold Ontario could produce such standouts, I babbled on about Southern Ontario being on […]
Coyote’s Run Winery: Two Soils, Two Styles, Many Fans
By Susan Desjardins Coyote is the trickster in much native American mythology, known for inventiveness and creating mischief. This adaptable creature can still be seen through the vineyards of Coyote’s Run Estate Winery, and is a fine namesake for co-owner Jeff Aubry, who has reinvented himself from a soldier to high-tech engineer and now to winery owner, and admits, “Sometimes I’m serious, sometimes I’m a goof!” A tour of Europe with a group of university buddies introduced Jeff to fine wines and activated the dream of someday opening his own winery. Fast forward . . . the intervention of a […]
