Festive Wines for Every Budget and Celebration

  ‘Tis the season for holiday gift giving. What if you’d like to give someone a bottle of wine? How do you know which one to choose? Here to help us with that is Natalie MacLean, who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes at  nataliemaclean.com   Welcome back, Natalie. So if choosing the right bottle is so tricky, why should we give wine or spirits as a gift at all?   When you give the gift of wine, doubles are fine unlike toaster ovens, there are no wrong sizes unlike that ugly sweater and regifting is so much easier […]

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Vines with Values: Wines That Taste Good and Do Good

  Welcome back everybody. As consumers this holiday season, our purchases can make an impact. And if wine is on your gift list, you can shop with intention since many wineries are prioritizing sustainability and community support.   Here to highlight wines that taste good and do good is Natalie MacLean who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes! Welcome back to the show!   Welcome, Natalie.   Great to be back with you! I think of these wines as drinking with a conscience — we get to feel virtuous and tipsy at the same time.     Natalie, the […]

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Holiday Spirits: How to Choose a Great Gift Bottle

    ‘Tis the season for holiday gift giving. What if you’d like to give someone a bottle of wine or spirits? How do you know which one to choose? Here to help us with that is Natalie MacLean, who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes at  nataliemaclean.com   Welcome back, Natalie. So if choosing the right bottle is so tricky, why should we give wine or spirits as a gift at all?     When you give the gift of wine or spirits, doubles are fine unlike toaster ovens, there are no wrong sizes unlike that ugly sweater […]

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Toast to the Season: Choosing Wines for Every Celebration

    ‘Tis the season for holiday gift giving. What if you’d like to give someone a bottle of wine? How do you know which one to choose? Here to help us with that is Natalie MacLean, who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes at nataliemaclean.com   Welcome back, Natalie. So if choosing the right bottle is so tricky, why should we give wine or spirits as a gift at all?   When you give the gift of wine, doubles are fine unlike toaster ovens, there are no wrong sizes unlike that ugly sweater and regifting is so much easier compared […]

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Raise a Glass! The Best Bottles to Gift This Holiday Season

  ‘Tis the season for holiday gift giving. What if you’d like to give someone a bottle of wine or spirits? How do you know which one to choose? Here to help us with that is Natalie MacLean, who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes at nataliemaclean.com   Welcome back, Natalie. So if choosing the right bottle is so tricky, why should we give wine or spirits as a gift at all?   When you give the gift of wine or spirits, doubles are fine unlike toaster ovens, there are no wrong sizes unlike that ugly sweater and regifting is so […]

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How Much do you Know About Champagne? Take the Pop Quiz

Got your champagne ready for New Year’s? Here are my Top 20 Champagnes to celebrate the New Year and which stores have them in stock now. Take the Pop Quiz below and you’ll have some trivia to drop this evening as you celebrate the New Year! Pop Quiz 1. Is all sparkling wine champagne? No. Only sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France may be called Champagne. It’s a trademarked word. 2. Before the modern era of product placement in movies, which Champagne was the favourite of James Bond? Bollinger or as Bond would call it, Bolly. That was also in […]

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6 Best Proseccos, Cavas and Sparkling Wines versus Champagne (Video)

      On The Social, we chat about terrific sparkling wines for the holidays. Most people think of champagne as the drink of choice for this season. But when the price of an entry-level bottle starts at $ 60, you might want to consider other bubblies, which offer great taste for a fraction of champagne’s price. Natalie, let’s start with what’s the difference between champagne and other sparkling wines?     Although champagne only comes from the Champagne region of France, almost every other region of the country and many other countries around the world produce sparkling wines, often […]

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How do You Pick a Great Gift Wine? 5 Tips for Festive Sips

Want to give someone a bottle of wine this year? On Global Television’s Morning Show, we chat about quick tips on how to choose a great gift wine this holiday.       Wine is a great gift because: –    one size fits all –    doubles are fine –    it’s easy to re-gift Also: – it’s easy to return for cash without a receipt – wine doesn’t have to be cared for and it should never be watered – it’s consumable so it doesn’t create clutter adding to more stuff in your home How to decide which wine to give? […]

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How to Sabre Champagne + Sparkling Wines

Leanne and I chat about sparkling wines and Champagnes for the holidays. Click on the arrow to play the video above.   Napoléon visits the Moët & Chandon cellars in 1807   Napoleon is credited with inventing the sabering technique and is famous for his phrase: “In victory we deserve Champagne, in defeat, we need it.” The famous Champagne maker Veuve Clicquot, who lost her husband when she was just 27, was a wealthy young widow. She would entertain Napoleon’s officers (early day sampling program). They, in turn, tried to impress her by sabering the tops of the Champagne bottles […]

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Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings November 30, 2024

    You can access the wines that I reviewed as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. If you are a Paid Member, you can add my wine picks to your custom shopping list with one click and access that list on your smartphone to find the stock for each wine in your closest LCBO store. You can also see my wine reviews for November 16th. These are just some of the benefits of supporting our wine community as a Paid Member. Inventory stock numbers are usually posted online a day or two before the release based on the LCBO doing so. Curious […]

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