Category: Uncategorized


  • April 12, 2025 LCBO VINTAGES Release Wine Picks: Perfect Pairings

    This release marks the return of the official digital version of the release catalogue, which for the first time includes a flipbook, as well as a pdf of the April 12, 2025 LCBO VINTAGES New Release Collection. There are 85 wines included in this release, while the feature story is titled “Perfect Pairings for Easter…

  • Stephen Beckta’s recipe for connection

    Ottawa’s leading restaurateur has built a brand on care, humility and creating memorable food-and-wine experiences With its classic mansard roof, the Second Empire architectural style of Grant House on Elgin Street sits resolutely next to a modern 21-storey glass office tower asserting its 150-year history as a residence in Ottawa’s Centretown neighbourhood. During interior renovations,…

  • Collaboration creates unique “virtual” wine brands

    by Jill Troyer Originally published in Niagara Now Wine lovers in Niagara-on-the-Lake will have a chance to taste small batch wines from several “virtual” wine brands at two pop-ups at Marynissen Estates Winery in April. The wines are all passion projects, products of collaboration among a group of people who work in the wine industry…

  • A Wine Lover’s Diary, part 969: Big Head’s 2023 Wines

    Tuesday, April 1st: Andrzej Lipinski invited me to Big Head to taste his 2023 wines. With Andrzej this is always something of a marathon and he proudly likes to show you everything he makes. He is an instinctive winemaker with a poet’s touch. His signature wine is Chenin Blanc. He usually makes six or seven…

  • Ca’ di Rajo Extra Dry Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore 2023 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 (Veneto) – Wine Reviews

    Tonight’s wine reviews are a pair of lovely wines from northeastern Italy that are featured in LCBO VINTAGES New Release Collections. The Cabernet Sauvignon from Venezia made its debut at the end of March, while the Prosecco DOCG is featured in this weekend’s Release. Both wines are available for purchase today! Like the lovely 2023…

  • Clos du Soleil’s new lower alcohol wines

    Photo: Michael Clark of Clos du Soleil The growing interest in lower-alcohol wines has led Michael Clark, the general manager and winemaker at Clos du Soleil Winery in the Similkameen, to launch two wines with nine per cent alcohol in the winery’s new Lumière Collection. These wines, the winery says, “offer a refreshing take on…

  • Mission Hill Family Estate unveils 2025 Summer Concert Series lineup

    Celebrated Okanagan winery to host iconic artists Blue Rodeo, Jann Arden, Andy Grammer, and Gipsy Kings – plus introduce elevated new offerings for concertgoers Mission Hill Family Estate is thrilled to announce the return of its much-anticipated Summer Concert Series, an Okanagan Valley tradition now in its 18th season. Set against the stunning backdrop of…

  • Ontario wines shine at upcoming Grapes for Humanity charity wine auction

    By Rick VanSickle and Peter Rod It’s not only the 25th anniversary for the Grapes for Humanity charity wine auction, but also the 5th year that Ontario winemakers have stepped up to the plate for this worthy cause. Also in this Ontario Wine Report: Our picks from the Niagara wines being released at LCBO Vintages…

  • From the Cellar with @Sam_WineTeacher

    In addition to the weekly wine review and the various other, usually wine-related, articles I write for My Van City, I am going to include a new one that will appear from time to time.  I’m calling it, ‘From the Cellar’. It will be similar to the wine reviews, except that it will feature wines…

  • Terroir-ist Bachelder brings 11 Gamays to his growing family of Niagara wines

    By Rick VanSickle Once a terroir-ist, always a terroir-ist is the credo Thomas Bachelder lives by as he slices and dices his way through his chosen single-vineyard Gamays in the Niagara Peninsula. By my count, Bachelder now has 28 single vineyard wines in the marketplace over the last 12 months — that’s 11 different single-vineyard…