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Harvest Report 2024: Ontario winemakers excited about new wine vintage
By Rick VanSickle The hopes and dreams of that perfect vintage for winemakers and growers took shape with the first grapes harvested on August 26, 2024, which is exceptionally early in Niagara. Perfect...
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Ontario rushes to fill empty LCBO shelves with local VQA wine, plus Vintage...
By Rick VanSickle As the LCBO acted swiftly to remove all U.S. booze from its store shelves last week, Ontario wineries scrambled to fill the suddenly vast empty spaces. Note, also in this Niagara Wine...
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Ontario wine vintage charts all the way back to 1998 (with 2024 just added)
By Rick VanSickle To understand the aging potential of your wine purchases, you must know where they started before you tuck them in the cellar for the long haul. Trial and error have spoiled many a...
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How a social media star inspired a new vibe at Niagara’s Palatine Hills
By Rick VanSickle A chance encounter online led to the wildest exposure ever for a Niagara winery with 2.5 million views of a quirky video that helped shape the “vibe” at Palatine Hills Estate Winery....
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The Mavericks: ‘Visionary’ Trenholm brings Canadian wines and events to the...
By Lidija Biro A visionary, a maverick, a savvy businesswoman … all apt descriptors for Debbie Trenholm, sommelier and founder of Savvy Company. Savvy Company is an online marketplace for wines, craft...
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Missing your Cali reds? Niagara’s Bella Terra has the answer you’re looking for
By Rick VanSickle In these days of disruptive tariffs and boycotts of American wines, more and more wine lovers are (finally!) reaching for wines made in their own country. Many have been weaned on the...
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Ontario VQA wines starting to centre stage at LCBO stores at long last
By Rick VanSickle LCBO stores in Ontario are starting look more and more like a retail wine operation that stands firmly behind the wines of its own province. Also in this Ontario Wine Report:...
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Black Bank Hill: A Niagara winery with a little west coast swagger
By Rick VanSickle Black Bank Hill winemaker Jonathan McLean approaches his wines “like a chef makes a tasting menu — each one has been uniquely created to tell a different story and give tasters an...
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12 Niagara Cabernet Francs to drink now (from someone who knows her stuff)
By Allison Slute For those that haven’t been following the news in recent weeks, there is a “dumb” trade war on going between the United States and Canada (and sadly, many other countries around the...
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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...
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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...
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