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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Escaping the fires
It has been a couple of years since the fair was in town, and we're the first stop this year. It would be nice if the lovely folks at the California Wines were met by Winnipeg's enthusiastic wine-drinking public. It would put any doubt out of their minds as to whether Winnipeg should be included on the tour.
The real reason for this update: those who are familiar with the superb Quails Gate winery in the Okanagan Valley will be interested to know that owner Ben Stewart narrowly escaped death in Australia's recent wildfires.
According to this piece in Vancouver's The Province, Stewart (who has been to Winnipeg many times, and is a lovely fellow) and three relatives fled the rapidly advancing fires that have killed 181 people in Australia. It's a moving story - a tale of successfully escaping the deadly fires when so many were not so lucky, and died horrible deaths.
Finally (and on a much lighter note), if you're on Twitter (I am -- @bmswpg -- but I tend to tweet about my poor Montreal Canadiens more than about wine), check out the definitive list of wine "tweeters" here.
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More The Grape Nut
(1 of 8 articles for this year)
Best of what's left from the fest
05/17/2013 2:48 PM 0While my initial plan was to write about many more of the wines brought in special for the Winnipeg Wine ......
About Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson
When he wasn't bashing on a drum kit in local punk rock bands, Ben spent the mid '90s hucking cases of wine around to pay for two English degrees. Now he's the Winnipeg Free Press wine columnist and blogger.
The extent of Ben's wine experience in the mid-90s was memories of accidentally leaving a bottle of White Zinfandel in the freezer overnight, and the ensuing mess he was left with. Between 1996 and 2005 Ben absorbed all he could about wine while working at wine shops to pay for school. Meanwhile, he was churning out papers for his BA and MA in English (from the Universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, respectively).
Ben became the Winnipeg Free Press' weekly wine columnist in 2005, and two years later joined Wine Access magazine as a contributor, a member of their national tasting panel and a judge at the Canadian Wine Awards and International Value Wine Awards until the magazine closed up shop in 2013.
In 2013 Ben joined the Winnipeg Free Press as a copy/web editor.
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