Ben Sigurdson

Consider gifting wine, beer or spirits Advent calendars

With the holidays looming in the coming weeks, it’s high time to start thinking about gift giving, party hosting and all that kind of fun stuff.

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the wine, beer or spirits lover in your life, you don’t need to settle on another pack of wine charms, whisky rocks, bottle openers/stoppers and such (although those all make fine stocking stuffers).

This year’s bounty of drinks-related Advent calendars available locally, for example, is bigger than ever. Private wine stores such as The Pourium (formerly De Luca Fine Wines, 942 Portage Ave.), De Nardi Wines (1360 Taylor Ave.) and Calabria Market (139 Scurfield Blvd.) have all assembled their own wine Advent calendars, which typically offer two dozen 375 ml (or thereabouts) bottles for wine lovers to explore and enjoy daily in December. Kenaston Wine Market (1855A Grant Ave.), meanwhile, carries a port Advent calendar featuring two dozen variations (in 50 ml bottles) of the fortified wine.

For hop heads there’s the ever-popular Craft Beer Advent Calendar, which typically compiles 24 award-winning brews from Canada and beyond and which is available at Liquor Marts and some beer vendors. Over at the Beer Boutique beer vendor (910 Regent Ave.), they’ve pulled together their own 12-day craft beer Advent calendar which features a number of local brewers. Stiegl’s craft beer Advent calendar is also returning to Liquor Marts this year, while the locals at Neepawa’s Farmery Brewery have done up an Advent calendar of their own.

The many styles and flavours of Pinot Noir

One of the first wines I tackled when I first started writing Uncorked 17 (!) years ago was Pinot Noir. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; among wine geeks it tends to be a favourite grape to grapple with. A famously fickle grape to grow, Pinot Noir is made in a wide range of styles in all corners of the globe (including here in Canada) and, when done well, can produce profound wines of exceptional complexity.

More than most wine grapes, red or white, Pinot Noir’s styles run from fruit-forward and juicy in warmer, New World winemaking regions to subtle, earthy and complex in Old World examples. It’s also used in making rosé in certain parts of the world, and is a key grape in producing some of the world’s best sparkling wines, including from France’s Champagne region.

Much of the variation in styles of Pinot Noir depends on climate. The grape does particularly well in cooler to moderate wine-growing regions; its thinner skin not only results in wines that are lighter in colour, but it also makes the grape more susceptible to extreme heat, frost and excess direct sunlight. It’s one of the reasons Pinot Noir has been dubbed the “heartbreak grape” by those in the industry — when things go wrong growing Pinot Noir, they go horribly wrong, and no amount of oak aging or other tricks in the winery can typically solve the problem.

When things go right, however, Pinot Noir generally delivers beautiful red berry and cherry flavours with low tannins and moderate acidity, with secondary flavours often described as earthy, mushroomy or even reminiscent of forest floor (whatever that tastes like).

Manitoba-made whiskies flowing to distillery shelves

After around 140 years, the first Manitoba-made whiskies not named Crown Royal will be hitting the shelves in the coming months. Yes, that’s whiskies – plural.

The first to hit the market is Patent 5’s Single Barrel Release 1, released on Nov. 10 from their website and tasting room (108 Alexander Ave.). And while they’ve so far released mainly gin, vodka and small-batch liqueurs and spirits — products that don’t require extensive aging before release — making their own whisky has always been the end goal.

“This wasn’t our first batch of whisky,” says Patent 5 owner president Brock Coutts. “We went through a number of batches, and barreled some. And three plus years later, they were not the whisky we wanted. We’ve redistilled some, and some of the others went down the drain.”

The Single Barrel Release 1 is made from, as you’d guess from the name, one lone barrel’s worth of spirits, which was made using Manitoba-grown and milled corn, rye and wheat as well as malted barley. It was double pot-distilled and then aged for 37 months (in order to be called Canadian whisky, a product must be aged for three years before release). The first bit of aging took place in a new American oak barrel before the whisky was transferred to a French oak barrel previously used to make Pedro Ximinez sherry in Spain.

Pro/Am Brew Challenge ranged from flawed to fantastic

Not all home brewers are created equal. Some folks pick up user-friendly beer kits from home-brewing supply stores or grocery stores, saving a few bucks and always ensuring a cold one is close at hand.

Others, however, take the craft of home brewing to another level, sourcing out unique ingredients, trying out (or creating) new recipes and searching for intricate gear, some of which can end up making a kitchen brew look like a science class.

It’s this latter category who, for the most part, showed off their wares at the recent Pro/Am Brew Challenge, held over a week in mid-October and staged at Winnipeg’s Oxus Brewing Co. The contest typically pits amateur brewers against professionals, with beers tasted blind (ie. it’s not known who made the beer), given a score and ranked by category.

This year was a bit different. The Pro/Am Brew Challenge has been held in Winnipeg for some years now, having paused for a couple of years during the pandemic. And while previous years’ competitions have seen upwards of 400-500 entries from professionals and amateurs, this year’s event saw just 165 entries from Manitoba and Western Canada, with only a couple of professional brewers taking the plunge.

Treat yourself to one of these spooky brews

In today’s Free Press arts and life section you’re treated to a roundup of must-see Halloween TV, a Halloween-themed playlist, a preview of WSO’s Nosferatu and more. On Monday, when kids are making the rounds screaming on peoples’ doorsteps, you can read about the team’s taste test of new-to-us treats.

So, in keeping with the heaps of Halloween-related content, here are six spooky brew reviews, presented from lightest to heaviest — some pumpkin spice-infused, yes, but others delivered in delicious creepy packaging and making for some fine seasonal sipping as you’re doling out the treats (and occasional trick)…

The Barn Hammer Brewing Co. Grimoire (Winnipeg – $4.25/472ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts and beer vendors) is a wheat beer flavoured with rooibos tea and lemon; it’s medium gold and quite hazy in appearance, and aromatically brings spice, fresh wheat, bread dough, lemon zest and tea notes. It’s light-plus bodied and just off-dry, with more of those same components coming through flavour-wise, with no apparent bitterness from hops or otherwise and a modest finish (it’s 5.5 per cent alcohol). A fun brew for those with an adventurous palate. Try with Nerds or other tart and tangy treats. 3.5/5

A pale ale brewed for Winnipeg Comiccon and with creepy can art by GMB Chomichuk, the Trans Canada Brewing Co. Chainsawhand Pale Ale (Winnipeg - $4.24/473ml can, brewery, beer vendors) is medium copper in colour and slightly hazy, with fresh malt, citrus rind and light biscuit/bread dough aromas. On the medium-bodied palate the malt flavours work exceptionally well with the tropical fruit, herbal and citrus rind notes, the modest hops (25 IBU) bring just enough bite and the five per cent alcohol ends things off just right. An excellent pale ale that needs no candy pairing. 4.5/5

New, notable wines include juicy red, fruity white

Often this space features a particular theme or area of focus — a grape variety or wine-producing region, for example, or a roundup of new local brews or some other insight into wine, beer, food pairing, local events and beyond.

This week is a simple roundup of new (or new to me) and notable wines I’ve tried over the last few months, whether at home, out for food and drinks, while hosting family over the holidays or otherwise…

For instance, the Moraine 2021 Cliffhanger White (Okanagan Valley, B.C. — $22.99, Liquor Marts and beyond) is the white wine I picked up to go with the Thanksgiving dinner we hosted. For the 2021 vintage, Moraine tweaked the blend of grapes to Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer and Riesling, the latter replacing Viognier, which featured in the 2020 blend. It’s better than ever; the bright floral, peach, pineapple, marmalade and pear notes show beautifully aromatically, with just the slightest hint of spice. While it’s fermented to be dry, there’s a slight perception of sweetness thanks to the ripe apple, peach, apricot and pear flavours that deliver a fruit salad of flavour with some nice viscosity and a medium-length, slightly spicy finish. It worked brilliantly with the turkey/ham dishes, but would also sing with Thai dishes, sushi or fresh fruit. 4.5/5

Plethora of fall events provide plentiful pairings

As we creep ever closer to the (gulp) holiday season, local makers and stores will turn their attention to the inevitable jump in retail traffic.

Until thern, there are all manner of tastings, dinners, tap takeovers, socials and more coming in the next few weeks. Here are but a few…

They’re still brewing at Oxus Brewing Co. for now, but Interlake Brewing Co.’s lineup of beers continues to grow in anticipation of opening its Gimli location in the coming months. Interlake is hosting a tap takeover at Oxus (1180 Sanford St.) today, where you can enjoy all seven of its current brews, a special surprise cask, as well as food from Loaf and Honey. There’s no charge to pop by (save for buying your beers, of course).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a little reminder plug about the Sips and Snacks event taking place this Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Nonsuch Brewing Co. (125 Pacific Ave.). I’ll be chatting with Nonsuch folks about all things beer, specifically After Deadline, the Italian grape ale I helped make in conjunction with the Free Press’s 150th anniversary. The evening will feature a three-course beer-and-food appetizer pairing. A handful of tickets remain (they’re $54.06 including fees) at wfp.to/afterdeadline.

Popular wine terms and how to use them

The return of the Winnipeg Wine Festival’s main public tastings on Sept. 23 and 24, the first time the RBC Convention Centre hosted the event since 2019, was a chance for agents, reps and winemakers to show off their wares, as well as for curious wine drinkers to find new favourites.

While trying new/new-to-me products (and doing more than my share of people-watching) at the fest, I noticed there were times those tasting wines wanted clarification on certain terms folks in the business use to talk about wine. With that in mind, here are a few key terms often used in the world of wine, what they mean and how you can look (and taste) for them in whatever’s in your glass…

BodyWine is almost always described by those in the wine business in terms of body, with a wine landing somewhere on the continuum between very light-bodied to very full-bodied. It’s essentially how heavy the wine feels in your mouth.

Back when I was first learning about wine, the way I was taught to think about it was to equate the body of a wine to different kinds of milk: skim milk is the equivalent of a light-bodied wine, two per cent milk is akin to a medium-bodied wine, while a full-bodied wine is more like homogenized milk or even coffee cream.