All hail the Wine King

In 17-plus years of writing about wine and drinks for the Free Press, I’ve chatted with some pretty heavy hitters in the industry. But arguably none have made as big an impact on the Canadian wine scene — and, arguably, the global drinks landscape — as Anthony von Mandl.

The 73-year-old von Mandl was in Winnipeg in May to receive the International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award (IDEA) from The Associates of the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business. He doesn’t do a lot of interviews, but I figured I’d put in a request for even just a few minutes of his time to talk wine.

First, a Coles Notes version of his life: born in Vancouver, he and his family moved to Europe before he returned to Canada to go to school. Von Mandl followed his passion for wine and set up an importing company, which didn’t do so well, then purchased a run-down winery in the Okanagan Valley in 1981 and renamed it Mission Hill.

As the winery made slow inroads, von Mandl generated cash flow by essentially creating the flavoured cider category followed by the Mike’s Hard line of coolers, both of which took off (and which he subsequently sold).

A little chill is always welcome in your wine

With temperatures set to hit 30 C or higher for the next number of days, many will be looking to beat the heat with a glass of something chilled. Whether it’s white, rosé or even red — yes, you can (and should) chill some reds, more on that in a minute — there are a few tried-and-true tips and tricks to cool down your wines in a hurry.

Generally speaking, you can gauge how much to chill your wine by its colour. Lighter whites and rosés as well as sparkling wine tend to taste best when they’re chilled right down — think Sauvignon Blanc, Cava, Pinot Grigio, rosé from France’s Provence region, and the like. Slightly darker (and typically heavier) white and pink wines still taste best chilled, but that oaky Chardonnay probably doesn’t need to be quite as cold as, say, a racy, citrusy Vinho Verde from Portugal.

As for chilling reds, lighter varieties such as Pinot Noir and Gamay do quite well after about 15-20 minutes in the fridge, while heavier fruit-driven reds (think entry-level Argentine Malbec or Aussie Shiraz) can also stand to be served slightly cool — say, 10-15 minutes in the fridge. More full-bodied, tannic and/or oak-aged reds, however, don’t do well when served cold; the lower temperature accentuates the tannins, making them seem even drier. However, the suggestion of serving a red at “room temperature” typically means between 16-18 C, so feel free to pop them in the fridge, even just for five-10 minutes.

If you’ve just come back from your favourite shop and need your wine chilled in a hurry, some methods work faster than others. While 25-30 minutes in the freezer will make a wine a modestly cold, you can get a wine much colder far faster by popping it in an ice bucket (or any bucket, but preferably metal) with cold water and a whole bunch of ice cubes. You can speed this technique up even more by adding some salt to the water, which lowers the water’s freezing temperature, and stirring or agitating the water-and-ice solution occasionally. And if you can’t get the bottle fully submerged, flip it upside down halfway through.

Local libations win big

Manitoba brewers, bartenders and sommeliers have been hauling in the hardware this past week.

On May 15, the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS) held the In Good Spirits cocktail competition as part of MB Somm Week. The event saw 14 local bartenders/mixologists square off in front of a capacity crowd at the Fort Garry Hotel to see whose cocktail would reign supreme.

The winner of the event was Alex Weiss of Preservation Hall Eatery + Wine Bar, with his “Sanguine Swizzle” cocktail — featuring blanco tequila, hibiscus tea, beet juice, green pepper juice, champagne acid, mint, basil, strawberry-honey syrup and crushed ice. Preservation Hall (655 Empress St.) has added the drink to its spring/summer cocktail list, if you want to give it a try. Weiss, meanwhile, has won a trip to Kentucky for his efforts.

Second place went to Jason Thompson of Gather at the Leaf in Assiniboine Park for his “Hot Date” cocktail, while third place went to Tanika Born of Sous Sol for the “Bee Movie” cocktail. The people’s choice went to Josh Rhoopchand of the Manitoba Club for the “Virginia is for (Breakfast) Lovers” cocktail.

Professional sommeliers are gathering and they hope you’ll raise a glass with them

Manitoba sommeliers are uncorking a week-long celebration, and wine lovers of all stripes are invited.

The Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS) kicks off MB Somm Week on Monday, with a week of tastings, masterclasses, tours, competitions and more running through May 16 and taking place in venues throughout the city.

The events, which are open to both members and non-members, coincide with the 10th anniversary of the local chapter, which is made up of those working in the wine industry — at restaurants, wine stores, Liquor Marts and the like — as well as amateur enthusiasts and wine lovers. (For details and to buy tickets, see wfp.to/mbsommweek.)

Manitoba’s CAPS chapter holds tastings throughout the year featuring local experts, visiting winemakers and export managers.

Local citrus beer offerings must mean summer nears

Another month, another compelling collection of new local brews hitting the shelves of tap rooms, beer vendors and Liquor Marts throughout Winnipeg and beyond…

One of the first beers brewed at its new Sherbrook Street brewery, the Good Neighbour Brewing Co. Tangerine Wheat ($4.25/473ml cans, brewery, Liquor Marts, beer vendors) is pale gold in colour and slightly hazy, bringing ripe orange and wheat notes on the nose as well as underlying malt and spice notes.

It’s mainly dry and light-bodied, with a subtle creamy texture fleshing out the tangerine and grain notes, low bitterness, the spice component sticking around throughout and a crisp, clean finish (it’s five per cent alcohol). Crushable but with some complexity — very well done. 4.5/5

The Nonsuch Brewing Co. Mango Farmhouse Ale ($4.80/473ml cans, brewery, Liquor Marts, beer vendors) offers much of the same appearance-wise, while aromatically delivering concentrated tropical fruit notes, along with some lemon candy and earthy, funky spice, courtesy of the inclusion of brettanomyces yeast.

Calculating climate costs into the price of your next bottle

Earth Day is a time to reflect on the ways we can go about reducing the harm we cause to the planet, both in the short and long term.

There are steps we can take to be kinder to the Earth as it pertains to wine-drinking habits — seeing as grape-growing and winemaking impact the planet, and rarely for the better, it’s worth considering when picking out your next bottle of wine.

A jaunt through wine country typically rewards visitors with picturesque rolling fields of rows of vines, with healthy-looking, well-manicured plants soaking up the sun as the fruit ripens. But there’s typically way more going on in those vineyards than simple photosynthesis.

Grape vines produce the best fruit when they’re planted in warm, dry climates where they have to work hard to get moisture, with roots burrowing deep into the soil in search of water. When that water’s not there in decent supply and rain is in short supply, grape growers are often forced to pipe in water to irrigate vines — and it can take a whole lot of this precious resource to keep the plants healthy.

Argentine Malbec and producers gets their day and their due

For the last 13 years, Argentine wine producers and marketers have proudly pumped the tires on the country’s flagship wine-producing grape variety every April 17.

Brews for both seasons

This is the time of year when beer drinkers typically shift their sipping habits from heartier, heavier brews to lighter, more refreshing lagers and ales.

It’s whisky o’clock

My recent bout with COVID-19 at the end of February really couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Bank and climate crises are crowding the vines

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S. could spell big trouble for winemakers in California.

Grape days ahead: wine classes educate the palate

If you’ve got learning about vino on the brain, you’re in luck — there are all manner of wine courses being offered throughout the city over the next couple of months, in a range of prices and with themes that run the gamut from yoga to dessert wines to Chardonnay and beyond…

A matter of taste slightly — and briefly — altered

It seems odd to be writing about COVID in a drinks column in 2023 — not because COVID has come and gone, but more that it’s old news for most.

Come alive with local brews in the dead of winter

Whether you’re planning to brave the deep freeze to take in the last weekend of Festival du Voyageur in person or prefer to crack a cold one in the warm confines of your own home, there are a few brews that will get you in the hé-ho spirit to be enjoyed in either setting.

Cellaring wine: keep it cool and dark

A few weeks ago I wrote about rediscovering (and opening) long-neglected bottles that had languished, unseen, on wine racks and basement closets in my house for too many years.

Can’t take it with you, so savour Open That Bottle Night

Seventeen (!) years of writing about wine and drinks have seen all manner of wine, beer and spirits cross my desk. Most are tasted for the purposes of this column, some for “research” purposes and occasionally, I’ll crack something open for simple enjoyment.

Booze events to help beat the winter blahs

If the late January doldrums have you feeling like you’re going a bit bonkers, fear not — there are plenty of wine, beer and spirits events taking place over the next couple of months that just might help you beat the deep winter blahs…

Value through the grapevine

A couple weeks back I wrote about the great quality-to-price ratio of red wines from France’s Rhône Valley. And with many still nursing post-holiday bills — plus with rising inflation and such — I was curious about discovering other wines that deliver good bang for the buck.

Take a journey to France for standout red wines

If there were ever a wine-producing region to be relied on for pumping out high-quality reds at a reasonable price, it’s France’s Rhône Valley — particularly wines from the southern Rhône.

Toasting some possible drinks trends for 2023

Based on trends (both locally and otherwise), you don’t need to be a psychic or fortune teller to predict what some of the drinks trends will be in Manitoba in 2023 — for better or worse.

10 fizzy options to help ring in the new year

With one week to go until the end of 2022, it’s time to start thinking about what sparkling wine you’ll be chilling down to ring in the new year (or to bid good riddance to the current one). Here are 10 fizzy options you may not have tried before that are worthy of your champagne glass this New Year’s Eve…

Last-minute gift ideas for the drinks lovers on your list

About a month ago, I offered up some gift suggestions for the drinks lovers in your life in the form of mixed cases, specially packaged seasonal offerings and advent calendars.

Find the perfect wine to grace your holiday dinner table

Whether you’re stuffing a turkey, glazing a ham or ordering takeout this holiday season, nothing finishes off that perfectly planned festive feast quite like the right bottle of wine. Here are 10 tipples I’ve recently tried that drink well on their own, but would also complement all manner of yuletide eats…

Ale and arty: face the chill with latest sips of the season

After a summer of light, citrusy lagers and ales, the arrival of fall typically brings darker, more malt-driven beers. But once December hits, things get serious — malty red ales, heartier IPAs and pumpkin beers and the like make way for the festive flavours of the holiday season.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cooler weather means it’s time for toastier beers

With this weekend’s return of the Winnipeg Wine Festival public tastings for the first time since 2019, it would be easy to overlook the timely and welcome return of heartier, more robust beers popping up at breweries, Liquor Marts and beer vendors. As the mercury drops and the leaves change colour, it’s the perfect time to switch from the crisp, refreshing pilsners, lagers, radlers and such that help beat the summer heat to brews that bring richer fall flavours.

Retrying tried-and-true classics turns up some changes

Drinks trends seem to be going in a couple of different directions right now. Some (mainly larger) producers are embracing new trends such as aging wine in bourbon barrels, creating lower-alcohol offerings and hard seltzers, and adding offbeat flavours to products.

Something to cheer about: Winnipeg Wine Festival’s return

For the first time since April/May 2019, the Winnipeg Wine Festival’s public tastings return to the RBC Convention Centre on Sept. 23 and 24.

Brews, reds and whites for cheering on the Blue and Gold

Some of us will spend the long weekend soaking up the last of the summer sun at the cottage or a beach, while others will be anxiously careening down store aisles in search of back-to-school gear.

Six wines to take you through summer’s waning days

After a frantic start to the summer which saw wine trips to France, Niagara and Italy, my July and August were mainly spent working away, with nary a thought of holidays or travel (or stressing over missed connections and/or lost luggage).

Never waste backyard apples … or cereal-beer dreams

IF your apple tree is loaded down with fruit, Manitoba cideries might have options to help get rid of it.

Infused beers a tasty way to get your daily serving of fruit

If anything was to be gleaned from last weekend’s successful (at least from outward appearances) Ballpark Brewfest at Shaw Park, it’s that fruit-infused brews are as big a deal as ever — at least as far as the locals are concerned.

Keep a clear head with alcohol-free brews and bubblies

Summer’s a great time to kick back on a patio, in a backyard or poolside with a refreshing beverage. And while an ice-cold beer, a fun cooler or a glass of white/bubbly/rosé can really hit the spot in warmer weather, there are times when you might not want the buzz that comes with them — or perhaps, for whatever reason, you’ve chosen not to drink alcohol.

Thankfully the selection of non-alcoholic beverages (beyond soda) continues to get bigger and, in many categories, better. Here’s a roundup of some zero/low-alcohol drinks tried recently, many of which are worth your time even if you do regularly imbibe.

Selection varies, so included is where these drinks were picked up, although many may be available beyond the listed shops. (In addition to Liquor Marts, beer vendors and private wine stores, non-alcoholic drinks can be sold at grocery stores and elsewhere.)

And because some choose non-alcoholic drinks because they’re lower in calories, that information also follows where available.

For warm-weather sipping, rosés have skin in the game

In last week’s Uncorked I dove into whites and reds to enjoy in warmer weather, only mentioning in passing the ideal summer sipper — rosé wine.

It goes without saying that drinking pink when the mercury rises is never a bad idea. But not all rosés are created equal — from the depth of colour to the aromatic profile to the sweetness level and flavours pink wines bring, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it can be tough to know what you’re getting before you buy and open that bottle.

More so than whites or reds, the appearance of a pink wine can tell you a lot about what to expect before you open the bottle, one of many reasons producers tend to package the stuff in clear bottles rather than in tinted glass. Most rosés that are paler in colour tend to be on the more delicate side, offering up more floral, chalky and tree fruit flavours than their deeper, darker counterparts, which bring more fleshy red berry notes. New World rosés tend to be a bit riper, weightier and fruit-forward, while Old World (read: European) pink wines are often more austere, lighter-bodied and delicate.

While the difference in colour can sometimes be the result of what grapes are being used to make the wine — thinner-skinned Pinot Noir versus much darker Malbec grapes, for example — the hue of a pink wine (and its flavours) also has to do with decisions made by the winemaker.

Crisp, refreshing wine options ripe for summer sipping

In winter, there’s nothing quite like cosying up with a hearty, robust red wine or a richer, fuller-bodied white wine. But we’re heading into summer, which means lighter, fresher wines are the order of the day.

Light and fresh, however, doesn’t have to mean suffering through watery wines devoid of flavour. There’s all manner of exciting wines out there that are crisp and clean without being bland and boring.

First off, let’s take it as a given that sparkling wines and rosés will be in heavy rotation this summer, and instead look at options when it comes to whites and reds.

In the former category, the first and most obvious choice is Sauvignon Blanc. While there are some examples of the grape that are a little on the nondescript side, generally speaking Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, New Zealand or South Africa will rarely steer you wrong, offering fresh tart fruit with zippy acidity that’s perfect for summer sipping.

Local breweries offer palate-pleasing lagers and ales

With my recent trip to Italy’s Abruzzo region in the rearview mirror, and having spent five days tasting hundreds of Canadian wines at WineAlign’s 2022 National Wine Awards of Canada in Niagara, Ont. last week, I figured it was time to give my palate a quick break from the acids and tannins that come with excess wine tasting. And nothing resets a bruised and battered palate quite like cleansing summer lagers and ales. Plus, it was a chance to see what’s new and exciting from local craft breweries.

The Sookram’s Brewing Co. Shore Leave (Winnipeg - $4.15/473ml cans, brewery, select beer vendors) brings the flavours of summer in a big way. A pale gold and hazy sour beer infused with pineapple and coconut, both those additions come through aromatically along with wheat and oat notes. It’s slightly chewy and off-dry, with mouth-watering acidity highlighting the pineapple and almost-salty flavours while the coconut chills in the background with the grainier ingredients. Four per cent alcohol; pass the sunscreen. 4/5

For summer fruit flavours in a package that’s neither sweet nor tart, the latest version of the Good Neighbour Brewing Co. French Blanche (Winnipeg - $4.25/473ml can, Oxus, Liquor Marts, beer vendors) delivers. Pale straw in colour and hazy, this Belgian-style wheat beer features the addition of peach, apricot and lemon, all of which show well aromatically along with the pronounced wheat and spice notes. Dry and light-plus bodied, the peach note brings some weight and is the most prominent on the palate, with wheat, spice and the other fruit notes doing their trick and the lemon addition bringing some acidity. Lots going on here, but also dangerously drinkable. Five per cent alcohol; brewed at Oxus but also available from One Sixteen on Sherbrook St. 4.5/5

Much has been made of (and said about) Winnipeg’s new branding and slogan; the Kilter Brewing Co. Prairie Lager (Winnipeg - $3.75/473ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts, beer vendors) sports both on the package of their latest lager. It’s very pale straw in colour and mostly clear, sporting up-front grain and malt aromas and a hint of citrus. Light-bodied and mainly dry, it brings classic lager notes of bread dough and fresh malt as well as toasted nut and some modest bitterness. At 4.5 per cent alcohol, think of this as an easy-going post-lawnmowing beer — like the new logo/slogan, it’s decent but not mind blowingly inspiring. 3/5

Wines abuzz in Abruzzo

For as long as I’ve been writing about wine (more than 16 years in this space now), there’s been one wine-producing country that’s been top of my bucket list to visit — Italy.

So when the chance arose to visit the Abruzzo region in early June with a whole bunch of Canadian and American wine writers, sommeliers and influencers, I jumped at it.

Abruzzo isn’t as well-known (or opulent) a wine-producing region as, say, Tuscany or Piedmont, but what it does offer up are wines with a great sense of place that are typically very good values and incredibly food-friendly.

The region itself is located about two hours northeast of Rome, nestled near the Adriatic Sea. It’s a fairly rustic region that might not bring as modern a style as its Tuscan or Piedmontese counterparts, but what it does deliver is timeless beauty as well as wines with a true sense of place and with great character — not surprising given it’s one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the western world.

Plenty in the wine, beer aisles for Father’s Day toasts

If dads were judged solely by whether or not they were around on Father’s Day, I’d certainly not be anywhere near the top of the good list.

The last two pandemic years aside, I almost always end up spending the day with a couple of dozen other folks in Canada’s wine industry judging at the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada which, this year, is being held in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. For five consecutive days — starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday — I’ll be tasting between 250 and 300 of the 2,000-plus Canadian wines entered in the competition.

As such, my Father’s Day beverage of choice will certainly be Canadian. Perhaps, if it was entered in the competition, it will be the Lakeview Cellars 2019 Serenity Pinot Noir Rosé (Niagara Peninsula, Ont. — $17.99, Liquor Marts and beyond). It’s a pale orange-pink wine, made predominantly from Pinot Noir but with 10 per cent Gamay and five per cent Chardonnay Musqué thrown into the mix. There are plenty of peach and raspberry candy aromas as well as subtle strawberry and watermelon notes. It’s mainly dry and light-plus bodied on the palate, with the peach and raspberry notes bringing a hint of sweetness before the strawberry flavours kick in on the modest finish. Simple and fun, and decent for the price while it’s just $15.99 until the end of June. 3/5

For those whose beer-loving dads will be around this weekend, some local breweries have pulled together Father’s Day packages your pop is likely to love. Nonsuch Brewing Co., for example, has put together a Father’s Day craft beer package that includes their Italian grape ale, lambic, goji berry sour, craft pilsner and apricot hefeweizen. The package is $70 plus taxes and can be ordered for pickup at wfp.to/nonsuchdad, or pop into the taproom and try your luck and see whether they have any left.

Manitoba bevvies clean up at first Prairie Beer Awards

Manitoba breweries may have taken home the most hardware at the first annual Prairie Beer Awards, but it was a Saskatchewan brewery and one of its beers that took home the top beer honour.

In mid-May, 284 beers from 45 of 52 breweries in Manitoba and Saskatchewan — as well as a handful of ciders, meads and other beverages such as hard seltzers and kombucha — went head to head in 25 categories at the inaugural Prairie Beer Awards, presented by the Manitoba Brewers Association and the Saskatchewan Craft Brewers Association. (Alberta meaderies were also permitted to enter their wares, as there’s no mead competition in that province.)

Organizer and beer judge Dave Cole was thrilled with the number of entries for a first-time competition. “The Alberta Beer Awards had around 400 entries and has been running for a long time, and in a much larger market,” he said.

Cole was instrumental in making the Prairie Beer Awards a reality. While judging at the Alberta Beer Awards, he was asked why there wasn’t a regional competition for Manitoba/Saskatchewan breweries. After chatting with the brewery associations in both Prairie provinces, he was given the green light to organize the competition.

Hotter weather heralded with summer sipping events

Summer’s almost here, and while folks head out to the lake or on vacation throughout the warmer months, there’s still plenty to do when it comes to food and drink — locally made and otherwise.

Low Life Barrel House, whose year-long build I wrote about in the Free Press in early May, just released its first batch of wines made from organically grown Ontario grapes. The five initial offerings are all available by the glass or for takeaway by the bottle from the Daly Street facility, and include a white wine made from Riesling and Geisenheim grapes, a sparkling rosé made from Cabernet Franc and Vidal and an orange wine made from Vidal and Gewürztraminer.

Sticking with local wine (including some made with Manitoba grapes, no less), Shrugging Doctor Beverage Co. is collaborating with Loaf and Honey for a wine-and-cheese event taking place Wednesday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m. in its tasting room, located at 448-B Brooklyn St. A selection of cheeses will be paired with a range of wines, and Dustin Peltier of Loaf and Honey and Willows Christopher of Shrugging Doctor will talk about their respective products and processes. Tickets are $40 plus taxes and fees are available at wfp.to/shrugdoc.

As the weather heats up, rosé becomes the wine of choice for many, myself included. On Wednesday, June 29, De Luca Fine Wines will host an in-store “Rosé All Day” wine-and-food pairing event which, despite its name, doesn’t actually start until 7 p.m. at the wine store, located at 942 Portage Ave. Tickets are $75 and will feature five rosé wines being poured as well as small bites. For tickets visit wfp.to/roseallday.

Liquor-law changes could go a lot further

The provincial government announced this week it will be introducing a bill to modernize Manitoba’s liquor retail system.

This isn’t the first time the province has toyed with tweaking the way booze is sold in our province; last year the Tories introduced Bill 40, which would have significantly changed how and where alcohol is sold, but that bill, more wide-reaching than the expected legislation, was withdrawn in October.

There are plenty of fixes needed in our province’s liquor regulations. Here’s where to start:

Liquor and Lotteries Minister Scott Fielding hinted the proposed legislation may do away with the rule that beer vendors need be connected (either physically or adjacently) to hotels. That’s a no-brainer; it’s an archaic law from a time when a hotel room was needed in order to be able to sell booze, presumably so that someone could go sleep off the good times, if needed.

Taste some ripping Chardonnays for a good cause

The Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS) is holding a Chardonnay tasting for a very good cause — and you’re invited.

Rebecca Lechman, a sommelier and wine educator at private wine store Jones & Company, passed away suddenly in March 2020. Lechman was quite active in the local wine community and had a particular fondness for Chardonnay. In her honour the local CAPS contingent has created the Rebecca Lechman memorial bursary, a $1,000 award that will be presented annually to a female looking to further her education in the wine or hospitality trades.

With International Chardonnay Day falling on Thursday, May 26, the Manitoba CAPS chapter will be serving up all manner of Chardonnays that day at Tony Roma’s at 1500 Pembina Hwy. from 1-3 p.m. Tickets are $40 for non-members, $30 for CAPS members or, for those who can’t make it, $20 for a support ticket. Proceeds will go towards the funding of the bursary.

CAPS Manitoba puts on a number of events that are typically informal, educational and fun — and you don’t need to be a sommelier to become a member. For more info see wfp.to/capsmb. For information on the Chardonnay tasting and for tickets, see wfp.to/lechman.

Apple of their eye

Set aside some precious gas money now, cider lovers, as next weekend you might want to make the trek to the Morden-Winkler area of the province when Dead Horse Cider Co. opens its indoor/outdoor taproom to the public for the first time on Saturday, May 21.

Dead Horse is one of many local producers now making cider, including Next Friend Cider (out of Barn Hammer’s facilities), Shrugging Doctor, Stone Angel Brewing Co. and Little Brown Jug in Winnipeg, as well as Wooden Gate, located near Pilot Mound. Some producers are focusing on local apples, while others are importing fruit from Ontario and/or British Columbia.

For more information on Dead Horse’s taproom, including how to get there, see deadhorsecider.com/taproom.

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Who needs flowers when there’s wine?

Don’t feel like standing in line for flowers at the grocery store/florist this Mother’s Day? Forgot to make that brunch reservation weeks ago? (What is it about Mother’s Day and brunch that they’re so interconnected anyway?)

Fear not, as there are plenty of other options out there for mom this year, particularly if she enjoys a good tipple.

A gift basket’s always a safe and appreciated bet, and a number of private wine stores have pulled together a bevy of baskets filled with wine and fun accessories and/or snacks for mom. Kenaston Wine Market, De Luca Fine Wines and Calabria Market, for example, all have Mother’s Day baskets listed on their respective websites, and La Boutique del Vino has even added gift baskets for mom to its SkipTheDishes page. Most other private stores, meanwhile, will gladly throw together something nice for you in a pinch.

It’s always fun to learn about wine in a relaxed, casual environment, so why not get mom tickets to an upcoming education session? Liquor Marts will feature the wines of southern France on Thursday, May 26, in a virtual tasting that kicks off at 6:45 p.m. The tasting box costs $81.66 and includes four wines in a range of styles — for more and to order one for mom, visit liquormarts.ca.

Canadian wine growers rise to the challenge presented by extreme weather conditions

This past winter (and, so far, this spring) on the Prairies has proven to be quite the roller-coaster ride weather-wise. From long periods of deep-freeze temperatures to excesses of snow, a brief melt and then a seemingly endless number of Colorado lows bringing precipitation that has flooded basements (including mine) and helped damage roadways, it’s been a tough number of months.

Of course, we’re not the only ones struggling with increasingly extreme weather — thanks to climate change, winemaking regions have come to find the only predictable aspect of a growing season is its very unpredictability.

Such was the case in 2021 for Canada’s two main wine-producing regions — while wineries in both regions are expected to produce some very good wines, Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula and British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley both suffered extreme weather events at different points in the growing season, enduring what most grape-growers, viticulturalists and winemakers are diplomatically calling a “challenging” 2021.

In Ontario, producers went into spring with high hopes after a relatively dry winter. Things kicked off fairly well, with early days ending up being warm and dry. When summer kicked in, things were still looking good — the lack of rain persisted as temperatures rose, and all seemed to be on track for an uneventful, relatively early harvest.

Lots of news with this city’s brews

There always seem to be some sort of developments on the local drinks front, particularly when it comes to craft beer.

Over the last year I’ve been checking in with Low Life Barrel House’s progress as it builds its brewery at 398 Daly St. N., just off Pembina Hwy. Low Life began brewing out of Barn Hammer’s Wall St. facility, and is hoping to have its paperwork/inspections approved and sorted in the next week or so, meaning it could be pouring pints in their gorgeous new taproom, complete with 13 large oak foeders for aging their beer, as early as this coming week. It’s also aiming to add a patio as (if?) the weather improves.

Watch for a big feature on Low Life’s progress in the 49.8 section of the Free Press, coming soon.

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Whatever the weather, wine will warm Easter table

Between the ongoing pandemic and a wintry April wallop that’s sure to derail even the best-laid plans, there’s every chance this Easter weekend could be a lot like the last two — folks scrambling, hunkered down at home, unable to gather with extended family and friends.

The blizzard effect also means folks might not be able to get out shopping for drinks to match with their celebratory meal— or even ingredients for the big dinner itself.

So whether you’re going traditional Easter dinner or winging it with what’s on hand, here are some flavours that will suit a wide range of palates and dishes, and which may at least put thoughts of spring in your glass — even if the scene outside screams otherwise.

On the beer front, something with a little spice would work well with your typical Easter dinner, and a saison tends to bring that component in spades. The Little Brown Jug Saison (Winnipeg — $4.24/473ml can, brewery), is the brewery’s first foray into the style, and they’ve done a solid job. Medium-deep gold in colour and clear, this saison brings the brewery’s signature clovey aromas along with fresh malt notes, a peppery component from the use of rye grains and hints of banana candy. It’s mainly dry and fairly robust, with plenty of clove/spice/pepper to go with the fresh malt and subtle banana candy notes before the long-ish finish thanks to the 6.4 per cent alcohol. Beyond individual cans from the brewery, the saison is also in the Little Brown Jug Good Times Variety Pack Summer 2022, available at Liquor Marts, vendors and the brewery. It’s $28.68 for eight 473-ml cans — two of each of the saison, IPA, black lager and Hefeweizen, so even if saisons aren’t your thing, you’re sure to find something to your tastes. ★★★★ out of five

Tasting events set to return to whatever normal there is

Two-plus years of virtual get-togethers and tasting wine, beer and spirits in front of laptops and over Zoom has made the notion of big in-person events seem like some sort of long-ago fever dream. But a trio of local drinks festivals are moving full-steam ahead in the hopes folks will feel comfortable enough with a return to normal — whatever that means anymore.

The Winnipeg Wine Festival recently announced it’s returning for in-person tastings and dinners this fall, with events running from Sept. 17-24 at locations throughout the city. The fest will kick off with the annual gala dinner and auction on Sept. 17 at the RBC Convention Centre, will be followed up by a range of ancillary events at various venues throughout the week, then will return to the convention centre for the big public tastings on Sept. 23 and 24.

The feature region this year will be Argentina, which was supposed to have been in the spotlight for the 2020 fest, which was postponed and then cancelled. Last year saw a couple of smaller standalone festival-related wine events when restrictions were loosened, but otherwise this fall will mark the return of the big show, if you will — which is good for Special Olympics Manitoba, as the fest is one of their primary fundraising events.

In the meantime, the Winnipeg Wine Festival has two events in the more recent future to whet your whistle. On Thursday, April 21, X-Cues Café & Lounge (551 Sargent Ave.) will host a four-course wine dinner featuring wines from Argentine producer Trivento. Then on Sunday, May 1, the “Rosé the Day Away” event will feature all manner of pink wines being poured at the Fort Garry Hotel’s Crystal ballroom. For more details see winnipegwinefestival.com.

Lighten up, beer lovers: time for paler, less boozy brews

The hint of spring in the air brings with it a sense of optimism about the season of beers to come.

This year, the path into warmer weather has more options than ever for craft beer lovers. Among the developments: Low Life Barrel House is nearly set to open its Daly Street North brewery and taproom; Devil May Care is shooting for a June launch of its Fort Steet facility; Interlake Brewing Co. will likely open its doors on Gimli’s main drag at some point this year; and the Beer Can at the Granite looks to be coming back for another year.

The coming season of beer is looking good, with the Flatlander’s Beer Festival returning to Canada Life Centre on June 17 and 18. And the planned return of the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival and Winnipeg Fringe Festival beer gardens at Old Market Square in mid-June and mid-July, respectively, means more chances to enjoy a cold one outdoors in the Exchange District, while Winnipeg Folk Festival fans will be sipping on Little Brown Jug beers at Birds Hill Park July 7-10.

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Tastings set to make triumphant post-pandemic comeback

As things begin to once again open up, purveyors of drinks in Manitoba have started reintroducing in-person tastings alongside the virtual options the pandemic ushered in.

Manitoba Liquor Marts are sticking to virtual tastings for now, with a pair of upcoming tastings that should appeal to all manner of palates. The first is dubbed The Mash Up — it takes place this Tuesday, March 29 starting at 6:45 p.m., and features a range of wine, beer and sake for folks to taste through, as well as a guided virtual tasting. Tickets are $57.54 plus taxes. Then on Thursday, April 21, the Rosé Revolution will take folks through a wide range of pink wines starting at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $74.96 plus taxes; registration for both events and more info is at liquormarts.ca.

Private wine stores have plenty going on when it comes to tastings — both in-person and virtual — as well. Jones & Company, in conjunction with Wine and Drinks College Manitoba, is offering levels 1, 2 and 3 in the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) courses, the gold standard for those working in the wine/restaurant/hospitality biz and a great learning experience for hobbyists as well. Both levels 1 and 2 in-person classes start in late April at the St. Mary’s Rd. store, and start at $399 per course and include learning materials (which includes wine); for more, see wfp.to/jonesevents.

Andrea Eby of Vinsanity, formerly of Jones & Co., is also offering WSET level 2 (the first level isn’t a prerequisite, by the way) in person on April 29, 30 and May 1 via The Winehouse (1600 Kenaston Blvd.). Level 2 starts at $899 plus taxes and includes books/wine. For more details see vinsanity.ca.

Ten tasty tipples to toast the coming spring

The mercury continues to rise, slushy brown lakes are rising on streets and sidewalks, and folks are frantically shovelling snow away from their houses in fear of basement flooding. Spring is nearly upon us, it would seem (save for the standard last-minute deep freeze that’s sure to come).

Hardy Manitobans that we are, the first path through the snow that we clear is often straight to the barbecue. If your propane’s topped up and you scraped off the grill, here are 10 wines — whites, reds and even a rosé — in a wide range of styles (arranged roughly from lightest to heaviest) and from 10 different countries which will go well with all manner of grilled fare, or simply to toast the longer, warmer days to come.

Villa Maria 2021 Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand - $19.99, Liquor Marts and beyond)

Fresh grapefruit, lemon pith, tart green apple and hints of cut grass are front and centre on the nose of this very pale straw-coloured New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The ripeness of the fruit is impressive, with gooseberry, grapefruit, green apple and lime coming with mouth-watering acidity and verve before a medium-length finish. Very nicely done, especially while it’s on sale for $17.99 (until the end of March). ★★★★ out of five

Grenache… the lesser-known grape with panache

Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec, Pinot Noir — when it comes to red wine grapes, these are the big guns. They’re widely planted, well-known the world over and have legions of fans.

But there’s one red wine grape that’s often overlooked in the conversation of the best of the best — Grenache. That it’s so often overlooked in terms of top red wine grapes is perhaps because it’s an incredibly versatile grape made in a wide range of styles, and which often shows up in blends with other grapes rather than on its own (although it’s certainly tasty solo).

In terms of worldwide wine grape plantings of both white and red grapes, Grenache sits around number seven of the top 10, with somewhere around 400,000 acres planted globally, although acreage devoted to the grape appears to be slipping. Grenache is typically vibrant ruby-purple in colour when young, and flavour-wise sits somewhere between the red berry-driven flavours of Gamay and the deep, black-fruit dominant notes of Malbec, bringing the best of both worlds, often with a splash of acidity and an herbal or leafy edge.

Grenache tends to do well in climates that are hot and dry, where it can enjoy a long growing season without a great deal of rain or irrigation. Long, hot growing seasons often result in grapes witih great ripeness. More ripeness means more sugar in the fruit, which in turn means more work for yeast to do in converting sugar to alcohol. This means Grenache-based wines often bring alcohol levels of 14 per cent or more. And Grenache vines are workhorses; when well tended, they can continue to produce fruit suited for wine, albeit with increasingly lower yields, for decades or even up to a century.

New tastes, taps and spirits for the drinks geek in all of us

The craft drinks scene in Manitoba continues to grow and evolve, with plenty of developments that should have drinks geeks thirsty for new flavours…

Speaking of geeks, Full Geek Brew Lab, the project of James Mont and Cory Bartell, has set up their tanks at Stone Angel Brewing Co. at 1875 Pembina Hwy. Their first canned product, the Elysium pale ale, is now available from Stone Angel’s taproom as well as the Quality Inns Craft Beer Market at 635 Pembina Hwy. Full tasting notes on this release to come, but having sampled a test batch I can attest this is a solid, proper pale.

According to Full Geek’s website (fullgeekbrewlab.com), the next beer slated for release is the Helios hazy IPA.

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What’s in that wine, anyway?

If you had to guess what was in your favourite bottle of wine, naturally the first ingredient you’d think of is grapes.

But last week’s Uncorked about organic viticulture and winemaking got me thinking about how little we know about what else might happen to be in a particular bottle of wine.

With the exception of sulfites, unlike most food products in Canada, wine, beer and spirits aren’t made to list ingredients on the label or anywhere else. (Coolers, pre-mixed cocktails and the like do.) When I review a wine, I’ll often visit the winery website to try to find what’s called a tech sheet — a one-page document that details the oak aging regimen, the alcohol level, the pH level, the ways in which the grapes were picked, maybe some info about the vintage and more. But I’ve never found an itemized list of ingredients that are in a wine.

Beyond fermented grape juice, what else is in your bottle of wine? The first place to start is yeast, the ingredient that converts the sugar in the grape juice into alcohol in the first place. While some producers opt to go with the naturally occurring yeast found on grapes, which is how wine was made for centuries (and discovered by accident way back when), the bulk of the wines made these days feature commercial yeast added to spur fermentation.

Not every ‘organic’ wine is as pure as the name suggests

As consumers continue to pay increased attention to what we’re putting in our bodies, more producers are introducing organic options to their lineup of products, or simply switching to organic production altogether.

It’s as true at the grocery store as it is at your local Liquor Mart or private wine store. An increasing number of organic options are available from every corner of the wine-producing world.

But not all organic wines are created equal — or, for that matter, labeled the same. Navigating organic wines while shopping requires examining the info on the back label and perhaps using your phone to quickly peruse a winery website to learn more.

Like most commercial agricultural crops, growing grapes for making wine requires management of pests, weeds, soil and more. Non-organic grape growers often employ some combination of chemical fertilizers as well as herbicides, fungicides and pesticides to deal with weeds/grasses, mildew and insects (respectively).

Micro brews to balance your macro Super Bowl spread

Break out the chips and guac, the seven-layer dip, your best hot wings and a mountain of meatballs — it’s Super Bowl weekend.

And while your culinary choices might be more 50 shades of beige than Canada’s food guide might prefer — I see you, delicious jalapeño poppers — your choice of beverage need not be bland or boring.

You also needn’t toss money at big global macro breweries seemingly more interested in clever marketing campaigns during the big game than brewing interesting beer. Instead, you can support local craft brewers while cheering on the Los Angeles Rams or Cincinnati Bengals (yes, I had to Google that).

Beyond hearty winter brews (big hop-driven IPAs, high-octane Russian imperial stouts, dessert beers and the like), there are plenty of local options when it comes to easy-going, accessible lagers and pilsners — perfect for washing down all manner of football food.

Say ‘Be my Valentine’ with some big, bold flavours

It’s February, which means love is in the air — or maybe those are just ice crystals.

While we’ve been hammered by intense cold and buried under piles of snow, you can’t keep Cupid down, even if it means a touch of frostbite on the cherub’s chubby cheeks. And if Valentine’s Day is something you enjoy celebrating, either with that special someone or otherwise, there’s no tastier way to keep warm than with some choice drinks options.

If you’re hankering for a taste of warmer weather and want a sweet/tart cocktail with your sweetheart, the Farmery Estate Brewery Pink Kiss (Neepawa — $34.99/750ml bottle, Liquor Marts, brewery) might fit the bill. A lemonade-infused vodka, it’s pale cotton-candy pink in appearance and opaque, with an almost candy floss note to go with the lemon candy and boozy aromas. On its own it’s medium-sweet and viscous, with the lemon candy component bringing both acidity and sweetness, and there’s plenty of warmth on the 30 per cent alcohol finish. Mix with some soda water to bring down the heat and sweetness. (As per usual with spirits/cocktails, no rating.)

If a rich, hearty brew might get you in the mood, it’s worth checking out the Torque Brewing Bellhop Vanilla Bourbon Porter (Winnipeg — $4.25/473ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts, beer vendors). Brewed with vanilla and “aged on bourbon-soaked oak” (says the brewery), the roasted malt, dark chocolate and mocha aromas work beautifully with the vanilla bean and slightly woody, resinous bourbon notes. It’s medium-plus bodied and off-dry, with the vanilla ramping up the sweetness on the chocolate, the modest bitterness adding a hint of bite and the subtle spice of the bourbon component showing well — in fact, the 4.8 per cent alcohol is lower than you might expect with the bourbon treatment (not a bad thing). Devilishly drinkable on its own or as an after-dinner brew with your sweetie and some chocolate. ★★★★ out of 5

Go big and go home with these boxed wines

Whether you’re trying to avoid the deep freeze, are hesitant to do too much in-person shopping or are simply looking to save a few bucks after a pricey holiday season, larger-format wines are convenient and cost-effective.

But not all big bottles and bag-in-box options are created equal, and many are just plain boring — or worse. The boxed wines featured in the “bottled and blended in Canada” section of your favourite shop, for example, tend to be particularly uninspired. They’re typically made from a blend of domestic and international juice, the latter shipped here from South America or California or elsewhere in massive tanks and assembled in Canada before making their way to your favourite store. And while they tend to be good values (and some even taste not too bad), they’re not particularly inspiring, and tarnish the reputation of our producers who make wines from 100 per cent Canadian grapes.

With that in mind, I set out to figure out what else is available in larger-quantity formats but which hopefully wouldn’t sacrifice quality, with somewhat mixed results…

The Black Box line of wines are sourced from a variety of countries based on the grape variety in the box — Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, Malbec from Argentina and so on. From the Golden State comes the Black Box 2020 Pinot Grigio (California, U.S. — $40.99/3L box, Liquor Marts and beyond), which is pale straw in colour and offers pear and peach notes front and centre aromatically, with some secondary floral and spiced red apple notes that are appealing. On the light-plus bodied, almost-off-dry palate the simple apple and pear flavours dominate, with just a splash of lemon and spice before the short finish. It’s decent but a bit uninspired; if you want to try it for yourself before loading up, they also offer the same wine in a 500ml juice box-type container for $8.99. ★★1/2 out of five 

Choosing wisely key to supporting four pillars of taste

In her 2017 cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat, American chef Samin Nosrat looks at the four titular core elements, the ways in which at least one of them is key to practically any recipe/dish and how to master each to improve your home culinary skills. The book, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton, quickly became a bestseller, and went on to become the basis for Nosrat’s (excellent) four-part Netflix series of the same name.

And while there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to pairing food and wine, it can be useful to consider these four pillars of food when picking a wine to go with your meal.

SaltGenerally speaking, salty dishes do well with bright, fresh wines with good intensity of flavour. Briny, salty oysters as well as lighter fish dishes, chips, nuts or popcorn work particularly well with a bone-dry sparkling wine as well as moderately or unoaked Chardonnay, an aromatic Muscadet, a dry and racy sherry or white blends from countries such as Spain, Portugal or Greece. Red wine and salty food can be a bit trickier, but generally speaking a Pinot Noir can work on the lighter end of the spectrum, while a Syrah/Shiraz can do the trick when you want a more full-bodied red.

FatWhen it comes to richer, fattier dishes, there’s plenty of room to play with wine pairings based on texture. A creamy alfredo sauce, for example, can work brilliantly with a simple Italian white wine (Pinot Grigio, Soave, Orvieto and the like) that can cut through the fat; adversely, going with a richer wine — an oaked Chardonnay or a tropical, viscous Viognier — will ramp up the texture of both food and wine.

Some craft tipples to take you through post-holiday blues

Cold weather got you down? Post-holiday blues starting to set in? Have a rough week acting as home-schooling headmaster? State of the world leaving you needing to take the edge off?

If you answered yes to any of these (disclosure: I answered yes to all of them), fear not — Manitoba’s craft breweries continue to pump out tasty offerings to help get us through, well, whatever all this is…

If you’re looking to tune out the winter deep freeze, the Kilter Brewing Co. Paradise Oat Cream IPA (Winnipeg - $4.39/473ml can, brewery, select beer vendors) is a tropical retreat in a glass. Oats and milk sugar have been added into this double dry-hopped IPA featuring Sabro, Galaxy and Citra hops. Pale gold and hazy in appearance, it’s hard to believe no fruit was added in here as well, as the tropical fruit aromas are intense — think guava, mango, pineapple and papaya — while the underlying oat and malt notes work well. It’s medium-bodied and a touch creamy thanks in part to the milk sugar, while the big tropical fruit notes are complemented by an herbal/bitter hoppy component before the long, warm finish from the 7.2 per cent alcohol. Pass the sunscreen. 4/5

If you still have a taste for the flavours of the holiday season, the Interlake Brewing Co. Winter Sky Cranberry Hibiscus Session Ale (Winnipeg - $4.49/473ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts, select beer vendors) could be the brew for you. Medium reddish-copper in colour and hazy, there’s a lovely floral note that’s front and centre aromatically that comes with fresh cranberry and malt notes. It’s dry and crisp on the light-plus bodied palate, with the red berry and malt flavours working nicely together, and a splash of bitterness coming from both the cranberry and hops. The modest 4.5 per cent alcohol is a nice touch, making this a more delicate but delicious wintry ale that won’t overpower. Brewed at Oxus until Interlake’s Gimli facility can open later this year. 4/5

Five beverage trends we’d like to toast in 2022

As we all hunker back down into a too-familiar holding pattern of social distancing, working (and schooling… ugh) from home and favouring pickup or delivery over in-person dining and drinking, it’s easy to think this year is going to look and feel a lot like 2021.

Which got me thinking about the drinks trends of the past year — what I liked and didn’t like, and what I’d love to see going forward. Think of what follows as less of a prediction of what I think will happen in 2022 and more as a wish list that hopefully doesn’t come across as too crotchety…

More smaller-format beers. Our local craft beer scene is overflowing with a wide range of delicious options — whether you like lagers, ales, stouts, sours or radlers, there’s something for every taste.

But most of those local options come packaged in 473ml cans, which for some is just too much beer for one sitting. Only a few breweries currently offer any of their wares in smaller 355ml cans, particularly in single-serve format. If I had the option of the same beer in a 355ml can/bottle or 473ml can, I’d almost always take the smaller option.

Raise a glass, as we kick 2021 in the…

It’s safe to say that 2021 hasn’t given us much reason to celebrate. But a new year is just over a week away, so rather than toast whatever the last 12 months has been, think of New Year’s Eve as a time to raise a glass, say good riddance to this year and move on.

Rather than wait until the last minute and navigate the big crowds at your favourite bottle shop — at a time when big crowds are to be avoided if at all possible — here are some solid options to buy early for toasting the arrival of 2022 when the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31.

Those who can’t or choose not to drink alcohol don’t have to suffer through a glass of bad dealcoholized sparkling wine from the grocery store anymore. Unlike a lot of the non-alcoholic bubbly sourced from regions such as Belgium (not exactly a viticultural hotbed), the Oddbird NV Spumante (Veneto, Italy – around $20, private wine stores) is made from Glera grapes grown in the Veneto region — just like prosecco. It’s pale straw in colour and brings floral and peach notes you’d expect from regular prosecco, with modest flint and bread dough notes as well. The bubbles on this off-dry sparkler bring plenty of zip with the bright red apple skin, lemon zest and chalky flavours. It doesn’t have the longest finish (no surprise, with zero alcohol), but it’s certainly pleasant and would do well for a New Year’s toast for the under-18ers and those choosing not to drink. ★★★1/2 out of 5

Cava fans can up their game this New Year’s Eve with the Villa Conchi NV Cava Brut Reserva (Cava, Spain — $22.99, Liquor Marts and beyond). A traditional method sparkling wine made with 30 per cent each of Parellada, Xarel-lo and Macabeo as well as 10 per cent Chardonnay, this Spanish bubbly is pale gold in colour, offering lime zest, chalk, green apple, floral and lemon notes on the nose. It’s dry, light-bodied and racy, with moderate acidity and a chalky note coming along with the tart green apple and lemon-lime flavours and a modestly long finish (it’s 12 per cent alcohol). A definite step up from your typical Spanish Cava. ★★★★

Still time to capture spirits of the season

If you’re still scrambling to cross people off your holiday gift-buying list this year, don’t sweat it (well, don’t sweat it too much… yet).

Beyond the kitschy “If you can read this/bring me wine” socks, the obligatory wine charms (enough already!) or the fancy bottle stoppers, there are plenty of last-minute holiday gift ideas for the wine, beer and spirits fans in your life, particularly for those who enjoy heartier drinks to help get through the cold winter months.

Here are some options, many of which already come wrapped or adorned in gift baskets or fancy packages, that are worth a look (and a taste).

Liquor Marts still have a fair number of gift sets in stock, some of which feature products that are new to our market for the holiday season. On the beer side of things, the Chimay trilogy gift pack (Belgium — $19.49/3x330ml bottles, Liquor Marts) offers one of each of the red, white and blue-labeled Belgian brews, each slightly different, plus a nice big goblet.

Raise a glass to these sinfully seasonal suds

It’s just two weeks until the big guy in white and red pulls up on his sleigh, big bag of treats in tow.

But you don’t need to wait for Santa to enjoy and explore some bigger, richer beers with plenty of character and warmth — brews to keep you warm through the holiday season.

Here are a half dozen new local craft beers, many with festive holiday themes, to enjoy as you’re wrapping presents or relaxing by a cozy fireplace. Just make sure you save some to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve…

Like the Yule Lads — the 13 mischievous festive creatures who begin appearing tomorrow and wreak havoc through to Christmas Day — the Huldufólk are small, elusive elves of Icelandic folklore. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that the Half Pints Brewing Co. Huldufólk (Winnipeg - $3.95/355ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts, select beer vendors), an “Icelandic-style foraged ale” that celebrates these Nordic rascals, is the shortest brew of this crew. Juniper boughs and rosemary and other fun stuff was added to this Icelandic-style foraged ale, which is medium copper in colour and clear, with a white head. Aromatically there’s loads of pine, floral, herbal and resinous notes that come with a subtle malty note; on the light-plus bodied and dry palate those components resonate, with just a hint of bitterness and a not-overpowering seven per cent alcohol. The freshness on the palate here keeps things crisp and lively — perfect for a quick Skál! before tearing open the presents. 4/5

Put these terrific tipples on your Christmas list

Whether you’re looking to stock up before guests come for the holidays or are hoping to grab some gifts for friends and loved ones, there’s no sense in waiting to the last minute to cross off the holiday to-do list.

Consider what follows, then, a rough gift guide to some can’t-miss options when it comes to wine, beer and spirits…

On the beer front, the Farmery Foraged Berry Lager, infused with cranberries and crowberries foraged from the Churchill tundra, can be found exclusively in its Fa-La-La Lager Estate Select Pack of 15 beers (three each of five different beers, and four bucks off for $35.95 until the end of December at Liquor Marts, beer vendors and from the brewery) as well as in the Neepawa-area’s beer advent calendar. It’s medium gold in colour and clear, with a very slight reddish hue, while aromatically the berry notes work well with the malty component. There’s just a hint of sweetness on the light-bodied palate, allowing the berry notes to shine through without the tartness one might expect. There’s virtually no bitterness from hops to speak of, and the four per cent alcohol means the beer won’t go to your head too quickly. Worth picking up the mixed 15-pack while it’s on sale — enjoy this limited-run brew for yourself while it’s around, and serve the other lagers up to house guests… two birds, one stone. 3.5/5

If you’re in need of some no-nonsense sparkling wine — for hors d’oeuvres, a quick toast or mimosas — the Sette Ventiquattro NV Prosecco Extra Dry (Treviso, Italy — around $17, private wine stores) should fit the bill. Pale straw in colour with fine bubbles, this prosecco offers pear, red apple skin and hints of fresh flowers and lime zest aromatically. On the dry, lean, light-bodied palate those flavours persist, albeit slightly muted, with moderate acidity that provides some zip. Not overly complex, but decently tasty. 3/5

More entrants, medals mark bigger better wine industry

Over the course of the last month, WineAlign has been rolling out the results of the 2021 National Wine Awards of Canada, culminating with the Nov. 12 announcement of the country’s 25 best wineries and the award for winery of the year, which went to Malivoire Wine Company from Beamsville, Ont. (The complete list of winners in all categories can be found at winealign.com/awards.)

This year’s awards marked the 20th year the competition has taken place, and is a far cry from the modest competition co-head judge David Lawrason helped start in 2001. “There were a total 260 wineries and 2,075 wines entered this year, which was a record,” Lawrason explains. “We had 45 new or first-time entrants — wineries or cideries — this year for the first time.” (The first year, by comparison, saw 528 wineries from 71 wineries entered.)

The record number of entries meant more judges than ever were needed, including the next generation of sommeliers and industry types from across the country. “We had 26 judges in all this year, 14 men and 12 women… we had seven or eight people who hadn’t judged with us before. We thought they were all pretty excellent; I’m really keen on regenerating, on keeping that going.”

A record number of entries produced a record number of medals awarded as well. “There were 1,409 medal winners — 68 per cent of wines won either a bronze, silver, gold or platinum medal,” Lawrason notes. “Some are going to say that’s too high, but my counterargument would be that most wine should be at least bronze-level quality.”

A budget-conscious happy birthday tipple for me

What do Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Kimmel, Gerard Butler, Chris Noth (Mr. Big of Sex and the City fame) and Formula 1 driver Lando Norris have in common? Aside from being excessively wealthy and famous, they also share a birthday, which happens to be today. Which is about all they share with this not-wealthy, not-famous drinks writer.

And while we’ll all be celebrating one way or another (except maybe Norris, who will be running qualifying laps at the Brazilian Grand Prix today), my beverage budget obviously pales in comparison to the rest of us November 13ers.

I’d love to be popping a cork on a nice bottle of French Champagne, but a drinks writer/literary editor’s budget is, one might say, far more modest. My default sparkling wine for everyday enjoyment is Spanish Cava; and while the Loraxel 2015 999 Reserva Brut Nature (Penedès, Spain — around $26, private wine stores) doesn’t technically qualify as one, most of the Xarel-Lo and Pinot Noir grapes in this pink, organic and biodynamic bubbly come from the same region. It’s pale pink in colour, bringing bread dough, strawberry, rhubarb, raspberry leaf and red apple skin aromas. The 999 is a bone-dry, lively bubbly, with red apple skin, tart strawberry and lemon zest flavours, moderate acidity, a dollop of bread dough and some almost-salty and chalky notes in there as well. It’s slightly drier and more austere than most Spanish Cavas, and very stylish for the price. 4/5

If money were no object I’d love nothing more than to enjoy an austere, refined white Burgundy. But let’s be real here — money is certainly an object. So for me it’s the El Esteco 2020 Don David Reserve Chardonnay (Calchaqui Valley, Argentina — $15.99, Liquor Marts and beyond). Peach, bruised apple, lemon zest, vanilla and subtle herbal notes show well on the nose of this Argentine Chardonnay. It’s medium-plus bodied, bringing ripe tropical fruit (mango, pineapple and the like) along with peach, rich apple and subtle vanilla and spice notes from six months in oak barrels —some new, some used. A honeyed note lingers on the medium finish. Great value. 4/5

No such thing as ‘good vibrations’ with wine

For the last few weeks, I’ve been woken up every morning by the incessant beep… beep… beep… of construction equipment. Some sort of work is being done to the parking lot of a vacant business near my home, meaning all manner of dump trucks, bulldozers and other big yellow machines have been rolling back and forth for days doing, well, whatever it is they’re doing: digging up paving, hauling it away, replacing it with gravel, flattening said gravel and so on.

The noise is a nuisance, but it pales in comparison to the tooth-rattling vibrations the construction sends through the house. As I sit here in my basement office writing, my second monitor is shaking, the hi-hats on my drum kit are tinkling against each other and, most troubling of all, the few wines I have in the rack next to my desk are lightly clinking away.

Well, “most troubling” would be the potential structural damage to my house, but for the purposes of a weekly drinks column I think you see where I’m going with this.

For medium- or longer-term aging, wine does best when stored horizontally in a space that is constantly cool, dark and free of vibration. And right now, it’s that latter detail I’m most concerned about when it comes to my own stash.

Today’s wine lovers owe first fermenter debut of gratitude

While we can’t know exactly where and when the first wine was made, it’s quite likely that it was one of humankind’s happiest accidents.

Chances are wine’s origin story involves someone forgetting about some grapes or grape juice, the yeasts in the grapes naturally converting the sugar to alcohol, and then said someone inadvertently consuming the fermented grape juice. They probably noticed a strange taste to the stuff, and a subsequent pleasant but puzzling feeling in their head. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Wine has been part of our culture for thousands of years. Most wine scholars and historians trace the drink’s origins back about 9,000-10,000 years, with much of the available evidence suggesting folks in the Caucasus region (around what is now Georgia, between the Black and Caspian seas) were the first to make the stuff.

The drink then migrated west along trade routes through Turkey, Egypt, northern Africa and into Greece and Italy, before spreading north throughout the continent. European settlers brought grape vines to North and South America and Australia, adding to whatever viticulture was already taking place by Indigenous communities. That, in a nutshell, is the overall global trajectory of wine as we know it today.

Chill out, and give those reds a wee blast of cold

‘Someone just messaged me and said that most red wines are supposed to be chilled… I’ve never blocked someone so fast in my entire life.”

So John Rush recently said to his 20,000-plus followers on Twitter (@JohnRush32), with his normal dose of humour and cheek. He may be a professional athlete, best known as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but I couldn’t sit idly by without letting him know that that “someone” was right — to an extent.

My reply: “Block me if you must but 10-15 minutes in the fridge is almost always the move. Cellar temp (ideal - 16-18 C) isn’t the same as typical North American room temp…” (He did not block me, for what it’s worth.) I followed up by “threatening” to write a whole column about chilling reds (again) and, well, here we are.

The fact is, we tend to drink our red wines too warm. The long-held notion that reds should be served at “room temperature” is fine if your house is typically between 16-18 C, which historically has often been the case in older homes (often built of stone, with cooler cellars) in Europe. For most of us on this side of the pond, however, that’s not the case, particularly as temperatures outside start to drop and we crank up the furnace. (To be fair, Rush let me know he hadn’t yet turned on the heat, so his place was currently about 15 C, a great temperature to drink your reds.)

True North's 'Craft Beer Corner' pays lip service to the notion of craft

While sports and beer typically go together like milk and cookies, a recent announcement by the owner of a local pro sports teams has left Winnipeg craft-beer lovers with a bad taste in their mouths.

On Oct. 13, the True North Sports & Entertainment (TNSE) announced some updates to the concessions at Canada Life Centre, home of the Winnipeg Jets and big-name concerts. Among the changes was the introduction of a “Craft Beer Corner” to be located outside Section 127.

If you’re wondering which of the roughly two dozen local craft breweries, brew pubs and/or contract brewers will be featured there, it appears the answer is: none of them. The Craft Beer Corner will feature beers by Calgary’s Banded Peak Brewing and Vancouver’s Stanley Park Brewing.

Now, both Banded Peak and Stanley Park make some fine beers, some of which were recently featured in mystery boxes from the Flatlander’s Beer Festival. But calling the spot “Craft Beer Corner” is about as murky as a hazy IPA.

Five days, 400 wines, one certainty

Between the Winnipeg Wine Festival, trips to wine regions, judging at competitions and my own “homework,” in an average year I’d taste somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 wines.

Needless to say, that number plummeted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and all wine-related events and travel came to a grinding halt.

So it was a bit of a shock to the system — and a real workout for my nose, teeth, tongue and gums — to head to Penticton, B.C., at the beginning of October to judge at the 2021 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada.

This year’s competition, the 20th, boasted the highest number of entries yet from all parts of the country — a whopping 2,089 reds, whites, rosés, sparkling wines, fortified wines, meads, ciders and fruit wines. Over the course of five days I tasted around 400 wines at the competition, as well as at evening visits with producers at area wineries.

Party hearty

Fall beer season, as detailed a couple of weeks ago in this space, is all about richer, heavier and maltier notes rather than the light, crisp and refreshing sips of summer.

And as cooler temperatures set in, my preferences for wines tends to shift in a similar fashion — the easy-drinking, simple and refreshing whites and rosés take a back seat to heartier, more complex and often robust reds and whites.

Rather than crack a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio, for example, my first choice for white wines in autumn tend to have more body and richness, sometimes with a touch of spice and maybe some oak. The Nuevo Mondo 2017 Reserva Viognier (Maipo Valley, Chile — $14.99, Liquor Marts and beyond), for example, is an organic, single-vineyard white wine (made at a carbon-neutral facility) that’s pale gold in colour and brings papaya, mango, spice, mandarin orange and peach aromas. It’s medium-bodied, mainly dry and slightly viscous, with tropical fruit notes that work well with the orange candy and baking spice notes before the medium-length finish. There’s enough texture and spice to stand up to most fall dishes, although a fresher vintage would add some pep. 3/5

In a similar capacity but with brighter, more intense flavours is the Laurenz V. 2019 Singing Grüner Veltliner (Austria — around $25, private wine stores). Pale straw in colour, this Austrian white wine (made from the Grüner Veltliner grape, Austria’s flagship variety) brings delightful and fresh ripe pear, peach, cantaloupe and red apple notes on the nose, with hints of floral and spice in there as well. It’s mainly dry and lighter-bodied, delivering a big fruit salad of flavours along with lemon candy and modest spice on the medium-length finish that comes with zippy acidity. Terrific on its own, or haul this to your Thanksgiving dinner for a killer pairing. 4.5/5

Put away the pilsners; fall is time for heartier fare

Our red-hot summer has seen all manner of radlers, sours, pilsners, goses and other fun, fruity and fresh brews being made by local breweries, brew pubs and contract brewers to help beat the heat.

But with the nights ever cooler and daytime temps no longer soaring, it’s time for my favourite time of the year when it comes to beer — fall. (Aside: my ideal beer season does not include the plethora of pumpkin beers that flood the market every October.)

Check out the six fall/fall-ish local brews reviewed this week for heavier, heartier flavours, all of which would work well with typical autumnal fare. And if you’re still thirsty for more, the Winnipeg Free Press Brew Box features two seasonal brews by Trans Canada Brewing Co., some tasty treats, glassware and more, all for $29. Grab one and join our virtual tasting with me, brewery folks and others on Thursday at 7 p.m. To pick one up (if they’ve not yet sold out) and join in on the fun, visit wfp.to/tcbbrewbox.

Oh, and for the wine lovers out there, the Winnipeg Wine Festival is bringing in a couple of live events for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic wrought havoc on all such gatherings. Their A Taste of Europe event takes place Thursday at 7 p.m. at Fort Gibraltar, and features more than 40 wines from Germany, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. If Cabernet Sauvignon’s a favourite red grape of yours, their Life is a Cabernet will please your palate — it takes place Thursday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Tickets for each of the events are $75 — to buy them and for more information, see winnipegwinefestival.com.

The new big cheese in wine

The Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS) has a new top taster.

Alex Allardyce of the Manitoba Club took top honours at the 2021 Best Sommelier of Manitoba Competition, a two-day event that saw her square off against Danny King of Deer + Almond and Felix Faundez-Rubio of Kenaston Wine Market.

Day 1, held behind closed doors at Jones & Company Wine Merchants on Sept. 7, featured an extensive written exam and blind tasting, while the service portion of the competition was held Sept. 8 at Hy’s Steakhouse and featured more blind tasting, a mock restaurant food-and-wine pairing, cocktail making and more, in front of a small live audience and a panel of judges.

Allardyce will take on other regional CAPS winners when she heads to the Okanagan Valley in mid-October for the national championship. Previous local winners have included Sean Dolenuck of La Boutique del Vino and Domer Rafael, also of the Manitoba Club.

Reading, writing and red?

The school supplies have been purchased, the wardrobe updated, the lunches made and shoved into an overstuffed backpack — it’s back-to-school season. And while sending the kids off to class may not make you want to squeeze into a desk, take notes, do homework and write tests, you can plot your own learning curve through the delicious world of wine (or beer or spirits, for that matter).

Even after nearly 16 years of writing this column, a decade before that working in wine shops, trips to wine-producing regions on four continents, judging at national and international wine competitions, earning my Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 3 award in wines, tasting upwards of 2,000 wines a year, etc., I learn something new, good or bad, every time I open a bottle (or box or can).

Wine is a subject unlike almost any other, touching on virtually every area taught in schools today. There’s plenty of science — (plant) biology, geography, climate, geology and chemistry all factor in to what ends up in your glass. There’s history — wine has been made and consumed for thousands of years, with some families making reds and whites for generations, the techniques used to make the stuff changing (and then changing back, and then changing yet again) over time.

There are the ways in which wine connects people (social studies), the marketing of wine (language arts), the culinary connections with food (home economics), the dollars-and-cents of the business of wine (math), the art adorning many labels and, if you really want to stretch the educational component, the physical education of picking grapes, opening bottles, crushing fruit, lugging barrels and hoses around a winery (or, in my case, hucking cases of wine around in a store).

Dashed hopes in France turn to fruitful endeavour at home

It’s a hot day in late July, and Jesse Oberman is up in my backyard cherry tree.

The 29-year-old Oberman is on the hunt for all manner of backyard fruit for his Next Friend Cider. Hoping to make use of forgotten or neglected fruit that would otherwise go to waste, he wants all manner of apples, cherries, pears, stone fruit — you name it.

Except it turns out he doesn’t want my cherries. They’re a few days too ripe for his purposes — some are sweet (too ripe), others have been visited by bugs. It’s one of the few times Oberman’s had to turn down fruit offered up to him — not something he likes to do, given his desire to reduce food waste.

Were it not for the COVID-19 pandemic, Next Friend wouldn’t likely exist. After spending time in the U.K. completing his sommelier training and working harvests at wineries every year since 2016, he and his partner were angling to set up shop in France and start making their own wines. But as coronavirus cases rose dramatically in France, they figured coming back to Winnipeg was the safe bet, and hightailed it home.

Without a corkscrew? Try these options

For the first time this summer, I’m turning on the out-of-office messages on my inbox, jamming my car full of food, drinks and kids (note to self: don’t forget the kids) and heading to a cottage for a week of rest, relaxation and, if the not-so-sunny weather forecast is to be believed, reading.

And while there’d probably be room somewhere in my little hatchback for a nice collection of wines to haul to the cottage, keeping it simple and enjoying some fun summer drinks feels more like the thing to do. In that spirit, here’s a cross-section of sippables I sampled to potentially take to the lake...

The Cottage Springs Beverage Co. Ontario Peach (Toronto — $2.99/355ml can) vodka soda is fairly straightforward — it’s pale clear in appearance and aromatically brings peach juice/candy notes. It’s devoid of sugar and bone dry, yet unlike many unsweetened vodka soda drinks, it isn’t boring — rather, the peach candy and peach skin flavours are refreshing, thanks in part to the bright effervescence. It’s tastier than most vodka soda drinks I’ve tried, and would surely help beat the heat on a sunny day.

Produced in Manitoba, the Icy Blue Mixed Berries (Winnipeg — $2.68/355ml bottle, Liquor Marts) is an interesting drink. It’s devoid of colour and clear, with big, bright blueberry-candy aromas. It’s off-dry with an almost-viscous texture, and a prominent raspberry candy and blueberry note on the palate that’s kind of fun. At just three per cent alcohol you don’t have to worry about overdoing it here; it would likely work well mixed with some sparkling wine (or soda water) and fresh fruit.

Trophy tipples

Manitoba Olympians aren’t the only ones who have brought home medals this summer — a pair of local drinks producers also have new additions to their trophy cases following wins in national and international competitions.

Shrugging Doctor Beverage Co. nabbed a double gold medal at the 2021 All Canadian Wine Championships, held in Ontario’s Prince Edward County in mid-July, for its apple cinnamon mead. Made from Manitoba honey, crushed apples and cinnamon, the mead was the lone Manitoba winner in the competition, which featured more than 1,300 entries from 217 Canadian wineries.

The apple cinnamon mead was one of five double gold medals in the mead category, essentially meaning they were the best in the category. The top red wine was the Dark Horse Vineyard red Meritage blend from B.C., while fellow Okanagan Valley producer Wild Goose took the top white wine spot with their Gewürztraminer.

Shrugging Doctor’s apple cinnamon mead is available for $16.49 per 750ml bottle at Liquor Marts and via their Brooklyn St. production facility.

Wine regions might escape nearby wildfires, but grapes may suffer

Step outside these days and you might find you’ve got a tickle in your throat, your eyes start stinging and it’s a little tougher to breathe than normal. Smoke is doing quite the number on the air quality in Manitoba, and in many parts of the wine-producing world (particularly in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley and in California) they’re experiencing a similar smoky haze as we are here.

And if your clothes pick up that smoky smell after a short time outside, imagine what it can do to grapes hanging in smoke-blanketed vineyards for days or weeks.

Already suffering from abnormally hot and dry conditions, which impacts the amount of water vines can obtain in the soil, many wine-producing regions (B.C. in particular) have also been in the vicinity of some serious wildfires. And while physical damage to vineyards has so far been minimal — especially compared to the devastation wrought by wildfires in California wine country in 2020 — the prevalence of thick, lingering smoke from forest fires can cause nearly as much risk to a grape harvest as the flames themselves.

What is called smoke taint occurs in grapes when the fruit is in the process of ripening; grapes and vine leaves absorb compounds in the air called volatile phenols that are responsible for those smoky odours. But these volatile phenols aren’t usually detectable in the grapes right away; a producer standing in a smoky vineyard and tasting grapes, for example, may not be able to detect any smoke taint in the fruit on the vine.

Sip outside your comfort zone

There was a time where I’d eat the same thing for breakfast almost every day: half a bagel, toasted and with peanut butter, half a small glass of orange juice (always in a plastic IKEA cup, for some reason) and a coffee with a touch of milk.

We’re creatures of habit — we fall into a routine, and the default is to go with things we know and like, be it at breakfast or beyond.

This is certainly the case when it comes to wine. In the summer, many turn to lighter, fresher white wines. Peruse most of the shelves at local Liquor Marts and, to a lesser extent, private wine stores and you’ll find a sea of citrusy Sauvignon Blancs and plenty of palatable Pinot Grigios — the lighter whites of choice for much of the wine-buying public.

These are reliable, safe wines — we know what they’re going to taste like. With thousands of options out there, exploring new varieties can feel overwhelming, especially when you don’t know what a wine is going to deliver until you try it. You’ll never go wrong with what you know — and there’s nothing wrong with that.

New brews to peruse

If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of hosting your own beer festival, now’s your chance.

In a normal year, beer lovers would have swarmed through the doors of Canada Life Centre this past June in search of the newest lagers and ales as part of the Flatlanders Beer Festival. But of course this year, like 2020, has been anything but normal.

And while last year’s festival was scratched entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year the fest is going ahead, albeit with a virtual twist — and a bit of mystery.

Starting Wednesday, July 28, 11 different mixed packs of brews will be available at select Liquor Marts for folks to enjoy as part of the 2021 Flatlanders Beer Festival At Home. Festival-exclusive mixed packs from breweries such as Calgary’s Banded Peak, Vancouver’s Stanley Park, Toronto’s Lost Craft and even Irish titan Guinness are all part of the fest, as are packs from locals such as Trans Canada Brewing Co. and Little Brown Jug. Many of the boxes feature new/new-to-Manitoba brews and, in some cases, glassware or other fun beer-related trinkets.

Fizzy drinks for a sizzling summer

Summer 2021 has been a sizzler so far. So perhaps it’s fitting that as drink trends go, there’s a fun, fresh and fizzy drink typically served ice cold that’s been red hot.

Hard seltzers are all the rage. They’re typically lower-calorie, low-to no-sugar drinks with subtle fruit flavours (natural or artificial) that offer an alternative to the sweeter coolers out there. White Claw started the craze a few years back, and since then the category has exploded, occupying a growing amount of shelf space at Liquor Marts and beer vendors.

And while they needn’t be complex, hard seltzers don’t have to be boring (although some certainly are). One of the newest local entries into the hard seltzer market is Nifty Drinks, a joint venture between Patent 5 Distillery and Nonsuch Brewing Co. They’re the latest arrival to Manitoba’s crowded hard seltzer market, which includes a handful of other locals. Fort Garry Brewing Co. has gotten in on the game, Shrugging Doctor Beverage Company created the Whiteshell line of vodka soda drinks, One Great City launched the Shoreline brand and Barn Hammer Brewing Co. is getting set to launch its Super Fun Beverage Co. line of seltzers.

As neighbours in the east end of Winnipeg’s Exchange District, it quickly became apparent to Nonsuch (125 Pacific Ave.) and Patent 5 (108 Alexander Ave.) that their respective philosophies aligned — it was just a matter of finding a reason to collaborate.

The Spit Take: Post Malone’s new rosé, Maison No. 9

Jon Bon Jovi’s got one. Brangelina’s got one. And now American rapper Post Malone’s got one too.

No, this isn’t about gold records or statues for outstanding work in entertainment — it’s about pink wine.

Post Malone’s Maison No. 9 is the latest celebrity-driven rosé to hit store shelves, following the success of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Miraval wine and Jon Bon Jovi’s Diving Into Hampton Water.

They’re all made in France — Bon Jovi’s wine (formerly available in Manitoba, but now seemingly out of stock) is sourced from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the south, while the grapes for Miraval come from Brangelina’s estate in the Côtes de Provence region.

Chardonnay shift

A few days ago the Decanter World Wine Awards, one of the globe’s biggest and most prestigious, announced the winners of its 2021 competition. More than 18,000 wines from 56 countries were entered in the competition, with some of the wine industry’s smartest brains and best palates judging. (I guess my invite got lost in the mail.)

Of those 18,000-plus wines, only 50 received Best in Show awards, the competition’s highest honour. Among the 50, just one Canadian wine (not available in Manitoba, sadly) nabbed the elusive honour — the Hidden Bench 2018 Felseck Vineyard Chardonnay, which scored an impressive 97 points out of 100. It was one of just a handful of Chardonnays — most of which came from cooler-climate regions of the world — to earn top honours. (For all the winners, see wfp.to/decanter.)

Chardonnay is one of those grape varieties that thrives in virtually any climate where wine grapes can be grown, and in practically any type of soil. It’s one of the reasons it’s the second most widely planted white wine grape in the world (after Airén, which is planted widely in Spain and used mainly for brandy production).

Chardonnay’s widespread popularity has been a double-edged sword — while there are plenty of very good examples out there, most wine lovers have encountered some not-so-great examples of the grape. Back in the 1990s, many growers went through a phase of making excessively ripe, buttery Chardonnay with grapes grown in hot climates and with excessive aging in new oak barrels. Many of these wines also went through malolactic fermentation, the conversion of the tart malic acid to softer lactic acid, adding to that richness.

Trio of local restaurants honoured for wine selections

Three local eateries have landed on this year’s list of the world’s top wine programs in Wine Spectator magazine.

The awards offer three different levels of merit — the Award of Excellence (1,673 winners worldwide), Best of Award of Excellence (1,141 winners) and Grand Award (just 97 winners) — for restaurants “whose wine lists offer interesting selections, are appropriate to their cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers.”

New to the list this year, and in its first year of operation, is Preservation Hall Eatery + Wine Bar, which opened their doors during the pandemic for the first time and have only had in-person guests for about half of that time. It and Hy’s Steakhouse, which has made the list since 2003, earned the Award of Excellence.

Stalwart steakhouse 529 Wellington, meanwhile, took a Best of Award of Excellence — they‘ve earned awards from Wine Spectator every year since 2003.

Coast-to-coast quaffing sensations

When it comes to the amount of ink spilled (or characters typed, as it were) on Canadian drinks in this space, most of the focus tends to be on either the latest releases from local craft brewers, or on wines from Ontario or B.C. Which makes sense, given the amount of shelf space each occupies on shelves of Liquor Marts, private wine stores and beer vendors.

But if you look hard enough, you can find some sort of boozy beverage in our market from every province (not including the northern) territories, particularly wandering through the beer aisles.

● In addition to the abundance of wine coming from the Okanagan Valley, B.C. probably has the largest contingent of non-Manitoba beer in our province. The Phantom Beer Co. Mindfuzz India Pale Ale (Vancouver - $3.96/473ml can, Liquor Marts and select beer vendors) is medium straw in appearance and hazy, with a white head. Aromatically it brings deep malty notes, with biscuit, lemon zest, pear and mango notes in there as well. That malty note persists on the medium-bodied palate, with not as much of the pronounced bitterness one might expect from a high-octane IPA. Rather, the biscuit, bread dough and tropical fruit flavours come through with just hints of peppery hops on the long, 6.2 per cent finish. 3/5

● Most of the tipples we get from Alberta come in the form of whisky, but there are a couple brewskis that grace our shelves as well. The Grizzly Paw Brewing Co. Rundlestone Session Ale (Canmore, Alta. - $4.04/473ml can, select beer vendors) is pale gold in colour and mainly clear with a white head and brings, according to the can, “IPA characteristics” with lower alcohol than your typical India pale ale (hence the fact it’s called a “session” ale — you’re able to drink more of them in a single session of sipping). Aromatically it’s malt-driven, with more subtle resinous notes coming with ripe grapefruit and floral notes on the nose. On the light-plus bodied palate the hop notes are quite subtle; instead the malt and tropical notes are front and centre instead, while the 4.5 per cent alcohol is mild. 3/5

For Father’s Day this year, why not think pink?

Every year in mid-May, my inbox starts filling up with email pitches from PR/marketing companies and beverage sales reps about the ideal drinks-related gifts for Father’s Day. Then in early June come the targeted ads on social media about Father’s Day. These campaigns typically feature more conventionally “manly” drinks, urging you to buy Dad big, assertive whiskies for deep contemplation, a high-octane, bourbon-barrel aged red wine, a hoppy triple IPA and so on.

Clearly there must still be a market for the whole manly-drinks-for-men thing, but I just don’t get the appeal. Which is part of the reason why, for Father’s Day 2021, this dad’s drinking pink.

There’s no wine to better beat the heat than a fresh, crisp glass of rosé. A big, “room temperature” oaky red is never going to taste as good in a sunny backyard as a lighter, fruit-driven wine, be it white, rosé or otherwise. Most rosés are aged in stainless steel tanks rather than oak barrels, which allows the fruit flavours really shine. And pink wines typically aren’t high in alcohol like some boozy reds (and whites) — a typical rosé lands with between 12 and 13.5 per cent alcohol.

And while you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, you can, in fact, often judge a rosé by appearances. Rosés from the Côtes de Provence region, for example, are usually quite pale pink in colour, and typically lighter-bodied and with more delicate flavours. Rosés that are deeper pink in colour, meanwhile, offer more body, more fruit-forward flavours and sometimes just a hint of sweetness. In other words, there’s a lot more to rosés than your run-of-the-mill (and often boring) White Zinfandel.

Wines in Spain are anything but plain

Spain is known for its rustic fare and equally earthy wines, and no region has defined Spanish wine more profoundly over time than Rioja.

Located inland in northern Spain, Rioja is sheltered from most of the cooling maritime influences of the Atlantic Ocean by the Cantabrian mountains. The bulk of the vineyards in Rioja line the banks of the region’s Ebro River, and most of these vineyards are planted with the region’s signature red wine grape — Tempranillo. When well-made, Tempranillo-based wines deliver tart red and black berry flavours, earthy and cedar notes along with plenty of acidity and tannin, meaning the best examples have solid mid- to longer-term cellaring potential.

Many Rioja wines labels are adorned with an old-school classification system that indicates how, and how long, they were aged both in oak barrels and in the bottle. A wine designated a Crianza (typically in the $18-$20 price range) must be aged for at least two years before release, at least six months of which must be in barrel; Reserva wines ($20-$25-ish) must be aged for three years, and at least one of those years is required to be in oak.

Gran Reservas, made only in the best vintages, must be aged for five years before release, and the wine must spend at least two of those years in barrel. As top-tier reds go, they’re probably the best value out there. Gran Reservas typically only cost between $30-$40, which is remarkable given the quality of the wine and the amount of time and labour involved in their production.

Summer is shaping up to be a scorcher, so crack a cold one while you grill

Back in the days of lawn darts, stubby beer bottles and cheap aluminum lawn chairs, barbecued fare consisted primarily of either burgers or hotdogs, blackened by the flame of lighter-fluid-soaked charcoal briquettes. (At least that’s how this child of the 1980s remembers things.)

But our culinary landscape (and lawn chair selection) has greatly expanded; adventurous grillers are now barbecuing all manner of dishes, with delicious and exciting results.

The beer landscape has also changed big-time — we’re not confined to the run-of-the-mill lagers from big corporate breweries anymore. Local brewers are pumping out new styles of brews at a pace that can be tough to keep up with — a good problem to have.

No matter what you’re grilling, there’s a beer to go with that. Here are a half-dozen new brews to pair with a wide range of grilled fare on a hot day. For those not brewed in their own facility, the brewery where they are made (and available) is noted.

Longing for social sips

For over a year, we’ve soldiered on as best as we can in the hopes we can return to some sense of normalcy. But every once in a while, a reminder of the Before Times — you know, pre-pandemic life — can feel like a real punch in the gut.

For me, the most recent instance came when I popped by Half Pints Brewing Co.’s Roseberry Street brewery and tap room to grab some of their Bikey McBikeface (see review). While standing and briefly chatting with staff in the empty tap room, the smell of grains fermenting in the brewery’s stainless steel tanks seeped through my mask, setting off an intense wave of nostalgia for some of the things I’ve not been able to enjoy for so many months.

A pint of beerLocal breweries, Liquor Marts and beer vendors are doing their best to keep thirsty Manitobans’ beer fridges full, and we can even order beer (and wine) from local restaurants with our picked up or delivered meal.

But there isn’t a bottle or can of beer that can scratch the proverbial itch of enjoying a freshly poured pint of draught beer. The last beer on tap I can remember enjoying was last summer, outdoors, at Cargo Bar in Assiniboine Park. And with warmer weather coming back, sipping foamy pints with pals is all I can think about.

Wines to weather the storm, and the pandemic, this wet long weekend

‘We really needed this rain.”

Prepare to hear that old chestnut a few times this May long weekend. Of course it’s true — conditions in Manitoba have been dangerously dry all spring.

But combine the wet and cool conditions with the COVID-related restrictions, and this Victoria Day weekend might seem like a bit of a drag. It’s certainly not conducive to writing about fresh, crisp white wines, rosés or lighter lagers for backyard enjoyment — especially when we can’t have our pals over to enjoy some libations.

Instead, here are a few heartier wines for hunkering down with a board game, finishing that book you’ve been reading, working on a crossword puzzle, binging on Netflix or puttering/house cleaning this weekend…

Wonderful wine options to make mom’s day

Sometimes the best ideas come at the worst possible time.

In thinking about wines for Mother’s Day, I had what I thought was a revelation — I’d sit down with my mom and taste a bunch of wines with her for the column, and have her provide her tasting notes along with my own. Fun idea, right?

Except for, you know, the whole COVID thing, and the no gathering and what-have-you.

Instead, for this year I figured I’d try some wines I think my mom would like, based in part on what she typically has on hand. I also asked her about her favourite styles of wines and grapes. And for fun, I threw in a couple wines that would be new to her but that I reckon she’d enjoy.

Neighbourly approach

At a time when many local businesses are struggling, a new neighbour has set up shop in Winnipeg’s craft beer scene.

Good Neighbour Brewing Co. is the project of co-owners Morgan Wielgosz and Amber Sarraillon, who met while working at Toronto’s Amsterdam Brewery before relocating to Winnipeg (where Sarraillon is originally from) and becoming part of Trans Canada Brewing Co.’s team.

But Wielgosz (who handles the brewing) and Sarraillon (who deals with marketing) had plans of their own — to start their own brewery. “It’s been a longtime dream of Morgan and me,” says Sarraillon. “We’ve been in the beer industry for 25 years combined; we’ve been dreaming about it since Day 1.”

The pair began talking in earnest about starting their own brewery at the beginning of 2021. “There was a time we were questioning whether we were going to move back to Toronto or start this thing here,” says Wielgosz. “As soon as we started feeling it out and talking to people here about what we wanted to do, the wave of support and love we felt from people was really gratifying and reassuring.”

Wine in space: one small sip for man

Researchers in France’s Bordeaux region are studying the effect of sending wine into space — this is after a case of 2000 Chateau Petrus, as well as grapevine cuttings, returned to Earth after 14 months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

A research project undertaken by Space Cargo Unlimited and the University of Bordeaux’s oenological department saw 12 bottles of the premium red wine and the grapevine cuttings sent up to the ISS in November 2019; they returned to Earth in January of this year. The plan is to do a chemical analysis of the effects of the absence of gravity on the wines and vines.

In the meantime, reports Decanter, in March a dozen tasters were offered the chance to taste the space wines blind against their Earth-bound counterparts. Jane Anson, a Bordeaux expert and Decanter’s correspondent in the region, noted the space wines seemed to be have evolved slightly more quickly than those that didn’t make the trip to the ISS.

Popular Argentine wine gets day in the sun

It’s a grape whose origins trace back to southwest France, but whose rise to prominence came in the late 20th century thanks to grape growers and winemakers in one South American country — producers who planted the dark red grape in high-altitude vineyards nestled against one of the world’s most breathtaking mountain ranges.

That range is the Andes Mountains, the country is Argentina and the grape, of course, is Malbec. And thanks the Wines of Argentina trade organization, Malbec gets its day in the spotlight every April 17, which they have decreed Malbec World Day.

Since the first grape cuttings arrived in Argentina in the mid-1800s, the country has grown to be the sixth biggest wine-producing country in the world. There are now nearly 500,000 acres planted to wine-producing grapes in Argentina; of that number, more than 100,000 acres are Malbec vines, and three-quarters of the world’s Malbec wines come from Argentina.

In the late 1990s, Argentine producers saw the success Chilean wineries were enjoying globally, and shifted their focus to improving the quality of their wines — particularly their Malbec. They adopted Malbec as their signature grape, and have since built their reputation around the red grape variety as one that offers a great quality-to-price ratio when made well.

Heady news for craft brews in province

In 2014, the provincial government scaled back the amount of red tape involved in opening a brewery in the province. Not suprisingly, the subsequent months saw so many new breweries and brew pubs take shape that it was hard to keep up.

Since then growth in the industry has gone in fits and spurts, but between the change in regulations and today we’ve seen the number of craft breweries, brew pubs and contract brewers in the province go from two to nearly two dozen.

Most of the recent developments have been outside the Winnipeg’s city limits — Rendezvous Brewery & Taproom opened its doors in Morden last year, Black Wheat Brewing is putting the finishing touches on its Brandon brewery and tap room (while brewing at Barn Hammer’s Wall St. location in Winnipeg), and Whiteshell Brewpub is nearly ready to scale up operations in Falcon Lake.

But the action in Winnipeg is starting to heat up again — this year is looking to bring a bumper crop of fun new developments for craft beer lovers in the city. Here are some of the developments coming in the brew news department:

Corn and oak: the basics of bourbon

Any list of the most iconic drinks created in the U.S. would have to include the likes of white Zinfandel for wine, West Coast IPA for beer, the iconic Coca-Cola and, of course, the country’s signature spirit — bourbon.

While not all American whiskey is bourbon, any product found on shelves labelled bourbon is made in the U.S. Kentucky is the birthplace of bourbon, and is still the home of most of America’s distilleries making the stuff, although there are examples to be found in our market from Tennessee, Texas, Illinois and beyond.

(Side note: With the exception of a couple American distillers, producers in the U.S. and Ireland spell whiskey with an “e” while the rest of the world does not. This kind of strange detail is what drives copy editors to drink. (Indeed, .ed)

What sets bourbon apart from most of the world’s other whiskies is that its base ingredient is corn. While whiskies made in Canada and other countries can also include corn, for an American whiskey to be labelled bourbon it must be made of at least 51 per cent corn, with the remainder of the drink comprising malted barley and wheat or rye. A whiskey labelled “straight bourbon” must also be aged in charred new oak barrels and have a minimum of 40 per cent alcohol, among other regulations.

Some elixirs to help ease that Zoom burnout…

It’s taken the better part of a year, but I’ve finally been stricken with the second-worst affliction of our current COVID-19 pandemic — Zoom burnout. Between virtual wine tastings, Winnipeg Whisky Festival online events, school conferences, work meetings and more, I’ve navigated more than two-dozen Zoom calls this month, averaging two per day in the last week alone.

Trying to combat the effects of Zoom burnout, I ventured out to some Liquor Marts, beer vendors and private wine stores in the hopes some socially distant retail therapy might clear the virtual video fog from my brain. And while it’s too soon to say whether it worked, here are some new, new-to-me and/or recently returned products that caught my eye. And whether by happy accident or otherwise, most would work well with your typical Easter dinner fare, should you be planning such a thing, virtually or otherwise...

New to the market is the Trans Canada Brewing Co. Horseshoe Hefeweizen (Winnipeg - $3.69/473ml cans, brewery, select beer vendors). Pale gold in colour and hazy with a white head, this German-style wheat beer brings banana candy, clove, pepper and malty notes on the nose. It’s mainly dry and light-plus bodied, with bright banana and clove notes showing nicely on the palate, a hint of pepperiness, low bitterness and, at a modest 4.5 per cent alcohol, a short-ish finish. Would work well with your Easter turkey or ham. 4/5

Slightly more robust is the most recent iteration of the Half Pints Saison de la Ceinture Fléchée (Winnipeg - $4.59/473ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts, select beer vendors), the first locally produced saison to hit the Manitoba market when it was introduced some years ago. It’s bright orange-gold and slightly hazy in appearance, with a vibrant white head; aromatically there’s a bright peppery note that comes with the apple skin, malt and slightly toasty notes. It’s medium-bodied and on the palate the zippy effervescence accentuates that peppery note, the apple skin component hangs around in the background, and there’s some moderate bitterness on the medium-length finish (it’s 5.5 per cent alcohol). It’s still one of Half Pints’ best seasonals, and would work with any Easter dish — even lamb. 4.5/5

Tough to pick greatest grape, but here goes…

Writing about wine is sort of like being a doctor. Well, in some ways. OK, really only in one way — when people find out what you do, they often pepper you with questions about your work or solicit advice. In the case of a wine writer, it’s typically something along the lines of: What’s your favourite wine? What’s the best-value wine?

For the latter question, it’s easy enough to rattle off the names of a stalwart good-bang-for-the-buck wines. But I usually tiptoe around the former question about a “favourite wine” with some sort of diplomatic answer — something along the lines of “Well, I’m always trying new things for the column” or “It depends on what I’m in the mood for/what I’m eating/on the weather,” and so on.

But make me pick a favourite grape variety under threat of… well, something bad, and it wouldn’t be that tough — I’d pick Syrah (also known as Shiraz). It’s the one grape variety I seek out most often when left to my own devices. Why? Read on…

Compatibility with food. In addition to the typical big cherry and blackberry flavours that Syrah often delivers, the grape often imparts savoury olive, smoky and meaty notes, and a peppery edge to boot — especially in Old World or cooler-climate examples. Those characteristics means Syrah can work well with stronger flavours found in game (venison, boar, etc.) as well as with lamb. New World/warmer-climate examples that are made in more of a fruit-forward style, meanwhile, tend to work well with plenty of everyday fare such as burgers, ribs and pizza.

Wine lover opened industry’s borders

The next time you drink a bottle of wine from California, Australia, Chile or pretty much anywhere other than France, you can raise a glass to Steven Spurrier. The British wine personality and merchant, who died March 9 at age 79, forever changed the way we perceive wines made beyond France’s borders.

Spurrier is best known for having arranged the groundbreaking 1976 wine tasting dubbed the Judgment of Paris, which brought together some of France’s top wine professionals for a blind tasting that pitted top French white wines from Burgundy against some of the better California Chardonnays, and saw premier reds from Bordeaux tasted against some the Golden State’s best Cabernet Sauvignons.

At the time, Spurrier was a wine merchant in Paris; he organized the tasting after a trip to California. At the time, France was the gold standard when it came to fine wine, and everyone (Spurrier included) expected the French wines to prevail.

In each of the tastings, a California wine took top honours, rocking the wine world and setting the stage for the global wine industry as we know it. American wines could no longer only be thought of as cheap plonk (although much cheap plonk still exists). Producers in all corners of the wine-producing world saw their premium bottlings had the potential to be as good or better than the old French masters.

Virtual tastings next best thing to being there

For the last many months, the bulk of our interactions with those outside our household has involved looking nice from the waist up, ensuring we’re well-lit and tidying up our backgrounds. The grind of the ever-present virtual meeting is enough to drive practically anyone to drink.

In the absence of the ability to raise a glass with friends, attend in-person wine/beer/spirits tastings and so on, virtual events have become the new norm. Thankfully, there are plenty of forthcoming online local tastings for practically every palate that should be both educational and fun.

The Winehouse, for example, is running a March Madness series of tastings with 12 products from all corners of the wine-making world, including Croatia and Macedonia.

Many of the Kenaston Boulevard store’s Zoom meetings feature winemakers and product representatives. The only cost is that of the product, which can be purchased online for pickup or delivery. For a complete list of tastings, dates and Zoom codes see wfp.to/winehouse.

Three bottles of wine, $33 and it's not vinegar, so... win!

For many of us, money’s a bit tight right now — the credit cards are still quivering from holiday gift-buying, it’s tax time, there’s that little global pandemic, etc.

So opening the mailbox to the sight of a little red envelope that comes once a year was cause for a minor fist pump. That’s right — it’s Co-op rebate/equity cheque time.

The cheque that landed in my mailbox last year for 2019, was just north of $77 — about what I expected, given my driving habits and my daily commute to the Free Press in a fuel-efficient compact car.

The past year, however, was a different story. In early March, gas prices plummeted to 60-ish cents a litre, and stayed low for a couple of months. Around the same time, there was the increase in time spent working from home.

Whisky fest a virtual affair this time around

The Winnipeg Whisky Festival has unveiled its 2021 lineup, with online/virtual tasting events beginning Wednesday that feature products from across the whisky-making world.

A total of 14 virtual events are being offered for the 2021 festival, with a wide range of themed tastings that fall into two categories — exclusive festival tasting package events and what have been called “discover and learn virtual events.” The former features packages that include whiskies, glassware and more, as well as access to a corresponding online tasting. The latter group is a collection of six free virtual tastings; a suggested shopping list and access to the virtual tasting is provided.

Both groups of events feature brand ambassadors, mixologists and experts who will guide attendees through the history of the products, weigh in on the whisky-making process, provide advice on crafting the perfect whisky cocktail and more. Participating distilleries include J.P. Wiser’s, Forty Creek and Crown Royal from Canada, Ardbeg, Tomatin and Johnnie Walker from Scotland and Maker’s Mark from Kentucky.

Festival tasting package events range in price from $19.99 to $184.99, and run from Feb. 24 through to March 25. A portion of the proceeds from the Winnipeg Whisky Festival, which is presented by Manitoba Liquor Marts, will go to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

Wrap yourself in a warming red

On a hot summer day, there’s nothing quite like a crisp sparkling wine, a well-chilled white on a patio or a glass of rosé in the backyard.

But summer this ain’t. Caught in the clutches of a polar vortex, summer sipping seems a lifetime away.

With that in mind, here are a half-dozen hearty red wines to help you hunker down and take the edge off the bone-chilling temperatures.

Sometimes you don’t need an overly complex red to help cope with the plunging mercury. The Spade & Sparrows 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon (California — around $29, De Luca Fine Wines) is one of four wines spearheaded by former Bachelorette star, Bachelor contestant and Dancing With the Stars winner Kaitlyn Bristowe (also in the Spade & Sparrows line are a Pinot Grigio, rosé and Pinot Noir). Smelling the blueberry, plum, chocolate and vanilla notes here, there’s an initial fear it will fall in with the sweet California red blends. Thankfully, that’s not the case; rather, the medium-plus-bodied red delivers plush, jammy dark fruit while avoiding any sweetness, and the light tannins kick in just in before the medium finish. It’s a decidedly New World, approachable and fun Cabernet Sauvignon that should appeal to red wine drinkers new and old. 3/5

Chilled wine, warm hearts on Valentine’s Day

Making reservations at restaurants, clinking glasses at your favourite romantic lounge/watering hole, enjoying a spa day with your special sweetheart: Valentine’s Day 2020, to put it mildly, seems like a lifetime ago.

Regardless of whether your favourite restaurant is able to open in time for Valentine’s Day, there are plenty of lovable libations to toast that special someone at home, and to go with pretty much every course...

It’s tough to beat bubbly to toast your valentine, and the Joseph Cattin NV Cremant D’Alsace rosé (Alsace, France – around $27, private wine stores) is stellar. This pink sparkling wine is made from Pinot Noir grapes in the traditional method pioneered in Champagne.

It’s pale pink, and brings strawberry leaf, watermelon rind and subtle floral, pear and chalky aromas. Light-bodied and dry, with vibrant strawberry, raspberry, red apple and chalky flavours, it’s delicious on its own, but would work wonders with oysters or hors d’oeuvres and won’t break the bank. Available at De Luca Fine Wines. 4.5/5

Web wine, whisky events going strong

At this point, it’s probably fair to say many of us are a little squirrelly from being cooped up in the pandemic lockdown. The holiday decorations have likely been put away, and the prospect of the spring thaw is still months away.

If you’ve watched all the Netflix you can handle, hit your limit on sourdough, can’t be bothered with cross-country skiing, have had your fill of puzzles or are just plain bored, there are plenty of online drinks-related virtual events and tastings that continue to be offered by locals and beyond.

While Manitoba Liquor Marts aren’t currently providing any wine education, many of Winnipeg’s private wine stores are offering virtual tastings for folks to enjoy at home. De Luca Fine Wines has a number of themed tastings coming up, including a Valentine’s Day virtual event on Feb. 14, a sparkling wine tasting on Feb. 16, and more.

Kenaston Wine Market, meanwhile, has a wine-and-yoga series of virtual tastings in partnership with Into Nature. And the Winehouse has been hosting online tastings as well, with one coming up on Thursday, Feb. 4, featuring two of its most popular Italian reds. The cost of these virtual events typically covers the tasting, two or three wines, as well as the occasional additional treat. Details, including cost, time and other particulars, are available on store websites or via social media accounts.

Struggling South African wineries deserve a try

Like every other industry, the wine world has felt the sting of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, many reports note that we’ve been imbibing more since the pandemic took hold, but overall the effects of the coronavirus have been anything but positive for wineries. Most winery tasting rooms are shuttered, and staff have been laid off. Picking and tending to grapes becomes trickier when having to navigate heightened safety precautions. One of the key outlets for wine sales, restaurants, are either closed or operating at reduced capacity.

For South African producers, the coronavirus has had a crushing effect — and not the good kind of crushing that happens at wineries. The country’s grape growers and winemakers have felt the pain of the pandemic more than any wine-producing region — a pain that could have a lasting, devastating impact.

In March 2020, the South African government implemented widespread restrictions that banned the sale and production of alcohol, both for domestic consumption as well as for export. The thinking was twofold — that consuming alcohol increased the likelihood of socializing (and therefore transmission of the virus), and that alcohol-related illnesses would add strain on hospitals and health care workers. In early April, the government scaled back the ban to allow for exports to resume before lifting the ban completely in May. Then just a week later, the domestic ban was re-implemented, lasting until mid-August.

In late December of 2020, COVID-19 cases in South Africa spiked, resulting in the current ban on domestic alcohol sales introduced by the government, recently extended past the initial Jan. 15 deadline. In total three separate alcohol bans have resulted in 14 weeks with no domestic sales of South African wine and five weeks of bans on exports, a devastating impact on the country’s wine industry. In a recent Wine Spectator article, South Africa wine industry bodies estimate 80 wineries and 350 grape growing operations will close permanently, that 21,000 people will lose their jobs and that the industry has already lost US$400 million.

Local tasty tipples that are far from boring

If one of your resolutions for 2021 is to try new (or new to you, at least) local beers, there are some very solid options out there right now that bring a wide range of flavours to help take the edge off the winter chill. From the return of old favourites to new collaborations to beers with all manner of added extra ingredients, these local brews are anything but boring...

A riff on the St. Boniface brewery’s ever-popular Juicci, the Kilter Brewing Juicci Luxurious IPA (Winnipeg - $4.79/473ml can, brewery and select beer vendors) is double dry-hopped with El Dorado, Citra, Vic Secret and Enigma hops and has been done up in some fun and swanky Gucci-like packaging. It’s pale straw in colour and hazy with a white head, and on the nose brings bright malty/doughy notes as well as tropical fruit and a light herbal hoppy component. It’s light-plus bodied and leaner/more focused than the hazy look and tropical aromas might suggest; the pineapple, mango and malt notes work quite nicely with a racy herbal/peppery note from the hops and a long, well-integrated finish (it’s seven per cent alcohol). Very good stuff. 4.5/5

Returning to local store shelves again is the Torque Brewing Steer Double IPA (Winnipeg - $4.25/472ml can, brewery, select beer vendors). It’s medium gold and slightly hazy in colour with an off-white head, and there’s plenty of resinous, piney notes on the nose to go with the grapefruit pith and malty aromas. On the medium-bodied palate the hops go on the attack, although those grapefruit/resinous notes are balanced by maltier notes before a long, hoppy and warm finish (the Steer is 90 IBU and eight per cent alcohol). 4/5

Don’t put away those festive holiday sweaters quite yet — the Stone Angel Brewing Co. Nollaig Winter Ale (Winnipeg - $3.99/473ml can, brewery, Liquor Marts, select beer vendors) offers warm winter flavours that are sure to please. Cinnamon, cardamom and ginger are all added to this dark brown winter ale, and the ginger in particular is quite prominent on the nose, working well with chocolatey, malty notes. It’s medium-bodied and not too sweet (a good thing), with the prominent spice notes — especially ginger — showing well with the roasted dark malt and dark chocolate notes. It’s a modest five per cent alcohol and low in the bitterness department. 3.5/5

Pint-sized possibilities to expand your palate

As a drinks writer, one of the primary tasks is to track down new and interesting products to taste and review.

But every once in a while it’s worth pausing to remember that the average reader/imbiber doesn’t buy their wines, beers and spirits quite so randomly; most stick to a product or two that they like know, and return to it regularly. We’re creatures of habit, to some extent, and with thousands of bottles and cans to choose from, branching out can be overwhelming. It can be hard to know where to start.

In this province, beer sales are still ruled by the big national/international breweries, although craft beer continues to chip away at those numbers. The rise of local craft breweries, brew pubs and contract brewers in the province over the past six years — now nearing two dozen — has shifted the local beer landscape significantly. And with the current push to support local small businesses during the pandemic, there’s never been a better time to dabble in made-in-Manitoba brews.

First forays into local craft beer doesn’t mean having to choke down some pecan pie-infused dry-hopped hazy triple IPA or some such thing (although such a beer probably isn’t far off). Even those who prefer big-name beers sold in two-fours can find plenty to like among the local lineup.

Wine-store shelves won’t let us forget 2020

No one wants to linger on the year that was 2020. We’re past the end of the calendar year, and life will hopefully take a turn for the better soon. It’s time to move on, right?

Well... almost. Over the next year or so, the 2020 vintage will be popping up on labels more and more — a vintage that challenged like no other, but that wasn’t a complete write-off for most producers.

Now, the bulk of wines we see on store shelves are $20 and under — they’re meant to be drunk young, ideally within 12 months of release. A quick scan of your average local Liquor Mart or private wine store will show most wines in our market fall somewhere between the 2017 and 2019 vintage.

This isn’t always the case, especially with wines that don’t sell as quickly (oddball grapes or regions), or stores whose staff don’t regularly rotate stock to sell off older vintages first. (Case in point: at one local shop recently visited — no names — there were five bottles of a popular $20-ish New Zealand Pinot Noir sporting four different vintages, from 2013 to 2016. While the newest vintage might have been hanging on for dear life, there’s a good chance the older three were on life support. Buyer beware.)

Time to toast goodbye to year like no other

From a pandemic to a petulant president and beyond, it feels like there’s been little to celebrate in 2020. Which, perhaps, is all the more reason to pop the cork on some nice fizz to celebrate the arrival of 2021 — even if we’re toasting virtually/by Zoom.

If you’re looking for sparkling wine (and more) for your socially distant New Year’s Eve celebration, there are some mighty tasty options out there…

● Not all prosecco is created equal, and the Vaporetto NV No. 8 Prosecco (Veneto, Italy – around $22, private wine stores) is certainly a cut above. Pale straw in colour, it brings apricot, floral, red apple and sweet pear notes on the nose. It’s mainly dry, and the vibrant bubbles come with a chalkiness that works quite well with the lemon, green apple, lime and secondary herbal note. More complex (and delicious) than many proseccos. ★★★★ out of five

● The Ruffino NV Prosecco Treviso (Veneto, Italy – $19.99, Liquor Marts and beyond) comes from the slightly smaller Prosecco Treviso region and is made from organic Glera and Pinot Grigio grapes. The melon, herbal, lime zest and green apple aromas on the nose are attractive, with a subtly floral note lingering the background. On the palate there’s just a hint of sweetness that comes with the red apple, melon and pear notes, while the vibrant effervescence helps bring a dollop of acidity on the finish. ★★★1/2

A list, checked twice, for those dreaming of a wine Christmas

While this year’s Christmas dinner will likely look different (read: smaller) for most, many might still want to opt for the traditional turkey and all the fixings, if for no other reason than to create some feeling of normalcy in a holiday season that is anything but normal.

With that in mind, here are some wines that would work well with the classic Christmas dinner and/or all manner of dishes you might be tempted to try this holiday season, no matter what you’re celebrating...

● Bubbly is a solid way to start any festive feast, and the Santa Margherita NV Brut Rosé ($21.99, Liquor Marts and beyond) is a solid choice. A blend of Chardonnay, Glera and Malbec, it’s pale pink in colour, with pear, melon, crisp peach, green apple and floral notes aromatically. On the light-plus bodied palate it’s mainly dry, with peach, raspberry, strawberry leaf and red apple skin flavours, medium acidity and a dry, almost-peppery finish. Ideal for hors d’oeuvres, snacks and milder cheeses. Bonus: it’s on sale for $19.49 until the end of the month, meaning you can also stock up for your (similarly smaller) New Year’s Eve festivities. 3.5/5

● Riesling is tough to beat when it comes to pairing wine with turkey, and the Tantalus 2019 Riesling (Okanagan Valley, B.C. — $30.63, Liquor Marts and beyond) is one of the best in our market. It’s pale straw in colour, and aromatically brings ripe red apple, pear, subtle peach and very delicate chalky notes. On the light-bodied palate there’s just a hint of sweetness, and the bright green apple, lemon candy and peach flavours, as well as the underlying chalky note, work brilliantly with the vibrant acidity and the long, steely finish. Drink this spectacular Riesling now with your big festive bird, spicier Thai dishes, sushi or salads, or tuck this away for 18 months or more and let it evolve. Outstanding. 5/5

Pandemic pivots expand access to tipples

There’s no question that 2020 has been a year of challenges, curveballs and unexpected developments for local businesses, Manitoba producers and vendors of wine, beer and spirits. While the path through the COVID-19 pandemic has had its share of bumps and roadblocks, most local sellers and makers of booze managed to nimbly navigate tough times with some ingenuity and a whole lot of support from customers and the community.

The essential move most locals made in 2020 was a pivot to delivery and curbside pickup options. The first wave of lockdowns saw private wine stores, Liquor Marts and local producers offering all manner of delivery options within the city limits, many with same-day service. It’s an option that immediately proved popular, as I found out first-hand when I volunteered my time (and my modest hatchback) to be delivery boy for a day for Torque Brewing in April.

And while the demand for delivery subsided in the summer as restrictions were eased, the current code-red situation has once again resulted in an uptick in deliveries — including from private wine stores, Liquor Marts and some beer vendors using apps such as The Bottle Drive or Skip the Dishes. A couple local breweries and private wine stores have even started venturing beyond the city’s borders for weekly delivery runs. And most recently, Liquor Marts joined private wine stores and local producers in offering a curbside pickup option at their Grant Park, Dominion and Northdale stores.

Temporary measures put in place by the provincial government in April also meant restaurants were able to sell wine, beer and coolers with their food orders, a small lifeline for Manitoba’s struggling eateries. With Ontario recently announcing they’ve now made that option permanent in the province, watch to see if our provincial government does the same.

Reliable wines to make season merry and bright

Whether you’re buying wine to give as gifts or are restocking your wine rack heading into the holiday season, getting loaded up on vino, so to speak, is actually not too tough a task — even if you’re trying to avoid in-person shopping.

Here’s a quick list of solid wines that can help you shorten your holiday to-do list — whether you’re shopping for yourself or someone else. And if you’re hoping to avoid going to a bricks-and-mortar store, most of the vino below (along with lots more) is available for delivery from Liquor Marts or private wine stores in Winnipeg (and, in some cases, beyond — check the websites/social media accounts for more).

Rather than opting for the classically corny wine charms (which are useless right now, owing to social gathering restrictions), there are plenty of smaller-format reds, whites, rosés and bubblies to stuff those stockings. The Joiy NV Shimmering Bubbles (Australia — $4.72/250ml can, Liquor Marts and beyond), for example, is a “prosecco-style sparkling wine” that is pale straw in colour with some modest effervescence. Aromatically it brings apple seed, pear, melon rind and peach leaf. It’s off-dry and quite fizzy, with tart peach-candy flavours as well as lemon zest and secondary green apple notes. The bubbles are quite spritzy and the acidity is racy, making for a crisp, lean bubbly that’s simple and fun — perhaps best mixed with orange juice for a mimosa or blended into a bellini. Available for delivery. 2.5/5

For those who enjoy a lighter white wine, the Villa Maria 2019 Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand — $22.99, Liquor Marts and beyond) is an organic white that delivers vibrant grapefruit, lime zest, herbal and chalky notes on the nose that are lively and appealing. It’s dry, razor-sharp and crisp, with loads of fresh citrus flavours (think lemon, lime and grapefruit), some secondary bell pepper and spice notes, hints of chalkiness and plenty of acidity on the racy, medium-length finish. Great verve and energy — drink now. 4.5/5 (Note: The Cellar Selection isn’t available for delivery via Liquor Marts, but Villa Maria’s Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc is, and is also a solid buy at $17.49.)

Tasty tipples: seven whiskies for your gift list

If you’ve got a whisky lover on your holiday gift guide, making heads or tails of the ever-popular brown spirit can be a tricky task — especially with the recent release of a number of premium, new-to-Manitoba spirits at Liquor Marts (for more on those see wfp.to/spirits).

With that in mind, here are a few recently tasted drams in a number of price points that would make fine gifts under the tree, superb stocking stuffers for the whisky lovers in your life, or solid additions to your bar to help cope with the COVID-19 lockdown...

The Bushmills Black Bush Sherry Cask Reserve Irish Whiskey (Antrim, Northern Ireland — $37.99, Liquor Marts) is a well-priced, triple distilled Irish whiskey aged in Spanish Oloroso sherry barrels for around eight years; aromatically the medium copper blended whiskey brings dried fruit, toffee and vanilla notes on the nose. It’s medium-bodied, smooth and approachable, with dried fruit and toffee notes making way for hints of vanilla and marmalade on the finish. Weighs in at 40 per cent alcohol… approachable and delicious for the budding whiskey drinker. On sale for $34.99 until the end of November, and available for delivery.

Staying in Ireland, the Sexton Single Malt Irish Whiskey (Ireland — $49.99, Liquor Marts) comes in a very cool package, and also sees aging time in Spanish sherry barrels. On the nose the dried fruit, vanilla, orange peel and spice notes are intense. There’s a touch of sweetness and some great intensity on the palate, lifting the orange peel, dried apricot, vanilla and spice notes before a warm finish (it’s 40 per cent alcohol). Tastes as good as it looks.

Boozy Black Friday

While venturing out to stores on Black Friday certainly isn’t recommended, that doesn’t mean there aren’t deals to be had for the budget-savvy imbiber.

Many of Winnipeg’s private wine stores are offering a selection of five wines for just $2 each when an unlisted bottle is purchased at regular price.

In order to avoid big in-store crowds, most offer curbside pickup and delivery options available, and some stores took the initiative of starting their Black Friday promotions online. Check store websites for more info.

While Liquor Marts hadn’t made public their Black Friday deals by press time, expect them to have a handful of wines, beers and spirits offered at cheaper prics for a limited time. The drawbacks: same-day delivery isn’t always an option with Liquor Marts; many products being discounted likely aren’t part of their delivery program; and they don’t offer curbside pickup, meaning you have to go to a store for the deals.

Stay in good spirits

With the province under heightened lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Manitobans urged to reduce their contacts outside their household, those looking to imbibe in wine, beer or spirits may be looking for ways to get their hands on a bottle of something or other while minimizing interactions at brick-and-mortar stores. And while Liquor Marts, private wine stores and beer vendors remain open, there are plenty of options for contactless pickup and delivery for your booze — in some cases above and beyond what was available during the first lockdown in spring.

During the April lockdown, Liquor Marts initially offered a few hundred of their products for delivery in Winnipeg, for which they charged a flat rate of $8 for up to 10 cases, gradually adding products as days went by. And while the delivery fee remains the same, their website now offers more than 1,600 products (including wine, beer and spirits) for delivery in the city, with a contactless option for prepaid orders providing ID is shown at the door. Liquor Marts now also offer same-day delivery in Brandon for $11 for up to a full case (and $2 per additional case after that); Brandonites can call 204-571-5105 for delivery and details.

Most of Winnipeg’s private wine stores continue to offer both curbside pickup (not offered at Liquor Marts) and delivery — either same-day or next-day — and typically offer such services on any products shown on their respective websites. Some private stores now also offer delivery beyond the city limits; the Winehouse, for example, is offering delivery to Steinbach, Niverville and Ile Des Chenes on Wednesdays, with free delivery on orders over $40. Kenaston Wine Market delivers to communities within a 30-minute drive of the Perimeter Highway and is offering free delivery on all orders during the pandemic.

If you absolutely must venture out to do some shopping for the holidays or otherwise, De Luca Fine Wines (942 Portage Ave.) is staying open until midnight on Fridays starting on Nov. 20. They also offer curbside pickup and delivery (and, as an aside, have put together a wine advent calendar for $225 that features 24 different 187-ml to 473-ml cans or bottles while supplies last).