Hailing Cabs

First off, a big ol’ Dish welcome to AV Kitching, who has hopped into the co-pilot seat of this newsletter, taking over from Eva Wasney.

We’re two weeks out from the Winnipeg Wine Festival, which takes place Sept. 25-26 at the RBC Convention Centre. The event, as always, benefits Special Olympics Manitoba, and this year’s theme is “Life is a Cabernet,” meaning Cabernet Sauvignon is taking centre stage… and thousands of wine lovers will be wandering around the event with purple-stained teeth.

(I wrote about some of my more comical wine fest experiences a couple years ago for Dish, which you can read here).

Like last year, the 2026 festival features just the main public tastings (Sept. 25, 7-10 p.m. and Sept. 26, 1-4 p.m. and 7-10 p.m.) and the gala dinner (which takes place Sept. 24). Previous years have also featured smaller ancillary events with various themes at venues throughout the city that offered a more intimate venue for wine drinkers to discover new favourites.

There’s still plenty to discover at the Winnipeg Wine Festival’s public tastings, and it’s a great chance to try a wine without having to commit to a whole bottle. As the drinks-writer guy, I might make a few notes on wines while at the festival, but for the most part if I try something I like, I’ll take a picture of the bottle and revisit the wine in the less-chaotic setting of my dining room.

There’s not much elbow room among this lot for a lowly drinks writer (not pictured) to be making tasting notes. (Brook Jones / Free Press files)

With dozens of booths to navigate and hundreds of attendees, the public tastings at the RBC Convention Centre probably won’t be the setting for many transcendent wine experiences, but it sure is a lot of fun. (It’s also a great people-watching event.)

Last year’s theme was sparkling wines, which was right in my wheelhouse, and this year I’m really looking forward to discovering some new/new-to-me Cabernet Sauvignons. I love a good Cab, and I’ll be particularly interested to try some new-to-the-province examples of Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and beyond.

Tickets for this year’s Winnipeg Wine Festival are $88 including fees, or $150 all-in for the VIP option (which includes admission to either evening event one hour early as well as access to the VIP Cabernet Lounge). You can get them online here or buy them at Liquor Marts, which saves you on the fees.

Are you a Winnipeg Wine Festival-goer? Have you discovered any wines at the fest that rocked your world?

- Ben Sigurdson, literary editor and drinks writer

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Tasty tidbits

📺 Winnipeg electrician Brendon Shewchuk is getting a taste of reality — specifically, on the forthcoming season of reality TV cooking show MasterChef Canada, which premières Sept. 22 on CTV and will stream the next day on Crave. The 27-year-old will be among 16 home cooks vying for the $100,000 prize and the title of MasterChef Canada.

The show features returning judges Hugh Acheson, Mary Berg and Craig Wong, as well as an appearance by none other than Gordon Ramsay.

☕ After a soft opening this week, Golden Hour Cafe and Bar is nearly set for a proper opening at 775 Corydon Ave. The eatery’s social media says the spot will be serving up “coffee by day (and) sangria by night.”

The location has seen a whole host of ventures come and go including Arabian Dreams Restaurant and Hookah Lounge, Fresh Cafe, Burrito del Rio, King of Butter Chicken Bar and Grill and, most recently, House of Masala.

🎉 Dubbed “Downtown’s biggest street festival,” the Weekender kicks off today and runs through Sunday. The fest, which is essentially the successor to Manyfest, is hosting a food-truck battle on Graham Avenue between Smith Street and Garry Street which includes 30 competitors, with the public asked to vote for best original food item, best bang for your buck and more.

For a list of food trucks and hours, check out the website.

Recommended fare

Ben: We recently ordered from Underdogs (2609 Portage Ave.) and, for the first time, I tried the KFC Bowl. Fried chicken it ain’t — rather, it’s a vegan bowl the sports bar has named after Winnipeg Jets sniper Kyle “F*cking” Connor which features fried gochujang cauliflower, coconut rice, pickled carrots, edamame, cucumber, green onion, roasted sesame seeds and (I think) some kimchi… very much recommended.

AV: It doesn’t seem particularly auspicious to be kicking off my very first contribution to this esteemed newsletter by bigging up a pizza restaurant chain, but honestly Boston Pizza — which, despite its name, is 100 per cent Canadian (and 11 Winnipeg branches are owned by local family the Enrights) — will be saving me money and restoring my sanity this month.

After 10 weeks of prepping, cooking and serving three meals a day (and snacks), you bet I’ll be taking advantage of the franchise’s Kids Eat Free promo which runs all September. Not a pizza fan? No problem — have a salad, share some nachos, split the wings, drink a couple of cocktails… nobody will judge you for it. Cin cin.

Three Savour Manitoba magazine covers promoting a food, drink, and lifestyle publication.

Hailing Cabs

Tasty tidbits

Recommended fare

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