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Spring 2008 
May 6-10 : Santé : Bloor-Yorkville Wine Festival 647 999-0550, kelly.sante@rogers.com, or Steve Thurlow, 416 878-7955, steve@stevethurlow.com, www.santewinefestival.com. May 15: New Zealand Wine Fair, Toronto, 888 993-9927, nzwine@ketchin.com May 25-28: Vinoble '08, Jerez, Spain, international exhibition of fortified and dessert wines, www.vinoble.com. June 13-15: Niagara Wine Weekend and Auction, Canada's version of the prestigious Napa Valley Auction, www.niagarawineauction.com The County, DVA Canada has a new official wine region: Prince Edward County. This Designated Viticultural Area joins Niagara, Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island as Ontario's four main wine-producing regions. Winegrowers Association chair Richard Johnston is happy "that all our hard work growing fine wines in a very cool climate is being officially recognised, along with the potential of the wines on our limestone base and 15 soil types. "Our Rieslings and Pinot Noirs are doing well and express subtle mineralities that are unique to our area. The higher-acid finishes of our whites makes them highly refreshing and our hot summers infuse more flavour." Johnson says it will be "another decade or so before we know the full range of potential wines but we're already having exciting surprises like Chenin Blanc." He adds that "we have the largest concentration of political activists making wine in Canada and we'll continue to demand increasing rigour in Canadian wine standards." The County is Canada's fastest-growing wine region. In 2000, it had one winery. Now it has a dozen with plans for another two. The DVA is a refinement of terroir under the aegis of the Vintners Quality Alliance, our equivalent of France's appellation d'origine controlée, certifying the grape varieties used and where and how the grapes were grown. VQA standards and presence of a VQA label on a bottle (tipping consumers off to the best-quality wines) have helped transform Canadian wines from rustic bumpkins into world-class vintages. Funny Old World While Melbourne, Australia was sweltering in record New Year's Day heat, pickers at Inniskillin Okanagan were freezing their tails off at 2am harvesting the first of the 2007 Icewine "mostly Riesling with some exotic Tempranillo, the classic grape of Rioja. Also at 10°C below, one frigid day later, their intrepid Niagara counterparts were carefully bringing, frozen solid, the precious berries of Cabernet Franc, Riesling and the thicker-skinned Vidal. The early start and high quality made two winemakers very happy. Bruce Nicholson in Ontario and Sandor Mayer in out West. Nicholson's Cab Franc comes from the Koop vineyard at St Catharines and Mayer's fruit grows at the Dark Horse vineyard and Plut vineyard, Osoyoos. Storefront Consignments Importer Neil Fortes and sommelier Jose Paradela have unveiled a new concept in marketing Consignment wines in Ontario. Wine Guru Selections offers a portfolio of good wines from a number of agencies. All the wines are viewable and can be purchased via www.wineguruselections.ca Wines are sold by the case and are viewable at the store at 2045 Avenue Road, Toronto. The duo will be providing advice and tasting notes. No sampling, though. Wine Guru Selections Inc, Toronto, 416.939 9512, 416 722 4471, info@wineguru.ca or www.wineguru.ca A Tempest In A Wine Glass Glass maker Riedel is suing competitor Eisch over its new line of 'breathable' glasses. Eisch contends that its glasses aerate wine faster, making young wines more expressive after only a few minutes of being poured. 'We refuse to be intimidated by Mr. Riedel,' Eisch says. 'We understand he has a very aggressive approach to business. He purchased his major competitor as a way of eliminating competition, and he is now attempting to use his position of power to try to slow our growth in the market.'Trade Mark A museum celebrating the Bordeaux wine trade is opening in May. The negociant network known as the Place de Bordeaux was begun by Irish, English and Dutch merchants 400 years ago and the museum is the initiative of Gregory Pecastaing, and his company, Bordeaux Historia Vini. Major negociants are donating documents and artefacts and there are plans to recreate the 18th Century quays, used to ship barrels from the port of Chartrons.Cock-a-Hoop!
A dozen bottles of the legendary Romanée-Conti 1990
has sold for 176,224 euros at Christie's Los Angeles, the most expensive
case of Burgundy ever, at almost 15,000 euros a bottle! A case of the
1985 fetched $167,832 euros. You could snap up a bottle of the latest
release, the 2004, for a mere 7,385 euros"
Value Corner For a terrific, subtly oaked, crisp, refreshing white at a good price, look no further than Hardy's Nottage Hill Chardonnay 2006, 283457, at $10.80 in the regular LCBO stores – nimble, racy, spicy and charming, with a touch of butterscotch, sourced from cool-climate vineyards across South Australia, to serve with seafood and pasta. Chief winemaker Bill Hardy contends that the iconic Nottage Hill brand over-delivers in quality and price, and his fruit-driven Shiraz 2005, $12.80, 375964, is another confirmation of that, plump and replete with cherry-raspberry, plum, mint and white pepper notes, great withy roast duck and BBQ red meat. Meanwhile, from 100% Ontario grapes, the user-friendly
20 Bees Growers White Tetra Prisma, a Get Naked Wine buffs might take a look at a Naked Wine Tasting Party, a fun event where all the clues are stripped away and the truth is all in your palate. Created by Tammy Kruck at Vintage Niagara Adventures in St Catharines, Ont., this entertaining kit is turning heads. Although it's (usually) only the wine that's naked, not the guests. The kit includes Naked invitations, Bottle Wraps, Wine Glass Tags, a series of wine-paired recipes, Label Lifters and the package doubles as an ice bucket and bottle coaster. Available at www.AdventuresWithWine.com or 1-866-977-0777. Some tasting tips, while you're at it (so to speak):
Long Lunch Dining al fresco while sipping Hawke's Bay wine from C J Pask, 750 New Zealanders saw the new year in by filling out a table 300 metres long. Pass The Port Sugary soft drinks and fruit juices - not Port! - can substantially increase the risk of gout. Researchers have found these drinks are more likely to cause the painful joint disease. Bad Taste California vintners are shunning limos and buses bringing crowds to get juiced at tastings. In Temecula Valley, wineries now require buses to police their passengers. In Napa County, wineries are posting "No limo"signs, and the Santa Barbara County sheriff's department has an undercover guy who splashes Jack Daniels on his clothes before tastings to see which vintners will serve a drunk. It's not unusual for people to throw up in the shrubbery, shed their clothes and shout and run about, says Tom Arbogast of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association. "Things like that happen in Vegas. We don't want them here."Ay-up, Truffles! Yorkshire could become home to the world's newest truffle forests along with a herd of Wagyu-Holstein cattle, according to plans by UK supermarket Asda, owned by Wal-Mart. Asda aims to undercut upscale Harrods and Selfridges. "If it's good enough for millionaires it's good enough for everyone,"says Asda. Barmy Idea Barm is the foamy yeast that appears on the top of malt liquors as they ferment. The one-sandwich-short-of-a-picnic sense of barmy comes from the notion of someone with a head full of froth. Smaller Quaff British MP Greg Mulholland wants pubs to sell wine in 125mL glasses, not just the 175ml and 250ml measure most favour. He's concerned drinkers have no idea how much they've consumed because of the larger measures.
Johnny Depp has bought girlfriend Vanessa Paradis a French vineyard. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor, 44, bought the property to celebrate the release of Paradis' album, Divinidylle. The estate is close to their villa in Plan
de la Tour in the Massif des Maures 15k NW of St Tropez. Locals
are looking forward to the couple's attendance at the village
wine fête.
Depp's favorite tipples are Châteaux Calon-Ségur,
Pétrus and Cheval-Blanc. [Some of mine, too!] Flat Spot Sales of beer in Britain have hit their lowest levels since the 1930s as the country turns increasingly to wine and spirits. Pints per day sold in Britain's 58,000 pubs peaked in 1979, but have slumped 22% – or seven million. The brewers, lamenting the soaring costs of barley, malt, glass and aluminum, want the government to freeze tax on beer sales. Earlier reports suggest Britons are set to become the biggest spenders on wine in Europe. One of the big UK suppliers is Chile, whose exports have hit record levels in value and volume, surpassing $1.1b, up 30%. In the last year, Chile has sold 37.2m cases - 8m to the UK, the biggest growth market, and at higher average prices. Chile exports 70% of its wine.
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Down The Hatch! 
