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Buyers’ Guide to VINTAGES August 17th: Getting Beyond Beef in Argentina
Getting Beyond Beef in Argentina By David Lawrason with notes from Michael Godel In the August 17 Argentina feature VINTAGES buyers got it right with an intriguing, diverse and quality group of wines. I have scored most 90 points or better. The selection, although always maddeningly skimpy, is a well focused snapshot of what’s new […] More
Femmes du Vin: Canada’s First Events to Empower and Inspire Women in Wine
By Janet Dorozynski, DipWSET, PhD When I first became seriously interested in wine in the mid-90s there were few women at tastings and wine shows, very few female sommeliers and only a smattering of women wine makers, writers or in positions of power in the wine business. Sure there were powerhouse women like Jancis Robinson, […] More
Announcing the 2019 Winery of the Year
Mission Hill Family Estate Winery Does It Again! By David Lawrason In convincing fashion Mission Hill Family Estate has claimed the title of Canada’s Winery of the Year at the 2019 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. The Okanagan Valley winery took a whopping 18 medals, including two Platinums, six Golds, seven Silvers and three […] More
National Wine Awards of Canada
Discover Canada's best wines! In 2016, 22 judges tasted 1,535 wines from 230 wineries across the country to identify Canada's top wines.
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World Wine Awards of Canada
Seventeen judges tasted 1,000 wines in 21 categories in 2015 to find the world's best wines sold in Canada under $50.
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The Carmenère grape is a red variety originally planted in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France, where it was used for blending purposes in the same manner as Petit Verdot. Now rarely found in France, the world's largest area planted with this variety is in Chile in South America. Chilean plantings, brought from France in the 19th Century, were originally thought to be Merlot, before being correctly identified in 1994 and, since then, used as a distinctive signature by the country's producers. Carmenère wine has a deep red color and aromas found in red fruits, spices and berries, with tannins that are gentler and softer than those in Cabernet Sauvignon. Although mostly used as a blending grape, wineries do bottle a pure varietal Carmenère which. Its taste might also be reminiscent of dark chocolate, tobacco, and leather. The wine is best drunk young.
