Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A High Glass Affair

It's official.  I’ve reached new levels of wine snobbery. In my last Grape Varieties class, we had a Riedel Crystal wine rep come talk to the class – a.k.a. a really great way to market your product to self-professed wine snobs! Doug Gerro, certified sommelier from C.A. Paradis in Ottawa was a fabulous guest speaker, and it turned out to be one of my most enjoyed classes, yet.

I mean, ok we all know that there are different wine glasses for specific wines – each one professing to bring out the very best aromas and flavours of a particular kind of wine. However, for the most part I’m with most of you: if the glass is clean, and large enough to hold a sufficient amount of the evening’s pick, I’m happy.

I must say though, I was blown away by what I learned.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Mind the Gap

Wow. I’m just back from a long weekend in Boston where I bought an eclectic mixture of wine (8 bottles of red and white from Italy, California, France, Spain and a little winery in the Adirondacks of NY), and once again I am shocked – stunned, really – at how much selection our friends to the south have when it comes to wine (and how they purchase it!). While some Canadian provinces have privatized liquor boards, most including Ontario have government controlled boards, with strict checks and balances on what wines can be represented, bought, sold and drunk within the provincial borders. So imagine my sheer glee when I came across the Brix Wine Shop in downtown Boston – a store specializing in only wines, and mostly imports. (Brix is the new world method for measuring the amount of sugar in a grape, and thus the resulting alcohol level). I was even more pleased to find out that I was walking into this cute, cellar-like store at the perfect happy hour of 6pm, where the financial district workers were merrily trying the “vin du jour” at the daily wine sampling.

It got me thinking.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

What's in a name?

A few more name options for the wine agency... all just happen to start with colour names:
...Silver Steeple Wine & Spirits
...Black Sheep Wine & Spirits
...Gilded Leaf Wine & Spirits

I think I'm feeling the colour + symbol path a little more. Thoughts?