Last week Tom Magliozzi died – he was one of the co-hosts of National Public Radio’s Car Talk. I never listed to the show, but I gather it was very popular and Tom was well loved. A couple of different newscasts that mentioned his passing ran a clip that was so funny (and so true). […]
Ingrid Sapona
Taste the Season 2014 Pairings
The wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake announced the pairings for their Taste the Season event, which starts Novemer 7, 2014 and runs for four weekends in November (Fridays – Sundays). Passports are on sale now for $44.25 (totalling $53.39 with the tax and service charge). There’s also a designated driver pass for $35 ($42.94 all in). Passports […]
Where Peter Piper Might Have Gone with His Pickles
On a recent trip to the Lake Erie/Pelee Island region to visit wineries, Ann Wilson, owner of Oxley Estate Winery suggested I stop in at Lakeside Packing Company — she thought that being a foodie, I’d be interested in their business — and their story. Boy was she right! Lakeside Packing Company is just a […]
Thoughts of Bubbly
Truth is, I love bubbly! That may not sound like much of a confession, but I’ve never liked any kind of soda – because of the carbonation. Yes, I realize the contradiction. But what can I say? It is definitely my all-time favourite drink. Bubbly’s on my mind for a lot of reasons: I was […]
Channeling Lucille Ball?
If you’re of a certain age you may remember I Love Lucy – a t.v. show in the 1950s (and re-run throughout the 60s and 70s) featuring Lucille Ball. One of the episodes I remember best (apparently it was in season 5) was called Grape Wrestling. In it, Lucy pulls up her skirt and climbs […]
Winemaker Andrzej Lipinski of Big Head Wines
When I started work on the App I was struck by how often the name Andrzej Lipinski came up. When the App was first published in 2012, he was the winemaker at Cornerstone Estate Winery, Burning Kiln Winery, The Organized Crime Winery, and Colanari Estate Winery, not to mention having left his fingerprints on winemakeing […]
A living lab
On a recent visit to Southbrook Vineyards I asked Ann Sperling, Director, Winemaking and Viticulture, about how the harsh winter of 2014 impacted Southbrook’s spring pruning. She explained that, in general, they pruned pretty heavily. Their theory is that they wanted to ensure that the vines had as much energy as possible, so that they’d […]
Estimates of Damage from the Napa Quake
Though most people thing of wine as pure pleasure, whenever I visit a vineyard or winery I can’t help but think that – at its heart – it’s farming and therefore subject to the whims of Mother Nature. And, when Mother Nature deals a wine region a tough hand – as she did this past […]
A Perfect Taste Combination
One of my sisters has an expression she sometimes uses when she’s describing a meal that she’s particularly enjoyed – she often refers to what she calls “perfect taste combinations”. Now, lest you think my sister is some professionally trained chef who is waxing poetic about rarified ingredients that are cooked and served just so […]
Being thankful for having a reason to use bird bangers
After posting the video of Ann Sperling talking about the Green Harvest I realized that viewers of the video may be wondering about the loud bangs in the background. (Indeed, one viewer even posted a comment on YouTube asking.) Those are the bird banger canons used in the vineyard to scare birds off. At this […]