Weekend Winedown

I had the opportunity to attend a virtual winemakers lunch yesterday, Celebrating Black Voices in Ontario Food and Wine. Unfortunately, due to allergies, I was unable to enjoy the food, although it looked and sounded delish, but I was able to enjoy the two wines featured from Nyarai Cellars.    Nyarai Cellars is a "virtual winery" created in 2008 by Steve Byfield and his business partner. Since being a "virtual winery", Nyarai does not own their own vineyards or a physical winery, and instead sources the majority of their grapes from vineyards around the Niagara Peninsula, here in Ontario. Nyarai focuses on a minimalistic winemaking approach allowing the full expression of varietal character, purity of fruit, and balance in the final product to be the star of the show. Currently their wines are available for purchase for Ontario residents through their website .  Let's Taste 🍷  2019 Folklore ($22.95) 👩‍🔬  L'Acadie Blanc, Chardonnay, Muscat Ottonel, Sauvig...

One of my favourite red grapes, Cabernet Franc, is usually overshadowed by their "bigger and bolder" friends (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) and is considered mostly a blending grape. Fun fact, Cabernet Franc is actually one the "parents" of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc, so its importance to the world of wine is actually a lot more significant than it gets credit for.  However over the past decade, give or take a handful of years, it has become one of the most planted grapes within Canada.  Cabernet Franc thrives in Canada's shorter growing season and extreme cool climate due to it being an early ripening grape. This also allows for its full expression to unfold in the glass vintage after vintage. Although it is seen as one of Canada's shinning stars, Cabernet Franc has had a long history in France, dating back to the 17th Century, as a varietal expression in Chinon (Loire Valley) and a part of the famous Bordeaux blend.  Hallmarks of Cabernet Fran...

One of my favourite parts about the world of wine is the endless possibilities when I comes to choosing a case, bottle, or glass of wine. I love discovering wineries, interesting grapes, and unique winemaking techniques and sharing them with friends and family. The Winery Winedown will give me the opportunity to showcase and dive deeper into wineries from around the world. When possible I will provide tasting notes for a couple of bottles available in our market so you can get a glimpse of what to expect inside the bottle. For the first Winery Winedown I wanted to dive deeper into the wines of Vietti. Although this is an iconic winery from Piedmonte, Italy (Castiglione Falletto in the Langhe Hills to be exact) that has been around since the late 1800s, I only recently discovered and had the opportunity to taste some of their wines. Vietti is known internationally for their quality, consistency, and continued experimentation, however, one of their most influential stamps on the wine i...