Weekend Winedown

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...

Whether you are a professional taster, tasting for fun, or (my favourite) an "educational drinker"; wine tasting is a vital aspect of the world of wine. There are many reasons why we taste including, but not limited to, determining regional/varietal hallmarks, assessing and judging, putting together food and wine pairings, and throughout the vinification process. Let's break it down further... DEFINITION: THE EVALUATION THROUGH SIGHT, OLFACTORY, AND PALATE TO DETERMINE FLAVOURS/AROMAS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WINE IN QUESTION There are 4 major aspects when tasting wine, the visual, olfactory, palate, and conclusions.  VISUAL: What do you see? Wine style, colour intensity, aging, and potential alcohol/ripeness of grape.  OLFACTORY: What do you smell? Intensity, fruit or earth/mineral driven, and oak use.  PALATE: What do you taste? The wine's structure (acid, alcohol, tannin, body), fruit/earth/mineral notes, oak usage, and sweetness level. CONCLUSIONS: What is ...

Let's break down what it means when a wine is described as Old World or New World? In short it comes down to place, history/traditions, and whether vitis vinifera originated/was imported. The Old World is Europe and Eastern Europe. These are countries where vitis vinifera originated and winemaking traditions were started. Whereas the New World is everything else, the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa. These countries are usually warmer, vitis vinifera was imported, and traditional winemaking techniques are borrowed then influenced by technology/science. These general statements obviously influence what end ups in the bottle. All making significant differences with the key notes, structure, new oak usage, and labelling.  Old World (Europe) Lighter Body Lower Alcohol Higher Acid Earth, Mineral, Herb, Floral Driven Terroir Made Regional Labelling (ex. Chianti) New World (Everywhere Else) Fuller Body Higher Alcohol Lower Acid Fruit Driven Higher New Oak Usage Higher Extracted Win...

  Hi, I'm Rebecca, a 30-something wino living in Toronto. Over the past 3 years I have gone from a curious wine drinker to taking individual wine classes to becoming a certified Sommelier through CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers) and a FWS (French Wine Scholar) through IWEG and The Wine Scholar Guild. To say the journey was hard would be a complete understatement; I spent countless hours making notes, memorizing flash cards, pulling all nighters studying, and attempting to blind taste hundreds, if not thousands, of wines correctly, however, looking back I wouldn't change a thing. The past couple of years have really shown me if I want something and put my mind to it, I can do it. Which is, besides my love and passion for wine, a huge reason why I continue to put myself through these intensive courses year after year. I am starting Weekend Winedown to share my love and passion for wine with a broader audience, with hopes of sparking some interesting conversa...