Taking (laughing)stock of the best of the Naramata Bench
The scenic Naramata Road passes a selection of my favourite vineyards. Our destination this day was Laughing Stock Vineyards.
Pour one out during the pandemic
Almost a year into this pandemic, we’re all dreaming about travelling again. Last summer, during the B.C. bubble, my wife and I took a road trip to explore Okanagan vineyards.
Matching Wine to Cheese Fondue
I’m always interested whether when people choose the foods for dinner first, and then select accompanying wines, or vice versa. I use both methods. Several weekends ago my partner and I hosted a cheese fondue in honour of a friend’s birthday. The recipe called for a white wine to melt the cheese. We don’t really …
Some New Wines to Look For and Try
Since September there have been some good additions to the Yukon Liquor Corp. (YLC) shelves. October and November seem to be emerging as the wine tasting season in the Yukon. In the span of five weeks, I participated in, or organized, three events: the October Rotary festival in Whitehorse, the second annual tasting held by …
Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive!
November is my favourite month of the wine year. While it is the month where we have to acknowledge, especially in the Yukon, that we are plunging irretrievably into the depths of darkness and winter, at the same time there is a day that for me is the harbinger of the holiday season. That day …
Sweet Dessert Wines For Long Winter Nights
Working the Rotary Wine and Fine Food Festival last month, I was reminded all over again why I love the world of wine. There were new wines to discover and old familiar ones that I hadn’t seen in a while. And the same was true for the people I met and poured for. For those …
Making Wine Without Getting Your Feet Dirty
As a wine drinker and (wine) lover, I was spoiled by the years that I lived in the United States. To this day, my recollection of the price ($5.99) we charged for Yellowtail Shiraz at the wine store I worked at keeps me from being able to swallow, and pay, the $14.85 asked for in …
Wines to Serve With Christmas Dinner
I was pondering what to write about in this article, when I was approached by a co-worker of mine who is heading out to family in Nova Scotia for Christmas. He was thinking about his family Christmas dinner and he wanted to pick my brain (what little there is of it) for some suggestions on …
Open-That-Bottle-of-Wine Night
For 10 years, living in the United States, I read the Wall Street Journal to keep on top of developments in the business world. But it was the Friday edition I looked forward to with true delight. Every Friday was, and continues to be, some of the best writing on wine that I have ever …
What’s Bubbly Without the ‘Buzz’?
For some time, my editor has been urging me to explore the world of non-alcoholic wines and I have to admit that I put off his request, perhaps not being really sure how to approach the subject. Or perhaps it was just that, to me, as a wine drinker of 30-plus years, the whole concept …
Opening That Bottle Again
I have a confession. After encouraging friends and readers to participate in Open that Bottle Night, I remembered I had committed to attend the Rotary Club banquet where I found myself sipping the only red offered, a Jackson Triggs Merlot ($8.75). It’s a passable food wine and I will admit to it being infinitely more …
Winter Reds
As Northerners, we are profoundly touched by the end of winter, the slow return of warmth and the rapid return of light to our lives. Suddenly, we become aware of just how set in our ways we have become, and we resolve to change our lives. We start to put away the hats and mittens and …
Spanish wines? ¡Si!
I, and the fellow wine enthusiasts I know, seem to have wandered from country to country in the process of discovering wines. We have familiar territories and sometimes work up the courage to explore new lands. I grew up tasting French wines first and, later, Californian ones. In the 60s, when I was a child …
Sipping Rosé Wines for Spring
The return of the light and the steady drip drip drip of the snow melting has re-awakened my yearning for all that the Yukon has to offer us in our other, non-winter seasons. Last week, I stopped at the Liquor Corporation store to look for a couple of rosé wines (rosé meaning “pinkish”) to try …
Kitchen Sink Wines
With the exception of New Years Eve, I think I drank two glasses of wine in January — not propitious behaviour for a wine writer. I even missed having something nice for my birthday, but I guess the flu followed by pneumonia is a decent excuse. I even managed to lose 10 pounds, which under …
Wine Indoors or Out
Two weekends ago, a friend and I drove up the road from Rabbits Foot Canyon, to Fish Lake, to take her dog for a walk. While the roads were mostly dry, there was still a good foot or two of snow scattered intermittently along the path that we walked. The sky was blue and the …
The Italian Connection
I guess when most of us think of Italian food, we think spaghetti and those old-school straw-covered flasks of Chianti. I am channelling that scene from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp where they slurp on opposite ends of the same pieces of spaghetti and then share the meatball. So when I spent 10 days in …
What’s ‘Fun’ in ‘Funky’
It’s full-on summer. Kids are out of school; Canada Day is past and every weekend from now until the end of August will be packed with the warm-weather activities we all love but have such a short time to enjoy. Seems I’m grilling every second or third evening (not that I mind) and looking for …
What do you pair with muskrat?
I, like many wine enthusiasts, love the challenge of finding the right wine to pair with a meal. Many people start with this simple axiom: white wine with white meat; red wine with red meat – not a bad starting place as few things taste better than a citrusy Sauvignon Blanc with mussels, or a …
Reds for a Gathering
It’s always fun to be on the lookout for new wines to try, and this past weekend gave me the opportunity to explore two tasty and moderately priced red wines from Italy. They come from less familiar areas of Italy, that nonetheless are making excellent wines. There’s a wonderful trend in wines from countries around …
Pairing the Sweet with the Sweet
I had some friends out to my cabin this past weekend for a great fall dinner with pasta and several good Oregon pinot noirs to try with the main course. For dessert, one of my guests brought a wonderful, home-made Tiramisu. I recently read an article that called it “heaven in your mouth!” All those …
Wine Throughout the Year
As we race toward Christmas and the new year of promise that follows, I can’t help but reflect on the wonderful and poignant experiences that have transpired over these last 12 months. Post-Christmas, last year, began with a wonderful evening among friends at a cabin in Tagish, meeting and making new and special friends and …
Wine for a Winter’s Eve
So now the rich, velvety darkness of the Yukon winter has descended and the temperatures at my cabin have dropped below minus 20, several evenings. And yet, it is probably my favourite time of year here. The blue lights are strung in the trees along Main Street and are alight by 4 p.m., as the …
Thai Food: A Delightful Challenge
Last Saturday evening, a friend of mine invited me and several of my co-workers to dinner at her cozy little apartment. My friend is an artist, and her work and her exploratory nature have taken her all over the Pacific Rim. Along the way she washed dishes in tiny island restaurants, trading her scrubbing skills …
Special Wines for a Special Night
Several weeks ago, I mentioned OTBN, or “Open That Bottle Night”; on Saturday, Feb. 27, I had a small dinner at my cabin to celebrate it. Many of us have a special bottle that we have bought, or been given, and saved for a special occasion; so the intent of the evening was to gather …
Wine Ephemera
Our copyeditor for What’s Up Yukon recently sent an e-mail to me, where she related that she had stumbled across an alternate definition for the word “Methuselah”. She cited the online dictionary where it said: Methuselah PRONUNCIATION: (meh-THOO-zuh-luh) MEANING: noun: 1. An extremely old man. 2. An over-sized wine bottle holding approximately six litres. ETYMOLOGY: …
Two Chilean Reds and One Surprise Ending
Sometimes you set out to explore one thing, and end up discovering something completely different. Such was the case, recently, and I wanted to share what I found. I had been thinking that I have not devoted enough time to getting to know South American wines, and felt that an article on those might be …
The Ideal Wine Collection?
As I mentioned in my last article, I have been invited to develop a wine list for a restaurant that a neighbour of mine plans to open in the next four to six weeks. I was interested, and flattered, that she wanted my input. It also occurred to me that if a reader wanted to …
Legado Munoz: A Terrific Spanish Red
We’re plunging into the winter and holiday season at full tilt and for me this is a season of getting together with friends for dinner and searching out new and more robust wines to bring to the table. The falling snow outside makes me yearn for strong tasting reds to bring warmth and light to …
Spanish Reds and How to Order Wines from Outside
In the days leading up to the Rotary Wine Festival, I felt as if I was eating, sleeping and breathing wine. At that point it was almost a subject I didn’t want to contemplate for a week or two. However, I recently tried some very good Spanish red wines and special-ordered one from the Yukon …
Spanish Reds and How to Order Wines from Outside Read More »
Wine and Wine Gift Ideas for the Holidays
As we are invited to holiday gatherings at friends’ homes and begin to realize that our runway for shopping for gifts is rapidly running out, I had a few suggestions for the wine lovers on your list. At this season, we are often dashing in to the liquor store for a bottle to bring to …
Open that Bottle of Wine Night!
Last week, I visited the Wall Street Journal website to read the most recent article by my favourite wine writers, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher … it wasn’t there! They retired at the end of 2009. They had my dream job: they are a married couple who, for a dozen years, had written the best …
Tasting France’s Most Famous Wine
Now that the Yukon snows have finally arrived and the all-too-brief weeks of skating the magically bare icy surface of my lake are done, I am looking forward to short, early twilights leading into our the long winter nights. For me this is the time of year to reconnect with friends, sit over long dinners …
Singing the Praises of the Much-Maligned Zinfandel
One of the fun questions I enjoy asking wine drinkers is, if you had one wine to take with you to a desert island, what would it be? I have several good friends who would choose New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, with their zesty, grapefruit-y notes, as exemplified by the Kim Crawford or Oyster Bay Sauvignon …
Singing the Praises of the Much-Maligned Zinfandel Read More »
Wine on the Go
Last week I was cornered by someone who asked what her options were for taking wine along on a paddling trip. For me, part of the experience of enjoying the outdoors is to end a day with friends by setting up camp with a great view, a good dinner and a glass or two of …
No Reservations About These Reserves
Holy cow, it has a cork!” These were the exact words I exclaimed to a friend when I went to open a bottle of Australian Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve ($17.90) several weeks ago. If you’re a wine drinker, you’re probably familiar with Yellow Tail. It’s the most successful wine story of the last decade, …
Message in a Bottle
I try to write a wine column every couple of weeks, unless life gets crazy, as it has over the past month or so. In that period of time, I will usually get the chance to have perhaps two or three dinners where I will want to serve a bottle of wine. Because I’m such …
Turning to Argentinian Whites
In the week that followed the holidays, when I returned to earth with a thump to reflect on the fun and parties and food and drink I had consumed over the holiday season, there was a moment when I thought I’d spend all of January eating those boxes of mandarin oranges, and drinking nothing by …
Washington Comes to Yukon
Most Canadian wine drinkers are pretty familiar with California wines. Their Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays have been celebrated in such movies as Sideways and Bottleshock, and their top-of-the-line Cabernet Sauvignons, like the 2007 Screaming Eagle Cab, can command prices of $2,400-3,400 a bottle (US pricing)! A visit to the Yukon Liquor Corporation (YLC) will yield …
Some of the Best Wines You’ve Never Tasted
This past weekend I had a very tasty bottle of red wine that I will be going back to buy more of. It was a little over $13 for the bottle, and my friend and I enjoyed it very much! It is from a wine producing country that I’ll bet you may not have ever …
Wine Money Diet: Part 2
One of the delights of wine is that there are always surprises to be found and bargains to be enjoyed, if you are open to trying new things or going off the beaten path. I thought I had a pretty good handle on the Yukon Liquor Corp selection until I went on my “money diet”, …
Why Wines Differ
Last night a friend stopped by for dinner. He brought moose sausages to grill; I boiled up some Yukon grown red potatoes and added butter and rosemary. We washed it down with the better part of a bottle of one of my “go to” bottles of Italian red wine, a 2009 Citra Montepulciano D’Abrruzzo (about …
Last-Minute Christmas and New Year’s Thoughts
I can’t believe I am writing my last wine column of the year! This is a time when I reflect on what I have experienced in the year, and what I hope for for the next one. I have seen the departure of friends, the meeting of new ones, changes in my personal life, and …
Trying Some Malbecs
After more than a month of grey skies and rain, the sun finally made a re-appearance over my lake. Still, it feels like it is too late for summer, with the first trees turning yellow, the underbrush taking on reddish hues, and falling leaves starting to mass on my road. I am trying to find …
Planning a Wine Tasting
Several months ago I was asked by my friend Wendy in Dawson City to plan a wine tasting at her B&B, Bombay Peggy’s. We’ll be doing it over the May long weekend, so by the time you read this it will have been completed. I was explaining to a friend the thinking that I was …
New Finds from Italy (in time for Thanksgiving)
A recent article on the consumption of Italian wine pointed out that, for the first time, the value of Italian wines exported was greater than the value of that consumed by Italians at home. In 2010, Italy exported 3.93 billion euros ($5.3 billion in Canadian dollars) worth of wine, while spending 3.89 billion euros ($5.25 …
Two Fine, Big Reds
This is a funny time of year in the Yukon. The return of the light and the moving forward of the clocks speaks to the impending arrival of spring. The other day I stood outside my cabin and heard birds calling their songs out, and thought… am I just noticing these calls, though they have …
Treats for Summer Evenings
It took until the middle of July, but it seems (I don’t want to jinx us) that summer has arrived in the Yukon! The past two weekends have actually been HOT, and I’ve been lucky enough to spend two Saturdays nights kayaking, swimming and sitting outside with friends, enjoying picnic dinners and treats off an …
The Other Side of the Andes
In my last several articles, I have been reviewing a number of inexpensive, yet tasty Malbec and Malbec blend red wines from Argentina. The high altitudes, dry climates and pure waters of the Andes contribute to the growing of terrific grape stock, which makes a large contribution to the success of the Argentinian wine industry. …
Learnings from a Wine Tasting
In my last article, I told you about the wine tasting I was planning at Bombay Peggy’s in Dawson City over the May long weekend. We had about 20 people attend, a few less than I would have hoped for, but a good first effort. Three of the bar staff participated and helped do the …
Tasting the Money Diet
It wasn’t until I moved to the Yukon six years ago that I heard the term “money diet”, but I immediately liked the concept. Sometimes we diet because our life circumstances require it in order to restore or maintain our health. Other times we do it just because we are feeling a little beyond what …
Looking off the beaten path
Searching for wines is a little bit like a scavenger hunt at times, and sometimes it calls for looking at the outliers of the wine world for new and exciting finds. Here in the Yukon, we’re well familiar with French, Italian, American and Australian wines. More recently Canadian, Argentinian and Chilean wines have become more …
Refreshing Riff Rock
The members of Whitehorse’s newest band, Abscess of the Dog (AOTD), sit in a comfortable Riverdale living room and drink scotch. Matt Larsen, the band’s drummer, is a new father, and that is cause for celebration. Larsen, Lars Jessup and Kinden Kosick were friends long before they were ever bandmates. Jessup and Larsen are both …
