Vancouver’s classiest cocktail salute is back with a vengeance this week. Judging by the weekend pre-show and first day’s activities, it promises to far outshine last year’s inaugural event, which was impressive—even more so considering it was the first run. Where cocktails and bartenders mix, even the most functional of activities is likely [...]
Cutting edge: Haywire and Bartier Scholefield vial samples, Tim Pawsey photo (Edible Canada is now closed. Yesterday we took time out from our pre-holidays deadline whirl, and Zagat Survey wrap-up (hence the lack of posts here), to catch lunch with the Okanagan Crushpad gang and consulting winemaker Alberto Antonini. His best quote [...]
It’s entirely possible that the impressive Sidecut / Painted Rock 4 x 5 course winemaker dinner (that’ll be four courses each of five plates or accompaniments) that we enjoyed at just concluded Cornucopia entailed the most food we’ve seen at one sitting! Much like the winery with whom they partnered, it's apparent [...]
The Flying Pig's skirt steak—the real deal, Tim Pawsey photo It just goes to show; you can never know what to expect on a Vancouver Monday night. One recent, still dry October soirée, you could have fired a proverbial cannon down most of Yaletown’s narrow streets, so who knew that we’d only just [...]
Great tastes of Tawny Port and Stilton at Vancouver's premier cheese purveyor, Les Amis du Fromage
From the ‘everything old is new again’ department comes this nifty little (200 ml.) bottle of Prosecco that has us thinking back a decade, to when Pommery Champagne launched Pop!—the cute mini-bottle that came complete with a straw, so you could look really trendy. (Of course the fact that sucking bubble through a [...]
Two long established wine families have reached across the border to produce a new Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The Stewart family, which owns Quails Gate Winery in Westbank, BC, and the Zepponi family of Sonoma, California, have a history of similar if distant beginnings, in that their forebears settled and started farming at around the [...]
Updated. April 13th, 2012. Here's a pretty solid endorsement of properly handled FAS salmon: Vancouver chefs salute FAS salmon Maybe it's a tipping point. A few things occured to me concerning the winner we picked at last week’s Chef Meets Grape Small Plates Challenge, organised by the BC Wine Institute. First of all, congrats [...]
Frank Deiter—the man who kick-started modern craft distilling in BC, and mentored to several other successful start-ups (including Victoria Spirits)—is launching a new venture. However, he’ll also stay closely connected to the trade he loves. Frank’s a firm believer in making the most of what we have, in every way possible. This is [...]
'Government of Canada Invests in New Technology for Canadian Wine', ... says the headline. Really? Not so fast. The key words here are ‘Canadian wine.’ Andrew Peller Limited has received a $1.04 million interest free federal loan to upgrade (and effectively double) bag-in-box production at its wholly owned Calona Vineyards subsidiary in Kelowna, and at [...]