Happy New Years! Lots of people are popping corks on bottles of bubbly, but not all them are Champagne... do you know the difference? A sparkle in the glass, a celebration, a toast, a touch of magic. That

Red skies and cotton candy wispy clouds with water topped wine barrel reflections.

Pretty little mushroom found on Vancouver Island.

Sparkling wine, or bubbles as I fondly refer to them as, are for all days, not just the holidays. And here's why. They usually are high acid, meaning food pairings galore, the bubbles are a pallet cleanser,

Alsace finds it's home in France where German and Switzerland meet their borders with the country. Held by the Rhine River/German border to the east and Vosges Mountain range to the west. Through out history

Summer monthes are made for sunsets, books on the beach, the occasional cocktail in a mason jar, and regular swims. I catch a lot of them and am grateful to sit there and have the warm breeze drying my

A wet wine soaked Cheerio on the side of the wine press, crushed into a little heart. Just found it, didn't make it. <3

After fermentation is done and the wine is blended for filtration. Most wines go through cold stability and heat stability. They can be accomplished in a couple different ways these days. This is the old

Pinot Noir or the heartbreak grape so to speak. So much love and wonder in one little grape, but also much sweat and tears. If you're a winemaker, it's a promise to break your heart at some point in your

If you're not drinking wines from here, you should probably start. Since my inception into the world of wine over a decade ago, the Loire Valley has always held a special place in my glass. Vineyards hugging

The sunsetting over Lake Ontario. It's not the ocean, but it does the trick. When there's no other shore line in sight, the vast distance across as the sun dips below where your eyes can see, and the last

Classic blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Sometimes referred to as the White Bordeaux. The traditional style of Graves apart of the Bordeaux wine region in France. Wines usually are a blend of majority

The colours of the grapes, to the wine they make, and often the mess that needs to be cleaned. Someone once said, winemaking is 10% fermentation, 90% cleaning. What's not too love? Here's some of my favourite

It's really easy to have homemade bread at home... I'm starting to create some quality loaves in my own house, something I thought would take a lot longer to figure out. But it truely is easy. It's mostly

Muscat, a fruit forward, floral varietal. Sometimes elegant, sometimes fun, sometimes bubbly and sometimes sweet. Still and classically done in Alsace, France. Fun and bubbly in Italy as Asti Spumante,

Fresh cookies in oven with that warm cinnamon are just scrumptious smelling. They seem to be disappearing fast around the house, highly recommended. Here's the recipe... Ingredients (in order of addition)

In the north of Spain, east of Leon, where the foothills of the Pyrenees flatten out and its straight to the coast. The regions of Riberia Sacra and Bierzo grow the red grape Mencia. A small amount of

Corn tortillas have became a standard in the house for meals at least once or twice, every week or two. Not just for Taco Tuesdays! They are a great base for numerous filling, from classic tacos, to curried

Spring, Summer, Harvest and Winter. These are my four seasons as a winemaker. As the grapes come in, the nights get sleepless, the hours long; laughter is plenty and coffee consumed is copious. These are

50% Tempranillo and 50% Garnacha, two classic grapes from Spain's Rioja region make up this blend. Aged only 4 monthes in French (80%) and American (20%) oak barrels, this wine is built to really let the