By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (TORONTO, ON) – Covering the wine beat for the Square can be a tough job. Low pay, scrounging for samples from the wineries that aren’t astute enough to keep you supplied with new releases and regularly getting your taste buds roughed up. But if you hear the Italian trade Commission [...]
By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island VQA wines can stand on their own two feet quality wise. Unfortunately the Ontario liquor monopoly and its puritanical distribution mantra seem to be having a love affair with Niagara preventing local wineries from running. The question is how to [...]
By Robert Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – The review you see has long been posted in The Windsor Square sometime in 2010. And at the end of 2010 this Meritage won my best red Canadian wine of 2010 (along with Smith and Wilson’s Raleigh Vines). Well lookie here! The LCBO has finally caught on and [...]
By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – The wine trade can be full of pretty rough and tumble folk making a living in the wine trade by picking up wine by the case and delivering it to customers most of them in the restaurant business. Not nefarious and malicious like some unsavoury characters in [...]
By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – With all the news flying around The Square these days on liberal credit card use and stories about politicians flying around the globe in the spirit of local development all on the taxpayers dime my thoughts turn to Australia’s Qantas Airlines and particularly as I am dreaming [...]
By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – In the April 14, 2012 LCBO Vintages release we see a Mastronardi 2008 Merlot/Cabernet blend with a quote , “New faces from the Lake Erie North Shore Region like Mastronardi….”. Mastronardi has been around for some six years and the LCBO recognizes it as new? Now that’s [...]
By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – The Windsor Square is at your service covering wines on location in Windsor, Harrow, Kingsville, New York, Thessaloniki, Dubrovnik and Toronto but in Michigan good luck….more coming on that. On April 16th forfeiting an invitation to talk with Oprah and Donald Trump who were both within spitting [...]
By Robert Stephen, (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – I was swept away by a Portuguese Tsunami recently in Toronto. The Tsunami was not a wall of wine rushing up and sweeping me off my feet but rather a multitude of overheads and an hour long lecture hosted by Comissão de Vitcultura da Região dos Vinhos Verdes [...]
By Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – When I think Sicilian reds I think mostly of robust and powerful wines. Full bodied, big mouth feel and no nonsense wines fit to brawl with spicy sausages and the richest sweet tomato sauce Sicilian tomatoes can produce. Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir move over you big [...]
Robert K. Stephen (CSW) (WINDSOR, ON) – Once again as Passover approaches on 7 April stocks of Israeli wines are in abundance. The problem is that there are simply not enough Israeli wineries selling their wines at the LCBO. Unfortunately Israeli wines seem to proliferate at Passover and trail off after that. There is something [...]
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