Tidings Magazine

The names of Coyote’s Run, Frogpond, Flat Rock, Ridegepoint, Palatine and Hidden Bench don’t (yet) trip lightly off wine lovers’ tongues like Inniskillin, Peller Estate and Château des Charmes.

They are some of the small farm and estate wineries that exist in the shadows of the traditional behemoth producers with bulging budgets. They are what the French refer to as garagistes, due to their tiny production of vins de garage and their minute, yet impressive, wineries.

Lenko Vineyards is probably Niagara’s best known garagiste. This family-run operation in Beamsville produces absolutely amazing reds that seem to be sold out more often than they are available. The Old Vines Merlot is a seductive style, which offers lots of toasty, vanilla-scented oak that’s about as tasty as you can get.

Is it me or does every has-been celebrity seem to have a line of wines named after them nowadays?

Why so surprised? Celebrities are as good as superheroes — able to leap onto any marketing opportunity in a single bound. Surely if they can blend their own cologne, design clothes and create salad dressing, then thinking they can slap their name on a wine bottle should come without any burden of guilt, right?

That said, it might surprise you to hear that, what with all the new famed-named labels on liquor-store shelves, celeb-endorsed vino isn’t a current trend. Major and minor stars from music, sports and Hollywood have been involved in the industry (at different levels of intensity) for decades.

Might we recommend rolling hills with your Chardonnay?

Discover the Okanagan and explore the heart of award-winning British Columbian winemaking.

Carmelis Goat Cheese Artisan is a family-run boutique dairy that produces over 20 different varieties of delicious goat cheeses using 100% goat’s milk. Connoisseurs swear by the Goatgonzola, a lovely blue cheese that is earthy and sweet, as well as nutty. Carmelis also makes 24 flavours of goat’s milk gelato.
250-870-3117
170 Timberline Road, Kelowna, BC

“I only have four days.” This is what was going through my mind as I touched down in Pescara on the east coast of central Italy. Though only two hours’ drive from Rome, Pescara and the rest of Abruzzo lies pleasantly ignored by the hordes of tourists busying themselves in Tuscany and Umbria. While visiting family and friends in the UK and France this spring, I had managed to set aside four days to hop over to this still undiscovered area in search of new flavours and recipe ideas.

Don’t be surprised if you slow to “island time” during your tour and find it difficult to leave.

Famous fruit wines in a laidback farm setting is what Marley Farm Winery is all about. Try their small lot “Ewe Hoo” Pinot Noir, which features rich cherry flavours and an excellent vanilla finish. And their delicious  “Rastaberry” is a blend of raspberries, tayberries and blackberries inspired by the owners’ Jamaican roots.
(250) 652-8667
1831 Mount Newton X. Road, Saanichton, BC

Water is the major component of the human body — and the same is true for grapes. The pH of your stomach acid is about the same as the pH of wine (which is why wine is good for your digestion).

So it may not be too much of a stretch to suggest that wine, being the most human of beverages, will be subject to the same forces that govern population growth. Thomas Malthus, the eighteenth-century British demographer and political economist, in a 1789 paper, posited that population grows in geometric proportion while the food supply grows only in arithmetic proportions. Mankind, he argued, will not be able to sustain itself if it goes on procreating the way it has been.

There are checks, however: wars, pandemics and natural disasters are Nature’s way of controlling population growth. I’m beginning to think the same thing is happening to wine.