The Friday Files: News & Notes from Canada's Wine Scene

Now is the perfect time to be stocking up on Canadian wines at My Wine Canada. Until October 8, you get 50% off shipping on all orders from any winery on the site. Act fast and you can get your wines in time for Thanksgiving…

Bill Zacharkiw of the Montreal Gazette continues his Route de vins roadtrip featuring Quebec producers. This week he popped in to La Face Cachée de la Pomme to check out their ciders.

If you’re going to be in the Okanagan Valley over the next week or so, be sure to try and snag some tickets to any number of the Okanagan Wine Festivals’ 2014 fall signature events.

Speaking of the Okanagan Wine Festivals, the results of the B.C. Wine Awards were revealed on October 1, including a visit from Premier Christy Clark, who gave out the Premier’s Award.

New to the B.C. Wine Awards, judges this year picked five wines to receive Platinum Awards. From that group was then chosen the best of the best, which received the Premier’s Award. And the inaugural winner: See Ya Later Ranch’s 2012 Rover, a Shiraz-Viogner blend. Tim Pawsey talks about the judging process here.

Summerhill Pyramid Winery has brought Okanagan-based bartender Gerry Jobe on as consulting bartender as they expand their cocktail program. Like their wines, many cocktails will feature estate-grown ingredients, some of which may spend some time aging in the on-site pyramid.

A selection of B.C. wines are making their way into the U.S. Pacific Northwest region thanks to a partnership between Wines of British Columbia and Whole Foods. Included in the selection are wines from My Wine Canada faves Meyer Family Vineyards and Tantalus.

In the neighbourhood of Niagara's Flat Rock Cellars this Thanksgiving weekend? Stop by on Saturday Oct. 11 and try some savoury pies from The Itty Bitty Pie Company paired with some of the best wines from the region.

 

Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson is the wine columnist and literary editor for the Winnipeg Free Press, and judges at wine competitions across the country. He’s on Twitter and Instagram at @bensigurdson