Unencumbered by tradition, courageous Quebec winemakers are taking cool climate winemaking to new heights with an exciting mix of hybrids, vinifera and blended fruit styles. I’m just back from an incredible four-day road trip to Quebec’s Eastern Townships to visit friends and search for sparkling wine. Why sparkling you ask? Because La Belle Province is…
Tag: organic wine
“Winemakers Taking on Climate Change” Webinar with Napa’s Steve Matthiasson and Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario’s Andrea Kaiser
A couple of years ago, I joined a climate action group called CALL – Climate Action for Life-long Learners. The group is essentially post-career boomers who spent much of their lives in corporate offices, long before the threat of 1.5 degrees, carbon emissions and micro-plastics became the backdrop to all decision-making. Of course, many in…
Is the Wine in Your Glass Contributing to Climate Change?
On a rare trip to a local LCBO to buy wine recently (I try to buy direct), I watched and listened as a young consumer asked an employee about sustainable wine. “I’m looking for something that’s environmentally responsible with no i-cides,” she explained. “No pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides – basically, no chemicals. Do you…
Maverick California Winemaker Martha Stoumen @ RAW WINE Montreal
California native Martha Stoumen exudes warmth and joy, then bottles that adventurous, sunny spirit in her fun-loving, highly sought-after, natural wines. An outspoken champion of transparent winemaking, Martha Stoumen Wines are taking Northern California in an exciting new direction with lower alcohol, fresh and beautifully balanced wines that shine a spotlight on the grapes and…
RAW WINE Toronto: Similkameen Valley’s Scout Vineyard is Rooted in Minimalist, Farm-Driven Wines
The November 16th RAW WINE Toronto fair is your ticket to tasting amazing, naturally produced wines. One RAW WINE grower/winemaking team clearing Isabelle Legeron’s very high quality bar is Scout Vineyard, a wine farm on the southern border of the incredibly beautiful Similkameen Valley, in British Columbia. Launched in 2018, Team Scout includes Similkameen friends…
RAW WINE Fairs Come to Canada: Meet Isabelle Legeron MW, the Doyenne of Natural, Responsibly Farmed Wine
The annual RAW WINE Fair month – the world’s largest gathering of “low-intervention, organic, biodynamic, natural wine producers” – is making its debut in Toronto on November 16, 2022 and it’s sure to be a tasty celebration for local wine lovers. Toronto is the 6th wine loving city to join the RAW WINE tour, a…
Avignonesi Winery: Leading Montepulciano’s Vino Nobile Regenerative Renaissance
Michael Lewis, one of my all-time favourite authors (Moneyball, The Big Short) says he knows he’s at the intersection of a great story and a great central character when his palms start to sweat. Usually, he adds, the story involves someone who doesn’t take the safe road. They follow some idealistic, quixotic path that inevitably…
The Regenerative GM: My Q&A with Tablas Creek’s Chief Terroir Officer Jason Haas
Earth Day is Thursday, April 22 and I can’t think of a better wine standard bearer, vineyard bon-vivant, herd-boss and planetary steward than Jason Haas (not to be confused with Adelita the Spanish Mastiff – the real herd-boss). You met Jason, the General Manager and Partner at Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles in my…
The Regenerative GM: Tablas Creek Vineyard’s Inspiring Circle of Life
When I called Jason Haas, the spirited, (staggeringly!) prolific General Manager at Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, California it was ostensibly to talk chalk. If you’ve driven the dry, winding, oak-strewn roads of the western Adelaida wine district of Paso Robles (I worked harvest there in 2017) you know there’s a white, dusty cloud…
Part 3 – Sentient Wine and Beer brands Amp up Organic and Sustainability Messaging
Well that’s pretty much a wrap for September. How did you celebrate National Organic Month? If you’ve had the chance to read my last two blog posts (part 1, part 2), you’ll know I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about why we buy and the factors shaping our 2020 consumer behaviours. There’s nothing more…
Part 2 – Sentient Wine and Alcohol Brands Amp up Organic and Sustainability Messaging
What’s more motivating? Better for Me or Better for the Planet? Understanding why we buy is one of the great 21st century marketing challenges. Neuromarketers say 90+% of the purchase decisions we make are governed by our subconscious, shaped by emotional drivers and motivations we don’t even know are at play. Those Levi’s jeans, that…
Sentient Wine & Alcohol Brands Amp up Organic and Sustainable Messaging
In 2018 – before the name Greta was etched into our consciousness – I was in a grade 3 classroom user-testing an environmental app for kids that explored climate change and plastic pollution in our oceans. Predictably, the students told us the app was buggy (which it was), and had way too much text (which…
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