Written by Rick Van Sickle | 02 January 2012

They soar by gracefully, one after the other, gliding, searching, hunting the critters and carrion in the vineyards below our perch at the newly opened Miradoro Restaurant at the Tinhorn Creek winery in the south Okanagan Valley. It’s early spring, and the majestic bald eagles that just cruised by our floor-to-ceiling windows are a sight to behold as they circle, with purpose, above the bare vineyards that offer no cover for the pesky marmots that scurry unsuspectingly below. It’s an “awe” moment taking us away, if only briefly, from the feast in front of us at Tinhorn’s spectacular 4,000-square foot winery restaurant, featuring a wrap-around deck with extraordinary views of the Okanagan Valley.

We’re digging into a plate of pancetta pizza, made in a wood stone oven and cooked Neapolitan style with sourdough and stone ground wheat (it is to die for, by the way), haddock cheeks and marinated octopus all matched with Tinhorn’s delicious Pinot Gris and Syrah. The menu at Tinhorn’s new Miradoro is Mediterranean in style, using seasonal ingredients sourced from local fields, forests and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Miradoro is indicative of the transformation that’s taking place in the Okanagan. Only a few years ago, fine winery dining was limited to the Terrace Restaurant at Mission Hill in the central Okanagan, and the Sonora Room at Burrowing Owl Estate Winery in the south — both excellent restaurants, with a few others sprinkled throughout the valley. Today, wineries, as well as wine-themed restaurants not attached to a winery, are rushing to create a food and wine culture that will keep visitors busy exploring, drinking and eating for a week or more as the region ramps up development to attract even more committed wine and food travellers.

Written by the Tidings Staff | 30 December 2011

It's finally New Year's Eve. No doubt you will become acquainted with a good bubbly tonight. There are lots of great ones to try. But, why not expand your horizons a bit? Tidings would like to recommend some tasty treats from the Finger Lakes, New York.

The New World is growing older — and somewhat wiser. Many wineries in the Finger Lakes area now print on their labels a scale indicating exactly where that Riesling is in terms of dryness, using residual sugar and other factors. The buyer just has to know what sweetness level they like and then look at the scale to know if it would be to his or her taste. With the confusions over some Old World Rieslings, this really helps wine lovers make a choice.

I recently visited Keuka and Seneca lakes, and can say that sipping and eating your way around the many wineries of these central lakes might be the way to enjoy a visit. When at Keuka Lake try to visit older wineries like Heron Hill for a tasting, and then Dr. Frank’s greatly expanded Vinifera Wine Cellars, now operated by third generation Fred Frank, showcasing many vines planted by his grandfather.

Written by Carolyn Evans-Hammond | 27 December 2011

Can you really get a decent bottle of wine for that price?

While wine snobs with raised pinkies are buying, swirling and sniffing hard-to-find wines that cost two arms and a leg, the rest of Canada is just drinking wine. Inexpensive bottles. But is all cheap wine vile swill?

It’s hard to tell, when a disproportionate amount of wine criticism focuses on big-ticket, small-scale bottles in infinite detail.

Frankly, one reason relatively little ink has been spilled on big brands is that there’s a stigma attached to acknowledging them. Among many wine critics and connoisseurs, they’re seen as less interesting. Too commercial. Too generic. Too industrial — as if quantity has an inverse relationship with quality, which of course it doesn’t. Single-note wines are made by big and small producers, but still this stigma persists.

Written by Matthew Sullivan | 14 December 2011

The best winemakers often talk about the importance of minimalism in creating authentic, terroir-driven wines. But this ethos can lead to some strange places. In fact, some of the most intriguing wineries in Ontario are so minimalistic that they barely exist at all. “Virtual wineries,” as they are known, lack all the physical trappings that one associates with the messy business of making wine: these wineries own no vines, vineyards, presses, vats or buildings. Their only possessions are intangible: a name, a graphic design, and the winemaker’s expertise.

Virtual winemakers operate by purchasing fruit from independent farmers and renting the facilities necessary to vinify the grapes and bottle them for the market. As Lynn Ogryzlo wrote in the October 2010 Tidings, virtual wineries allow people to enter the winemaking business even lacking the small fortune necessary to purchase land and equipment.

It’s a strange idea to think that these winemakers piggyback on more established wineries — it certainly doesn’t make them parasites. In fact, the sudden increase in the number of virtual wineries heralds a new stage in winemaking evolution for Ontario. “What we’re doing makes everything in Niagara run more efficiently: renting equipment, buying excess fruit,” says Andrew von Teichman of the Generations Wine Company. “This is great business for the existing assets, a lot of which could use that help.”