Inventing the cocktail menu for a new bar sounds as awesome as you’d imagine. There’s trial and error, adding a little bit of this, taking away a little of that and sampling the efforts to get the taste exactly right. “We probably had three or four sessions trying to come up with these cocktails,” says […]
wine
Posted inFood + Drink
Three wine myths, debunked
Myth: Red wine has more sulfites than white, which is why I get a headache when I drink red wine. Truth: Red wine generally contains less sulfur dioxide than white wine, not more. If you get headaches from red wine but not white, this is likely because you are reacting to histamine, produced by lactic […]
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A fall wine to-do list
Nova Scotia Harvest Wine Festival Inspired by harvest season, and our fruitful local wine industry, this six-week event—presented by Taste of Nova Scotia and Wines of Nova Scotia—has restaurants, wineries and tour providers working together to host experiences across the province. Since September 15, Nova Scotia Harvest Wine Festival has been toasting the various growers […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Six fall foods and the local wines to drink with them
Sandals season isn’t completely over (so sue me) but technically fall has arrived—it’s just about time to wear rust-coloured sweaters, eat tiny chocolate bars and avoid turning the thermostat up. As the slow-cooker meals and blended soups start to trickle their way into our minds and onto our weekly menus, we reached out to three […]
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The winds of change
After surviving last year’s late spring frost and record-breaking warm summer, Nova Scotian growers recently faced off with Hurricane Dorian’s 120-kilometre-an-hour winds. “It’s been a double whammy,” says Victor Oulton of the extreme weather events in the past two years. Oulton is the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, which recently sent out […]
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The fantastical Nicole Raufeisen
Nicole Raufeisen, manager and sommelier at Little Oak (recently named one of Canada’s Best 100 Restaurants for the second year in a row) and The Ostrich Club, sure can sell a person on wine. Her enthusiastic, unexpected fantastical or pop-cultural descriptors can bring the mere idea of a drink to vibrant life before a drop […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
DRINK THIS: Domaine de Grande Pré’s Moscato
September is good for crowding enjoyment into late summer days, much in the same way that the Bay of Fundy’s rising tidal waters push beach-goers together onto shrinking patches of sunlit shore. Domaine de Grand Pré‘s Moscato ($25), launched in the height of summer this year, is my choice of wine to accompany the glow […]
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Mermaids and Merlot’s no-pressure, no-pretension guide to wine
The first rule of Jessica Babin’s wine club is that there are no rules. You don’t have to be an expert, or have any intention of being an expert, drink with her. Bar Kismet’s WSET-certified wine director runs Mermaids and Merlot based on a simple piece of advice she got from a teacher—life is complicated, […]
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Winegrunt brings the buzz
Winegrunt grand opening 43 Water Street, Windsor Sunday, July 14, 12-8pm Something new is greeting visitors to Nova Scotia wine country: A wine bar run by former university professors, in an unlikely town, with an entirely sensible location. “So many times, we stopped in Windsor,” says Robert Buranello, of trips to the Annapolis Valley from […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
DRINK THIS: Eileanan Brèagha’s rosé
Nothing decorates a deck party better than glasses of pink wine glinting in the sunlight. And no wine checks all the boxes of refreshment, food-friendliness and affordability like Nova Scotian rosé. Rosé suffers the unfortunate misconception that it is cheap, sweet wine, a rap left over from the ’80s when white wine was more fashionable […]
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A toast to our ocean playground: the best three Tidal Bays of 2018
P icture it: You’re sitting in a folding chair on a country lawn somewhere in the Annapolis Valley. You got a lot of sun at the cherry U-pick in the afternoon, and your skin is still radiating. You are satiated with lobster rolls and potato salad. The sun is making a mix of Creamsicle hues […]
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DRINK THIS: Blomidon Estate Winery’s 2014 Blanc de Noirs
A Nova Scotian bubbly goes great with food. No surprise, then, that contestant chefs at Canada’s Great Kitchen Party in Halifax—the rebranded Gold Medal Plates national culinary competition—choose overwhelmingly to pair their competition dishes with local sparkling wine. This makes for an especially good opportunity to size up some of the top sparkling wines in […]