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Petite Rivière Vineyards

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Wil Knoll

When thinking Canadian wine, our minds usually go to Niagara or British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Way out East however, Nova Scotia is producing quality wines that may just need a little push to be experienced by all of Canada.

Petite Rivière has been making wine for 10 years along the south shores of Nova Scotia in the LaHave River Valley where vineyards have been present since the 1600’s. While their vines have been around for centuries, Petite Rivière is showing that their new winery has something to offer as Nova Scotia wine, not only to the locals but also from one Canadian coast to the other.

Jillian Mouzar of Petite Rivière says the vineyard has a “laid back and serene old French feel” that has welcomed the public for three years now. The winery offers wine tours every day at noon, opening doors for learning about the differences of land, grapes and terroir in their small region. Mouzar says the tour finishes with wine and cheese pairings where guests are invited to try their premiere white wines and “Elite Reds.”

Other tours like Nova Scotia Wine Tours invite guests to travel to several wineries in the different regions of the province. Their “South Shore Escape” highlights Petite Rivière as a destination for one of the featured private tours.

Unlike their neighbouring northern regions, Bay of Fundy and Annapolis Valley, the rocky land, soil, and coastal location of Petite Rivière provides growing conditions and climate ideal for red wine.

2011 La Have joins grape varieties DeChaunac and Leon Millot for Petite Rivière’s most celebrated wine. Mouzar hopes that as more wines become available on liquor store shelves, people will be curious to try others like their Elite Red, 2010 Italy Cross.

Petite Rivière also launched a 2012 Tidal Bay white wine. This selection is known as Nova Scotia’s premiere white wine and has been created as a signature by various wineries in the province. While the same standards are met, including low alcohol content and use of grape variety L’Acadie, each winery has their distinct Tidal Bay vintage. Petite Rivière’s features “citrus and tropical notes with hints of pear and grapefruit.” Mouzar credits the fabulous popularity of Tidal Bay to Nova Scotians love for white wine.

While this new winery and region is young in the known world of wines, Petite Rivière is excited about breaking out and becoming a recognized name. The winery opens booths in 13 farmers markets across the province and multiple festivals as a chance for locals of smaller towns to try their wines. Their involvement and push to show off their products has resulted in plenty of positive feedback and growth for their winery, region and Nova Scotia wines.

Cork or screw cap?

Posted on May 29, 2013May 29, 2013 by Wil Knoll

In the last ten years the cork industry has seen dramatic changes in desire for their product. Although cork is a 100 per-cent natural and renewable material, wineries are enclosing their bottles with synthetic or plastic mocks due to tainted wine.

With 50 per-cent of the globe’s cork production, Portugal has experienced a decline of their main industry which accounts for 16 per-cent of the country’s foreign income. Although the screw cap alternatives are easier to handle, various factors of ecological responsibility are ignored for the non-traditional method of “poppin’ bottles.”

Every nine years, a cork oak tree is stripped of its bark to produce the light and flexible cork material. This processes helps the tree re-new and strive to live for up to 300 years. Apart from wine stoppers, the cork industry has expanded to flooring, footwear and unique crafting ideas (to name a few). However, these uses may not be enough to support Portugal’s 500 factories and 50,000 industry professionals.

Making up 5.3 million acres of forest, these special oak trees are home to many endangered species. As a major source for CO2 retention, it is no argument that cork provides a friendly green advantage over plastic stoppers, which produce 10-24 times more greenhouse gases.

António Rios de Amorim of APCOR or the Portuguese Cork Association says he believes that there has been a 30 per-cent reduction in cork output since 2001.

Amorim Cork is the largest producer of the natural stopper, with 3.2 billion produced in 2010. They are also responsible for the creation of ReCork by Amorim. This organization reuses old corks (corks to date 41,220,110) to create footwear with their partner SOLE. This movement also strengthens Portuguese forests by planting more of the protected tree. So far they have planted 8,472 Cork Oak trees in the last several years. ReCork has a number of drop-off locations in Canada, where you can put your cork collection to valuable use.

Obviously a preference exists for wine drinkers everywhere. Depending on your love for convenience or the economy, the stopper choice of a winery my influence your purchase. While cork is essential for aging wines gracefully, screw caps are very handy if you’re planning on opening the bottle as soon as you get home. The ritual, however, of opening a bottle does not have the same effect with a screw cap. Amorim said, “The only argument in favour of screw caps is now convenience. But what you gain in convenience you lose in style.” What is your preference?

Dads love wine!

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Wil Knoll

If your dad is anything like mine, he sure does love his vino. So instead of buying him yet another tie for Father’s Day, give him something he will really enjoy! If you’re lucky, he may even share.

You can purchase a WineCollective package from now until the end of May and receive your unique wines around Father’s Day in mid-June.

From now until June 17, 2013, use our FATHERSDAY2013 coupon code for $5.00 off any subscription or gift package. We’ll send an email to your pop letting him know his special something is on its way, or keep it a secret and we’ll send you all the details.

Whatever you choose, WineCollective will ensure your package of expertly selected wines is safely delivered straight to your dad’s door. He’ll also receive detailed tasting cards and access to our online community of wine lovers! With everything taken care of you and your dad are free to spend the day together, maybe for lunch and a round of golf?

Enjoy your day dads; it is well deserved!

Welcome to Wine

Posted on May 9, 2013June 7, 2013 by Wil Knoll

Being new to wine culture and the art of tasting may make you feel like you’re jumping into an intimidating mixture of snobby know-it-alls and eclectic vocabulary. But here at WineCollective headquarters we know that different levels of wine education exist. Our team ranges from certified vino pros to the earliest of beginners – like me.

In the next few weeks our WineCollective blog will be featuring a “Welcome to Wine” series of posts that will go through all beginner basics, including terminology and various tips to help you learn. After all, our club is open not only to connoisseurs and collectors, but all Canadians wanting to share in the joys of wine.

My interest in wine began early, where a glass (or two) of my father’s homemade wine at the family dinner table was always necessary and would lead us through hours of conversation and laughs. Today, my interest has spread to curiosity in all features of the wine industry that I hope to explore. So whether you just want to socialize and share wine with food and friends or have a thirst for knowledge, here is a delicious place to start.

We will begin with, tasting basics.

There are three steps to getting the most out of your wine tasting experience that will require you to indulge your senses of sight, smell and taste. While reading up on technique and a “systematic approach” will give you foundation in wine education, you’ll probably find that, like most things, practice makes perfect. So feel free to pop a cork and follow along.

Step 1 – Eyes

The best way to peek into the inside of your glass is to slightly tilt its delicious contents, preferably up to a blank canvas like a white tablecloth. Here you can look into not only the colour, but the clarity and legs as well (yes, wine has legs).

Red, white and rose wines all have a range of colour they can fit into determined by grape varieties, how the wine was aged and the overall age of the wine. These can all have an effect on how the wine appears. My Wine Tutor says that whites gain colour in the aging process, while reds lose colour.

Here is a spectrum of hues to look for as you tilt your glass:

White: straw-yellow / yellow-gold / gold / old-gold / yellow-brown

Red: purple / ruby / red / brick red / red-brown / tawny

Rose: pink / salmon / orange

You also want to make note of the intensity of your wine colour as well as the clarity – is your wine clear or hazy?

The legs of your wine can be seen as a clear film against the sides of the glass, which can indicate the alcohol content and body.

Step 2 – Nose

Swirling your glass as part of wine tasting is essential and powerful. Not only does the motion aerate the wine and release a bouquet of aromatic appeal, it also makes you look and feel extremely fancy. Or at least, I think so.

Aroma characteristics can coincide with varieties used. Learning the smells of more popular wines can help you match with your own experience. However, everyone is different; what you smell may be different from what someone else might take away from the wine.

White

Chardonnay: Melons, pears, vanilla, hazelnut

Sauvignon Blanc: Grapefruit, gooseberries, tart apples, lime or lemon

Riesling: Apple, pear, peach, honey, flowers

Red

Pinot Noir: Cherries, strawberries, forest floor

Merlot: Blueberry, plum, tobacco, chocolate

Cabernet Sauvignon: Black currant, black cherry, smoke, cigar box

Winesworld’s Magazine gives a long list of favourite wines and their individuality.

“Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” – Paulo Coelho

Step 3 – Mouth

Finally, you get to taste. But don’t rush and don’t gulp it up. Instead, savour the flavour that the last two steps were piecing together. Taste buds and sensations are everywhere. Try to pull apart the components that make up the wine: sweetness, acidity and tannin (bitterness).

Flavour characteristics can coincide with aroma. Fruit and floral (like citrus and tropical) as well as spice, vegetables, and oak can all be explored within a wine glass.

What do you taste? Is the body of the wine heavy and rich, or light? Does it match with your meal? These are all questions to ask to ask to help you decide if the bottle is one you enjoy.

The last element of wine tasting to notice is the balance and length of your sip. A long finish leaves the taste of the wine and its components in your mouth. With time, you may be able to pinpoint which flavours hold.

WineCollective is an excellent place to start in your wine journey. Not only do we test and rate wines within our office, we also send you a variety of unique wines to expand your palette.

Along with the bottles, Tasting Cards are sent to members to share the vintage with highlighted tasting notes – Eyes, Nose, Mouth. We also include information on the vineyard, region and producer to add to every aspect of your wine education.

Tasting Cards can also throw an extra challenge with every card’s food pairing suggestion. Attempt a recipe to go along with the wine to see how flavours of food and wine can flawlessly marry.

Although wine tasting may have its science, the experience is entirely individual. Being aware and knowledgeable will not only help to impress your friends, but will also help bring you to find your palette and wine preferences. Happy tasting!

Celebrate Spanish Wine Month with WineCollective!

Posted on January 18, 2013January 18, 2013 by Wil Knoll

Considering the Icewine festivals in Canada last week, I couldn’t help but explore wine festivals in all months. In anticipation of WineCollective’s Spanish Wine month in February, I was pleased to find my search yielded a country rich in wine history, tradition, and several wine-themed festivals to celebrate it all.

Wine Enthusiast’s Jay Franz gives a primer:

“Spanish wine has a long history, with vines growing in the diverse and primarily arid country since 4000 B.C. If one knows Spain they know the country is enamored with its history and traditions and do not give them up easily, for good or bad. But it’s only in modern times, after much of Spain’s wine industry broke with its centuries-old tradition of viticulture and winemaking that the country’s wines have risen beyond their reflexive and derisive plonk perception.

Quality and quantity have improved, immeasurably influenced by the French wine industry to the immediate north and by adopting modern winemaking practices without abandoning the best from the past. Today… the nation produces world-class ranking wines and offers some of the best wine values anywhere. Ironically, while Spain is one of the world’s oldest wine-producing regions, its star has only begun to rise recently.”

Spain is a country that loves wine and WineCollective loves Spanish wine! They’re the world’s third largest wine producer, they drink it abundantly, and they celebrate it far more than most countries. At times, they even drench themselves with it.

Such is the case with my favourite of the many Spanish wine celebrations. The Haro Wine Festival takes place every year on June 29th in the town of Haro in the Spanish La Rioja region. In honor of the patron saint San Pedro, the festivities begin bright and early. People of all ages don their whitest whites, pack containers of red wine, and follow the mayor in a procession through the town to the Hermitage of San Felices de Bilibio. After observing mass, it’s time to cut loose and get soaked! If you’ve ever participated in a water fight, you know that if somebody leaves dry, they’re doing it wrong. The Batalla de Vino (Battle of Wine) in Haro takes this a step further; by the end of it all, you should be soaking wet and stained purple.

Here, the white shirts present their purpose. As folks begin to throw wine at each other with abandon, the town (certainly not a dry county by any stretch) takes on a pinkish hue. By noon, everyone is dyed, wet, and ready to continue the celebration with a mild bullfight.

I think we can all agree that this town knows how to throw a party.

Of course, if you’re looking for a way to enjoy the Spanish selections in your February package without staining your clothes (or spilling your wine!), consider one of my favourite Spanish traditions and enjoy a tapas night. Have some friends over and serve a wide variety of small bites, or check which local restaurants feature tapas on their menu.

buen provecho!

Happy New Year, Wine Lovers!

Posted on December 28, 2012December 28, 2012 by Wil Knoll

We’re ringing in the new year early at the WineCollective office today! To toast the last week of 2012 and our amazing year, we celebrated with bubbly. (Fortunately, we had a chilled bottle of Adami Garbel Prosecco on hand.)

Naturally, the celebration called for a bit more flair than usual; we decided to saber the bottle.

If you’re not familiar with the practice, sabrage is the process of opening a bottle of Champagne (or Prosecco in our case) with a sabre. We used a butter knife, and any flat, hard edge will usually do the trick. For a complete tutorial on the art of sabrage:

“…calmly lay the saber flat along the seam of the bottle with the sharp edge (either side works as well) ready to slide firmly against the annulus (glass ring) at the top. Your firm sliding of the saber against this ring is aided by the internal pressure of the bottle, so that the cork flies dramatically away and usually with one stroke of the sword.

When performed correctly, as noted above on a suitably chilled bottle of Champagne, the cork and glass ring will fly away, spilling little of the precious wine and leaves a neat cut on the neck of the bottle. Now, the Champagne is ready to be enjoyed. Not to worry, the internal pressure (100 psi) of the Champagne bottle always ensures that no glass falls back into the bottle making it safe for consumption.”

Cheers!

(CEO Matthew taking over after I loosened it for him.)

Like many of you, we’ll be saving the Champagne for midnight on the 31st, but we welcome your thoughts on sabrage techniques, and your Champagne for the new year.

Thank you for a fantastic 2012, wine lovers, and we look forward to sharing great wine with you in the new year!

Hosting a party? How much wine will you need?

Posted on December 11, 2012December 11, 2012 by BlackSquare

Here is a simple way to calculate how much wine you will need for your Holiday soirée. Of course, some important factors that aren’t mathematically calculated will come into play. Are your friends wine-o’s or beer-o’s? Will there be a professional pouring the wine (the conservative 6 glasses per bottle) or will Cousin Daryl be filling every glass to the brim?

After taking into consideration your crowd and their partying past, follow these easy steps to ensure no glass goes empty.

One bottle of wine is 24oz

A standard glass of wine is 4oz

There are 6 glasses of wine per bottle

The general rule of thumb is to assume each guest will consume one glass of wine per hour. So, multiply the number of guests (if you know some people will not be drinking, do not include them) by the number of hours you are hosting. If you aren’t afraid of having a few extra bottles, add 15% more to make sure you won’t run out!

Kenaston Wine Market gives you some more suggestions depending on whether you are having a cocktail event, sit down dinner or planned tasting. The drink calculator from Evite, is a quick and easy way to decide on how many bottles depending on the ‘level of drinkers’ at your party. If you really want to be prepared, visit Table & Vine to break-down the types of alcohol and how much of each to purchase.

Now that you have figured out how much wine, you need to decide on what wines to serve? Take a look at some of WineCollective’s Holiday wine pairing tips and ideas. WineCollective members can also visit our online store to purchase wines that have been featured in previous WineCollective packages. Read the tasting notes, and food pairing suggestions before you buy (and save 10% off of retail prices). All orders placed before Friday, December 15th will be delivered before Christmas!

Looking for something special to impress your guests? Visit Tannic and sign up for a year membership. Members are able to preview wines before you buy, all wines are premium, 90+ and in limited supply.

An Approachable Guide or a Fun Refresher!

Posted on November 22, 2012November 23, 2012 by Wil Knoll

At WineCollective, we enjoy all facets of wine education, but I like it it best when it’s fun. If you’re like me, check out this guy, Kris Chislett. He runs and contributes to blogyourwine, a site devoted to talking about wine in an informally informative fashion:

“Kris is one of only a few Certified Sommeliers (Court of Master Sommeliers) and Certified Specialist of Wine (Society of Wine Educators) in North-East Florida. He created this website in order to give people the resource he never had: an unpretentious, user-friendly, fun, interactive guide to the world of wine.”

The blog is a wonderful resource, both silly and fascinating, and I would have lost countless hours reading if the youtube channel hadn’t snatched that time instead!

Addressing questions like Do all the different wine bottle shapes mean something? or W hat’s the deal with non-vintage wine?, the channel is an easy and approachable guide for beginners. I found plenty of tips on wine etiquette (the cork is not to be sniffed!), terminology (wine has legs?), and info for tasting, storing, and travelling with wine. Interacting with users, Kris also takes questions and informs in a friendly, offbeat manner while still managing to be succinct.

For me the pièce de résistance is in the nerdy details like the difference between decanting and aerating (decanting is a typically longer process), and information I would classify as trivia:

(The bonus is finding new uses for existing words).

Cheers to Kris Cheslitt for his fresh approach to wine education. We know that wine is fun, and he proves it!

Corporate Holiday gifting made easy

Posted on November 1, 2012 by BlackSquare

The Holiday Season is fast approaching, soon enough we will all be knee deep in eggnog and onto our millionth turkey dinner. Before you leave your gift giving to the very last minute, consider WineCollective’s Holiday Packages and cross everyone off your list early this year.

WineCollective‘s Holiday packages are great gifts for family and friends, and also for your corporate gift list. Our packages are predetermined shipments of wine and other goodies for 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12 months. Monthly packages starting in January, can be delivered to any home or office across the country.

If you have 10 or more gifts that you need to purchase for suppliers, partners, staff, or associates, we will pass along a corporate discount and do all the heavy lifting for you. Get in touch with us and we will ensure that everyone on your list is taken care of.

WineCollective Holiday Packages make the perfect corporate gift!

Just send us your list, we will do all the work for you!
If you have 10+ gifts to send, contact us and we will take care of all the details for you and give you 10% off your total.
Simple and easy. Not just wine, but an in depth wine experience package, teaching you about every wine we send out.
Community access to rate/discuss the wines, with the opportunity to purchase more at a WineCollective discount.
A donation of $2 is made to CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology).
Custom tasting cards available with your company logo (contact for details).
Tannic membership ($195 value) included with 6 and 12 months gifts.
Monthly delivery of wine will extend the tidings and joy well into the New Year.

Happy Halloween, wine lovers!

Posted on October 30, 2012October 30, 2012 by Wil Knoll

At WineCollective, we love Halloween! Thinking of wine in connection to my favourite holiday, visions of vampiric indulgence from gothic chalices came to mind. The campiness of this imagery is clearly the influence of too many silly movies, so I turned my thoughts to the one area of horror we have come closest to documenting. I’m referring, of course, to ghosts. It occurred to me that the rich and colorful history of wine would surely produce a spirit or two, perhaps even a haunted winery (can you think of a better place to spend Halloween?).

My search into the topic brought mixed results (these tales thrive best as personal anecdotes), and drew me persistently to California. Apparently, spooks in connection to wine populate the Napa Valley region where Ghost Wineries are found in abundance. These are old wineries, built between 1860 and 1900, before prohibition and the Great Depression stalled the emergence of great California wine. While some remain abandoned, and most have been converted for other functions, a few of these wineries have been restored to their original purpose.

Mansfield Winery (pictured above) is one of these, a restoration of the Franco-Swiss Winery built in 1876. It was acquired with a ghost story in the form of Jules Millet, one of the original founder’s nephew who was murdered onsite by a vengeful former cellar worker. It wasn’t long until the new owners were paid a visit:

“One dark and wet winter night soon after the Mansfields purchased the winery, they were dining with friends when Richard took the guys over to the winery for a little late night tour. As they wandered around with flashlights, one of the more tipsy fellows yelled out, “If you’re here, Jules Millet, knock three times!” Only their laughter broke the silence. But then the next night, six loud explosions — “pop, pop, pop, boom, boom, boom,” recalled Leslie — erupted in the bowels of their own home. Richard was away on business, so Leslie hid in the bedroom all night until the next morning when she discovered the source in her basement. “Every flashlight that [the men had] taken across the street — and only those flashlights — had exploded into a million pieces,” says Leslie. The exploding bulbs included that in a dive lamp able to go down to 300 feet; a C battery was also bent in half. “The ones that had not been taken across the street were just fine.””

Give the greatest gift of the year, wine!

Posted on October 26, 2012November 1, 2012 by BlackSquare

We are excited to announce that our WineCollective Holiday Packages are now available to purchase! We wrap up the ultimate wine experience for those that are wanting to expand their wine knowledge and palate. We also cater to oenophiles with some stellar cellar candidates as well. This year give the gift to friends and family across the country.

Avoid crowded malls, long lines, and mailing parcels. WineCollective will do all the work for you. When you purchase a Holiday Package, we will send a gift email on December 25th, then select the best wines and ship their first package in January.

Deliver directly to your father-in-law’s Okanagan cottage, sister’s office in Toronto, or boyfriend’s condo anywhere in Canada.

Choose from four bottles of all red, or four bottles of mixed wine delivered every month starting in January 2013. Packages of 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12 months are available and come with some great bonus gifts (WineCollective tote bags, Wine Access subscriptions, CAWST donation and Tannic memberships)!

Why are WineCollective Holiday Packages so awesome?

Simple and easy. Not just wine, but an in depth wine experience package, teaching you about every wine we send out.
Community access to rate/discuss the wines, with the opportunity to purchase more at a WineCollective discount.
A donation of $2 is made to CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology).
Include a personal note that will be emailed on December 25th, letting the gift recipient know of what an awesome gift they will be receiving.
Monthly delivery of wine will extend the tidings and joy well into the New Year.
There is also a printable gift letter that you can stuff into a stocking!
Corporate gifting made easy! If you have 10+ gifts to send, contact us and we will take care of all the details for you and give you 10% off your total.

Get your holiday shopping done early, and sign up today!

Movember Wines

Posted on October 24, 2012November 21, 2012 by BlackSquare

WineCollective loves supporting a great cause, especially when wine is involved! November, or Movember to some is an opportunity to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer. WineCollective is featuring Movember Wine Company’s Red Blend in all November packages. WineCollective will be one of very few ways to get your hands on this limited release.

The Movember Wine Company is brought to you by North by Northwest Wine Imports. The Movember Wine Company has produced 125 cases of their Cabernet Sauvignon based 2011 Red Blend and 75 cases of 2011 Riesling. The artwork on the bottle was designed and donated to the Movember Wine Company by local artist, Rick Wilson. $2 from every bottle sold is donated to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation.

Movember Wine Company’s wines are produced by Sleight of Hand Cellars in Walla Walla, Washington. WineCollective and Tannic have been fans of Sleight of Hand for awhile now, members have received some of their wines, such as The Archimage and The Illusionist. Sleight of Hand was named one of the “Next Cult Wineries of Washington State” by Seattle Magazine. Jake Kosseff notes that even in Washington state, you need to be on the winery’s mailing list to ensure you receive each vintage, as all wine produced from Sleight of Hand sells out within weeks to a month of release.

A few boutique wine shops in Calgary will have Movember Wines on shelves while they last, and restaurants such as Model Milk Bistro, will have it on their wine lists. Our friends and members outside of Alberta, WineCollective will be your only opportunity to enjoy these wines.