For those of us who live in places with 4 seasons, the signs of spring are also the signs of BBQ. When the smells of the tulips and daffodils that grow peacefully in the newly warm spring breezes are drowned outby the smoke wafting from the back yard chefs of the neighbourhood who are cooking up that night’s feast. Whatever your skill level with the grills and smokers, this interview will get you more than fired up for BBQ season.
Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk has been bringing the flames and smoke to his back yard, front yard, (aka the Fortress of Smokitude) and various BBQ competitions for years and his ‘tell-all’ book, Barbeque Secrets Deluxe! leaves no briquette unturned. Packed with great photos, recipes, and war stories from the front-lines of BBQ competitions, this is a cookbook like no other in your collection.
We now return to our regularly scheduled diatribes and for this week, we have chosen to focus our closeup lens on the Muscat grape. Amber walks us through this perplexing varietal that is rare, yet rewarding, and simple, yet satisfying and usually a good value when done properly.
I used to live in the last town in New Brunswick before the Nova Scotia border and the RCMP used to set up road blocks to check people’s trunks for booze. Nova Scotians would drive to our liquor store in New Brunswick to get their beer cheaper because the taxes were lower and then drive home. Little did they know that they did not really live in a free country and that taking things from one province to another was illegal.
So what? Border towns always have that problem if there is an imbalance between prices. It used to be (and still is sometimes) that gas was cheaper in the USA and so people would go and fill up across the border and buy a stash of Hershey bars and a bag of Combos. And if you were there for longer than 48 hours, you could bring back a couple of bottles of wine or liquor duty-free.
Fine. Each country has its own rules and I agree with that. The last things we need in Canada are slow speed limits and discount ammo. At least there is a way for us to legally bring home the wines and booze when we want to. However, there is no such way of legally bringing alcohol from another province in our own country. Why is that? I thought we lived in a free country?
Money is the main reason for most of the world’s stupidity and of course that’s the main reason here too. The taxes on your bottle of wine won’t go to your own province and that is apparently a big deal for the income of your provincial government. They think that they are missing out on the zillions of dollars that tourists from out of the province spend on wine in other provinces.
Wineries, especially small wineries, are the ones who would really like to be able to send you those cases of wines that you ordered. But they can’t legally do that! There are some brave wineries who will quietly send out cases. They brave the frigid air of extra-provincial trade with the knowledge that they may be punished with… A LETTER. (Thanks to Brad Cooper for posting his copy of “The Letter” on his blog.) Quite a few wineries received this letter from theAlberta Gaming and Liquor Commissionand most wineries obeyed and ceased shipments in response. So that still begs the questions, how is it that our country makes criminals out of tourists, who buy wine on their vacation in the Okanagan, and some winery owners who live in Alberta and can’t take wine home with them? Something is wrong with this picture.
That’s where you, the loyal and stalwart wine consumer come it. There’s a new movement growing called Free My Grapes.caand it is one of the first nation-wide organized movements to get the laws reformed for wine and spirits in Canada. The laws we have now were written a long time ago (83 year, but who’s counting?) and were written as a response to that bizarre social experiment known as Prohibition. Perhaps at time when the movement of goods beyond one’s own region was more difficult, it may have made more sense. But today, with the global markets from around the world getting a first crack at other markets within our own country, small and medium wineries are going to be left out. According to Shirley-Ann Georgein this special podcast interview, entire wine regions (such as Nova Scotia) might be left behind if they continue to be coralled in their own region.
Even in a time when we are trying to consume more locally, giving a legal edge to foreign companies for access to markets in our own country is wrong and makes the problem even worse. Let’s do something about it.
Don’t forget, we are currently in the middle of the federal election! This is the perfect time to ask your local candidates for their views on this subject. Check out Know Your Vote.ca or follow them on Twitter.
For those of you interested in small, passion-fuelled, boutique wineries, this new winery will be breaking new ground, literally.
Even though they are just down the road from the massive Jackson-Triggs winery, River Stone Estate Winery is really all alone on their hill which is located just off of the start of Black Sage Road. Going to new places that are off the beaten path are highly desirable for some wine tourists and this winery will show you a whole new view of valley.
Their lineup of wines is focused and extremely well made. When their wine shop opens on Saturday April 23rd, they will be presenting 3 wines for sale – Pinot Gris, Malbec Rosé and Cabernet Franc. A 4th wine, the Cornerstone meritage, will be released later in the summer or early fall.
In this in-depth interview, owner Ted Kane talks about his passion for making wine and how he started Riverstone from the ground up.
My student loan is one month away from being completely payed off! To celebrate, I would like to buy a single bottle of wine for the same price as my student loan payments. There are no BC wines that approach that much yet (except for large format bottles) so I’m looking for international ideas. I would like something that is drinkable within the year although if I will put something away for the right amount of time if it’s needed. Anyone encountered any great bottles at around the $200 mark lately that I shouldn’t miss? Leave me a comment or DM me on Twitter and let me know if you have any ideas.
For those of us who live in places with 4 seasons, the signs of spring are also the signs of BBQ. When the smells of the tulips and daffodils that grow peacefully in the newly warm spring breezes are drowned out by the smoke wafting from the back yard chefs of the neighbourhood who are cooking up that night’s feast. Whatever your skill level with the grills and smokers, this interview will get you more than fired up for BBQ season.
We now return to our regularly scheduled diatribes and for this week, we have chosen to focus our closeup lens on the Muscat grape. Amber walks us through this perplexing varietal that is rare, yet rewarding, and simple, yet satisfying and usually a good value when done properly.
