Post-TasteCamp North interviews: Diane Letulle of the Wine Lover’s Journal

By Remy Charest | Published: May 24, 2011

TasteCamp North, held on both the Canadian and the American side of the Niagara river on May 13-15, was a lot of fun and very instructive for the thirty-some wine bloggers and writers present. Pursuing a tradition started by Lenn Thompson for the first two TasteCamps, held in his home turf of New York State, I’ve decided to ask bloggers from outside the region to answer a short series of questions detailing their impressions of the region.

Diane Letulle, of the Wine Lover’s Journal, among other publications, is the third wine blogger interviewed in this series of posts, and the most familiar with the region so far, among US bloggers interviewed here.

Was this your first visit to Niagara – in Canada and/or the US?

I had been to Niagara Falls several times before: it was one of my parents’ favorite vacation destinations.

Had you ever had any Niagara wines before? If so, what was your impression of them?

Five years ago, I took my own family there to show them the Falls. On that trip, we visited Chateau des Charmes – my first experience with Niagara wines.  I fell in love with their ice wine on that trip and remember Vidal as the dominant grape used in those.

After your visit to Niagara, how much has your impression changed?

On this trip, I discovered all the other wines available from the region, and I have become a fan of several of their dry wines – although I do still love their sweet wines.

What did you appreciate the most?

I particularly appreciated Read More »

Posted in Canada, Canadian wine, Niagara, Ontario, United States, wine, wine blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Post-TasteCamp North interviews: Adam Japko of Wine Zag

By Remy Charest | Published: May 23, 2011


TasteCamp North, held on both sides of the Niagara river on May 13-15, was a lot of fun and very instructive for the thirty-some wine bloggers and writers present. Pursuing a tradition started by Lenn Thompson for the first two TasteCamps, held in his home turf of New York State, I’ve decided to ask bloggers from outside the region to answer a short series of questions detailing their impressions of the region.

After Jonathan Wilson, the spotlight now turns to Adam Japko, a Boston-based wine lover who has been running the Wine-Zag web site since 2009 – and who clearly had a great time in Niagara.

Was this your first visit to Niagara – in Canada and/or the US?

I have not been to the region since 1985…apparently the back edge of the dark ages for Niagara wines.  I actually met my wife in Buffalo in the mid eighties and spent the better part of a year in the region with a few fun visits to Niagara on the Lake. We participated in the requisite tasting of ice wines.  While I was not paying as much attention nor was I as serious about wine back then, it’s apparent that the region has completely transformed itself

Had you ever had any Niagara wines before? If so, what was your impression of them?

Only ice wine…never tasted dry wines from Niagara, and had low expectations for serious quality going into TasteCamp.  In my mind, Read More »

Posted in Canada, Canadian wine, Niagara, Ontario, United States, wine, wine blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Post-TasteCamp North interviews: Jonathan Wilson of Labeled.ca

By Remy Charest | Published: May 22, 2011

TasteCamp North, held on both sides of the Niagara river on May 13-15, was a lot of fun and very instructive for the thirty-some wine bloggers and writers present. Pursuing a tradition started by Lenn Thompson for the first two TasteCamps, held in his home turf of New York State, I’ve decided to ask bloggers from outside the region to answer a short series of questions detailing their impressions of the region.

First up is Jonathan Wilson, a Nova Scotia sommelier who writes the Labeled.ca blog, dedicated to “opening bottles and minds”. Jonathan was also one of the artisans of the online Marc Madness that had the twitter wine community ablaze for weeks, earlier this year.

Was this your first visit to Niagara – in Canada and/or the US?

I hadn’t been to the Canadian side in some time.  It was my first visit since really becoming serious about wine.  My last visit was during a time in which wine was a hobby, this time I viewed the areas through a completely different set of eyes.  This was, however, my first trip to the US side.  There are a lot of similarities between Niagara Falls, US and Nova Scotia when it comes to finding their identity as a wine region.  It was interesting to see.

Had you ever had any Niagara wines before? If so, what was your impression of them?

I try and taste as much Canadian wine as I can.  That being said, not nearly enough Read More »

Posted in Niagara, Ontario, United States, wine, wine blog | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ready for TasteCamp North: What’s So Great About Niagara, Anyway?

By Remy Charest | Published: May 10, 2011

Pinot noir grapes at Hidden Bench, just after véraison, in August 2010

Friday, May 13, will mark the beginning of TasteCamp North, a three-day exploration of Niagara wine country, on both sides of the Canada-USA border. 40 wine lovers from as far as Colorado, Indiana and Nova Scotia will start tasting, spitting, evaluating, tweeting and blogging about the wines, the region and the people who turn local grapes into wine.

This third edition of TasteCamp, created by Lenn Thompson, head honcho of the New York Cork Report, is the culmination of nearly a year’s work, all done in their free time by a small group of wine lovers (Rick Van Sickle, Suresh Doss, Bryan Calandrelli and myself, under the supervision of the founder himself), with the support of a great bunch of sponsors.

I’m obviously pretty excited to meet with everyone, and very eager to see what those writers and bloggers, many of whom will be visiting the area for the first time, will think about what the region has to offer. For my part, it will be the first time I get to taste the wines from the US side of Niagara, something I’m really looking forward to. The full program of events should allow everyone to get a good sense of what the region – or regions – are all about.

Why should you bother coming to Niagara?

As the event nears, Read More »

Posted in Canada, Niagara, Ontario, United States, wineries | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Can blind tasting help you see things clearly?

By Remy Charest | Published: May 4, 2011

Oh, Twitter. The things you make me do.

Last Saturday, I caught a tweet by Cory Cartwright which said – a little provocatively, I’m sure: “Blind tastings, dumb? or just a waste of time?”. Despite many reactions by a lot of serious people, Cory never followed up on that tweet, and since he’s put his blog Saignée on hiatus, there’s no post either to give us any insight into what he meant exactly.

That didn’t stop some other tweeter to jump me insisting that blind tastings are not serious, useless even, akin to trying to describe sushi in the dark.

Say what?

I still don’t get how that came about. I’d replied to Alice Feiring, who said “there’s always something to learn”, and added that “You need to approach wine from many perspectives. Blind tastings give you 1 perspective, barrels another.” And later on, I pointed him to a story Read More »

Posted in ratings, wine, wine trade | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments