deVine Thoughts

Author: Jim Phelan

Canadians in general and Edmontonians in particular are hardy people. We brave the changing weather and colder temperatures that keep the faint of heart away. We also get to drink some wonderful beers that assist in the transition. Over at deVine’s we have you covered with our rollout of seasonal offerings.

Looking across the pond and over to the Old World, the Munich Beer Festival, or Oktoberfest, has already begun. Oktoberfest has become the world’s largest funfair, hosting over 6 million people to the Berlin Wiesn (fairgrounds) each year. More, a number of smaller Oktoberfest festivals are held in cities with strong Germanic communities across the globe, including a festival one million strong in Kitchener, Ontario. Oktoberfest officially runs for either 17 or 18 days before concluding around German Unity Day, which in 2014 is October 3rd. Thus, the 2014 festival runs from September 20th to Oct 5th. Think of it like Easter – the dates of the holiday change, but the days are still full of top-notch food and drink! The idea of a raucous reception party where many imbibe and over-imbibe is nothing new. Oktoberfest was originally created in 1810 as the public celebration for a German royal wedding which included horse racing and a beer grounds. The festival over time became ever more beer-centric and ever-more popular…these factors may be linked. The horse races are now replaced by live music and carnivals, and these days over 7 million litres of beer is poured in Berlin alone during the festival.

Any beer poured in Berlin during Oktoberfest must conform to the German beer purity law, or Reubgeutsgebit, of 1516. Ever the traditionalists when it comes to their brews, this law means all “true” Oktoberfest beer must be brewed within Berlin city limits and may only contain water, barley, hops, yeast and cane sugar. Only a handful of active breweries currently earn this designation, and even fewer are currently available in the Alberta market. Nevertheless, you may find Hofbräuhaus, Hacker-Pschorr, and soon, Paulaner Oktoberfest beers with a one litre stein mug on deVine shelves above Germany. Finally, don’t miss out on the upcoming German Festival on Saturday, October 18th, where 3 different Wunderful brews will be poured in addition to a score of fresh, authentic, high quality German wines.

Official Oktoberfest Beers you can find at deVine Wines:

Hofbrau Oktoberfestbeir

Hofbräu München Original Lager

Hofbräu München Schwarze Weisse

Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold Lager

Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse Bier

Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Kellerbier

Paulaner Octoberfest To Go

We at deVines, however, are a little less picky, and a little less pure. In addition to bringing in as many traditional Oktoberfest beers as we can, we offer on our shelves German Oktoberfest-styled beers brewed outside of the city limits such as Schneider Weisse Organic Wiesen Edel-Weisse,
a Reubgeutsgebit beer until 1942 when the Munich Weisse Brauhaus im Tal brewery was destroyed. Another fun German offering is the Erdinger Oktoberfest Pack, featuring 5 bottles of Erdinger Wiess and a special edition glass. Not to be left out, North American breweries often offer their own Oktoberfest-styled releases, such as Nickel Brook’s Uber Berliner-Style Weiss or North American craft brew groundbreakers Pyramid’s Oktoberfest Autumn Lager. In six packs, be on the lookout for similar offerings from staff favourite Brooklyn Brewing and Samuel Adams.

North Americans are of course not exactly known as traditionalists. We have no fear of breaking from the new world to make our own customs. Pumpkin beer, a distinctly North American phenomenon, is one of my personal favourites! Hardly a recent fad, pumpkin ale stretches back into the early days of British North America. Early American colonialists, seeking natural ingredients for brewing ales, turned to pumpkins, which were plentiful, flavourful and nutritious. Blended with barley malt, pumpkins became a commonly used beer ingredient. With the colder weather, fall harvests, and auld hallows eve drawing near, early offerings of Pumpkin beer are now available at deVines! These bottles full of rich, spicy, wholesome, sticky goodness are always seasonal best sellers. So warm yourself up with local annual favourite Alley Kat Pumpkin Pie Spiced Ale, Howe Sound’s pumpkin seed, nutmeg and star anise spiced Pumpkineater, or Seattle’s Elysian Night Owl, dominated by flavours of fresh pumpkin meat and sharp clove.

The range of styles in pumpkin beers may also surprise you. Russell Brewing’s Happy Jack Pumpkin Ale, for instance, includes noticeable hops and some oak treatment while Fernie’s Pumpkin Head uses a deeper brown ale base for a more textured brew. As new pumpkin beers arrive each week, try them all to determine your favourite!

Stay warm, stay hearty, and until next time, all the best!

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Author: Ed Fong

In celebration of Alberta Culture Days, the 104th Street Promenade is playing host to a FREE outdoor concert and block party on Friday, September 26 from 5-10 p.m. Come on down and enjoy the extended patios, great music and more!

Alberta Culture in partnership with the City of Edmonton and 104 Street Steering Committee will once again be using the 104th Street Promenade to host a block party and kickoff Alberta Culture Days 2014 on Friday, September 26, 2014 from 5:00 to 10:00 pm.

The block party will feature performances by Wool on Wolves, Oscar Lopez, Michael Rault, and Nuela Charles, as well as feature family friendly activities, a street market, visual art workshops, street performers, food trucks and more.

The 104 Street Promenade, between Jasper Avenue and 102nd Avenue, will be closed to traffic on September 26, from 9:00 a.m. to Midnight. Everyone, please ensure there are no vehicles parked along the street to allow smooth site setup.

A big thank you to local restaurants, Blue Plate Diner, Kelly’s Pub, Cavern and Tzin for embracing Alberta Culture Days and taking part in the block party by extending their patios.

Tell all your friends and we will see you all Friday.

Author: Dirk Chan

Whisky is big and on Saturday, September 20th at 7pm, deVine will host a sit-down tasting of this fascinating spirit with versions from all around the world. Whisky is one of the hottest categories at deVine at the moment and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. With worldwide demand for Whisky on the rise, there are both positive and negative connotations for Alberta consumers. Bottling’s which were once readily available in Alberta are now tightly allocated or (in the case of The Macallan’s Sherry Cask series) have been taken out of our market altogether. Rare bottling’s like the annual Ardbeg special release, Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon or Bruichladdich’s Octomore are becoming harder to find and are commanding top shelf prices.

At the same time, new and often progressive distilleries are now finding their way into the province. High West Distillery out of Utah, Roughstock Disillery out of Montana, Sullivans Cove from Tasmania and Nikka from Japan (which includes the Yoichi and Miyagikyo distiliries) all offer high quality, unique alternatives to Scotch Whisky. This sit-down event is the perfect opportunity to sample and compare different whiskies from around the globe. From Single Malt Scotch to Japanese Whisky to American Rye Whisky to Canadian Whisky, this tasting will showcase the best the world has to offer!

Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash where the grain used can be of different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, buckwheat and corn. Whisky is very typically aged in wooden casks, made generally of charred white oak.
There are many classes and types of whiskies, the typical unifying characteristics of the different classes and types are the fermentation of grains, distillation, and aging in wooden barrels being the determinng factor.

There are two spellings – Whisky or whiskey with many schools of thought on the issue. One is that the spelling difference is simply a matter of regional language convention and is just a variation on spelling (like the difference between color and colour; or recognize and recognize), and the 2nd is that the spelling should depend on the style or origin of the spirit being described – there is general agreement that when quoting the proper name printed on a label, the spelling on the label should not be altered as some will take offense to incorrect spelling. Others favour spelling each type of spirit according to the way favoured by its country of origin.

As such, the spelling whisky is generally used in Canada, Japan, Scotland, England, and Wales – while whiskey is more common in Ireland and the United States. The usage is not always consistent. For example, some prominent American brands, such as George Dickel, Maker’s Mark, and Old Forester, use the ‘whisky’ spelling on their labels. “Scotch” is the internationally recognized term for “Scotch whisky”. It is less used in England, Scotland & Wales, where the drink is simply called “whisky”. Yes, very confusing and yes, time for a drink!

Nevertheless, there will be lots to talk about and a lot of sampling of styles at this event, you can pre-register for this event here..

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Author: Jim Phelan

Agave liquors tequila and mescal are perhaps the single most unfairly denigrated spirits by the North American general populace. The tragic fact is that for many, their experience with tequila begins at a bar, involves a bottle with a worm at the bottom, and ends with the phrase “never again.” Yet for those brave enough, the world of premium tequila and mezcal is well worth a more lucid exploration.

The best place to start is by understanding the difference between tequila and mezcal. A common but not universal mantra to remember is: “All tequila is Mezcal, but not all Mezcal is Tequila.” Both are made from the fermented agave juice. Agave, sometimes known as maguey (pronounced muh-GAY), is a plant from the lily family which many confuse for a type of cactus. There are, however, key differences in production methods, and use of particular plants. Tequila is made specifically from blue agave (agave tequilana) within Jaliso state surrounding the spirit’s eponymous city. Mezcal can be made from up to 28 types of agave, but must contain 100% agave juice, while tequila is only required to contain 51% or more. Thus 100% blue agave tequila is a type of mezcal, as evidenced by its proper name, mezcal de Tequila. Mezcal is also native to Oaxaca, Mexico, generally produced with a traditional, religiously-linked methodology using only basic materials like water and firewood.

The use of firewood in mezcal production instilling a distinct smoky characteristic is the key difference between the two styles of agave spirit. Tequila’s blue agave is either boiled on steamed in above ground ovens to pull out the required juices, while mezcal is smoked and more traditionally roasted using in-ground pits. The roasting also tends to create sweeter and richer aromas and palates in mezcal than tequila.

Unlike mezcal’s distinctive smokiness, tequila’s flavour profiles are often imparted from the amount of oak treatment imparted after fermentation. Tequila blanco (sometimes called joven or abacado) is bottled either immediately or after a maximum of three months in stainless steel or neutral oak barrels. Like the name suggests, blanco tequila is clear with strong and clean blue agave flavours. Reposado tequila (sometimes called madurado) has been aged for up to one year in oak. The next style of tequila, Añejo, features significant oak aging, with a minimum of one year’s aging. Oak treatment adds noticable vanilla and nut elements to the palate.

A common gimmick found in mezcal and tequila alike is placing a “worm” or scorpion in the bottle. These “worms” are actually one of two types of insect larvae found in an agave plant infestation, which of course begs the question why a producer would wish to advertise the poor quality of their harvests. In reality, both the scorpion and worm are nothing more than novelties for the gift market which create interest in certain products. For the most part, serious mezcaliers choose not to place bugs in their bottles, since they distract tasters from the quality of the spirit. Caveat emptor! (Buyer beware!)

The best tequilas are sippers in a snifter glass. The “bar style” method for drinking tequila ice cold with salt and lime are all, again, sideshows which distract from the taste of poor-quality liquors. Premium tequilas and mescals alike are best enjoyed simple and at room temperature to appreciate the full range of flavour profiles which would otherwise be missed.

The Agave/Maguey plant has a great amount of meaning to the Mexican people. During cultivation, the plant is allowed to grow for 10 years or longer, and upon reaching maturity it begins to grow a flower stalk. This stalk is immediately cut down, directing the plant’s growth to the central stalk alone, which eventually swells into a massive bulbous flower with sword-shaped leaves. At last ready, the entire plant is cut down and the leaves are removed from the piña (or pineapple), named after the bulb’s similar appearance to the cross-thatched tropical fruit. The giant green and white piña can weigh between twenty five and one hundred pounds. Yet, liquor production is hardly the only use of these sacred plants. As acclaimed American author James Michner writes in his novel Mexico:

“The maguey is a symbol of the Mexican spirit. They are like dancers with beautiful hands. They lend grace and dignity to the land and have always been the symbol of peace and construction. From their bruised leaves were made the paper upon which records were kept. Its dried leaves formed the thatch for homes, its fibers, the threads that made clothing possible. Its thorns were the pins and needles while its white roots provided the vegetables for sustenance. And its juice became the ‘honey’…”

If you’re interested in exploring the world of mezcal further, deVine’s upcoming Tequila tasting on September 6th isn’t to be missed! The sit-down event will be hosted by Canada’s first Certified Mezcalier Eric Lorenz, and will include eight premium mezcals and tequilas. Reading about tequila and mezcal is of course educational, but both are best understood by tasting some of the best liquors available on the market today. More information and pre-registration for the upcoming tasting can be found here..

The lineup for the tasting:

Alipus Mezcal Santa Ana – $67.99

Alipus Mezcal San Baltazar – $67.99

Alipus Mezcal San Andres – $67.99

Alipus Mezcal San Luis – $67.99

Azunia Tequila Platinum – $74.99

Azunia Tequila Reposado – $83.99

Azuna Tequila Anejo – $95.99

El Jolgorio Pechuga – $182.99

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Author: Kandice Little

“Veuve Clicquot”, a name that is synonymous with creativity, has done it again. Founded in 1772, the Clicquot house has stuck to one motto: “Only one quality, the finest”. Barbe Nicole Ponsardin took over the business at 27 following the untimely death of her husband, and since that time, there is a definitive and fashionable flair to the packaging.

The natural boxed packaging that Veuve comes in is completely sustainable and eco-friendly, using only paper from forests under management of the Forest Stewardship Council. Also notable is the fact that since 1987, Veuve Clicquot has been part of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group of luxury brands. You can catch glimpses of this pairing with certain packaging choices. As you may remember from last year, we brought in the yellow Veuve Clicquot bicycle that was won by one lucky store-goer, and both the Non Vintage Brut and Rosé came in small refrigerators which aided in keeping the Champagne cold (as well as adding a stylish edge!)

This year we are met with even more fashion-forward choices! deVine’s just got in our shipment of Veuve Clicquot Clutches AND Veuve Clicquot Mailboxes! The clutches pay homage to the stylish envelope clutch, except with raised contours to hold the 750mL bottle of Champagne! Not only does this packaging look good, it aids in keeping the bottle cool for up to one hour! The VCP Mailbox gives a nod of acknowledgement to vintage American mailboxes. Lightweight serrated metal, with a rounded top and functioning door, the cherry on top has to be the moveable red flag.

Looking for something a little different than the 750mL Non Vintage varieties of Veuve? We also carry the 375mL bottle of the Brut, and we carry the full sizes of the following variations: 2004 Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame, Non Vintage Veuve Clicquot Demi-Sec (a slightly off-dry version of the regular bottling), 1989 Veuve Clicquot Cave Privée Rose, 1990 Veuve Clicquot Cave Privee Blanc, 2004 Veuve Clicquot Brut, AND the 2004 Veuve Clicquot Rosé.

Feel free to stop by deVine Wines and Spirits to view not only our Veuve Champagne options, but our extensive array of other Champagnes and Sparklings as well!

NV Veuve Clicquot Brut (375mL format) – $35.99

NV Veuve Clicquot Clutch Brut – $68.99

NV Veuve Clicquot Mailbox Brut – $68.99

NV Veuve Clicquot Demi-Sec – $74.99

2004 Veuve Clicquot Vintage Reserve Brut – $94.99

2004 Veuve Clicquot Vintage Rosé – $99.99

2004 Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Brut – $254.99

1990 Veuve Clicquot Cave Privée Brut – $259.99

2004 Veuve Clicquot Cave Privée Brut Rosé – $319.99

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Author: Dirk Chan

Summer is going fast, and fall will be here before we would like (sadly), so on Saturday, August 23 @ 7pm – $30/person, we’ll be hosting a fun Summer Intermezzo tasting to feast your eyes, nose and palates.

This stand-up tasting will feature some food friendly wines from Italy, Spain, South Africa and Chile – including sparkling, white, rose and reds.

We’ll also do some neat small bites featuring fresh produce/meats from the 104th Street Market to pair with the wines. A great way to ‘wine’ down
the summer and gear up for the fall season.

You can sign up for this event here..

Here is the list of wines:

NV Feudi di San Gregorio DUBL Sparkling Falanghina (Campania, Italy) – $42.99

2012 Pieropan Soave Calvarino (Veneto, Italy) – $34.99

2011 Glen Carlou Quartz Stone Chardonnay (Paarl, South Africa) – $32.99

2012 Il Feuduccio Cerasuolo Rose (Abruzzi, Italy) – $22.49

2008 Abbazia Santa Anastasia Passomaggio (Sicily, Italy) – $27.49

2011 Undurraga T.H. Carignan (Maule Valley, Chile) – $27.99

2011 Dominio de Pingus PSI (Ribera del Duero, Spain) – $47.99

Hope you can all join us!

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Author: Jim Phelan

One of the most common questions the deVine staff has encountered when conversing with fellow beer aficionados and customers (or both at the same time!) has been simple and direct: What is your favourite beer in the store?

Obviously one’s favourite beer can depend on many things, including pairing, palate and style. But regardless on these factors, I’ve found myself drifting slightly more often to the full bodied and uniquely styled beers offered today by Quebec’s craft brewing scene. Though brewing in Quebec dates back centuries, the current market is driven by youthful dedication and has forged out its own niche in the world of craft beer.

Given the nature of this blogger’s academic interests, I hope our readers will forgive the following foray into Quebec’s brewing history. The early roots of Quebec brewing tradition date back to the 16th century in early colonial New France. In fact, beer was considered a dietary staple of North American colonialists. Malted ales helped prevent survey, were cleaner than most water sources, and of course were popular for morale-boosting recreational purposes. The founder of New France, Jacques Cartier, certainly had beer on board during his historical 1534 voyage. Further, his journals describe a spruce-based “concoction” brewed by the Aboriginal population which the French favoured and quickly adopted themselves. This was spruce beer, known most often as a non-alcoholic soda today, but its contemporary alcoholic variety made use of readily available spruce tree needles or buds in place of more difficult to find hops. Spruce beer, along with the odd alcoholic root beers (using the same concept) characterised Quebec brewing for two centuries. Even The Jesuit Relations, one of Canada’s earliest and most important ethnographic documents, known (in)famously to anyone who has taken a course in Canadian history, mentions a brother Ambroise preparing beer for the habitants in 1646. The region’s first brewery in written history also dates back to 1650, and the first commercial brewery, located in Quebec City, enjoyed a short lifespan in the 1870s.

Any Québécois artisanal brewing markets disappeared during 19th century, when at the height of industrialisation Englishmen and entrepreneur John Molson, founder of the Molson Brewing Company, established Quebec’s first industrial-scale brewery. They were followed by Labatt in 1847 and O’Keefe shortly after. These breweries essentially monopolised the Quebec and Canadian market until the 1980s, and were in fact the only three breweries in the province between 1960 and the early 1980s.

However, across North America during the 1980s a renaissance in craft brewing began. Specifically to Quebec, the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ), Quebec’s equivalent to Alberta’s AGLC, began issuing new commercial brewing and sales permits for the first time in a generation. An abundance of brew-pubs and microbreweries began popping up across the province, starting with the Montreal’s famed Le Cheval Blanc on Ontario Street, founded in 1986. Today, there are well over 100 active breweries in Quebec producing over 3,000 different beers. deVine currently offers twenty of our favourite selections available in the province.

The brewing style of Quebec’s new generation is unquestionably defined by full-flavoured, complex and layered beers, blending elements of French, Belgian, and Canadian brew traditions. This approach, combined with the freedom to experiment and perfect batches quickly in brew-pub and micro-brew environments, has quickly created a stellar reputation for the Quebec brewing milieu. According to Beer Advocate, 26 of the 50 top crowd-source rated beers in Canada, judged by a crowd sourced ratings system, are brewed in Quebec.

These high rankings stem from a number of factors. The Québécois craft market is still quite young, with most active breweries opening in the mid 1990s or later. This youth movement is highly active, and carries a significant online presence, supported on beer websites and even dedicated magazines. In addition, we think you’ll find the beer coming out of Quebec today to be delicious and worthy of their strong reputation. But don’t feel the need to take our word for it, feel free to grab some of these Quebec brews the next time you stop into deVine:

Brasserie Dunham American Pale Ale (6 Bottles) – $19.49

Le Trou du Diable L’impératrice Brassin Spécial – 750mL – $18.99

Dieu du Ciel Blanche du Paradis (6 Bottles) – $18.49

2009 Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Hibernus 750mL – $17.99

2009 Charlevoix La Dominus Vobiscum Lupulus 750mL – $17.99

Dieu du Ciel La Divine Comédie Wit Pils (4 Bottles) – $12.49

St. Ambroise Maple Beer (4 Bottles) – $10.49

Brasserie Dunham IPA Belge 750mL – $8.99

Le Trou du Diable La Morsure IPA 600mL – $8.49

Unibroue Éphémère – Cranberry 650mL – $8.49

Le Trou du Diable Punkrauch 650mL – $7.99

Le Trou du Diable Saison du Tracteur 600mL – $7.49

Enjoy the summer!

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Author: Jim Phelan

Called rosé in France, rosado in Spain, rosato in Italy, and sometimes even blush in contemporary colloquial lexicon, pink wines in all their variances are wonderfully paired for the hot summer season. Rosé’s sweetness can certainly vary, from bone-dry, old-world Provençal releases to the sweet strawberry flavours of Californian White Zinfandel. So too can the flavours of rosé vary, but they can commonly include palates with strawberry, raspberry, grapefruit, redcurrant, almond, and fresh cut hay.

Rosé wines are made from traditionally red varietals in a number of different ways. The vin gris method for rosé production is generally considered to produce the highest quality wine. With this method, the grape juice is obtained by stacking the harvest in a vertical tank, and letting the natural weight of the grapes crush themselves, during which a very pale pink colour is imparted, most often seen in rosé from Provence. In the next gradation, pressé, the grapes are pressed in the tank until the desired colour is attained. Another common method, limited maceration, involves macerating the grapes, skins and stems for a shorter period of time than normal. This is a process where the tannin, colour and flavour of the grapes impart themselves into the vinum mustum, literally “young wine,” often called must. The skin-contact phenolics give the wine its distinctive rosy colour, and the maceration period can range from several hours to several days before the wine is separated from the must and fermented. The longer the period of contact, the deeper and more tannic the wine, from pale pink to salmon to full bodied bright red. Finally, the saignée method (French for “bleeding”), is quite literally a wine “bled off” from red wine must, used in Bordeaux and Burgundy, most often as an afterthought to the primary red production. Bleeding has occasionally criticised by other producers as “not true rosés,” similar to decolouration, stripping the colours (and often the flavours) off of a fully finished red wine with charcoal filters.

Rosé can come from anywhere in the world, and like any wine, rosé flavour characteristics come from the varietal. Many Provençal rosés, often considered the best in the world, make use of Grenache or Mourvèdre blended with Cinsaut to impart dry, fruity and floral characteristics. Similar results can be found with Pinot Noir, and Sangiovese. Syrah and Cabernet-based rose wines, while still dry, can impart more savoury and meaty characteristics, and finally the strongest grapes like Portuguese Touriga Nacional or American Zinfandel create juicier and sweet rosés respectively. Most rosés are a blend of multiple varietals.

For still rosé wines, it is important to drink the wine fresh. No cellaring required! These summer sippers should be consumed within 1-3 years. Luckily, this also makes rosé among the most affordable styles of wine on the shelf, with a wide array of options available for $25 and under.

Pairing rosé is also remarkably simple. Rosé is versatile for simple sipping, summer salads, fish, and even barbecued chicken or pork because it strikes a medium flavour profile between red and white wines and occupies a broad spectrum of strength and flavours based on the varietal. In particular, the rosés of Provence pairs beautifully with garlic-filled Mediterranean food, which by no accident is common to the region. Like most whites, rosé wines are best served slightly chilled, but beware or over-chilling the wines and reducing the flavours you’ll be able to taste!

Last but not least, don’t forget bubbles! Sparking Rosé is found year round, can include white varietals in the blend, and can be aged spectacularly. The next time you come in to deVine, be sure to ask about your rosé options, and enjoy your summer!

Rosé Recommendations:

2013 Jolie-Pitt & Perrin Cotes de Provence Rosé Miraval (Provence, France) – $28.99

2013 Baillie-Grohman Blanc de Noirs Rosé (Creston, B.C.) – $25.99

2012 Costaripa Rosmara (Lombardy, Italy) – $24.99

2012 Domaine Lafond Roc-Epine Tavel (Rhone Valley, France) – $23.99

2012 Il Feuduccio Cerasuolo Rosé (Abruzzi, Italy) – $22.49

2013 Domaine Houchart Rosé (Provence, France) – $19.99

2012 Chateau d’Astros Rosé (Provence, France) – $18.99

2012 Bodegas Sierra Norte Pasion de Bobal Rosé (Valencia, Spain) – $17.99

2012 Vina Aljibes VA Rosado (Rioja, Spain) – $17.99

2012 Quinta da Alorna Rosé (Ribatejo, Portugal) – $17.49

Sparkling Rosé Recommendations:

NV Rolet Cremant du Jura Brut Rosé (Jura, France) – $26.99

NV Val d’Oca Punto Rosa Millesimato Rosé (Veneto, Italy) – $22.99

NV Bernard-Massard Cuvée de L’Eucusson Brut Rosé (Luxembourg) – $21.99

Enjoy the pinks!

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Author: Dirk Chan

Once every four years (this will be the third time for deVine’s) we host this special tasting right in the middle of the world’s most famous soccer tournament, the FIFA World Cup of Soccer – we’ll be tasting wines from some of the participating countries from the hosts Brazil (perhaps a wine from Brazil – how exciting would that be?) to Germany, France, Italy, Argentina, Portugal, United States, Australia and the defending champs Spain. Join us for this event scheduled for Saturday, June 21st at 7pm.

Most of the participating countries would have played two games in the opening group stage by then, so there’ll be some conversation to be had about how your favourite team is doing. What a hoot it was last time, with participants wearing their favourite team jerseys, caps or dressed in flag colors and talking more soccer than wine!

This is a social rather than technical tasting, and football talk will be referee’d strictly and perhaps Chris will lead us in a chorus or perhaps a chant or two…This is a stand-up event, and a not to be missed party on a scale befitting the sport. Now, that’s quite the lineup! Book early as this is always a sell-out.

Book your spot here..

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Author: Dirk Chan

Wanting to learn more about wine? Well, it’s time for another session of our ever popular Wine Basics, the introductory wine appreciation themed tasting to be held at deVine’s this coming Thursday, May 22 at 7pm. This 101 tasting is a great way to get into wine.

After the reception wine, we will taste three whites and three reds which are typical of their varietal. We will touch on the essentials of wine appreciation (color, taste, finish), wine serving tips, food pairing and wine etiquette all in an informal, relaxed setting where questions are welcome anytime.

This sit-down event sells out every time, so for those beginners wanting to delve into the world of wine, this is a great starting point.

See the wines and register here..

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