Welcome to New Wine Blog!!

It gives me great pleasure to welcome and introduce a new wine blogger, Canada's well known
John Schreiner.
I have had the pleasure of knowing John for many years. John has had a long and distinguished career as a reporter and writer. He began as a reporter for the Regina Leader-Post and subsequently became the newspaper's chief political reporter in the Saskatchewan Legislature. In 1961 John joined the staff of The Financial Post in Toronto. Served in the paper's Montreal bureau from 1967 t0 1969 and in 1973 became the bureau chief in Vancouver for that newspaper. John "retired" in 2001 but has been busier than ever adding to his already impressive list of 15 books on wine.
John has also been the regional correspondent for Appelation America.
So now he has added blogging to his endeavours and you can click on
"John Schreiner on Wine" in my links list or follow this link to his blog
The first Canadian Icewine was made by Walter Hainle in 1973 in Peachland in the Okanagan and yes it was several years before Ontario started making icewines.
John is the world most knowledgeable expert on Icewine or Eiswein and his book
Icewine-The Complete Story is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more on this fascinating wine. I did a post on the 2006 Icewine harvest in BC and you can scroll down in my December 2006 archives to Dec. 3 to get John's take on it.
Welcome John!! I am sure we will get many informative and entertaining posts.
Speaking of entertaining, I have just put a link to "My Favorite Canadian Wine Lady"
in my links list. Follow the link and have a look. She has a great newsletter that you can sign up for. I don't know how she does it all. Daenna is a very knowledgeable (and beautiful) wine lady and she is the Diva of wine. Welcome to my links list Daenna.
So there you have it. I am off to Italy on September 17th but will get one more post in on "politics" and wine before I go. Pliny the Elder has been quoted as follows. "It has become a commonplace proverb that in wine there is truth" Yes and isn't it too bad that so much in the way of politics is commonplace as well.

Overwhelmed by Wine!

Are you an overwhelmed wine drinker? I am. But not in the sense that the marketing gurus have determined what the definition of an overwhelmed drinker is. In a study commissioned by Constellation Wines US. Wine consumers were broken down into six categories. So why am I overwhelmed? Not by the sheer numbers of wines available from around the globe but rather by the "so much wine, so little time"factor. And I love trying wines from different regions in the world whenever I can get them. When I travel to different parts of the country and to other countries I drink "local" wines as much as possible. I read a lot of wine blogs but I have to say that I do not find the endless reviewing of wines on these blogs to be particularly useful. Mostly because I cannot purchase the wine described at any of the wine shops I frequent locally. But also because of my philosophy about wine. Wine to me is the most wonderful drink in the world to be enjoyed to the fullest. This frenetic chasing of one wine after another does not give me the peace and joy I have come to expect from wine. I have a dozen or so I fall back on for that purpose and then will taste others for a change of pace.
Having said all that I have a wine newsletter by the same name as my blog "Wilf's Wine Press" and I have a panel of 8 tasters to help me review wines. You will not often see me reviewing a wine on this blog because of the fact that chances are you will not be able to find them where you live. So what's the point in you reading about a wine you cannot get. My newsletter's subscribers are for the most part (95%) local and at least the wines I review will be available to them.
So keep on drinking. (wine of course) And perhaps someday soon we will be able to try a wine from a far off Arab state. There might be a rocket or two resting among the rocks in their vineyards but that will just add to the "terroir" taste. Or is that terror?

The Golden Age of Wine....!!

We are said to be enjoying the Golden Age of Wine and truly there are some real nuggets out there. I am referring of course to the magnificent selection of wines available to today's consumer. The internet has made information on wine widely available and likewise there are some real nuggets out there. Type "wine" into Google and you will find 177,000,000 entries. Have you got a lifetime or two or three to spend checking all that info out? There are some outstanding websites and blogs out there and I have my own personal favorites. However the ease with which information can be published on the web has led to a landslide of misinformation and next to useless information. Its human nature I guess, to want to be in on the publishing. Have a look at this invitation. Did you know that you could become a sought-after wine expert by sharing your ratings on wine? WineLog was " started because some believe the professional wine rating systems reflect personal preferences and may not give a good overall impression of that wine." Now just re-read that quote. It is saying that professional wine ratings are subjective but apparently when you write your own evaluation that won't be subjective. What a load of nonsense! Or how about throwing a little sales pitch into the mix? What a sublime idea. No experience necessary! As I said in my previous August 19th post , "perhaps we are spending too much time analyzing and not enough time just appreciating "the fruit of the vine". Congratulations to all the great wine bloggers out there who do such an outstanding job keeping us well informed!!