The Sipster's Podcast

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . I get to speak with Joanne Pratt and Craig MacMillan, the owners of Stonehouse Vineyard in Lochiel, Ontario. Unless you’ve read either of my two Sipsters Pocket Guides to 50 Must-Try Ontario Wines, there is little chance that you could have even heard of Stonehouse before.  The winery is in a converted...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week’s guest is Anne Du Bois who own Savon Du Bois in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. I’ve always wanted to do an episode like this because it is not directly about wine but rather, about aromas almost exclusively. Anne Du Bois is an aromatherapist and perfumer who extracts her own scents an...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is going to be controversial. After a bad couple of winters, some BC wineries have imported grapes outside of BC to make wine. Some BC wineries have refused to do that. Will they be labelled the same? Are they going to cost less? In this podcast, Jess and I discuss what we think should happen to th...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's more about Nova Scotia this week! Jess and I taste through a couple more wines from her trip, including wines from L'Acadie and Luckett vineyards. We discuss our Tidal Bay experiences and offer suggestions for donair pairings. It's an east coast feast. Find Jess at Farm to Glass Wine...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Can grapes be grown in a greenhouse? Apparently yes. I get to taste a couple wines in this episode with Marc Desaulnier and Annabelle Harper, winemaker and assistant winemaker respectively at Vins Zyromski in Rivière-Rouge, Quebec. https://vinszyromski.com/   Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you f...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Jess is back! In this episode, we talk about the value of wines in Nova Scotia, why disagreeing makes for a better podcast, and if there really is a difference between Adirondak and Muskoka chairs. We also recap our summer and some of the most amazing wines that we tasted recently. Wines featured in thi...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Whatever innovations have happened in the BC wine industry in the past 30 years, Sandra Oldfield has been a part of it. The first wine club in British Columbia - The Crush Club at Tinhorn Creek - happened on her watch. In a world of industry followers, she is a leader. I've been trying to get her t...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Tim Watts, co-owner of Kettle Valley Winery in Naramata, was an early mentor in my wine career. I worked at several wineries in production and I worked at Kettle Valley in 2008. Tim and Bob Ferguson were hands-on owners, working at every aspect of their business themselves, which meant that when I worke...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is one of those super-sized podcasts with a lot of info in a great conversation with Shay Code, owner and winemaker at his winery Code Wines in Okanagan Falls, BC. Perched at the base of Peach Cliff above the town, Code Wines occupies an extraordinarily unique vineyard site. Shay tells about how he...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Jennifer Carleton joins me on the podcast this week. She has a unique perspective on Canadian wine because she travels regularly between Ontario and BC and hears all about what each provinces says about the other's wines. Jenn is extremely well-spoken and enthusiastic about wine. Find her online at...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . In a bid to learn more about each other, Jess and I get into the serious questions about wine and life. Now, you can have your chance! Ask us anything! You must have questions about wine in Canada and now you can ask us! Or tell us about your most amazing wine experiences. We will read them on a future...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Tonia McArthur rejoins me for a great conversation, this time in the Sipster's studio instead of at a noisy coffee shop. We talk about her recent appearance in the new Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 More Must-Try BC Wines Volume 3 while I blind her on a mysterious sparkling wine.  Find Tonia onl...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Christopher Mark from Vintality Tech Inc. joins me on the podcast this week. We talk about all things vineyards in this one, which is a hot topic among more than just wine enthusiasts these days. Everyone seems to have heard that BC's interior has had it bad over the past few years. Chris is litera...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week on the podcast, Jessie Hopwood returns for a visit to catch up and talk about the state of BC’s wine industry after a crazy winter. We'll catch up with why there haven't been any podcasts lately, how to get into the wine industry, and why you should never ferment raspberry wine in a...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It’s the first annual SIPPIE AWARDS and here are the WINNERS! Modelled after the BC LG awards, the Sippies are my way of telling you about all kinds of Canadian wines. I’ve written about some of them but there are often others that I can’t include in my books for various reasons (they might be too expen...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Here's a little bit of fun to start off the podcast in 2024. It's the first annual SIPPIE AWARDS!! Modelled after the BC LG awards, the Sippies are my way of telling you about all kinds of Canadian wines. I've written about some of them but there are often others that I can't include...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week’s podcast features Ann Sperling, a legendary wine maker from BC who has been in Ontario now for many years. She has a long family history in BC and is the great-granddaughter of Giovanni Casorso, who is (if we need one) the real father of BC’s wine industry.  She spent her first years as a win...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . You will hear 2 other voices on this week’s podcast and those will be of Graham Rennie and Matt Loney. Graham is the found of The Niagara Custom Crush Studio in Vineland, Ontario and Matt Loney is the General Manager. They are innovative and pushing the envelope for a new style of custom crush facility....

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Want some history? How about finding out what American outlaw Jesse James did to leave his mark on the Staff family property. This is part 2 of my conversation with Sue-Ann Staff of Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery in Jordan, Ontario.  Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is the second podcast that I recorded while travelling in Ontario. The voice you heard at the beginning belongs to Sue-Ann Staff, from Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery   located south of Jordan, Ontario on the top of the escarpment. Sue-Ann was such a bundle of joy to chat with. She had prepared a wonde...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Vittorio de Stafano from On Seven Estate Winery joins me in this conversation about starting a super-premium winery with a focused portfolio build on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. His Chardonnay left me utterly speechless when tasting it for the first time last winter when I was writing the first volume of...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Noelle Starzynski, wine marketer extraordinaire, joins me on the podcast this week. She is perhaps best known for her work with Lakeside Cellars in Osoyoos, BC where she has been working for the past 5 years helping to build their brand and hospitality program. I first met Noelle in the middle of the la...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is the defacto Part 2 of my previous episode with Jess Hopwood from Farm to Glass Wine Tours . In this podcast, you will hear the voices of Jody and Costa Gavaris from Rigour and Whimsy Winery in Okanagan Falls, along with Jess and I as we taste through a few wines from their portfolio. You'll...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This might be get loud. Do not adjust your devices. This is what real enthusiasm for wine sounds like. Carl and his wife Mira are partnered in running Carl's Wine Club. Carl joined me recently in the Sipster's studio for a chat about Canadian wine. He's got an amazing perspective on it an...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . The fall is always a busy time in the industry and even though I no longer work in the cellars as part of the harvest, I am still busy busy busy. I'm kicking off the second season of The Sipster's Wine Podcast with tons of announcements! PLUS! You will get to hear excerpts from the Sipster&apo...