It can be difficult to travel with wine as the movement can bruise your wine. Excessive vibration can ’shake’ a wine apart and leave our wines in less than optimum condition. The good news is that they recover when given a chance to rest.  

Don’t worry though, your brief trip to the lake won’t be noticed in your wines. Longer road trips by car can however take a toll.

The good news is that I’ve just returned from a 2-week camping road trip and I’ve found the solution… my Selection Speciale Port and Sherry travel very nicely!

Because Port and Sherry are full bodied and sweet with lots of alcohol they seem to hold up very nicely. Either they did not bruise or I did not care!

One would not normally think of Port and Sherry for their camping trip but they were both wonderful for sipping in the evenings. They’re both rich, flavourful and warm which match perfectly with being outdoors in the evening.

I’ll be making extra Chocolate Raspberry Port and Blackberry Port for next summer’s road trip!

During the day I found the Twisted Mist Mojito to be perfect. Crisp and refreshing and certainly showed no effects from travel. 

Have a fun summer!

Jim, Manager (Wine Sense- Southdale)

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Filed under: General by Craig

Now that summer is officially here, it’s hot out and the mosquitos are running rampant in your yards, I have one question for you. Do you have your Christmas wines started?

I’m not looking forward to winter, but the truth is if you don’t consider your future wine needs now, you may not have enough when Christmas entertaining starts.

The nice thing about cellar planning is that you always get to walk to your wine rack and have a selection to choose from. If you start the wine now you will have nicely aged wine come the Holiday Season.

I’ll recommend a couple of my favourites which if started right away will be perfect come December:

For a red I suggest the Selection Estate Series Sonoma Valley Pinot Noir it has broad appeal and will go well with lots of different foods. For white try the Selection Estate Series Mosel Valley Gewurztraminer it will be perfect with Turkey Dinner.

Now back to the present… It’s a beautiful summer day- perfect for a glass of Island Mist Green Apple Riesling! (Island Mist is on sale until July 3rd, 2010)

Cheers,

Bruce, Manager (Wine Sense- Pembina Hwy)

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Filed under: General by Craig

For all of you who use the Nomacorc synthetic cork, just a reminder. After you cork your wine you should leave your bottles upright for at least 5 days, not the usual 3 days. Because Nomacorcs provide such a good seal (compared to natural corks) it can take more time for the air pressure to equalize. If you put your bottles on their sides too soon, as the air escapes, it may take a little wine with it.

Wine Sense Nomacorcs!

For those of you who have not used Nomacorcs, you should give them a try. They never break apart when you pull them out of the bottle and they have a zero failure rate due to cork taint. Most importantly Nomacorcs are a great improvement on the 400 year old technology of natural corks and are the best option available for the home winemaker. Let’s face it, if winemaking was invented today we would not be running into forests and digging into tree bark to seal our bottles!

 Nomacorc is an impressive company that looks beyond their corks and are considered an industry leader in all facets of storing wine including how oxygen affects wine, bottle shape and optimum cork insertion. I use Nomacorcs for all of my wines and recommend them to my customers. Click here to read an impressive Wall Street Jounal article about Nomacorc.

Wine Sense currently has all of our corks on sale for 20%off so it’s a great time to give Nomacorcs a try or to stock up on your cork needs. (offer ends July 3rd, 2010)

Cheers,

Bruce, Manager (Wine Sense- Pembina Hwy)

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Filed under: Equipment by Craig