Welcome to this not-for-profit educational resource database & website created by Michael Vaughan PhD
An award-winnng weekly columnist for Canada's top newpapers including the National Post, Globe & Mail and the Financial Times
This not-for-profit website is dedicated to providing readers with professional non-advertorial reviews
Monday - August 3, 2020
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Remembering
The First Week of March
It's hard to believe that I was in the beautiful Touraine town of Blois on the Loire River judging the 2020 Concours Mondial du Sauvignon. As the only Canadian judge, I joined 74 colleagues from 24 countries and we worked our way through 1,110 sub-missions on Friday and Saturday (March 6 and 7). Getting up at 2 am to start tasting wines is not much fun - but I survived.
It really helped that I brought two dozen of my ISO tasting glasses (vs. the larger glasses used at the competition) as the ISOs really concentrated the aromatics and provided me with a level playing field for the thousands of other wines I taste annually. This was the LAST major international tasting event of 2020!
Here are the tasting results
* * * History in the Making * * *
THE BIRTH OF VINTAGES
In 1974 the LCBO opened its first Vintages outlet. In those days it was called the Rare
Wines & Spirits Shop & was initially located in a tiny small third floor
room at 43 Freeland Street. It then moved to an upscale location across from St. Lawrence Market.
READ MORE FROM MY NATIONAL POST FEATURE
Believe it or not - I wrote this 46 years ago for Toronto Life for $750 per feature
the original Toronto Life feature from March 1974
when BOLLINGER CHAMPAGNE BRUT RD 1961 was $16.45
* * * A blast from the Past * * *
See the results of Canada's
1st tasting in London England
with top critics Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson, Steven Spurrier & many more
READ MORE FROM MY TORONTO LIFE FEATURE
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