THE SHOW

David Foster, Producer. Writer, Musician, Dad, Order of Canada. Grammy, Juno and Oscar winner - and now his finest achievement, feature guest on The Tasting Room. Even though he knows almost nothing about wine, he still fills the segment with tons of stories including the one about the four bottles of 81 Petrus that he left on his kitchen counter for a couple of years and ruined!

COOKSTOCK is like Woodstock for chefs, sommeliers, gatherers, farmers, viticulturalists, etc. It takes place Sept 20/21 North of Toronto at the farm of Master Chef Michael Stadtlander. We talk to Michael and the liaisons for the chefs and sommeliers.

Once upon a time there was a MuchMusic Road Team called Mike and Mike - Campbell and Rhodes. Even though there were prettier dj’s and flashier shows at headquarters, they were Canada’s connection to the music. For 7 years they moved coast to coast, never far from their portable bar and music system. Now they’ve been replaced by cleavage and attitude. Fair enough cause the music pretty much sucks anyway. They’ve opened a grand bar and restaurant in Halifax called The Carleton and frankly its just an excuse to talk to them and have fun.

The Senator, Larry Campbell has been a cop, a coroner, a Mayor and now he’s a Senator.
The tv series DaVinci’s Inquest was based loosely on his life as Vancouver’s Coroner and DaVinci City Hall on his time as Mayor. I sat down with the man at a function last week and we riffed over many subjects, including Canada’s obsolete cross-border liquor laws. And when John Reynolds joined us we chat the upcoming election and Larry as Prime Minister, and yes we do talk food and wine.

One of the best blowouts anywhere is the Naramata Tailgate Party in the Okanagan, which happens this week at Township 7 Winery. Crystal Froese and La Frenz winemaker Jeff Martin fill us in on the event and the upcoming Rootstock also on the Naramata Bench.

Del and Miranda Halladay at Elephant Island Winery on the Naramata Bench make some of the best fruit wines in the world. The key?? Use the best fruit and make the results in exactly the same way you’d make wine itself… Bingo!!! They can’t make it fast enough, its flying off the shelves.

WineDiva.ca is the home of Daenna Van Mulligen. Great reviews and info you can use. She also hosts winescores.ca. She passed through the Okanagan this week and I found her at Sumac Ridge. She reviews wines from Oculus, Osoyoos Larose and Nk’Mip wineries in the Okanagan.

Billy Carpenter just opened Vin de Garde in Vancouver where wine lovers everywhere can find either a hammer and glue starter cellar or a custom built, state-of-the-art home cellar. He’s also planning a wine storage facility. Billy gives us the do’s and don’t of wine storage.

NEXT WEEK

Its a wild week.

Interviews with Grant Burge, visits from The Barossa Nick Lees of the Edmonton Journal. Then I talk with Bruce Stephens/Ben MacPhee Sigurdson/Gurvinder Bhatia - wine writers all. Golden Mile becomes Road 13 and we talk to Road 13 Winemaker Michael Bartier and owners Mick and Pam Luckhurst. I am also talking wine and breaking bread with Jay Drysdale – VQA; Kurtis Kolt from Salt Restaurant; Rhys Pender, wine expert and sommelier trainer; Neil Ingram of Boneta restaurant; Mike Bernardo of Vij’s & Rangoli restaurants; Sebastian LeGoff from Uva restaurant; and the incomparable Juliana Hayes.