Episode 25 - Blair Gillingham

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 expensive or limited to one single vintage). I still think you should know about these wines because they are all fantastic wine drinking experiences!   

In this episode, I talk about the best wines I had the honour of tasting last year. Amazing experiences with amazing wines. 

Next week, I will reveal the Sippie Wine of the Year! 

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
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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 in my books for various reasons (they might be too expensive or limited to one single vintage). I still think you should know about these wines because they are all fantastic wine drinking experiences!   

In this episode, I talk about the inspiration for these awards and present you with this year's Honourable Mentions. 

Look for the top list of Sippie winners next week and the Sippie Wine of the Year in 2 weeks.  

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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 winemaker at André’s Wines in Port Moody in the 1980s before taking on winemaking at the early years of CedarCreek where her wines (specifically a Merlot) was considered so good at a fall Wine Festival awards that they created a platinum award just for the Merlot that year. She's consulted with Clos du Soleil in the Similkameen Valley and most recently headed Sperling Vineyards on her family’s property in Kelowna’s Mission Creek area. She consults with many wineries in Ontario and around the world. Together with her husband, Peter Gamble, collectively, they know more about wine than I can ever hope to know. 

Talking with Ann was really special because she was the first person that I interviewed in the winter of 2015 as I began the research for what became my first book, Valleys of Wine. Chatting with her at her historic home east of St. Catharine’s was a great honour and was a great way to end my podcast recordings on that trip.

Please note – This is an information-rich conversation, with a lot of industry-talk on some complex themes. Ann is one of the most knowledgeable people in the country about wine and I was not going to let the opportunity pass without digging deep. If you hear anything that doesn’t make sense to you or if you want to know more about something, please email me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com with your question and I will do my best to reply. Ann was also recovering from a bad cold when we spoke so there is a slight rasp to her voice that is not there normally. 

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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. They are just getting started now but they are on track to become a focal point in Niagara’s wine industry, acting as an incubator for new brands to get established and as a home base for their own brands. Graham’s flagship is Rennie Estate Winery, which produces some of the most amazing red wines ever to come out of Ontario, in my opinion. That’s why I featured one in my first volume of the Sipster’s Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try Ontario Wines. I sat down with Graham and Matt to taste through some of their portfolio and what you will hear now is the discussion that happened at that tasting.

If you have not heard of appassimento styles of wines, you should really check this out because Ontario is really making some beautiful wines using these techniques. 

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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. 

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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 wonderful tasting through some of the key wines in her portfolio and chatted about the long and storied history of the land she now farms as well as her own history as a winemaker.  This podcast has it all – century-old grapevines, American outlaw gangs from the old west, and tons about Icewine that you never knew from a winemaker that knows it better than anyone else in the country. 

This episode is Part 1. Part 2 is coming next week. 

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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 the Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try Ontario Wines. On Seven was high on my list of Must-Visit wineries while I visited Niagara this fall. This was recorded November 2023 on location in the house that overlooks the vineyard in Niagara on the Lake.

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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 last decade and we have been running into each other at various events and stores ever since. We didn’t see much of each other during the pandemic of course. Events started back up just as I was getting this podcast started last year but was only recently able to follow through on her threat to make an appearance on it, which happened right before I was to set off to Ontario a couple of weeks ago. It's a fun conversation filled with mystery wines (including a Ferox Merlot from Virgil, Ontario) and excitement. We had lots of things to talk about.

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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 hear the ambience from the cellar as well as the humour and fun (or is that whimsy?) of time well spent enjoying wine together.  

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!

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 and tastes so much wine over the course of his working year! Nobody in this country has the unique perspective that he has and it was fascinating to hear his views. He brought along a bottle of Merlot from Ontario producer Bella Terra that we taste while talking about the stigma that still surrounds wine in this country.  

Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!
Purchase copies of "The Sipsters Pocket Guides" here!
Support the Sipsters Podcast by subscribing!
Read Sipster's ICONS (Because sometimes more IS more.)
Find us online at Sipsterswinepodcast.ca.

Thank you for listening!