The Sipster's Wine Podcast (Luke Whittall)
Explore every episode of The Sipster's Wine Podcast
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Oct 2022 | Introduction - The Sipsters Wine Podcast | 00:09:03 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Welcome to first episode of The Sipster's Wine Podcast! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 26 Oct 2022 | Episode 2 - Katrice Sutherland | 01:11:06 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . In this episode, I am joined by Katrice Sutherland - marketing factotum, wine lover, and manchego connoisseur. Along with a bottle of Echo Bay Vineyard's Synoptic, we work through the ins and outs of what it means to learn about wine in the Okanagan Valley. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 02 Nov 2022 | Episode 3 - Doug Bell from Northern Lights Winery | 00:37:16 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . In this episode, I am joined by Doug Bell, entrepreneur, podcaster, and owner of Northern Lights Winery in Prince George, BC. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 09 Nov 2022 | Episode 4 - Inspirational Wine Books | 00:19:31 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week, a simple podcast about the book that inspired The Sipsters guide, a BIG announcement, and a big question for listeners. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 16 Nov 2022 | Episode 5 - Jenna White | 00:30:51 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week, I have a fantastic chat with Jenna White, aka @ThatBCWineGirl. From starting to learn about wine at a young age to taking photos drinking wine in the snow, Jenna's positive attitude about BC wine and the world of wine is infectious. Catch her online on Instagram. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 23 Nov 2022 | Episode 6 - Mireille Sauvé | 00:48:37 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Star somm, wine educator, and winemaker Mireille Sauvé joins me on the podcast today. We enjoy a bottle of Chardonnay from her winery, Lakeboat Vineyard and Winery in Kaleden, BC. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 07 Dec 2022 | Episode 8 - Jennifer Schell Lirag | 00:43:22 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's reunion time! Jennifer Schell Lirag and I get together for our first visit in years to talk wine, food, and cookbooks! She has written 4 of them and knows her stuff when it comes to the perfect pairings. Her recent book, The BC Wine Lover's Cookbook came out just before the pandemic and we talk about what awesome timing that was, among other things. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 14 Dec 2022 | Episode 9 - Marcia J Hamm | 00:33:27 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . We are talking international wines this week with my guest Marcia J Hamm. She is enamoured with the wines of Italy so much that she became a certified expert in Italian wines! Find Marcia online at JoyofWine.org. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 21 Dec 2022 | Episode 10 - Annika Betts | 00:47:06 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week, I welcome Annika Betts from the Gone West Wine Club to the podcast. Annika has a great perspective on the Canadian wine industry and chose to make the Okanagan Valley's wine industry her home. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 30 Nov 2022 | Episode 7 - Memories | 00:17:44 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Why is podcasting booming now? What is the appeal? There must be some reason by podcasts are becoming more popular. How does this relate to wine? Join me for this exploration of wine and memory with some vintage guest appearances by Terry Meyer Stone and the tasting crew from the Wine Country BC podcast. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 28 Dec 2022 | Episode 11 - Happy Holidays | 00:02:50 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Hope you are all having a great holidays and spending time off with your family. More podcasts coming up in the new year! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 04 Jan 2023 | Episode 12 - Joanne DiGeso, Part 1 | 00:44:43 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Joanne DiGeso from Sommwine in Whistler, British Columbia can take an already-fun topic - wine - and make it even more! She's a total blast to chat with, which is why this is the first 2-part Sipster's Wine Podcast ever. She's also a return guest from way back in the Wine Country BC days, which you can hear here! (See what I did there?) Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 11 Jan 2023 | Episode 13 - Joanne DiGeso, Part 2 | 00:41:03 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Part 2 of my conversation with the Joanne DiGeso of Sommwine.com Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 18 Jan 2023 | Episode 14 - Michael J McCoy | 01:08:05 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's my birthday this week and for my birthday, I am releasing this podcast featuring Michael J McCoy, the great wine shop host and wine book connoisseur. Michael compiles a guide, called the "Quick Reference Guide to Wine Knowledge Resources". If you have taken a wine course at Okanagan College, you may have received a previous version of this guide. The current edition is 4 pages and it is filled with a list of wine books, listed in categories and loaded with resources for wine newbies, Sipsters, and the most oenologically learned. No matter how complex the wine or the resource, Michael has a way of communicating it to you in a way that you will understand. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 25 Jan 2023 | Episode 15 - Kimberly Hundertmark | 00:40:11 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Kimberly Hundertmark and I talk about the Winter Wine Festival and the future of festivals here in the Okanagan. She is General Manager of the Okanagan Wine Festival Society and one half of the Hundertmark wine power couple, along with her husband Jeff, who is the director of wine making at Mount Boucherie Estate Winery in West Kelowna. Want to know what people from Ontario really thinks about wine in BC? What's going to happen to the Lt. Governor's awards in the fall? You'll find answers to those burning questions and more in this episode! Don't let the suspense consume you - click the play button now! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 01 Feb 2023 | Episode 16 - Flashback to Oyster Festival | 00:19:41 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week's episode is a flashback to an event that happened almost 10 years ago! At the time, the Oyster Festival in Osoyoos was the unofficial start to the summer wine season and it was always a ton of fun. Join me for this time capsule flashback (courtesy of my old podcast, Wine Country BC) to one of the Okanagan's great food and wine events. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 08 Feb 2023 | Episode 17 - Winterfest at the District Wine Village | 00:31:33 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . There are a lot of people in this episode! It was a beautiful day at the District Wine Village in Oliver as the Okanagan Wine Festival Society launched a new event - Winterfest. Thank you to Kimberley Hundertmark for inviting me to to this great event.
Singer Mandy Cole also makes an appearance from the stage at the centre of the village. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 15 Feb 2023 | Episode 18 with Calli Bailey | 00:53:28 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's my reunion with one of my earliest wine friends, Calli Bailey. A frequent guest on my old podcast, Calli and I have seen each other infrequently in the past 6 years. This podcast is more than just reminiscing though – in the years since she and I first worked together selling wine at a wine store in Penticton 13 years ago, Calli has become a highly trained winemaker and wine professional and it was a thrill to share a glass with her again. She really knows how to communicate about wine without getting bogged down in the details, which I think you'll be able to hear on this podcast. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 22 Feb 2023 | Episode 19 - Wine Touring Info and more Sipster Stuff | 00:19:18 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's a shorter episode today, taking a little time to answer the big questions:
Burning questions, all of them, I know. Sit back with a glass of something interesting and enjoy! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 01 Mar 2023 | Episode 20 Alderlea Vineyards with Julie and Zac | 00:51:15 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Zac Brown and Julie Powell from Alderlea Vineyard join me on the podcast this week. They are on Vancouver near Duncan and took over Alderlea from founder Roger Dosman in 2017. Since then, they have continued to build Alderlea with the same level of enthusiasm for learning and exploring the region's potential for making great wines. With guitars in the background and motorcycles in the conversation before we started recording, I stayed focused on the wine as best as I could although it wasn't easy. Zac and Julie are both very well spoken and clearly love what they do so the conversation rolled easily. I hope you enjoy! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 08 Mar 2023 | Episode 21 Getting Unccorked with Kayla Bordignon | 01:05:15 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If Kayla Bordignon's enthusiasm for BC wine was contagious, we would quickly have another pandemic on our hands. (Too soon?) The fact is that her love of BC wine is overflowing and it is not hard to get caught up in it when speaking with her. Kayla's website Uncork BC and the seriously epic journey that awaits people who purchase the 2023 edition of her BC Wine Passport are the results of her passion and enthusiasm for wine in British Columbia. Officially, she is the first return guest on this podcast, having appeared in Episode 17 at Winterfest, and hopefully she will want to come back again soon. Enjoy! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 22 Mar 2023 | Episode 22 High Fives with Tonia McArthur | 00:27:38 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week I am delighted to bring you an interview with Tonia McArthur. Although Tonia is trained in with WSET, she has developed a brilliant way to help you score wines that is accessible but without pandering or dumbing anything down. She put it all in a book called “High Five Wine Scoring System”. Listen to the podcast to learn about what makes it such a brilliant and revolutionary book about wine. Talking with Tonia was like chatting with a new old friend and I am grateful that she had time to meet up with me. Unfortunately, our recording location at the Beanery Café in Summerland was a little on the noisy side so the audio quality is a little less than stellar for this podcast. My apologies for that. I hope it isn’t too distracting for you when you listen. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 29 Mar 2023 | Episode 23 Pinotage and Cider with Jennifer and Kent Molgat | 00:56:18 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Jennifer and Kent Molgat from The View Winery and Vineyard and Ward’s Cider in Kelowna are on the podcast this week! If you have a copy of The Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try BC Wines, volume 1 – turn to page 108 (reminds me of “helm to 108!” – if you know what movie that is from, leave a comment on the website…) where you will find the View’s Pinotage Reserve featured there – an amazing wine that they have been growing and making there since they started. It’s kind of a Cinderella wine in that it is underappreciated and nobody really understands just how beautiful it is. AND IT IS! I’ve had it through several vintages over the years and good vintage or bad vintage, it’s always a great wine, which is why I featured it in Volume 1. I’ve met Jennifer many times over the years but Kent only on the odd occasion. He is a professional broadcaster and so I hope I was able to up my game above being a hack podcaster in his presence. I think I did ok. Thank goodness for editing. We had a great time and probably could have chatted for a lot longer. Hopefully, they will come back again soon. Email your answers to this week’s Big Question, your comments or questions, or your special wine experiences to me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 05 Apr 2023 | Episode 24 - Is Social Media Dead? | 00:31:42 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Wine and social media used to be a classic pairing. Wine enthusiasts found an outlet for their passion and generously shared their experiences on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to share with their friends and learn about others' experiences at the same time. But something has changed. Is social media still the place for wine lovers to congregate? Is it a constructive and beneficial element in our lives? Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 12 Apr 2023 | Episode 25 - Blair Gillingham | 00:55:42 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Blair Gillingham joins me on the podcast this week. He is the winemaker at Howling Bluff Estate Winery in Naramata but has been in the wine business since he was a teenager. He's experienced a lot of vintages in many countries around the world, which he’ll be talking about. Blair is super down to earth about wine and winemaking. He was a hard-core listener to my old podcast, Wine Country BC back in the day – even remembering things about them that I’d forgotten about. He brought along a couple of tank samples to try from Howling Bluff and his own project Observatory Wines. So here you go, enjoy my chat with winemaker Blair Gillingham. Cheers! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 19 Apr 2023 | Episode 26 - Lady of the Mist | 00:47:21 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . DJ Lady of the Mist, aka my friend and occasional musical partner Misty Rose joins me on this week's podcast. I’ve known Misty for about 7 or 8 years now and together we form the guitar and flute duet called Pairing Notes. Sadly, it took a long time for us to come up with that name. For some reason, she didn’t like Flutar, which was one of my suggestions – don’t know why. Anyways, Misty and I talk about all kinds of cool things including the disturbing lack of night life in the Okanagan and what wineries can do to help bring it back. She absolutely dazzled the crowd at a winery event last summer and got a lot of people talking because along with spinning tracks, she plays crazy flute riffs over top which makes for an amazing performance that you really have to see for yourself. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 26 Apr 2023 | Episode 27 - It's here! | 00:36:56 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . What's here? The Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try BC Wines, Volume 2 is now out! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 03 May 2023 | Episode 28 Yvonne Turgeon | 00:51:03 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Yvonne Turgeon is the founder and editor of Thompson Okanagan Trends Magazine. We met for the first time last week at an industry function and we recorded this podcast yesterday (if you are listening to it the day that it is released). You might remember Okanagan Life magazine and the wine competition that they did in the spring. Trends magazine is bringing that back in a big way this month and Yvonne talks about all of that in this conversation, which takes place over a lovely glass of Hester Creek Ti Amo. If you work or own a winery, there is still time to get your wines entered into this competition. We end everything with a very unique Big Question that will test your wine knowledge and creativity all at the same time. Trends website: trendsmag.ca Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 10 May 2023 | Episode 29 Natalie MacLean, Part 1 | 00:43:32 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Natalie MacLean is one of Canada’s most recognizable wine personalities. She has appeared regularly on television, newspaper and magazine columns, as well as online through her website at Nataliemaclean.com. She is the author of two previous books that I know you’ve seen in the wine sections of book stores before - Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. She also hosts a podcast of her own called Unreserved Wine Talk which I encourage you to check out as well. Her new book, Wine Witch On Fire - Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much - A Memoir is out now and available everywhere. BUT she is offering some juicy bonuses if you buy the book on her website at WineWitchonFire.com. You can also get free companion reader guide with tips for book club discussion questions and organizing an informal wine tasting with friends. This is available at www.WineWitchonFire.com/Guide
Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 17 May 2023 | Episode 30 Natalie MacLean Part 2 | 00:47:43 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Part 2 of my conversation with Natalie MacLean, one of Canada’s most recognizable wine personalities. She has appeared regularly on television, newspaper and magazine columns, as well as online through her website at Nataliemaclean.com. She is the author of two previous books that I know you’ve seen in the wine sections of book stores before - Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. She also hosts a podcast of her own called Unreserved Wine Talk which I encourage you to check out as well. Her new book, Wine Witch On Fire - Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much - A Memoir is out now and available everywhere. BUT she is offering some juicy bonuses if you buy the book on her website at WineWitchonFire.com. You can also get free companion reader guide with tips for book club discussion questions and organizing an informal wine tasting with friends. This is available at www.WineWitchonFire.com/Guide Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 24 May 2023 | Noughty Charlotte Messines | 00:31:49 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week I chat with Charlotte Messines, who works at Thompson and Scott who produce the Noughty Wines in London, England. Never heard of that winery? Well, they produce a whole line of no-alcohol wines that are really taking off right now. They’ve been on my radar for over a year when I was sent samples while writing The Sipster’s Pocket Guide, volume 2 (which is out now). I was really intrigued by the non-alcoholic category and when I found out that my friend Charlotte was working there, it seemed like a great excuse to catch up AND learn more about non-alcoholic wines. Charlotte has a history in the Okanagan - I met her back in 2018 when she was working at Wild Goose in Okanagan Falls and we have stayed in touch over the past 5 years. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 31 May 2023 | John Schreiner's Memoirs Part 1 | 00:49:39 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If you think you know something about BC Wine but you don't know who John Schreiner is, then you still have a lot to learn about wine in this province. Wine in BC (and Canada) has not always been as good as it is now. At least a generation of wine drinkers now does not remember when Canadian wine was the butt of jokes and probably shouldn't have been consumed by humans before 1994. John saw the potential and began writing about it in the 1970s, publishing his first book about BC wine in 1984. As he says, he was a friend of BC wine when BC wine had no friends. He’s got a new book of memoirs out now called “Goodgrog: A Life in Wine and Journalism”. It is filled with stories of his vast experiences from growing up in small town Saskatchewan to travelling the world as a journalist. This provides the “terroir” from which Canada’s most prolific wine writer emerges as the author of 19 books about wine in BC and Canada. It’s a truly fascinating read to learn about someone who is more often out of the spotlight than in it. He knows so much about the wine industry in BC but that information only flows one way. Who is this guy? This book answers all of those questions. It was a beautiful spring day on the back deck at his home in North Vancouver. We began the chat over a beautiful glass of Mirabel Chardonnay and chatting a little about one of his few non-wine books. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 07 Jun 2023 | John Schreiner's Memoirs Part 2 | 01:00:10 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If you think you know something about BC Wine but you don't know who John Schreiner is, then you still have a lot to learn about wine in this province. Wine in BC (and Canada) has not always been as good as it is now. At least a generation of wine drinkers now does not remember when Canadian wine was the butt of jokes and probably shouldn't have been consumed by humans before 1994. John saw the potential and began writing about it in the 1970s, publishing his first book about BC wine in 1984. As he says, he was a friend of BC wine when BC wine had no friends. He’s got a new book of memoirs out now called “Goodgrog: A Life in Wine and Journalism”. It is filled with stories of his vast experiences from growing up in small town Saskatchewan to travelling the world as a journalist. This provides the “terroir” from which Canada’s most prolific wine writer emerges as the author of 19 books about wine in BC and Canada. It’s a truly fascinating read to learn about someone who is more often out of the spotlight than in it. He knows so much about the wine industry in BC but that information only flows one way. Who is this guy? This book answers all of those questions. It was a beautiful spring day on the back deck at his home in North Vancouver. We began the chat over a beautiful glass of Mirabel Chardonnay and chatting a little about one of his few non-wine books. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 21 Jul 2023 | The One Where Luke Disappears | 00:20:57 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . So where the heck have I been? Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 26 Jul 2023 | The One With Eagles in the Distance | 00:40:41 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's another flashback episode this week featuring Steve Venables from Forbidden Fruit Winery in the Similkameen Valley. This is a slightly ASMR interview since it was recorded outside in February on a beautiful day while sitting near the banks of the mighty Similkameen River. This was originally recorded February 2012. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 02 Aug 2023 | The One with Laura Milnes | 00:36:33 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . I first met Laura in early 2018, I believe through social media (although it was a bit of a blurry time in my life at that point so I might be wrong). In any case, we spent the afternoon chatting about wine and looking at the lake in the warm spring sun. Laura was not like other people that I had talked to about wine. Her questions to me where very different and I liked that immediately. We stayed in touch and I always thought back to that conversation and how great it would have been to capture it for a podcast. Problem was, I wasn’t doing a podcast at that time. However, within the year she created a vlog to accompany her blog, called Silk and Coupe and she invited me to be a guest on it. She interviewed me about my first book, which hadn’t even been released at that point) and we again went our separate ways. But we stayed in touch casually over the years and when I found out that she was going to be in the Okanagan visiting family, I jumped at the chance to finally get a podcast interview with her. Her evolution as a wine personality is unique in that she has experience with all of the major wine producing regions in Canada. In this chat, we get into Dad Wines & Natty Bros, and how she learned to hold a wine glass properly. Of course, the infamous Titty Tees will make an appearance too. She’s outspoken, opinionated, very well spoken, and informed. Enjoy part 1 of my conversation with Laura Milnes. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 09 Aug 2023 | The Other One with Laura Milnes | 00:43:06 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . *If you haven't yet, you should probably listen to Part 1 of this conversation first.* However, within the year she created a vlog to accompany her blog, called Silk and Coupe and she invited me to be a guest on it. She interviewed me about my first book, which hadn’t even been released at that point) and we again went our separate ways. But we stayed in touch casually over the years and when I found out that she was going to be in the Okanagan visiting family, I jumped at the chance to finally get a podcast interview with her. Her evolution as a wine personality is unique in that she has experience with all of the major wine producing regions in Canada. In this chat, we get into Dad Wines & Natty Bros, and how she learned to hold a wine glass properly. Of course, the infamous Titty Tees will make an appearance too. She’s outspoken, opinionated, very well spoken, and informed. Enjoy part 2 of my conversation with Laura Milnes. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 16 Aug 2023 | That One Time in a Tesla | 01:00:53 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If it’s one thing I’ve learned from my years of producing a podcast, it’s that I can plan anything I want to, with as much detail and precision as I am capable of, but in the end the results are usually out of my control. I don’t have a journalism background and therefore, no training about how to maintain perspective or ask the tough questions or anything like that. Sometimes, I just have to go along for the ride and see where it takes me. This is literally what happened with I met Jess Hopwood and spent the afternoon zooming around in her Tesla talking about wine touring. Jess owns and operates Farm to Glass Wine Tours, an extraordinary eco-conscious wine tour venture offering high-level private tours all through the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys. My original plan was to drive around, chat about wine touring, and maybe get a little of that Tesla road ambiance at the same time. Jess, whirlwind of enthusiasm that she is, had more ideas. In this podcast, we talk Tesla’s, EV’s, emissions, visit a winery, and then taste a wine back at Sipster’s HQ. It is a fantastic conversation and, like the tours that Jessie offers, an amazing experience. She also has a special offer for listeners of the Sipster’s Podcast. Listen for the special code to get 15% off any wine tour from Farm to Glass Wine Tours. She even made a special Sipster’s page on her website that has more of a backstory about how this podcast came to be. Ok, let’s get this show on the road. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 30 Aug 2023 | When Wineries Don't Get It Right | 00:37:41 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . You never know who you're going to meet when you work at a winery. This is a recent conversation with Kaila Kliewer, formerly a wine sales professional on the coast with a background in hospitality, who I actually met 10 years ago! (That's a good story too...) We share a similar interest and appreciation in wine but also a similar point of view over the industry from the perspective of working at VQA stores. She shares some stories about her experience in wine and also a not-so-good recent experience at a winery that left her frustrated. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 23 Aug 2023 | Wildfires and Gratitude | 00:12:04 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is a different episode, recorded within the smoke-filled Okanagan Valley. It has not been an easy time here lately and this podcast is a little window into that time when smoke clogs the valley and fires dominate the news. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 11 Oct 2023 | Getting Busy in Season 2! | 00:29:18 | |
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! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 18 Oct 2023 | Join the Club - Carl Boucher is here! | 01:10:13 | |
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 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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 25 Oct 2023 | Full of Rigour and Whimsy | 00:57:56 | |
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 hear the ambience from the cellar as well as the humour and fun (or is that whimsy?) of time well spent enjoying wine together. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 15 Nov 2023 | Catching up with Noelle Starzynski | 00:59:41 | |
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 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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 22 Nov 2023 | On Seven Vineyards in Niagara on the Lake | 01:01:21 | |
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 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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 29 Nov 2023 | Chilling with Sue-Ann Staff, Part 1 | 00:55:30 | |
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 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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 06 Dec 2023 | Chilling with Sue-Ann Staff, Part 2 | 00:34:11 | |
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 Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 14 Dec 2023 | Crushing It Niagara Style with Graham Rennie and Matt Loney | 01:02:07 | |
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. 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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 23 Dec 2023 | Canadian Wine with Ann Sperling | 01:11:37 | |
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 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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 31 Jan 2024 | It's the 2024 Sippie Awards Honourable Mentions | 00:34:22 | |
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!! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 07 Feb 2024 | The Sippie Awards 2024 Winners | 00:31:01 | |
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! 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! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 08 May 2024 | Singalong with Jess and Luke | 00:46:46 | |
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 condo unless you have home insurance. It’s a fun and casual conversation over glasses of Oak Estate Winery Cherish Merlot 2022 from Summerland, British Columbia. Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Thank you so much for listening! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 22 May 2024 | We're F&$@3D - The State of BC's Vineyards with Christopher Mark | 00:55:03 | |
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 literally at ground zero for around the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys with his company as he monitors and analyzes vineyard health using the latest technology and data methods. He's got a lot to say about what happened and about the dangers that the vines in BC's wine country could still be facing as the weather warms up. Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Thank you so much for listening! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 29 May 2024 | Blind Tasting with Tonia McArthur | 00:40:25 | |
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 online on her website and learn about her amazing scoring system for wines. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 05 Jun 2024 | AMA The Questions Episode | 00:53:27 | |
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. Support Sipsters by subscribing! Thank you so much for listening! Order your Sipster's Pocket Guides at your favourite online retailer, bookstore, or winery near you. You can also order directly from me here! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 12 Jun 2024 | Do People in Ontario Really Like BC Wine? Jenn Carleton knows... | 00:51:06 | |
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 her website Jenn's Wine Crush. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 19 Jun 2024 | Angelic Wines with Shay Code | 01:11:24 | |
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 got into wine and what led him to plant the grapes on this amazing piece of land. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 24 Jul 2024 | Tribute to Tim Watts from Kettle Valley Winery | 00:20:01 | |
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 worked there, I got to try out all kinds of different things too. I loved that about working there because every day was different and every day meant that I could be learning something new. In addition to all of the normal cellar tasks, I also learned how to prune grapevines, shoot thin, tuck, cluster thin, cut tops, install bird netting, and drive very old pickup trucks. I also got really good at installing PVC irrigation pipe, wires, hoses, and emitters. It was all hands-on and Tim was the one that showed me how it was done. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 11 Sep 2024 | The Innovator - Sandra Oldfield | 00:58:25 | |
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 to record a podcast with me for years, which is almost the same amount of time that we've been seeing each other at school plays and parent-teacher interviews. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 25 Sep 2024 | Nova Scotia Wines, Muskoka Chairs, and the most exciting wines of 2024 | 00:44:14 | |
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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 09 Oct 2024 | Greenhouse Wines in Quebec | 00:50:47 | |
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 for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 23 Oct 2024 | Jess is a Nova Scotia Princess | 00:55:48 | |
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. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 06 Nov 2024 | American Grapes in BC Bottles | 00:41:28 | |
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 these wines. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 04 Dec 2024 | Savon Du Bois | 00:41:00 | |
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 and essential elements from botanicals to create a huge array of products from perfumes, essential oils, soaps, lotions, and salts, which is only a small amount of the things that Anne offers in her store. She oversees the production of all of it personally and is passionate about how aromas, and the ingredients that go into producing them, can impact our lives and our health. I have been to the County many times in the past few years and only noticed her store on Main Street this past November on my last visit. I was walking down the street when suddenly I smelled the most amazing things walking past the door to one of the shops. Walking into her store is like immersing yourself in beauty. I probably spent about a half hour there just smelling everything I could as well as reading the stories on some of the packaging, part of some amazing marketing that she’s created on the packaging of her carefully crafted scented products. Thankfully, Anne had time to meet me the next morning - the last morning that I was going to be in Picton - to record this conversation. Visit Savon Du Bois online at savondubois.com. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 23 Dec 2024 | Glengarry County's Stonehouse Vineyard | 01:05:25 | |
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 barn and the whole property is perched on the top of a beautiful ridge in far eastern Ontario - the first vineyard operating in the area - just before the Quebec border in Glengarry county. If you’ve ever driven the 401 between Montreal and Toronto or the 417 between Montreal and Ottawa, then you have passed through Glengarry County. Drive away from either of those highways and you’ll be in some of the most beautiful farmland in the province, if not the country. Joanne and Craig have really done their homework. They know that making great wine is only one step to a successful winery. They’ve also been carefully building their brand, creating associations with other cold climate wineries, and encouraging academic research with Concordia University to help literally break ground and pioneer a wine industry in a new region. It was really exciting for me to witness this first hand and I’m so glad that I was able to connect with them when I was in the area this past November. Thank you for continuing to listen to the Sipster’s Podcast. I know I haven’t done as many episodes this past year as I’d hoped but I am hoping to continue producing more podcasts in 2025. I love podcasts and this is truly a labour of love. Thank you so much for your support. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all the best for in the new year. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 08 Jan 2025 | Visiting Jennifer Carleton in Ontario | 00:49:56 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week’s podcast is a revisit with Jennifer Carleton. We recorded her previous podcast last spring over a video call when we were both in the Okanagan Valley. She invited me to visit her amazing wine room at her home in Peterborough, Ontario at some point if I was ever there and, last November, I was! She travels regularly between BC and Ontario and is one of the few wine people I know who can talk about either region with ease. She feels at home in both places and has her own wine friends and scenes in each place. As we chatted, we tasted a really nice BC Syrah from CedarCreek and discovered that there is a very good chance that we actually met almost 20 years ago at my very first job in the wine industry. Lots of great wine culture info in this one. I hope you enjoy. Here we go! Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 22 Jan 2025 | Forking Hangry with Chef Jill | 00:44:23 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This episode is a chat with Jillian Hillier, better known online as @faretheewellbychefjill. Chef Jill has a lot to say about eating healthy and all of those dietary restrictions that everybody seems to have these days. I met her last November at the Crushable Club Wine Studio in Toronto, run by wine maven (and previous podcast guest Laura Milnes). We had a great time chatting about wine and food and I thought that she would be an excellent podcast guest. You can actually see photos of the night that we were there the new version of Laura’s Crushable club website. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 26 Feb 2025 | Videos and Verticals | 00:26:16 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . We're back! Jess joins me from her flex space (aka the Podcast Closet) for this quick chat about the possibility of adding video to the Sipster's Podcast. What do you think? Is it worth it? Are we really that awesome looking? Send us an email or a comment somewhere and let us know. We also dive into our wine word of the week - Vertical. What is a wine vertical? Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||
| 05 Mar 2025 | Down with punt, up with dimple | 00:25:21 | |
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Ever wondered about wine competitions? Where do wines get their gold and silver awards? What do they mean?? Jess and I tackle this controversial topic. But wait, there's more! The wine word of the day - or is it week - is Punt. Do you prefer a bottle with out or without? Do you know what it is? We'll tell you. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Thank you so much for listening! Support Sipsters by subscribing! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com! | |||