Ontario – The Sipster's Guides with Luke Whittall

Crushing It, Niagara Style

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.

Listen to this week’s podcast here or on your favourite podcast player.

Email me your experiences at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!

Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here!

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Chilling with Sue-Ann Staff, Part 2

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.

Listen to this week’s podcast here or on your favourite podcast player.

Email me your experiences at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!

Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here!

Support Sipsters by subscribing!

Thank you for listening!

Chilling with Sue-Ann Staff, Part 1

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.

Listen to this week’s podcast here or on your favourite podcast player.

Email me your experiences at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!

Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here!

Support Sipsters by subscribing!

Thank you for listening!

On Seven Estate Winery

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.

Listen to this week’s podcast here or on your favourite podcast player.

Email me your experiences at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!

Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here!

Support Sipsters by subscribing!

Thank you for listening!

The Other One with Laura Milnes

This is Part 2 of my conversation with the one and only Laura Milnes, she of Crushable Wine Club fame and persistent purveyor and steadfast supporter of Canadian wine and wine culture.

Listen to this week’s podcast here

Email your answers to this week’s Big Question, your comments or questions, or your special wine experiences to me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!

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Thank you for listening!

The One with Laura Milnes

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.

Crushable Wine Club

Listen to this week’s podcast here

Wine Witch On Fire, Part 2

This is the second part of my conversation with Natalie MacLean, one of Canada’s most recognizable wine personalities. Look for her new book, Wine Witch on Fire in bookstores now or order it online through her website. 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

Listen to this week’s podcast here

Wine Witch On Fire – Natalie MacLean

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