Spill The Wine

We began our Spill the Wine journey in June of 2024 with Nina Kool Kopanski at Cornerstone, and since that time, many of the wines featured in that episode have been sold out. Nina asked if we would make a return visit to explore the new wines and, of course we said YES!  We had a lot of fun tasting some new award-winning wines, like the 2023 Pinot Gris and the 2020 Merlot. You'll really enjoy the tale of the Merl...

Founded in 1998, Malivoire is one of the older wineries in the Bench region and General Manager Shiraz Mottier has been involved with the winery since 2000. The uniqueness of the winery is that it uses the gravity process. It's built on the side of a hill with the retail shop at the bottom of the hill, and the vineyards at the top, which of course explains gravity.  We talked with Shiraz about the evolution of the...

In the early 2000's, Len and Maria Cristino purchased 40 acres of property with the intention of making appassimento wines. In this episode, we chat with Winemaker Rene Van Ede about the process of making this type of wine, which involves drying the grapes for 4-6 week, which in turn concentrates the sugar and acid. The result is a wine with a deep colour and beautifully concentrated flavours. It's also interesting to ...

Tiny bubbles in the wine make me happy – and if they make YOU happy, then this is the episode for you as we explore the wonderful world of Petillant Naturels (aka Pet Nats).  Rob Harold and Joe Shenck, the owners and wine makers of King and Victoria talk about their initial experimentations with making Pet Nats, and the challenges of making a wine that is still fermenting in the bottle. We toss around some g...

Put your wine glass away because in this episode, we won't be drinking wine, but we will be chatting Marilyn Bellows, owner of ebikethebench wine tours about the various ways to enjoy your day in wine country without having to drive your car. Marilyn and her team are based out of Vineland Estate Winery and offer a variety of different tours to suit your needs. You can take guided tours (with lunch included) to wineries...

In this episode, we make a return trip to Niagara Custom Crush Studios to visit with Tim Reed Manessy, the owner/marketing manager of Therianthropy Inc. Therianthropy means shape shifting, grapes + wild yeast = wine! They believe in low intervention when making wines, which means organically farmed site specific grapes, wild fermentations, no filtering and no flavour or colouring manipulation. They produce some very interesting and...

Peninsula Ridge opened their doors in August of 2000, making it one of the older wineries in the Niagara Bench area. Owner Norm Beal and head winemaker Sean Palmer shared some interesting facts about the history of the winery, which was originally settled in. The winery is also on the migration route for birds of prey. From April until the end of June, you can sit on the patio and watch the birds glide on the convectio...

Melissa Major Brand Partnership, marketing, and hospitality manager of Niagara Custom Crush studios was an absolute pleasure to chat with. She's so passionate about wine and the business model of the studios. It's the first of its kind in Ontario and showcases the work of 13 different wine makers, with 64 wines to sample. You really can spend hours here since it's basically a one stop shop to discover some hidden gems ...

Winemaker Kevin Panagapka is VERY busy man. Not only is he the owner and winemaker of his own label, 2027 and Solo Para Mici,  he is also the winemaker for Calamus, a few other wineries and at Niagara Custom Crush studios. You can see why it took over a year to pin him down for an interview! During the course of our conversation, we talked about the differences between Burgundy and Bordeaux, compared the sizes of ...

We're going back to school in this episode to speak with Barb Tatarnic,  manager of professional Certification in Ontario Wine, and Steve Trussler, course designer and teacher of the Certification in Ontario Wines on-line course. This course is designed for the wine enthusiast to take a deep dive into the world of Ontario wines and discover the characteristics of cool climate wines.  During our conversation w...

There are a lot of amazing things happening at Cave Spring, so we had to make time to chat with winemaker Gabe DeMarco about the importance of the new yeast strains discovered at the winery. In collaboration with Brock University, they worked to identify, isolate and validate their own yeast strains in an effort to create wine from the Niagara region with zero international inputs. In addition, you'll also hear about t...

We continue our conversation with winemaker Vadim Chlekhov and delve into the history of Palantine Hills, a winery that was the site of battles during the War of 1812. They are still finding artifacts on the property and there is a display case in the tasting room where you can view some of the items they have unearthed. We chat about the negative impact of success, Pinot Gris vs Pinot Grigio and learn about the happy ...

We're on the road again, this time with our first visit to the Niagara on the Lake region to explore the wines at Palatine Hills with winemaker Vadim Chlekhov. Vadim's passion and appreciation for wine began at an early age. He tasted wine with is grandfather and then drew pictures of what he tasted. He's now an incredible wine maker who believes the winemaker is essentially a steward that guides the grapes through the...

We return to the Niagara Bench area for our next episode with a visit to 13th Street Winery. We  took a little trip down Gamay Lane with President Doug Whitty and Executive Director of Program Development Corinne Witusik. It's our first episode where the focus was on wines from one grape varietal and it was a really fun and informative exploration into Gamay.  A visit to 13th Street is an experience what comb...

Our third and final stop in Norfolk County brought us to Inasphere Winery. Sales manager Kathie Gilchrist shared the origins of the winery name – the land is part of the Long Point Biosphere, so the winery is technically IN A SPHERE. How's that for clever!? Kathie shared the history of the winery, which began as a vegetable farm back in 1963. The land is reclaimed marshland with a dike built around it to allow fo...

On the second stop of our visit to Norfolk County wineries, we visited Burning Kiln and chatted with Marketing Coordinator Jaime Drayer. Jamie detailed the winery's beginnings as a tobacco farm. She  explained the reason why the wines are named for tobacco based items, and it was a very cool history lesson and glimpse into the winery's past. In addition to fabulous wines, Burning Kiln also has a restaurant on site...

In July 2025, Lukas and Andrea made a trip to Norfolk County to visit three wineries on the shores of Lake Erie. The first stop was Front Road Cellars, a family run winery that is also a blueberry farm. Owner Amanda Vranckx shares the story of the evolution of the winery and shares some amazing wines with us. Amanda also talked about their partnership with Guelph university in planting hybrid varietals of grapes that w...

Owners and brothers Geoff and Anthony Hall named their winery in honor of their children – one brother has sons, the other has daughters so the name is pretty obvious! Along with their adviser Angelo and brother-in-law Dan Sherrington, we sat down for a chat about wine and the challenges of starting a brand new winery in an area far from the lake,  higher in altitude and with a different soil composition tha...

Yvonne Irvine is the assistant winemaker at Creekside and is also the winemaker and owner of her own virtual winery Maenad. Yvonne shares some insights in the positives and negatives of being a virtual winemaker – one positive being she has full control over every aspect of the wines and can be very creative. Her creativity shines in the very unique and innovative wines we tasted like Piquettes and Pet-Nats, as w...