TorontoWine.Com

your guide to wine in the city

Wine Publications

This page has four sections:

	Canadian Magazines
	Canadian Newsletters
	Toronto Newspaper Columns
	Foreign Publications

For information on recommended books and where to find them, visit the Books page.

Canadian Magazines

Wine Access  is regarded by some as Canada's answer to Wine Spectator.  It was started by David Lawrason who was formerly the Globe and Mail's wine columnist.  It has a pan Canadian focus and features in depth profiles on wine regions, food and wine pairings, news updates, plus monthly reviews of LCBO and Vintage products.  

It is published nine times a year and costs $35.  You can also sign up for Vintages E-Report - an email subscription service  ($75 per year) which previews and rates the wines (out of 100) for each LCBO's Vintages release.  If you buy both the magazine and the E-Report, the annual cost is $100.  Two year rates are also available.

Vines Magazine is based in St Catharines, Ontario.  It is particularly strong on Canadian content, especially the Niagara area and publishes the Vines Buyers Guide to Canadian Wine on an annual basis.   It has in depth profiles on wine regions, regular food articles  and a "sip and spin" feature in which record reviews also feature a companion wine. The annual subscription is $9.95 annually for six issues. 

Tidings is the house magazine for the Opimian Society  It has a food and wine focus and its rate for non-Opimian members is $36 annually for eight issues.  Visit their website to subscribe or obtain additional information.

Elite Wine, Food & Travel is published quarterly by Enoteca Publishing Inc.  Its annual subscription is $14.  Its three fundamental themes of wine, food and travel are explored in each issue.

Canadian Newsletters

Vintage Assessments  is a product review of Vintages releases and is compiled monthly by Michael Vaughan.  Ratings are based on a maximum of three stars ***.  It also provides news of upcoming events.  An annual E-Mail subscription currently costs $55.  The postal edition costs $90.  

The Centre For Vine Affairs, under the direction of master sommelier and writer John Szabo, puts out a free newsletter entitled The Vine Light.  It is issued quarterly and itemizes "all wine events taking place in Ontario" including their own.  Each edition will also include a brief educational profile on a particular wine region and a source guide for wines.

Nat Decants Free Newsletter: Natalie MacLean holds down day jobs as a wine writer, speaker and judge. An accredited sommelier, she is a member of the Ottawa Sommelier Guild, the Wine Writers Circle of Canada and several French wine societies.  In 2003, she was named the World's Best Drink Writer at the World Food Media Awards in Australia.  There are no ads and all e-mail addresses are kept confidential.   In 2006, Natalie published Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. 
 
For something completely different, try Dr Deacon Fresh who was rated as the most irreverent wine writer of the year by CityBites. 

Toronto Newspaper Columns

Foreign Publications

Wine Spectator:  A very comprehensive California based magazine.  The cost for Canadian subscribers is US$58.85 including GST for 16 issues.  There are also online options for the magazine itself, the website or both.  It is somewhat biased towards Californian wines but worth an occasional read.  Several LCBO stores have single copies.  Wine Spectator issues an "Award of Excellence" to restaurants with a high quality cellar.  Refer to Wine Spectator Restaurant Picks for Toronto selections.

Wine & Spirits Magazine is the main alternative to Wine Spectator.  The cost for Canadian subscribers is US$39.95 for eight issues however there does not appear to be any Canadian content at the time of writing.  For example, they have a feature entitled CityScene which reviews restaurants, wine bars etc. for over 40 cities and/or states across the USA however Toronto is not listed.

Wine X is a quirky / edgy online publication based in Santa Rosa, California.  Their byeline is "wine food and an intelligent slice of vice".  It is geared to Gen X readers and apart from wine, has regular features on music, fashion, videos, books and travel.  A one year "net" subscription is CAN$36.

Decanter is UK based and published monthly.  Modestly described on its web site as the world's best wine magazine, it features well known writers such as Michael Broadbent and Steven Spurrier.  It is sold in 92 countries and available to Canadian subscribers for US$129.00 annually.

Wine Advocate:  A bimonthly newsletter produced by Robert Parker, the leading USA wine critic.  Parker's wine ratings are extremely influential and are quoted world wide.  The newsletter is available by airmail only for US$75 a year.  Alternatively, you can sign up for Robert Parker Online for US$99 a year.

Jancis Robinson's purple pages is  the members only section of her website.  It contains thousands of pages of tasting notes inside information, fine wine facts,  as well as the very lively and intelligent members' forum, described as ‘the most courteous wine forum on the planet’ by La Revue du Vin de France, and exclusive online access to the entire, multi award-winning Oxford Companion to Wine.  The annual subscription is currently US$119 

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