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Based in Toronto, Ontario, The Wine Establishment has been committed for over twenty years to helping you safely store, organize, and display your wines, and assisting you to enjoy them in the most beautiful and functional stemware and decanters. You can always email us at: mail@thewineestablishment.com

Visit our blog at BlogSpot, a place where the staff and friends of The Wine Establishment can discuss everything inspired by wine!

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latest blog entries

8/9/10, Karl Lohnes on keeping your drinks cool this summer for CTV... >>

Check out the reviews of some great products to keep your wines cool during this picnic season.

Click here for the web link to the CTV site.

7/7/10, ... >>

Shop like a Queen! Ever wonder what she carries in that purse?
Lipstick, cab fare, new blackberry and purse size wine out for those nasty drips on her white gloves! We enjoyed her Royal visit and look forward to shipping the rest of her purchases. You too can shop like the Queen!

6/30/10, ... >>

The Famous Paris Tasting

On May 24, 1976, a wine tasting took place in Paris that changed the world's view of California wines forever. The tasting was the brainchild of Steven Spurrier, an English wine merchant who owned an innovative wine shop and adjacent wine school in the center of Paris. Located near the offices of IBM, many of the students at L'Academie du Vin were Americans who worked in France and were anxious to learn more about wine. Spurrier was intrigued by some of the California Cabernets and Chardonnays his students brought by the shop.

Curious to see how these newcomers would fare against French wines made from the same kind of grapes, he arranged a blind wine tasting in celebration of the American Bicentennial activities in Paris. The French tasters chosen for the event had impeccable professional credentials. The French wines were First and other classified-growth red Bordeaux and white Burgundies. They were matched against California Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays. The tasting was blind, with the identities of the wines concealed and the labels revealed only after the jury of nine tasters had voted its order of preference.

The unthinkable happened. The 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon - the first vintage produced with grapes from vines a mere three years old - was judged the best. The Cabernet had bested four top-ranked Bordeaux, including first-growths Ch?teau Mouton-Rothschild and Ch?teau Haut-Brion. The 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from California bested its French counterparts.

The Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Dinner

In honour of this historical achievement the Profile Wine group will be holding a Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Dinner next Wednesday July 7 at the Harbour 60 Steak House in Toronto. Tickets are $275 plus tax and gratuity.

Stag's Leap Vice President Jeff McBride will guide you through the great history of the estate along with the wines. We'll be tasting the estate's white wines as well as the full line up of the single vineyard cabernets alongside Harbour 60's great steaks.

For more information or to book your ticket call Ruben at 416 520 1669 or email at relmer@profilewinegroup.com.

6/23/10, House and Home blog story about The Wine Establishment... >>

Our Sabre and Savour Champagne Sabering event took place a couple weeks ago, and we are still getting people commenting about how successful it was. For some reason, people just love Veuve, Krug, great food from Paul Boehmer, and opening champagne with Sabres!?!?

Amy Rosen, Food Editor of House and Home magazine tried her hand at opening a bottle, and after numberous tries, would not be defeated! After many attempts (don't worry Amy, I'm not going to tell the acutal number), the bottle opened and the crowd roared with applause.

She's written about her adventures with a Champagne Sabre in the House and Home Blog.

Click here to read the full post.

Thanks for coming Amy.
We had a great time, and glad you enjoyed yourself.

6/19/10, The Ontario Wine Awards... >>

Every year we are a proud sponsor of the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion award at The Ontario Wine Awards.

Usually the celebration takes place in Niagara at a dinner with all the winemakers. This year the event was celebrated downtown at a lunch at The Pantages Hotel. Although I do love driving to wine country and tasting my way to the Awards dinner. This year we were honored to give The Wine Establishment Award to Lakeview Cellars for their 2009 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc! We never know who will win but we just happened to be sitting with the folks from Diamond Estates and Lakeview Cellars when the Gold Award was won! Congratulations Lakeview Cellars. For a complete list of winners go to Ontario Wine Awards

6/2/10, Wine Label Wednesday: Who says cheap wines need an ugly label?... >>

Back Label Wines are budget wines.
At $ 5.99 AUD a bottle, the design for the label had to be clever with a low production budget.
Voice Design succeeded in creating an intelligent label which re-enforces the brand of the wine. The basic nature of the design itself, with large sans serif fonts emphasises the no-nonsense low cost aesthetic.

The clever part is that when reading the label on front, 'Back Label' appears backwards. Only when you view the label through the wine, does it read correctly.
An as you drink the wine, the name appears less distorted. Fantastic!

Great design is achievable at all price points.
Great packaging design just needs to be considered and brand appropriate.

6/1/10, When a good concept goes bad...... >>

I'm all for wine inspired design.
However, when it gets this literal...it's not very refined, and rather unsightly.
I can't imagine any location where this wine bottle sofa would look good.

And who on earth enjoys cherries with their wine???

6/1/10, The future of wine and beer glass design comes from Scotland... >>

Edinburgh Napier University Design Student Michelle Willis has come up with a fantastic idea for recycling wine bottles.

She noted that most empty wine bottles were not being recycled, but instead were thrown out. Her solution was to equip bottle manufacturers with the capability of turning used wine bottles into wine and beer glasses. One recycled bottle can be melted down and moulded into a very sexy shape for a wine and beer glass.

The design and the technology is still in the early stages, the glasses now being used by bars and clubs around Scotland.

5/20/10, The future of glassware design by Steven Ma: It's bold and a bit scary...... >>

Architect and designer Steven Ma has come out with a line tableware titled "X-aperitivo" which has a future sci-fi aesthetic.
The glasses are detailed with silverware and textures giving the glasses a slight (well actually, more than just slight) menacing feel.

Why do I imagine these are the types of glasses Klingons would drink their Klingon Blood Wine?

Along with wine glasses, the tableware set includes cutlery, decanter, and wine bottle holder.

5/12/10, Wine Label Wednesday: Beach House Wine... >>

New Zealand wines have been on the forefront of wine packaging, being one of the first countries to embrace the screw cap, wine in tetra-paks, and now Designer Steph Baxter has designed a new bottle for Beach House Wines.

The gorgeous white bottles with over sized wrap around fonts elegantly modern in their simplicity.
The white of the bottles make them look a bit antiseptic, but I still I would love to show off these bottles at a summer BBQ -- I'm sure they'd be a hit.

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