Educational events for wine, beer and spirit lovers
Opinion
The Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS Manitoba) is bringing local libation lovers a whole host of drinks-related events during MB Somm Week from May 5 to 12 at venues throughout the city.
CAPS Manitoba launched the initiative in 2023 as a way to get drinks lovers engaged through all manner of tastings — from casual walkabout events to sit-down masterclasses with sommeliers, winemakers and mixologists.
Things kick off May 5 with a Chardonnay tasting at Promenade Brasserie (130 Provencher Blvd.), where the $1,000 Rebecca Lechman Memorial Bursary will be presented to an up-and-coming wine/hospitality worker to further their education in the industry. Lechman worked at Jones & Company until her sudden death in March 2020, and was an avid Chardonnay fan. The event runs from 6:45 to 9 p.m.
On May 6, local cicerone Hailey Tennant, who is also the beer curator at the Common at The Forks, leads the Beer Sensory Lab, a tasting designed to help aspiring hop-heads get the lay of the land when it comes to different beer flavour profiles. The event is at Sookram's Brewing Co. (479 Warsaw Ave.) and kicks off at 2 p.m.
In the evening, things move over to the Wine Bar at the Winehouse (1600 Kenaston Blvd.) for a tasting of eight Iberian (read: Spanish and Portuguese) wines led by Winnipeg sommelier Seema Pal, winner of the 2023 Best Sommelier of Manitoba award.
The following evening (May 7), Hy's Steakhouse (1 Lombard Ave.) hosts Alistair Veen, owner of Naramata winery JoieFarm. The winery is not in the Manitoba market — at least not yet — so it's a great chance to taste through the JoieFarm's excellent offerings, along with some small bites, and learn about what's new in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley. The event runs from 7-10 p.m.
On May 8, Solera (725 Osborne St.) hosts an agave masterclass with Ethan Grant of Montella Spirits & Wine from 2 to 4 p.m. Learn about all things tequila and the different expressions of agave-based spirits.
May 9 features another afternoon event, this time at TH Sampling Room (106-185 Carlton St.), where guests will take part in a guided whisky and cigar event led by James Burton of Truth Malters starting at 2 p.m. Admission includes tasting whiskies, a welcome cocktail and a premium cigar.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Cassandra Carreiro, owner of Sharecuterie, opens her Stafford Street restaurant to a tasting of wines from Piedmont's Barolo region on May 10.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Cassandra Carreiro, owner of Sharecuterie, opens her Stafford Street restaurant to a tasting of wines from Piedmont's Barolo region on May 10.
On the afternoon of May 10, Sharecuterie (160 Stafford St.) hosts Rosanna Pancotto of Loamanic Wine & Spirits as she leads a tasting of wines from Piedmont's Barolo region. A range of the rustic, robust reds made from the Nebbiolo grape will be sampled from 2 to 4 p.m.
MB Somm Week closes out with the In Good Spirits cocktail competition, which returns this year to WAG-Qaumajuq (300 Memorial Blvd.) on May 12, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The event features 18 local bartenders and mixologists crafting their most imaginative cocktails in the hopes of wowing both the judges and the public. Admission includes a welcome cocktail, small bites and samples of all of the competitors' cocktails.
While you don't need to be a CAPS Manitoba member to attend any of the tastings, members do get discounted admission to all events. Visit wfp.to/mbsommweek for more information and to buy tickets.
• Low Life Barrel House (398 Daly St. N.) celebrates three years of beer and wine with a bash on May 3, starting at noon. Low Life core pours and special offerings will be available, and Hoagie Boyz will be on hand doling out dumplings as part of a perogy party. Also on tap: slushies and live music. Admission is free.
• Prairie Theatre Exchange has once again partnered with the Winehouse for PTE Pairings, a night of wine and food on May 22, starting at 7 p.m. throughout the theatre's facility on the third floor of Portage Place. More than 50 wines will be poured alongside small bites from a range of local restaurants — including Aroma Bistro, Rose Coffee & Wine, Sharecuterie, Sugar Blooms and Cakes, Tito Boy, Faspa, For Us Bakery, Honey & Loaf and the Fairmont Winnipeg — with proceeds from the event supporting the stalwart theatre. Tickets are $120 at wfp.to/ptepairings and include a partial tax receipt.
Lupo Meraviglia 2022 Tre di Tre Rosso (Puglia, Italy — $22.99, Liquor Marts and beyond)
A blend of Negroamaro, Aglianico and Primitivo grapes, this Italian red is dense black cherry in colour and aromatically offers lovely violet and chalky notes that come alongside deep plum, blackberry and red licorice notes.
It's full-bodied and dry, with plush dark berry and plum flavours coming with an almost-raisined, dried fruit note, hints of chocolate and spice before chewy tannins and, at 14.5 per cent alcohol, a long, warm finish.
Made without oak aging, it's fresh and ripe but with great depth of flavour Amarone/Ripasso fans will appreciate (and at a fraction of the price). Drink now or pop the cork in two-to-three years time. A very good value. 4.5/5
D.V. Catena 2022 Tinto Historico (Mendoza, Argentina — $24.99, Liquor Marts and beyond)
A blend of 77 per cent Malbec, 20 per cent Bonarda and three per cent Petit Verdot grapes sourced from vines growing at 1,000-1,300 metres above sea level, this Argentine red is inky purple in colour, with blackberry, dark chocolate, blackcurrant, plum and violet aromas.
It's full-bodied and dry but plush, with ripe, jammy dark berry and chocolate flavours coming with vanilla and spice notes (from around 12 months in barrel), modest tannins and, at 13.5 per cent alcohol, a slightly warm and punchy finish. Will please fans of plush California red blends, but fans of Argentine reds in general will also find plenty to like. 3.5/5
Malivoire 2024 Pinot Gris (Beamsville Bench, Ont. — $21.99, De Nardi Wines)
Pale straw in appearance, this Pinot Gris from the Beamsville Bench sub-appellation of Ontario's Niagara Peninsula brings bright, fresh floral, peach, stone fruit and honeysuckle aromas with a slightly steely undertone.
It's a dry, medium-bodied and fresh white wine that's bursting with juicy white peach, pear, red apple and tangerine flavours, has a lovely viscous texture, a splash of lemony acidity and, at 12.5 per cent alcohol, a modest finish. In order to preserve the wine's incredible freshness, the wine spent just three months in stainless steel tanks (no oak) before being bottled. Drink now. 4/5
uncorked@mts.net
@bensigurdson
Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Diversified roles in society shape Winnipeg painter Brian Hunter's work and process
Brian Hunter's multiple roles within society inform the works in his current exhibition, On Shaky Ground, at 226 Gallery, located at 226 Main St. It's his first solo show in seven years. The 22 oils, created in response to 'the current shifting and uncertain atmosphere,' are a departure from the artist's previous work. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS As a parent, painter and police officer — Brian Hunter juggles a demanding career and his passions. Nine years ago Hunter snagged top spot at the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. He spent a year in an art residency at the Gwangju Museum of Art in South Korea, and has shown in South Korea, Spain, Montreal and Toronto. Pursuing art full-time seemed a natural progression but his longing to start a family placed him in a quandary — would he be able to juggle his artistic and parental desires? 'For the longest time I wanted to be a professional artist; that was always my goal. I reached a point where I was starting to have some success with my career but at the same time I wanted to be a father, to have kids and go through those experiences,' Hunter says. As a young man Hunter was willing to make the sacrifices required to become a successful artist — but his perspective has since shifted. 'As you get older life kind of takes over. Having a stable job is important to me. At the end of the day, what does an artist want? Commercial success, money and popularity, or to just be able to paint every day?' he asks. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Hunter says when he paints he's inspired by the immediacy expressed by his young sons when they create art. He is now making art that excites him. Art he wants to make, rather than work he thinks he is supposed to be making. 'I'm trying to go back to what it felt like being a teenager in my basement, staying up late, playing around with paint, just seeing what can happen. It doesn't necessarily need to fit into any other context other than this is who I am,' he explains. Grids — Hunter's signature motif, some would say — remain, but are obscured, oils are smeared over lines, colour deliberately and disobediently refuses to stay in its lane. Painting on wood or sometimes MDF, he works instinctively, inspired by the immediacy expressed by his young sons when they create art. 'It's not like they look at the page and go 'what am I going to make?' The pencil goes down on the paper and they just don't stop… that's the feeling I want to have,' he says. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Hunter's paint is daubed on generously, mixed straight from the tube without aid of solvents – resulting in thick and textured layers smeared on with brushes' worn-down bristles. Paint is daubed on generously, mixed straight from the tube without aid of solvents — he has eliminated them from his practice — resulting in thick and textured layers smeared on with brushes' worn-down bristles. 'Now that I have small children (ages three and five) I've been very cautious of the harm some artists' materials can cause. The result is my brushes are always dirty because I can't clean them,' he says. 'I don't invest in the most expensive materials because I know I'm going to destroy them pretty quickly. They dry out and they're like a rock but then they create all these interesting textures. You can really see the teeth of the brushes cut through the paint. I would never be able to accomplish that with an expensive clean brush.' Parenting has also left its mark on his creative process; painting is sandwiched between school runs, bedtimes and the hours he logs as a detective with the Winnipeg Police Service. Balancing his roles can be tricky, he admits, but Hunter is first and foremost an artist; policing is what he does for a living, painting is who he is. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Painter Brian Hunter shows the wooden canvases he uses to paint on in his basement studio. 'I was talking to my son, he knew I worked as a detective, he had some concept of what that means, and my wife said 'Oh, you know, Daddy's also an artist'. And his face just lit up. Everyone has an idea of what it means to be an artist; it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from or what your experience is. And I think that is inspiring and it inspires something in people. 'My role in society is different when I'm an artist. I find it very freeing. I feel I am more in my own shoes when I am doing it,' he says. (On Shaky Ground runs until June 8 at 226 Gallery, located at 226 Main St.) MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Hunter's art reflects his desire to create instinctively. AV KitchingReporter AV Kitching is an arts and life writer at the Free Press. She has been a journalist for more than two decades and has worked across three continents writing about people, travel, food, and fashion. Read more about AV. Every piece of reporting AV produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
29-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Artist uses ancient technique to tell historical stories
Last September, Winnipeg-based visual artist Tim Schouten travelled to Linklater Island in northern Manitoba. He was there to attend a Treaty 5 memorial gathering and the inauguration of Michael Birch as the Grand Chief of the Island Lake Tribal Council (Anisininew Okimawin). He was also there to document the site where an adhesion was made to Treaty 5 in 1909 as part of a long-term art project he's been working on for decades. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Artist Tim Shouten adds coloured pigments to hot wax in a process called encaustic painting. Schouten's latest exhibition, The Island Lake Paintings (Treaty 5) — on view at Soul Gallery until June 13 — is a series of large-scale encaustic works based on photographs Schouten took while on his trip. They are the latest entries in The Treaty Suites, Schouten's ongoing project to research and photograph the exact locations of the signings of each of the 11 numbered treaties between First Nations and the Canadian government between 1871 and 1921, and create suites of paintings related to each one. Schouten and his wife travelled to Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and he was overwhelmed by the sense of history and landscape there. He was also ready for a transition in his own work. 'I just happened to be reading a Polish edition of Flash Art Magazine with an article about a German painter Anselm Kiefer, who became a huge influence on my work going forward. His work focused on landscape and memory, which is sort of where this work comes out of,' says Schouten, 72. 'I came back to Canada and I had this idea to start thinking about the landscape as a historical document.' His own scenery had changed at that time as well: Schouten and his wife moved to Winnipeg from Toronto shortly after their trip. 'There were a couple of things I encountered. First of all, the Indigenous presence in the city was quite new to me. Just standing on street corners and people were talking in Cree and Ojibwa — that was something quite new to me,' he says. 'And travelling around the province, I became very conscious of the isolation of a lot of First Nations communities, and also the level of racism that was so obvious everywhere in this city.' The Treaty Suites began after a visit to Lower Fort Garry, where Treaty 1 was signed in 1871, and expanded from there. Schouten has spent the last 20 years travelling all over the province and painting what he's seen. Going to these places —actually being in these places — is the point. His works are not historical renderings; Schouten wanted to paint these sites as they exist today. 'I kind of shifted my thinking to focus on the landscape in my work, but I was conscious of the colonial aspects of landscape painting itself, just in depicting the wild landscapes of colonized territories,' he says. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS The Island Lake Paintings (Treaty 5) depict where Treaty 5 was signed on Linklater Island in northern Manitoba. Schouten's preferred medium of encaustic painting — an ancient technique in which coloured pigments are added to hot wax — allows for a different approach to landscape painting as well. 'The way I build these paintings, I build layer upon layer and then scrape back into them. I scrape off and remove and paint back in. And part of my thinking is, as I've often said before, is that just over the course of their creation, they sort of develop a history of their own,' he says. As a settler artist, Schouten is not trying to tell Indigenous people's stories with The Treaty Suites. Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. 'I think when people encounter this work and learn that it's a non-Indigenous guy that's making this work, it's like, well, why is this guy talking about treaties?' he says. It's because we are all treaty people, Schouten says. 'My ancestors signed these treaties, too. We're all signatories to these treaties. They're embedded in the federal laws of this country, and so I have a responsibility to that treaty relationship to make sure that it's true and genuine and honours the intentions of everyone who's signed. There was an agreement to share the land in good faith, and that's obviously failed. And I just felt like it was something I wanted to address in my work, just as a matter of conscience. 'I certainly couldn't just paint beautiful landscapes.' Jen ZorattiColumnist Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen. Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
08-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
What's up: Ava Kobrinsky celebration, cocktail competition, tapestries, Mari Padeanu, Scattered Seeds
West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave. Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets $35 at TODD KOROL / FREE PRESS files Ava Kobrinsky and Mitch Podolak stand in front of the soon to open West End Cultural Centre in 1987. For 50 years, Ava Kobrinsky has been a pillar of the Canadian folk music scene. Together with her late husband Mitch Podolak, Kobrinsky co-founded the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the West End Cultural Centre and Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous. They hosted thousands of travelling musicians at their Wolseley home and helped launch the careers of too many artists to count. In 2021, Kobrinsky was inducted into the Order of Manitoba for her outstanding commitment to the arts, having played a role in the establishment of many other cultural organizations, including Prairie Theatre Exchange, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre and Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers. Saturday's concert at the WECC is a celebration of folk music and one of its fiercest champions, featuring Burnstick, James Culleton, David Graham, Sheena Legrand, Onna Lou, Flora Luna, Daniel Peloquin-Hopfner, Leonard Podolak, Jorge Requena Ramos and Orit Shimoni. — Jen Zoratti In Good Spirits cocktail competition WAG-Qaumajuq, 300 Memorial Blvd. Monday, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Tickets: $70 here. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Mixologists and bartenders will create concoctions at the In Good Spirits cocktail competition Monday. Eighteen of Winnipeg's best mixologists and bartenders will face off at WAG-Qaumajuq on Monday at the In Good Spirits cocktail competition. The third annual competition closes MB Somm Week, which features all manner of tastings and workshops put on by the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association for Professional Sommeliers (CAPS Manitoba). Each of the participants has been assigned a specific spirit (including whisky, gin, vodka and pisco) on which they're to base their signature cocktail, which they'll create in front of the crowd starting at 6:30 p.m. Beyond that, it's all up to the bartenders and their imaginations to shake and stir the panel of judges and the public, with the chance for contestants to win a distillery tour, a bursary and other prizes. Among those participating are drinks slingers from Darling Bar, Nola, Baby Baby, the Manitoba Club, Solera, Sous Sol and Hy's Steakhouse. Tickets include a welcome cocktail, small bites and samples of the competitors' drinks, with $10 from each ticket sold going to the Canadian Mental Health Association. You don't need to be a member of CAPS Manitoba to attend; for the full list of participants and to buy tickets see — Ben Sigurdson Prairie Deck II C2 Centre for Craft, 1-392 Cumberland Ave. Runs until 26 June (Wednesday to Friday, noon to 4 p.m.) Free Edmonton-based artist Aja Louden's solo exhibition brings his vision of an Afrofuturist world to life in large-scale tapestries. Weaving a tale of two spacewomen — a mother and her daughter — exploring the prairies, Louden's work is a riot of colour and texture with themes of nature and technology running through each tufted piece. Louden's works in yarn explore science fiction, history and fantasy, promising to take visitors on a journey through time, space and alternate realities. — AV Kitching Mari Padeanu Park Alleys, 730 Osborne St. Friday, 9:30 p.m. Free Kinda weird to think Winnipeggers used to bowl without live jazz. SUPPLIED Mari Padeanu performs at Park Alleys on Friday. Over the past few years, Park Alleys has made the unlikely duo a staple of its weekly happenings. Singer Mari Padeanu is one of a few young stars in Park Alley's revolving cast of jazzers. The originals Padeanu performs, many from the singer's recent EP The Fool, decorate funk and pop grooves with romantic whimsy and melodies that harken back to the golden age of crooners. Filling out Padeanu's sound is sizable ensemble, including Josh Bonneauteau (drums), Sam Fournier (bass), Jasmine Henry (vocals), Daniel Nemez (guitar) and Tirian Plett (keys). Total non-sequitur: if you have the chance, check out the punched hole in the wall of one of Park Alley's bathroom stalls. Rather than repair it, management has framed it with the description 'Mixed media: dry-wall and toxic masculinity' and the title Couldn't Beat the Gutter. — Conrad Sweatman Scattered Seeds Craft Market Red River Exhibition Place, 3977 Portage Ave. Friday, noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets $10 at SUPPLIED Scattered Seeds Craft Market is celebrating its 30th anniversary this weekend with a Mother's Day sale. Scattered Seeds Craft Market is celebrating 30 crafty years with a special two-day pop-up at Red River Exhibition Place. The first iteration of the market took place in founder Deb Schwartz's East St. Paul home with crafts made by family and friends. The business quickly outgrew the living room and the sales have become popular annual events for local makers and shoppers. Promoted as 'Winnipeg's cosiest market,' Scattered Seeds' is hosting its first-ever Mother's Day market this weekend featuring more than 160 vendors, workshops, food trucks and a high tea service. Tickets for the latter are $70 per person with seatings still available for Friday between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Admission to the craft sale is free for children aged 12 and younger and discounted for seniors aged 65 and older. Half-price tickets are available for the last two hours of each day. — Eva Wasney
