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08/20/2026

Reflections

A busy summer. A few hundred thousand miles. Several thousand passengers. Plenty of coffee & green tea. Life in the sky.

07/29/2026

Wines of South Africa Tasting 🇿🇦

Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon and more available now LCBO Wines of South Africa - Canada

As a certified sommelier I often describe South African wines as a wine style halfway between the new world and the old. When comparing say a Chardonnay from Burgundy or Sonoma, or a Cabernet from Bordeaux vs Napa, South African wines tend the find the perfect middle ground between the two. In a blind tasting when there are qualities from both the new world and old world and I’m stuck as to where it could be from, it was usually South Africa.

When the powerful cool Benguela ocean current flowing north from Antarctica mixes with the warm Agulhas current flowing south down the South African eastern coast, a massive churn of worlds collide creating unique conditions for sea life, climate and growing conditions for grapes 🍇

Like Portugal, I find South African wine one of those “under the radar” locations offering great quality at exceptional prices 🇿🇦 💯

Angela Aiello - 🥂Sommelier 📝Journalist 🍷Entrepreneur

07/23/2026

Who doesn’t love a good dinner party?

Chef Dylan Prins Krystal

07/13/2026

A 5 hour cellar lunch with João Maria Portugal Ramos from 🇵🇹 🥂🍾🍷

Freshly chilled bubbles to chilled whites to full bodied reds, no wonder we are still talking about this epic wines & lunch from the one and only 💯👏🙏🙌🇵🇹

Angela Aiello - 🥂Sommelier 📝Journalist 🍷Entrepreneur Adega Restaurante Toronto

05/31/2026

We’ve had our fair share of “Dolce far niente”, a new summer season begins🥂🤌

05/30/2026

Sicilia Life .ardo

05/26/2026

Happy 100th Birthday 💯🎂 (you revolutionary crusty ba$tard)

Two points:
1 - Miles was incredibly moody (a tough cookie)
2- This particular album is one of my most cherished of all time across all genres. The music was so “revolutionary” that the crowd in Paris vocally booed at times because it was unlike anything they had ever heard, impart due to Coltrane.

Maybe art, like life, should push a few boundaries…

100 Years of Davis
100 Years of Coltrane

#100

05/20/2026

High notes, high views, and exceptional company. A spectacular evening celebrating the music and community that make the TSO so vital to this city. 🥂🎻

The reason I turn to live classical music, specifically the , is that I deeply admire the lifetime commitment these professional artists have dedicated toward their craft. When a piece of music written a century ago is still being interpreted, cared for, and presented with this level of devotion, there is a timelessness about it. Not to mention the huge amount of new works commissioned by the TSO from young composers who live across Canada and right here in our city. No autotune, no filters, just humans making beautiful, analogue art.

The person entering the hall is not the person leaving it, and it’s those small, internal shifts that I find so profoundly inspirational.

.gimeno

05/18/2026

There is a distinct tension written into the wines of Prince Edward County.

A chunk of limestone jettisoning out into Lake Ontario, the peninsula exists in a constant tug-of-war between a bounding, brilliant sun and chilling lake breezes.
It’s this exact climatic dichotomy, the struggle between warmth and cooling water that shapes the fruit. Every microclimate along the limestone ridge tells a slightly different story, offering up cool-climate energy and precision that rivals the old world.

At one winery, we tasted two single-vineyard sites where just one kilometer closer to the water meant a 1.5% drop in alcohol due to those intense cooling factors 🤯

The County really could be carved up into some Premier Cru and Grand Cru plots if the winemakers here subscribed to that old-school European hierarchy. But around PEC, “Grand Cru” is simply referred to as “good juice.”

Sometimes, good Pinot or Chardonnay doesn’t require a flight to Burgundy; it just requires a drive to the County.

Too many fabulous wineries and restaurants to list, but I’ve visited many over the years and love them more every time I visit 🥂🍷🇨🇦❤️

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