Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson

The launch of the Søbr Market two years ago transformed the non-alcoholic drinks landscape in Manitoba in a profound way.

We’ve been getting decent daytime temps and plenty of sun as of late. But Manitoba’s cooler nights — and the pile of tomatoes and squash on my kitchen counter, frantically picked from the backyard gar...

Once upon a time, Heather O’Neill wrote a fairy tale about Sofia, a teenage girl in a fictional, occupied European country, as she and her travelling companion, a talking goose, walked the countryside in hopes of retrieving her mother’s lost manuscript, which would hopefully save their homeland. The result is The Capital of Dreams, the Montreal-based O’Neill’s latest novel.

When the Winnipeg Wine Festival rolled out its full slate of events (the more intimate “Wine Down” ancillary events and the behemoth weekend public tastings) in January, it all felt a little bit… weird.

Here are reviews of a half-dozen wines I’ve recently tasted and enjoyed — some falling under the “Wines of Europe” umbrella (Italy in particular), others coming from new world wine-producing countries…

The “pretendian” phenomenon — someone falsely claiming Indigenous heritage and appropriating Indigenous culture, often for their own benefit, financial or otherwise — has been making headlines recentl...

Zan Lazarevic / Unsplash For summer sipping, it’s hard to beat a well-chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Sure, Pinot Grigio is light and fresh, but it often lacks the lively, vibrant fruit flavours an...

There are plenty of tasty options out there for those who are craving a red wine in warmer temps that don’t involve big oak, heavy tannins or searing alcohol levels.

Summer’s a great time to catch up on your favourite beach reads — easy, breezy books that can be devoured in a day. But diehard book nerds know fall’s the time when the most anticipated titles of the year typically drop — from the latest in literary fiction to biographies, historical tomes, memoirs and more. Here are 20 titles — 10 fiction, 10 non-fiction — to watch for in the coming months from local, national and international authors. NON-FICTION Everything and Nothing at All: Essays By Jenny Heijun Wills (Knopf, Aug. 27) The Winnipeg-based author of the memoir Older Sister. […]

A hot and steamy August long weekend — is there a better time to crack a cold one and relax? But for those who aren’t beer drinkers, a “cold one” means something quite different than a crisp pilsner o...

Wine is often thought of as a marriage of art and science — why not add sport to the mix?

Doing a deep dive into a particular grape variety, wine-producing region or country is tough when you’re up to your eyeballs reviewing Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival performances and having to turn...

Regular readers of this column will have seen the terms “Old World” and “New World” bandied about. These terms have been around in the wine lexicon for decades — but are they still useful and relevant...

There’s never been a more important time to be supporting Canadian producers of wine, beer or spirits — locally and otherwise. While Canadian wineries continue to produce reds, whites, bubblies, rosés...

The Summer Reading Challenge for Kids provides reading lists for three age groups, curated by McNally Robinson Booksellers. Each reading list features four books, with selections that should appeal to a wide range of younger readers.

The dad: a creature who can be found roaming hardware stores or hovering over an outdoor grill, is stirred into a frenzy by raucous sporting events and, when fatigued, is often discovered napping with...

Manitoba brewers have been busy raking up some serious hardware as of late. On May 25 the Canadian Brewing Awards handed out trophies at a ceremony held in Hamilton, with five Manitoba brewers bringin...

One of the many horrors of war is the way it tears loved ones apart through displacement, imprisonment or death. But war can also bring together those whose paths would likely never have crossed, spar...

Jeff Rubin thinks we’re living in the eye of a perfect financial storm — and that the dark clouds show no sign of breaking up. Since moving on from Bay Street, where the 69-year-old served as chief ec...

Apologies for the lack of an Uncorked column last weekend — I’ve just returned from a week in Sicily, where I joined about 100 other writers from around the world at the 25th annual Sicilia En Primeur...