Monday, August 11: Wrote the Icewine entry for the encyclopedia Historica Canada and spent the rest of the day inputting wine reviews for the upcoming Vintages release.

Tuesday, August 12: Started collecting my published wine articles with the idea of putting together an e-book. Thinking of calling it Wine in Five Minutes, as this is about the amount of time it would take to read a single article. Definitely a bathroom book.

Wednesday, August 13: Wrote my Quench magazine commentary on the weirdest alcoholic beverages in the world. There are some strange ones out there that people actually drink!

Thursday, August 14: Historica Canada has asked me to update the entry on the Canadian wine industry. The last entry is dated 1996, when there were 33 VQA wineries in Ontario. Now there are 150.

Deborah and I took my sister to dinner at Tinto de Tapas Bar on Bayview. The place was packed and we could only get seats at the counter where the chef was cooking. Fascinating to watch him create the dishes. A terrific meal but we came out and our clothes smelled of cooking oil. Must remember to get a table away from the kitchen next time.

Friday, August 15: A tasting of LCBO new releases this morning. There is a noticeable trend in the under-$20 wines the board is purchasing now – all have residual sugar. My fellow wine writers Steve Thurlow and David Lawrason discussed this phenomenon and came to the conclusion, although we dislike this style of wine, we have to write about it because this is what the new demographic of consumers is going for. Tant pis. As if the Pinot Grigio fad wasn’t bad enough.

A BBQ tonight at our friends, Arlene and Michael’s.

Saturday, August 16: Deborah, Guy and I drove to Aurora for a celebration party. My nephew David got engaged to Mari and the party was at her cousin’s house. I had chosen the wines: Ferrari-Carano Sauvignon Blanc 2012 and Domaine Tournon Mathilda Shiraz 2011.

David and Mari