All aboard Maritime Express Cider

Valley-based cidery gears up for its grand opening.

by Rebecca Dingwell on November 15, 2018 at 1:11AM

A new cider joint has its wheels turning in Kentville. Maritime Express Cider (325 Main Street) quietly opened last month, with co-owners Jimi Doidge and Scott Hearn running the show.

DRINK THIS: Blomidon Estate Winery’s 2014 Blanc de Noirs

Loved by critics for its toasty notes, full body and delicate bubbles.

by Moira Peters on November 14, 2018 at 4:59PM

A Nova Scotian bubbly goes great with food. No surprise, then, that contestant chefs at Canada's Great Kitchen Party in Halifax—the rebranded Gold Medal Plates national culinary competition—choose overwhelmingly to pair their competition dishes with local sparkling wine.

DRINK THIS: North Brewing Company's Breakwater pineapple lime sour

SUMMER 4EVER

by Allison Saunders on October 18, 2018 at 4:30AM

The word flurries has resurfaced in our collective lexicon, but North Brewing Company (2576 Agricola Street and 62 Ochterloney Street) is still dreaming of summer barbecues and sours. And we’re here for it.

Sourwood Cider's north end plans

A retail shop and tap room is headed for Cornwallis Street in 2019

by Allison Saunders on October 17, 2018 at 4:54PM

After a successful summer of piquing interest and tastebuds, the founders of Sourwood Cider are levelling up. The sometimes hard-to-track-down, funky-ass unfermented cider will have a place to hang out come early 2019 when it opens a retail shop and tasting room at 5576 Cornwallis Street—the former location of Octopi Computers.

DRINK THIS: Meander River's Blueberry Cider

A crisp apple cider amped up with Annapolis Valley blueberries

by Allison Saunders on October 11, 2018 at 9:46AM

It’s been nearly a year since Ashdale’s little gem, Meander River Farm, expanded its brewhouse to make room for more cider and you can raise a glass of its latest one-off release—a tasty 5.5% blueberry cider—to celebrate.  “With our expansion last year we were able to do more small lots with fresh ingredients from our farm or local ingredients,” says Meander River’s Campbell Bailey.

The Rinaldo brothers bring tacos to Gus' Pub

Taco Lina's will fill the void left by Vandal Doughtnuts

by Allison Saunders on October 3, 2018 at 1:31PM

The powdered sugar has barely settled on the departure of Vandal Doughnuts from Gus’ Pub & Grill (don’t start crying just yet, it's re-opening at 2300 Gottingen Street, in the Velo Apartments building) and the buzz of a new tenant has already begun. With flour tortillas on the brain Sam and Tony Rinaldo (of T-Dogs and Rinaldo’s Italian American Specialties fame) are scheming up their next project—Taco Lina’s, a little snackery named for Sam’s daughter.

“Beer is supposed to bring us together”

Revered beer and travel author Stephen Beaumont hosts a story-filled tasting at Stillwell this weekend.

by Ashley Corbett on September 27, 2018 at 4:00AM

Guided beer tastings with Stephen Beaumont Sunday, September 30 Stillwell, 1672 Barrington Street 12-2pm $46, eventbrite.ca It's the middle of winter in Finland, and Stephen Beaumont steps out from a sauna room a few hundred kilometres north of Helsinki.

DRINK THIS: Luckett Vineyards' Ortega

The 2017 Ortega, tastes very Gaspereau Valley with a hint of Italy.

by Moira Peters on September 19, 2018 at 6:24PM

Sometimes, while everyone else is flocking to the newest wine creations, a classic is quietly released to those waiting in the wings for something like Luckett Vineyards’s 2017 Ortega ($24). Ortega, an aromatic white grape of the vitis vinifera species, native to Europe, is also moderately hardy, surviving to about -25° C. Winemaker Mike Mainguy of Luckett Vineyards turned heads with his 2011 Ortega, one of the first grape wines made at the vineyard—which, in its early days, produced mainly fruit wine from estate-grown blackberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches and plums.

Um, QUESTLOVE is coming to Devour

See you in Wolfville

by Allison Saunders on September 18, 2018 at 2:17PM

DRINK OF THE WEEK: Dilly Dally's Carrot Spice Latte

Pouring up a mug full of fall

by Allison Saunders on September 13, 2018 at 4:00AM

“There’s just this biological thing, you feel a little crispness overnight and it’s like, ‘I need something a little soothing, a warm hug. It’s like our version of hygge or something,” says Laura Draeger of the tendency to usher in autumn (sometimes prematurely) with a little bit of nutmeg.