Standard Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup

Welcome to the first Alberta show of 2012

We start with Part 2 of the winning chefs of this year’s Canadian Culinary Championships.

This time The chefs of The East. Gold medal chefs from Toronto, St John’s, Montreal and Ottawa.

The Wine Diva covers the career of Alberto Antonini, winemaker on the fly And a heads up on Mt Boucherie in West Kelowna.

THEN we talk to Alberto Antonini and Nirmal & Jacklyn Gidda from Mt Boucherie

THE SHOW

For the second year in a row The Canadian Culinary Championships, The Gold Medal Plates Takes place in Kelowna Feb 11-12

The 8 best chefs from across Canada go head to head in a wicked 2 day competition. Several weeks ago we presented the Chefs of The West.

Now..TRR talks to the Eastern winners http://www.goldmedalplates.com/

Left to Right - Mike Barsky. Bacalao. St Johns http://bacalaocuisine.ca/ Jonathan Gushue. Langdon Hall Country House Hotel and Spa. Toronto http://www.langdonhall.ca/ Jean- Philippe St Denis. Kitchen Gallery Poisson. Montreal http://www.kitchengalerie.com/ Marc Lapine. Atelier Ottawa. http://atelierrestaurant.ca/

We’re talking about the culinary arts on a rare level. the best of the best. A portion of the monies raised goes to support the Canadian Olympic Team competing in London.

FYI…also included in the Feb 11-12 event is music from Barney Bentall and Ed Robertson (Bare Naked Ladies.) http://www.barneybentall.com/ http://barenakedladies.com/band

The Wine Diva returns from the Holidays with a look at the fascinating career of wine maker and consultant Alberto Antonini. Not only does he fly all over the World to consult wineries in both Old World and New World locations, he’s now working with the team at Okanagan Crush Pad in Summerland. Then The Wine Diva and I compare tasting notes from a recent pour of Mt Boucherie wines in Vancouver. www.winediva,ca www.winescores.ca

Next we talk to Alberto Antonini.. To provide international expertise, Okanagan Crush Pad has engaged Alberto Antonini as their consulting winemaker and viticulturist. He has a reputation for creating some of the top wines in the world, and will work with OCP in the development and creation of the 2010 vintage and beyond. Alberto Antonini earned his doctorate in agricultural studies at the University of Florence.

He studied oenology at the Université de Bordeaux and UC Davis. He was a senior winemaker at Antinori and Frescobaldi in Tuscany, and at Robert Mondavi, Au Bon Climat and Qupé in California. He and partner Attilio Pagli founded the hugely influential consulting agency Gruppo Matura in 1996.

Today, Antonini consults in many wine regions including Italy, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, California, South Africa, Portugal, Spain and Australia. This August, he made his first trip to the Okanagan, specifically to inspect the vineyards that supply grapes to Haywire Winery, and to provide advice to the design team of the Okanagan Crush Pad Winery. He will visit Okanagan Crush Pad at least four times per year.

At home in Tuscany, he lives at Poggiotondo, on his 50-hectare estate in the western hills of Chianti, with his wife and three children. That segment is followed up with interviews with the family behind Mt Boucherie winery in West Kelowna. Well under the radar and well over the bar in terms of consistent quality. They are perhaps the largest land owners in the BC wine business.