This weekend marks another new LCBO release of vintages. Check out the full list on their website.

Two focus regions in this release:

Southern Italy

• VINOSIA ESSENZA DI MALVASIA 2007 $15.95
• FEUDI DI SAN MARZANO PRIMITIVO 2007 $13.95
• GLADIATOR PRIMITIVO DI MANDURIA 2006 $14.95
• MENHIR NO. ZERO NEGROAMARO 2006 $14.95
• MESSAPICUS RISERVA SALICE SALENTINO 2005 $16.95
• RIVERA VIOLANTE NERO DI TROIA 2006 $15.95
• VIGNAMAGGIO SUHAILI SYRAH 2006 $14.95
• LA CASA DELL’ORCO AGLIANICO 2005 $15.95
• PALA SÁLNICO NURAGUS 2007 $14.95
• SANTADI VILLA SOLAIS VERMENTINO 2007 $15.95
• SANTADI GROTTA ROSSA CARIGNANO 2006 $16.95
• THARRU CANNONAU DI SARDEGNA 2006 $14.95
• LIBER PATER CIRÒ ROSSO CLASSICO SUPERIORE 2006 $14.95
• ODOARDI SAVUTO 2004 $18.95
• TELESIO DONNICI RISERVA 2003 $24.95
• FRAZZITTA ZIBIBBO VINO LIQUOROSO $14.95
• DUCA DI CASTELMONTE GIBELÈ ZIBIBBO SECCO 2008 $16.95
• FONDO ANTICO NERO D’AVOLA 2007 $16.95

Germany’s Mosel River

• MARKUS MOLITOR RIESLING KABINETT  2007 $24.95
• MAX FERD. RICHTER RIESLING KABINETT 2007 $24.95
• SELBACH-OSTER RIESLING KABINETT 2007 $22.95
• STUDERT-PRÜM RIESLING SPÄTLESE 2007 $24.95

I drive by this place almost every weekend but I never noticed what a transformation it was going through. The brickworks was an old brick factory used for almost 100 years. It’s located just off the Bayview extension and over the past few months I started noticing construction there. What’s been happening is a revitalization project worth about $55 million. They’ve started a farmers market there, nature walks, even a chef’s market on Tuesdays. I will definitely check this place out further on the weekend and snap some pics.

Their site shows all the work that has been done, and also their journal has some interesting stories about the project itself. Worth a look.

LIGHTS released a new single today, the first off of her full album which is coming out this fall. Check it out at the LIGHTS MySpace page. The new album is titled “The Listening” and the cover art is below:

Today Google announced that they were going to create an operating system. It will be separate from Andriod and aimed at netbooks and low-powered computers – at least at first.

While everyone seems to make a big deal about this, I don’t really see a “Chrome OS” as having much of an impact. If Android is any indication, the operating system will be perfect for nerds, and useless for most everyday people. With poor a interface, bad design, and too many features that are “ok” and very few that are “great”. We already have an OS like this, it’s called Linux and has been available, for free, for ten years – download it now at Ubuntu.

This might sound negative, but Google’s software offerings haven’t been very good. I dare not run that privacy-invasive Google Desktop. The Android OS for mobile phones and the Chrome browser have had very little impact on either market. Very few people I know use Picasa, resorting to online sites like Flickr or using software from Adobe.

Good luck, Google.

On the 8th, the LCBO has highlighted the following wines in the release. Don’t forget you can always see many wines of each release on their website.

• Ferraton Père & Fils La Source St-Joseph 2007, Rhône, France $25.00
• La Vigne Di Zamó Vigne Cinquant’Anni Friuliano 2006, Friuli, Italy $39.00
• Marco & Vittorio Adriano Basarin Barbaresco 2005, Piedmont, Italy $39.00
• Puelles Reserva 2001, Rioja, Spain $29.00
• Falset-Marca Castell de Falset 2004, Tarragona, Spain $29.00

Sharp has been very quiet on introducing new television models featuring LED backlight technology. First LG debuted theirs, and Samsung and Sony soon followed. Sharp followed with some limited edition models, but nowhere near the full range that their rivals demonstrated over the past 12 months.

Now, Engadget, reports that Sharp has taken the cover off their mainstream LED models. The new E700UN series TV’s come in 52, 46, 40 and 32-inch sizes. Dubbed “AQUOS LED” by Sharp, they make use of an LCD panel called “X-Gen Panel”. There’s no mention about the LED backlighting’s specific implementation – does it mirror LG’s single color (white) backlight LED, or does it ape Sony’s three- and four-color LED backlight technologies?

More details will follow but what’s surprising is the low price of these LED backlight sets. Below are the US MSRP’s:

LC-52LE700UN $2,799.99
LC-46LE700UN $2,199.99
LC-40LE700UN $1,699.99
LC-32LE700UN $1,099.99

The Toronto Star ran an article today about the use of additives in wine. Clearly it is hard for a consumer to distinguish which wines have additives and which wines do not – we are going to have to rely on our retailers like the LCBO to do effective screening. However, one solution is to mandate the labeling of additives. I’m not sure if this will ever happen, but it would be a good thing.

Have you shopped around for car insurance the last time it was up for renewal? By shopping around, a lot of people can save some money. Recently my friend used the Kanetix site to look for the best insurance for a new driver. However, I’ve always noticed that insurance offered by that site were notoriously overpriced – even after “comparing” between multiple competitors. I sent him to a number of direct insurer sites and sure enough, he found a quote $155 dollars a month lower than the price offered by a Kanetix partner. I have never seen a quote by Kanetix offering competitive rates.

Try it yourself, compare Kanetix quotes with these insurers:

• CAA
• Belair Direct
• Meloche Monnex
• Cooperators
• Allstate