Why don't Pittsburghers visit Toronto? (Aspinwall, Halifax: neighborhoods, buyer, price)

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

I think montreal is overrated imo. I prefer Calgary over montreal. something about western Canada that I like more than the eastern side. another place while I only visited just a day and a half, was Winnipeg.

overall there are, in my opinion, much better places to visit than montreal.

kinda funny you label me like this when you yourself picture your own area as black and white.

The only part of western Canada I have been to is Victoria and portions of Vancouver Island, which are well worth the effort to visit. Montreal, to me though, is a much more interesting city than Toronto. I have no problems with Toronto, I like it very much, Montreal just seems more culturally and visually interesting to me.

Originally Posted by pman

Centre Island - Toronto - Reviews of Centre Island - TripAdvisor

This island is worth a visit. It has a fair bit of variety with old buildings, nature trails, nude beaches, etc.

Pittsburgh hockey fans ought to visit Halifax, where they can see the Crosby exhibit at the Nova Scotia Sports Museum. The maritimes in general are well worth a visit; Prince Edward Island feels like a completely different country in many ways, and there is some interesting geology around the Bay of Fundy.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

I am intrigued by the praises of the Canadian wines. I will have to try some. I admit I can be a little snobby about such things but I trust the judgment of some of the posters here.

We discovered the quality of Canadian wines in the Okanagan in BC, and was very happy to find out that this quality spans to Niagara too. It's cool climate up there (to say the least) and hence the best stuff is predominantly white, although on warm vintages they make some drinkable reds. It's the varieties you'd expect - Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir mostly for making some very good methode champagnois. They attain excellent acidity, crispness and balance, so if that's your style, it's great. Goes well with SH Asian food. And as Curtis says, the ice wines are as good as anywhere.

Quantities are so small that almost none of this wine gets south of the border (was same in BC), so the only way is to head over that darned border. I know you have a passport . The good thing is that US customs are wonderful about you bringing back wine - they either ignore it or charge 20 cents per litre duty. Which is a complete bargain. We had 3+ cases on last trip, declared it, and were waved on through

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

I do speak passable French, though, so maybe I got the extra good treatment?

Wow. Now I want to date you even MORE!

[canadian citizen]

Canadian wine producers would LOVE to be able to sell their products in the USA.......... But the US government has HUGE import duties on Canadian wines, to protect your American producers. The import duties would create prices for Canadian made wine that would be three times that of a comparable US made wine.

On the other hand.............American wines can be imported into Canada, with NO DUTY at all. Not very fair to our wineries, is it ? The USA decided that wine wasn't a product that they wanted to include in the NAFTA listings.

Jim B.

Toronto.

[rockthecasbah121]

Originally Posted by canadian citizen

Canadian wine producers would LOVE to be able to sell their products in the USA.......... But the US government has HUGE import duties on Canadian wines, to protect your American producers. The import duties would create prices for Canadian made wine that would be three times that of a comparable US made wine.

On the other hand.............American wines can be imported into Canada, with NO DUTY at all. Not very fair to our wineries, is it ? The USA decided that wine wasn't a product that they wanted to include in the NAFTA listings.

Jim B.

Toronto.

This is the Pittsburgh forum. We can't get any wine into PA at decent prices anyway.

[doo dah]

Henry of Pelham Riesling available at LCB


A handful of icewines

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by rockthecasbah121

This is the Pittsburgh forum. We can't get any wine into PA at decent prices anyway.

Not true. The PLCB system may be stupid, but there are some fantastic bargains in the stores, I assume as a result of the stupid system and state buyers/owners not being aware what their wines are worth, or just wanting to clear stuff out?

My oft cited examples are 10 year old Aussie wines for $15-25 from Aspinwall store that retailed in Australia at double that price 7 years ago. I can cite many other examples, from e.g New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, and see comparable prices on WA/OR wines to what I paid when living there.

If you know what you're looking for, there's some incredible bargains to be had.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by canadian citizen

Canadian wine producers would LOVE to be able to sell their products in the USA.......... But the US government has HUGE import duties on Canadian wines, to protect your American producers. The import duties would create prices for Canadian made wine that would be three times that of a comparable US made wine.

On the other hand.............American wines can be imported into Canada, with NO DUTY at all. Not very fair to our wineries, is it ? The USA decided that wine wasn't a product that they wanted to include in the NAFTA listings.

I'll believe you on NAFTA, but if I want to drive across the border into Canada with more than 1 Litre of wine from USA, the duty is I believe around 50%-ish of the retail price. I was burned once and basically haven't done it again. Canadian wine into USA, for us anyway as consumers, is 20-ish cents per litre.

[LIRefugee]

It would be nice to have some sort of Schengen-type agreement with Canada, but I doubt that would happen anytime soon.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by gortonator

Not true. The PLCB system may be stupid, but there are some fantastic bargains in the stores, I assume as a result of the stupid system and state buyers/owners not being aware what their wines are worth, or just wanting to clear stuff out?

My oft cited examples are 10 year old Aussie wines for $15-25 from Aspinwall store that retailed in Australia at double that price 7 years ago. I can cite many other examples, from e.g New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, and see comparable prices on WA/OR wines to what I paid when living there.

If you know what you're looking for, there's some incredible bargains to be had.

I recall several years ago a Guigal Rhone wine was anointed Wine of the Year and the price skyrocketed everywhere but here, because the LCB just sells at the same price. It was something like $35 here, some folks in NYC were paying upwards of $75 I think.