The Wine Access Magazine Review

Wine Access Magazine...
The Key to Canada Wines

If you are located in Canada and want some advice on local varietals and vintages, you can read Wine Access magazine.

The publication is a comprehensive source of Canadian wine reviews, and it also includes some information about locally available foreign wines.

Awards Galore

As good as any of the better wine-related publications available in America and Europe, Wine Access focuses on the local industry.

They have also hosted the Wine Access Canadian Wine Awards every year since 2001, which are considered Canada's leading national wine competition.

Critics Matter

Wine Access magazine's columnist credentials are quite impressive as well, which includes Anthony Gismondi, who reputedly is "Canada's most influential wine critic."

Their articles are usually both entertaining and informative.

But before you buy a subscription, I recommend you have a look on their website, where you can scroll through the archives to get a feel for the writing... is it something you'll enjoy?

A Look Inside the Cover

When I looked through the archives, I discovered a very useful guide to Pinot; one of my favorite varietals. I found it to be entertaining, comprehensive, and written in simple, direct language. In all earnestness, it had everything a quick guide to a varietal might need.

Scrolling further through the pages, I found a very concise and trendy article on Going green.

Overall, this seems to be the magazine's style: keeping it simple, informative, and entertaining. Some of its regular sections are Wine News, Best Tables, The Dish, and Distilled.

Interesting feature articles and wine reviews complete the magazine's contents.

Ratings Canadian Style

As for wine ratings, Wine Access has developed its own rating system, which goes from 80 to 100 points, with scores under 80 meaning that the wine "has flaws that compromise character".

As each wine magazine uses their own rating scale, it is hard to compare the scores obtained from different reviewers. However the system used by Wine Access indicates a slightly higher demand for quality than some other periodicals', such as Wine Spectator's, for example.

Subscription Deals

You will find Wine Access magazine subscriptions quite affordable at $35 per year, including a free copy of the Canadian Wine Awards issue.

International subscriptions are $65 CDN for a year, while US subscriptions are $49 CDN.

The Wine Access Essential Package is a great deal at $40, including a 1 year subscription to Wine Access, The Canadian Wine Annual, their Buyer's Guide, plus a free Wine Access 6-bottle tote bag. If you like freebies, you will surely adore this one. :-)

Customers Talk

Subscribers to Wine Access are reportedly quite happy with it. The only complaint I was able to find was that, with 100 reviews per issue, the magazine can hardly compete with the much higher numbers found on its American counterparts, such as The Wine Advocate.

With everything that could go wrong, that seems like a small complaint for an otherwise very successful magazine.

Authoritative Entertainment

Basically, Wine Access magazine is a "serious" magazine, in that it is the authorized source for all things Canadian in the wine world.

Fortunately, serious is not synonymous with boring in this case, as the reviews are interesting and easy to read; which makes it an ideal choice if you are a Canadian aficionado, connoisseur or both!