We walk across the farmyard, avoiding contact with the region’s national birds, peacocks, pecking in the patches of grass, and head for a two story, weather-beaten wooden barn. Here in Modena, Italy, up a staircase to the second floor of this shabby building, twenty five, fifty and one hundred year old Balsamic vinegar is being nurtured. This thick elixer will be bottled in small glass containers sculpted by an Italian artist, and sold anywhere from $100 and up to gourmets around the world. I am lucky. I get an ambrosial taste from an eye dropper. My companion does not.…

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The Argentina Wine Awards (AWA), one of the great annual events for the country’s wine industry, was held in Mendoza for the fourth consecutive year. During two days of closed-door tasting sessions, 12 Masters of Wine from 8 different countries evaluated the quality and progress of the Argentinean wine industry.

As with every year, the event was organized by Wines of Argentina and the Argentina Wine Corporation (COVIAR), with the collaboration of H&C, the English agency in charge of the design and organization of the tasting sessions, and Area del Vino, the Argentinean company responsible…

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MoRoCo is an acronym for owner Kelly Kimel’s labours of love: her two children and…cocoa. Once an art gallery; MoRoCo is an elegant, French inspired lounge in which every nuance, every accoutrement, has been lovingly created with no expense spared.

Enter through a sparkling boutique that showcases extreme chocolate confections into a Baroque salon of plush purple and tantalizing refinements. The menu reveals a culinary landscape fit for an Alice in Wonderland tea party, and entreats us with the decadent salutation: “Welcome all Chocoholics. We don’t promise sobriety. We encourage your addiction.”

All the chocolates…

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Olympic Postcards Notes on Olympic Memories, Cookbook Awards and The Most Romantic Night of the Year

Vancouver + Whistler, B.C. - Like yours, our Olympic memories are rife with wonderful individual moments and the spirit that celebrated excellence at every turn. We enjoyed a great mix of our regulars and locals at each of our restaurants - Araxi in Whistler, and Blue Water Cafe, CinCin, and West in Vancouver - along with many visitors, royals and celebrities of an extraordinary diversity. But in…

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To celebrate World Book Day, March 4, 2010, Emirates Airlines took thousands of travellers on a literary journey by orchestrating a mass book sharing initiative across its global network of more than 100 destinations. Lucky passengers on board every Emirates flight departing the airline's Dubai hub today were presented a novel as part of the annual drive to encourage the joy of reading and promote literacy. Cabin crew were integral to the operation, with more than 1000 of them arriving for duty with a stack of books written by authors who are part of the Emirates Airline Festival of…

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