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Put on your Ermenegildo Zegna jacket, reach for your D&G shades, pick up the keys to the Cayenne and head down to King Street East: it’s time for the finest wine auction in Canada.

Between October 12th and 15th, over $3 million worth of wine will change hands in the Ritchies bidding room. Sip champagne and look all inscrutable as you get ready to raise your paddle.

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There are no starters, mains, lunches or brunches at Colborne Lane. “I don’t subscribe to mainstream,” declares chef and co-owner Claudio Aprile. “It’s boring and homogenized. I want to create food that’s original.”

And original it is at one of the city's current hotspots. The wine list is small but appropriate, with a few Alsatian aromatics and even that rare Spanish treat, Albarino – great for the seafood and strong flavours. Here is a profile of the star chef.

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It's no secret that this CIA leads the way in American kitchen intelligence. And it has a great wine program in its Napa outpost as well.

The Culinary Institute of America, with campuses in New York and California, is one of the world's leading cooking schools. I went for a visit and was impressed.

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Locals refer to the area as "the Deep South", but they have a point: on a late-August visit, 22 degrees and rain in Toronto at 1 p.m. became 28 sunny, humid degrees in Kingsville at 5 p.m. Mexican labourers, who harvest Essex County's bounty, rode their bicycles after a day in the fields.

Here's my look at two an often overlooked wine producing areas: Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island. There are some promising winery developments at the southern tip of Canada.

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