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Welcome to the new look Wines in Niagara

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A website is a constantly evolving beast. You have to keep up to the changes in technology, freshen its look from time to time and constantly tweak it to make the best product you possibly can.

Simply creating a website and posting to it just doesn’t cut it anymore.
When I created the site over a year ago, it was a project that was taken on by the web development students at Niagara Collage, Welland campus. A team of students and one instructor — Tariq, Nathan, Kristen, Kyle, Henri and Chris — worked for weeks and months to create WinesInNiagara.com from scratch. When they finally handed me the keys to the new site, I couldn’t have been happier.

It was sleek and zoomy, with some very cool graphics. It served me well for the initial startup.

Over the preceding months, when the students had all moved on to their new careers in life, I turned to Adam White, a bright young man in Niagara Falls, managing editor @punknews, CheckInNiagara.com vlogger, Drupal and social media whatzit at @jmrlogics, who helped with some modifications to the site, for which I am eternally grateful.

He was there when I panicked over the smallest and largest issues I had with the technical end of the site. Adam got the site to the next level, with added functionality, buttons, graphics and helped me get rid of all that pesky junkmail.

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Suresh Doss, showing the younger generation how technology works.

Today, the site has just reached a new plateau, one that takes it to a new level, thanks to Suresh Doss, publisher of Spotlight Toronto, and a web developer, writer, photographer, speaker and professional eater (I say that tongue in cheek, but, my, he can eat, tweet and eat even more with the best of them!). He’s also a friend and collaborator in the wonderful world of local everything.

With Suresh’s help, the site has taken on a brand new look that’s much easier on the eyes, more functional and, perhaps more importantly, easier to navigate on the back end (where the words, pictures and videos are filed and where people like me, who are not techno-wizards, are often lost in a world of html coding and other stuff I don’t know how to describe).

I love the new look (especially the nameplate, with the photo taken from one of my favourite scenic spots in Niagara, the tasting room porch at Flat Rock Cellars) but, I suppose, the greatest compliment received so far, came from my 14-year-old son Tynan. “Awesome! Has a nice, clean look to it!” he said. Pretty telling words from a kid who’s grown up in a wired and graphic world.

Suresh took a lot of the labour out of filing to the site, making it easier, effortless and not something I dread every time I have something to post.

The site just works and looks better, thanks to Suresh. It’s also better integrated with Facebook, Twitter and, now, Flickr.

It won’t be the end of new looks and ideas for WinesInNiagara (watch for a brand new WinesInOntario site, with Suresh as a partner, in the very near future, that will focus on food and wine from around Ontario, not just Niagara.

With the redesign comes another fabulous addition to the site and the one thing that I’ve wanted on the site its inception — a food component.

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Michael Lowe, Food/Restaurant reviewer.

Meet Mike Lowe, a born and raised Niagaran who has dedicated his free time to the study of food and beverages. Simply put, Mike loves what we have here in Niagara both in terms of food and wine.

He’s been a regular restaurant reviewer at View Magazine (formerly Pulse Niagara), and his reviews are a source for diners looking for the culinary destinations in Niagara. I’ve loved his reviews from the first moment I saw them. He speaks the language of the chefs who make the food (after all, Mike’s an avid cook himself and helps in many of the chefs’ kitchens around Niagara).

His passion comes out in his writing, objective accounts of dining at all levels, from the best burger joints to top-tier fine dining establishments. All Mike’s reviews (unlike the wine side where wines are rated out of 100 points) will be rated on a five-star scale.

He also provides a local wine matchup with his reviews.

Wine and food go hand in hand. Now with Mike writing on a regular basis for WinesInNiagara, a huge void has been filled on the site. Welcome aboard, Mike. You can find his reviews under the “food” button on the homepage.

On a final note (OK, two final notes), websites such as this one thrive on comments from readers. I post them unedited and often reply all in the name of added voices to the world of wine and food. There’s lots to discuss. Afterall, wine is subjective and the more opinions we have the better we are all informed.
You’ll also notice Google ads have started appearing on the site. Don’t be afraid to click the ads, which are geared to this website. Every time you click a tiny bit of Google’s cash comes back my way. It helps pay the bills.

— Rick VanSickle, publisher