when a house is a home

Moving can be exciting, and stressful. There are rituals we all go through to create our own comfort zone: organizing the kitchen; cleaning the bathroom; turning on the oven; finding just the right angle for the bed (the English word for home, after all, comes from the Proto-Indo-European word for 'to lie', or 'settle down', so home literally is where you lay your head). For me, a house is not a home until it has been christened with some fermented grape juice; a ritualistic toast to the experiences to come, the memories to be made, and all the possibilities yet laying within new walls. On Saturday night we were honoured to share in some wine with friends in their new home. This is what we brought to drink:

This is a great Saturday night wine. It's inexpensive ($8.75), so there can be lots of it, and it's easy to drink on its own. Made from Negroamaro grapes that were grown in the far south of Italy in the region of Puglia, this is an unpretentious wine that is a great bargain. The vines in this part of the country receive abundant sunshine creating robust and full wines, but they also have the benefit of cool sea breezes that help to control the sugar levels in the grapes making the wines approachable and food worthy. Puglia is also an ancient region of Italy, rich in winemaking history. These are the shores that the Greeks and Byzantines trod upon bringing grapes and wine-making knowledge.

In the glass: this is a medium-bodied red wine with aromas of blackberry and plum, liquorice and vanilla, black olive and thyme. It's a little tannic in the mouth which is countered nicely with a little acidity, and leaves a dark fruit and slightly bitter note on the palate (making me want another sip).

There was, of course, food involved. We brought a platter of deep-fried chips and spicy chicken wings which were an okay match with the Negroamaro, but it was better with the veal meatballs. I think this would also pair nicely with some grilled meat like a burger, or flank steak, or grilled eggplant if you prefer a vegetarian option.

Word: Negroamaro is the backbone of wines in Puglia. A dark grape - its name derives from the Latin 'negro' and the Greek 'maru' both meaning black.

vino en español

Looking at my friend Joe's slide show of Malaga yesterday had me wanting a little Spanish inspired tapas. And then you know what comes next... yes, a little Spanish wine to go with that tapas. I know it's winter and we tend to want red wine more than white, but I passed this bottle in the LCBO and was gripped, suddenly, by a desire for Spanish white wine. This bottle is from the Rioja region of Spain, a region better known for its red wine production, than its white wine production, but this white, made from Viura grapes, was really good. At $9.95 a bottle, I'll definitely buy this wine again. It was a great way to kick-start our palates (we then moved on to red wine), and I can't think of a better way to spend a winter's Monday evening: a couple of girlfriends; a table of warm treats, and a bottle of white wine to inspire thoughts of the sunny, Iberian peninsula.

In the glass: pear, apple, lemon, a little minerality, a little floral; medium-bodied with medium acidity, and a slightly bitter finish.

This went really well with zucchini cakes.

Word: The Viura grape is known as Macabao in France where it is popular in the Languedoc/Roussillon Region. It is northern Spain's most planted white variety, and is often used to blend into potent (which are common in these warm growing regions) red wines, or rosé. Although the grape travelled to France via Spain, it is thought to be indigenous to the Middle East.

Zucchini Rösti

-adapted from Laura Caulder

1 kg zucchini

salt & pepper

1 egg

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 onion, finely diced

1/2 cup dill

pinch of chili powder

pinch of paprika

pinch of cayenne

1. Grate the zucchini into a colander, sprinkle generously with salt and allow to drain for 30 minutes.

2. Squeeze the zucchini dry in a tea towel.

3. Mix all the remaining ingredients into the zucchini.

4. Shape into small rounds and fry in olive oil.

ontario + grapes = wine

Last week I went to a tasting of Ontario wines as part of the Winterlude Festival here in Ottawa. It warmed my heart to see a crowd of people, from my part of the world, drinking and talking wine. We sampled a few really nice sparkling wines from Prince Edward County, and were speaking with the people from Huff Estates about the great growing conditions for sparklers in that region: the calcareous soil base; the cool climate. I'm hoping we see more bubbly deliciousness coming from that part of the grape-growing world. Sparkling wine aside, there was something for everyone at the tasting and I found a few great value, appetizing wines. We had a hard time putting our glasses down and walking away before getting too sauced (it was a Wednesday night after all). I'll be featuring some of my favourite picks here in the coming weeks.

All this down-home feeling made me realize I haven't posted an Ontario wine here yet. So here is a bottle of Pinot Grigio ($14.00) that is about as close to my backyard as it gets. It's from Navan! And it's good. This wine is not available from the LCBO, but if you live in the Ottawa area, it's worth the twenty minute drive to the vineyard.

Mme. & M. Perrault began their wine venture in 1999 when they were inspired by a trip to the Eastern Townships in Quebec. Today they have 5,000 vines and have been planting with a focus on hybrids that are attuned to the cold climate in which they grow. Bernard Martineau, a local oenologist, tends to the juice of such grapes as Frontenac Gris, St. Croix, and Sabrevois. The grapes for this Pinot Grigio were sourced from the Niagara region (Ottawa winters are too cold for the vines).

In the glass: a lovely medium-bodied wine with aromas of red apple, peach and a hint of pineapple; nicely balanced with a lemon-acidic backbone. This is a great apperitif wine, satisfying on its own.

watch Nita open a bottle of sparkling wine

A few posts back, Nita and I opened some sparkling wine to sample before Valentine's Day. I've posted here a short video that demonstrates how to properly de-cork a bottle of sparkling wine (or Champagne if you are so lucky). Yes, there really is a proper technique. Part of the point is to avoid the cork flying through the crowd while you gleefully watch everyone duck out of the way; part of the point is to avoid having the wine foam over the bottle and down your sleeve, and you actually don't even want the cork to really 'pop'. So barring you having a sharp, large saber in your kitchen that you could use to slice the neck off the bottle, it's all a little un-dramatic.

Now this whole affair is meant to take place under a napkin, or a tea towel so that the wire cage doesn't fly off and ding you, or worse, one of your guests in the cornea, and to also catch any spills or drips that may ensue. We didn't use a towel because:

1. filming Nita fumbling around under a tea towel would just be silly
2. we like to live dangerously
3. we never cry over spilled bubbly in our house, we just lick it off the counter

year of the tiger

Yesterday was the first day of the Chinese New Year, and it's the year of the tiger. I'll drink to that. I'm a tiger, so I was hoping this means the beginning of an auspicious year for me. And then I read this: "drama, intensity, change and travel will be the key words for 2010... it is to be a tumultuous year, but the tiger's influence will offer us courage". Oh well, pour another glass of wine. Which is exactly what we did last night. After all, it was a double celebration with it also being Valentine's Day. Then we tucked into some Chinese food in homage to the coming year. We kept it fairly simple and made Mark Bittman's Kung Pao Chicken.

And we kept it fairly traditional when it came to the wine. Food Pairing Tidbit #1: because the meal had a little hot spice to it, an off-dry, light-bodied white wine is traditionally considered the most complimentary pairing. This little bit of Germany ($9.75) went very well with our little bit of Chinese indeed.

In the glass: very light with a strong green apple fruitiness, some grapefruit, tea, and mildly floral; this is a very nicely balanced wine with a little residual sugar and enough acid to keep it fresh.

Before becoming a Sommelier I rarely drank a wine that was the least bit sweet, but once I was introduced, properly, to the beauty of off-dry, German Riesling, I was sold. Riesling is a very food-friendly wine (and they often aren't sweet). They are low in alcohol, (this one is only 10%) one of the reasons they match well with food, and they retain a good amount of acidity, which allows them to be sweet without being cloying.

The Germans have been making wine since around 370, so when you are drinking a bottle of wine from the banks of the Rhine or the Mosel, you are as steeped in years of winemaking refinement as you would be with a bottle of Bordeaux. The grapes are grown at staggeringly steep inclines along the banks of these two rivers in order to better catch the sunlight; the steepest vineyard in the world is along the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer.

All this to say: if you don't typically like off-dry wines, be brave and try a good, recommended one, especially with a spicy meal, or by itself on a hot day. I don't know about you, but sometimes on the weekends I have a hard time making it to 3pm without popping a cork, so this low-alcohol Riesling is a good option for afternoon sipping.

Kung Pao Chicken

from The Best Recipes in the World

1/2 tsp cornstarch

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine or dry sherry (we just used the Reisling)

1 1/2 to 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

3 tbsps corn, grapeseed, or other neutral oil

5 small dried chilies

2 garlic cloves

one 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

1 tsp sugar

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 scallion, trimmed and chopped

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped for garnish

1. Whisk the cornstarch into the wine until it dissolves, then coat the chicken pieces with the mixture. Marinade while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

2. Heat the oil in a work or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chiles and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly blackened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 10 seconds, then stir in the chicken. Cook the chicken, stirring constantly until it loses its pinkness, about 5 minutes.

3. Turn the heat to low; then sprinkle the sugar over the chicken; stir in the soy sauce and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, then stir in the sesame oil and scallion. Garnish with peanuts and serve.

drink more bubbles

It's that time of year when we start seeing luscious, chocolate cakes, and sparkling wine in champagne flutes tied with big, red ribbons on the covers of food magazines. Valentine's Day is coming. In keeping with tradition, here are some inexpensive, sparkling wines to wash down all that chocolate and romance.

My friend Nita helped me work my way through a tasting these four bottles of bubbly (and polish them off later; what else to do with opened bubbly?). Here's what we found, in order of our preference:

1. Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava, Spain $14.45
In the glass: yeast, mushroom & mineral with green apple & lime

2. Jacob's Creek Chardonnay/Pinot Noir, Australia $13.75

In the glass: biscuit, mushroom, lemon, canned lychee & grapefruit

3. Villa Sandi Prosecco, Italy $14.65

In the glass: candy apple, roses, lemon, mineral & a little almond

4. Santa Carolina Brut Reserve, Chile $11.75

In the glass: citrus, apple, mineral & a bit of a bitter finish

In general the first two bottles had a little more yeast/earth profile, and the second two had a stronger fruit profile. Sparkling wine is always crisp and acidic, so if you don't drink much of it, expect a mouth-watering treat. For the prices, they are all great sparkling wines, so drink more bubbles, you can afford it!

Sparkling wine is incrediby versatile and goes with almost everything on your plate, except maybe heavy meat dishes that need a fuller bodied wine to match their textural density, but it is a lovely contrast to rich, creamy cheese. Here is one of my favourite things to have with sparkling wine, and this is all you need:

Take the round of cheese out of that nice, wooden box and remove all the paper wrapping before popping it back into the box. Set the box on top of a substantial piece of foil paper and, with a fork, poke holes in the cheese. Sprinkle a little white, or sparkling wine over the cheese allowing the liquid to sink into the holes you've just made. Toss the fresh thyme on top; put the lid back on the cheese; wrap the whole package up in the foil. Warm this in the oven at about 300 fahrenheit for ten minutes. When it comes out of the oven spread the soft, rich cheese on baguette rounds.

Word: Only sparkling wine from the region of Champagne in France is allowed to be called Champagne. Sparkling wine from other regions of France are called Crémant and Mousseaux. The Spanish call their sparkling wine Cava. The Germans call theirs Sekt, and the Italians call theirs Prosecco (which is also the name of the grape with which it is made).

red wine and winter

It's cold, the days are short, and for the most part we are stuck inside, central heat sucking the moisture out of our bodies. It's winter. That's the bad news. The good news is that spring is coming, and winter does have its good moments: the quiet that comes with the snow; ice skating; cross-country skiing; hot tubs and saunas; fireplaces, and full bodied, warming red wine. So open this bottle of sunshine from the south of France and enjoy the warmth it has to offer.

This Merlot ($8.60) is from the Languedoc region of France, which is a crescent shaped piece of terrain that hugs the Mediterranean. It was settled by the Greeks and Romans who brought grapes with them, and the oldest vines in France are to be found here. It is also the largest wine producing region in the world! In the past this area's reputation was that of a bulk wine producing region, but that has been changing and it is now a great region of France to find bargain, quality wine.

In the glass: this is a wine with a bit of body. More sunshine = more sugar in the fruit = more alcohol. It's all about the dark fruit: black currant, black berry and cherry with some vanilla and sweet spice to compliment. The mild acidity combined with the alcohol is just enough to balance out the fruit, and makes this wine an easy sipper. I'm thinking it would go nicely with duck and a red berry sauce (or even better, duck confit), or how about camembert wrapped in puff pastry with a sweet cranberry sauce.

Word: Languedoc is named after the Occitan (a medieval, romance language more closely related to Catalan than French) term 'lenga d'oc', the 'oc' meaning yes to differentiate the Occitan speakers in this part of France from the 'langue d'oui' speakers in the north. The use of Occitan declined in France after the Revolution. Crémant de Limoux comes from this area; a great, inexpensive sparkling wine.