weekend wine buy: california release

Thanks to the National Capital Sommelier Guild, I tried a few wines tonight that are to be featured in the LCBO Vintages release this coming Saturday. The release is all about California, but we tried a few alternate regions by way of comparison.

I liked these, and so did Nita.

Cantine Di Marco 2007 Terre Puglia Primitivo Di Manduria

Remember that posting about wines from Puglia? Remember the wines are made with little chemical interference? Here's a lovely example of Primitivo from the south of Italy. Raspberries, vanilla, bitter chocolate and a sweetness reminiscent of caramel, balanced out with some mild, integrated tannins (that just means the wine isn't too raspy on your mouth) and enough acidity to make this a food friendly wine. It's my favourite pick at $14.95.

Southbrooke 2008 Triomphe Syrah

I think I have one of these in my cellar. At $24.95 it's a great deal, and an Ontario wine. Dark ruby and sweet on the nose with ripe berries and dark cherries rounded out by a little pepper and some floral notes. Silky on the palate. Southbrooke is a biodynamic winery, so you can drink this one and feel good about the world.

Napa Creek 2008 Chardonnay

It is a California release after all. If you like full, oaked Chardonnay, this is one of those. Baked apple and pineapple with a little butter and caramel to boot. A nice silky mouthfeel and a rich finish; affordable at $19.95.

It's almost Friday; here's to weekend imbibing!

play-ing with kate

You may remember Kate from such posts as American Girls Drink Wine and When A House Is A Home. Kate likes wine, knows good wine, and is one of those friends with whom I can always depend to throw a few back. Well, we met last night at Play (Kate works at Play) and did indeed throw a few back, but not before we interloped on a wine tasting that was happening when I arrived, and I have to share with you: Cave Spring 2007 Pinot Noir.

It was delicious in all its ripe fruit, and silky mouthfeel glory. In the $37 range, it's a little expensive, but worth treating yourself if the occasion calls for it. The Merlot/Cab blend was nice too.

Warmed and ready to get to some serious drinking we plopped ourselves at the bar next to the kitchen and Grayson, the Wine Director, poured us a few glasses of red wine (after a refreshing Cava which I neglected to photograph or note).

We drank these two side by side in order to compare. They were both subtle, smooth and layered with flavour. I was particularly surprised by the Spanish wine, sometimes they can be a little rough. I had to come home and look up Mencia; it's a red grape that grows in the northwest of Spain. The relative softness of the wines worked across the variety of nibbles that we ate, which were good, good, good. If you get to Play in the near future all I can say is PUMPKIN GNOCCHI. We really pigged-out on the Grenache though (I'm not going to tell you how much of it we drank).

I'm convinced now (I wasn't before) that Play is a great place to meet up, snack on food and imbibe a little, or a lot.

It's nice to have girlfriends who like, really like to drink wine.

from there to here

When I think of South Africa, I think of the difference between there and here. Here: Christmas in the snow; bears; hockey; Riesling. There: Christmas on the beach; lions; soccer; Chenin Blanc. When Dias sailed around the tip of Africa in 1488 he set in motion the distant beginnings of what would become a long-lived, albeit sometimes troubled, wine industry in South Africa. The first grapes were pressed in 1659 by Jan Van Riebeeck, a Dutch physician. South Africa has been known for its Chenin Blanc, or Steen as they sometimes call it, but at a recent tasting of Boschendal and Brampton wines, there wasn't a Chenin Blanc in the room.

The National Capital Sommelier Guild and Stone Face Dolly's hosted the tasting with Thinus Krüger in attendance, red winemaker at Boschendal Wines.

Brampton 2010 Sauvignon Blanc
-a little fuller on the palate than I expected; citrus fruit with a big lime finish; not hugely complex, but a great sipping wine.

Boschendal 2008 Chardonnay
-very aromatic; buttery rich with tropical fruit balanced by a little acidity; if you like this kind of big, bold Chardonnay, this is inviting in the glass.

Brampton 2007 Shiraz/Viognier/Marsanne Blend
-oak and spice married with dark berry fruit followed by some firm tannins.

Boschendal Franschhoeke Cellar 2008 Shiraz
-sweet spice and a mouth full of red berries held together with a juicy finish of acid and modest tannins.

Boschendal 2008 Shiraz/Cabernet
-a balance between earth, minerality and plum fruit with velvety tannins; this is my best deal for your money; it should be retailing for around $12 when it hits the shelves.

St. Augustine 2006 Cabernet/Merlot/Shiraz
-a little heady in the bowl with aromas of tobacco, black olive and ripe cherry ending on the palate with some spicy tannin.

Boschendal 2008 Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
-the most complex of the wines with smoky dark fruit, liquorice, spice, and a little woodiness on the nose; a lengthy, full finish of dark cherry.

Quite a few of these will be featured in the LCBO in the near future, so keep an eye out. They're great value wines.

weekend wine buy: tinto da ânfora

This is a quick posting with a wine to get you through the weekend, and the view from my desk this morning looks like it'll be a red wine weekend (I'm not sure why I always have to take into account the weather; it must have something to do with being Canadian). Anyway, cool and damp weather makes me crave rich, red wine. That's just the way it is.

This bottle is from the Alentejano region of Portugal, that is in the south and where the economy is driven by cork production. A 'country wine', meaning it isn't a rated wine, it has some of the rustic characteristics that may be attached to wines made in warm climates, but it is also nicely balanced resulting in a wine with finesse. An interesting blend of five grapes: Aragonez; Touriga Nacional; Trincadiera; Alfrochiero, and Cabernet Sauvignon, it's worth popping a cork and giving it a try.

In the glass: dark and earthy with some ripe berry fruit that translates into a sweet nose with hints of caramel; this wine is held up by some integrated tannins and a little alcohol. It has a fruity, tobacco finish ($13.05).

missing the bubbly

You know you have a problem (okay, I have a problem) when taking a drive to the suburbs to look for wine feels like you've accomplished something constructive. I was supposed to be doing a million other things yesterday: writing; cleaning; re-upholstering a chair; working on a homemade cookbook, but I was thinking about a Thanksgiving post that Claire at Foodie Prints wrote, and about a bottle of sparkling wine that I thought I was never going to see again. Did you know that Colio Estate Wines has a shop in Kanata? And in other cities too for that matter.

A few months ago I no sooner found, and wrote about this bottle of Ontario sparkling wine, than the LCBO stopped stocking it. I had one bottle, and then wept, and then cut my losses and moved on. It's good, it's local, and it's reasonably priced at $14.95, so I was thrilled to find I can still get a bottle of this to my table easily enough. Thanks Claire (I never go to Kanata). I have a few dinner parties coming up, so I stocked my cellar appropriately.

Usually I'm a proponent for the LCBO. I know there are problems with having a huge governing body oversee our liquor purchasing options not the least of which is how difficult it can be to get Ontario wine sometimes. But, I think that the LCBO does a good job most of the time and I worry about the privatization of our liquor sales. I appreciate the variety we have access to right now and am not so sure a private system would be better. This is one of those times though, when I am happy there is an alternative. For whatever reason, this bottle of bubbly disappeared from the shelves and there would be no other way to find it except to travel across the province to the vineyard, or order it on-line, which takes a little foresight.

What about breaking the rules for all our beloved Ontario wineries?

And is it just me, or does everyone drive faster in the suburbs?

wine for the helpless

This is a warning: don’t make friends with an eighty-seven year old; chances are he’s going to ask you to help him move at some point in time. But, if you’re like me and it’s already too late, and you are friends and happy for it, and you are knee deep in books and boxes, and your back hurts from moving hulking pieces of furniture around, here’s something to help inebriate you just enough so that no one asks you to drive your truck anywhere with another load in it.

In the glass: a deep ruby wine with lots of dark fruity goodness and a hint of earth to give it some depth. It has a nice, velvety finish with some pepper, liquorice and dark cherry to boot; yummy ($14.95).

As soon as I sober up I’m going to start thinking about all the things I will need Jack (my father-in-law) to do for me around the house, like make his beer can chicken for starters, or his Moroccan-stewed lamb shanks. Come to think of it, lamb would go wonderfully with this bottle of wine.

weekend wine buy: carmen reserva carménère

The grape from which this wine is made was once thought to be extinct. Carménère virtually disappeared in the 1860s to then re-appear in the early 1990s; it had lived a life incognito for all that time, in Chile.

In the vineyard, Merlot and Carménère look a lot alike, so when French vines were shipped to Chile back in the 19th Century, clippings of Carménère were mistaken for Merlot. A few years later, in the 1860s, while people were happily drinking red wine in Chile, phylloxera (a root eating louse) transplanted from the Americas, was devastating vineyards in Europe, and that was the last that everyone thought they'd seen of Carménère... for quite some time. Then, in 1994 the French ampelographer Jean Michel Boursiquot travelled to Chile where, in one of the Carmen Estate's vineyards, he discovered Carménère vines, alive and thriving alongside Merlot. Today we think of Carménère as a Chilean grape, but it is actually a Bordeaux grape that was saved by a lucky accident.

In the glass: definite notes of oak layered with some vanilla, and sweet spice, and lots of dark berry fruit. An uncomplicated full-bodied glass of wine with a velvety, fruity finish; great to warm your innards on a cool, rainy, autumn day ($10.95).

We're sharing a bottle of this with my father-in-law, Jack (who likes his wine), this weekend over a slow roasted shoulder of pork.

thinking about thankfulness

It comes around once a year as the earth begins to tilt away from the sun in the northern hemisphere; in Germany it's Erntedankfest; in other places in Europe it's Martinmas; in North America we call it Thanksgiving, but it all comes down to the same thing: a celebration of the earth's bounty. We eat, we drink (some of us more than others), and give thanks for what's on our table, but what does it really mean to be thankful?

The Oxford Dictionary says that being thankful means to feel grateful. I think that in order to feel grateful, we must first feel happy. Not the all-out-wine-party-every-day kind of happy. Sigh. It's more of a 'contentedness' happy. We have to be brave, face challenges, be humble; sometimes what will make us happy is not the thing that we think will make us happy.

These days, I am thankful for you.

Back in January I apprehensively typed my first posting here with mixed emotions. I really began writing a blog as something for myself. I saw this sitting to type as a way of creating some discipline for myself, both with the practice of writing, and as a way to keep my wine tasting structured. But still, I wondered as I pushed that 'publish post' button for the first time what I was getting myself into. Was this something I really wanted to do? And what if I made a spelling error; I worried about that. Surprisingly, showing up here a couple of times a week has brought me great contentedness and a sense of connection that I could not have imagined.

Thank you for taking the time from your busy days to grace my blog.

My friend Forbes, who has recently been travelling, sent me this Buddhist prayer and I thought I'd share it with you:

"earth, air, fire, water and space combined to make this food
countless beings gave their lives and labours that we may eat
let us nourish ourselves
that we may nourish life" 

Everyday is a day to be thankful (especially if we have good food and wine on our table).

indian fare & wine

I can't remember the first time I ever had Indian food. It certainly wasn't before the age of seventeen because in my home town we had a Chinese restaurant, but that was it for the exotic or different. Thank goodness my parents were good cooks. I still grew up with an adventurous palate so that later in life, when I got to travel to India, I ate everything that crossed my path, and I loved it all.

I still love Indian food today, but I also love wine, and pairing wine with Indian food is an exercise fraught with difficulty. The cuisine of the country is widely varied based on geography, history, religion, and social customs. The diversity of foodstuffs that can appear on just one plate complicates the matter, add to this the heat of a little spice, and you've got some rough terrain for your palate to navigate.

At its essence, pairing wine and food falls into two basic categories: complimentary, or contrasting. Complimentary means things like an Ontario ice wine with that pear galette, or a crisp Sauvignon Blanc with that salad doused in lemon vinaigrette. Contrasting means pairing something like a fresh sparkling wine with a hunk of double cream Brie. With all the complexities that mark an Indian plate, no wonder most Indian food restaurants don't bother with much of a wine list; usually one can find a Gewurztraminer, maybe a Riesling, and a generous selection of beer to slake the post-heat thirst of a good curry.

Well, lovers of Indian food, and fellow lovers of wine, I'd like you to meet Anish Mehra. He's an accredited Sommelier who holds Canada as one of his favourite wine regions, and he's passionate about pairing wine with the great food that comes out of his restaurant's kitchen at the East India Company. Under Anish's tutelage, I took a tour of aromatic and spicy dishes paired with some great, reasonably priced wines.

Anish follows a few simple rules when pairing Indian food with wine:

1. Select a wine with strong fruit to match the power of the food.
2. Good acidity in the wine is necessary to cleanse the palate.
3. Less tannin is better with spicy food.

We started with a potato pattie topped with an assortment of sauces, paired with a fruity, simple Viognier; next was a dish of paneer bathed in spices and tomatoes with a glass of (one of my absolute favourite Ontario wineries) Coyote's Run Five Mile which is a blend of Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gewurztraminer. We had a spicy beef dish with a likewise spicy Zinfandel and finally, a glass of Port with a chai crème brûlée, the spices of which made the port dance in my mouth.

As pictured above, this is what we tasted:

Cono Sur Vigoner (Chile) - the deep fruit and simplicity of the wine allowed the complexity of sauces on the potato patty to shine.

Coyote's Run Five Mile Blend (Niagara) - the hint of sweetness and round body was a nice texture match with the paneer.
Folie a Deux Ménage à Trois Zinfandel (California) - the deep fruit and spice of the red wine complimented the spice in the beef dish.
Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port (Portugal) - the richness of the wine stood up well to the dessert, and the chai spices brought out the mocha flavours in the port.

If you are like me and ALWAYS prefer a glass of wine hovering over your plate of food, spicy or not, then the East India Company restaurant on Somerset is a great place to get an impromptu education in pairing what is one of the world's most diverse cuisines with wine, wine, and more wine, and it won't break your budget.

weekend wine buy: thanksgiving quaffing

For years I was a vegetarian. It had something to do with travelling in China and being exposed to all the grisly reality of what it means to be a carnivore. I couldn't handle it. But then years passed, those memories faded, and eventually I picked up my steak knife again. I try and soothe myself with the fact that I buy all my meat from farmers who raise their livestock in a compassionate manner, and by not thinking about it too much. But what does this have to do with Thanksgiving? This is no way to start a posting about chowing down on the noble bird we call turkey. Well, during those years that I was masticating vegetables, the one thing I craved, really craved more than anything else, was turkey. Roast turkey. Turkey drumsticks. Rich, creamy turkey gravy with giblets. Crisp, golden-baked turkey skin. As a vegetarian Thanksgiving was an exercise in self-restraint. I would push my squash about on my plate, and play with my naked mashed potatoes, while watching, longingly, as everyone else loaded up with tender strips of meat, the joy of Thanksgiving a little lost on me.

Happily, since I am back to being an omnivore (for many years now), Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday of the year. I love the unabashed focus on food, seeing the table laden with more than is possible to eat, the coming together of family and friends over food, and after having denied myself for all those years, eating turkey will never lose its novelty. These days however, my focus is on finding the right bottle of wine to gleefully wash down that juicy turkey meat.

The diversity that appears on a Thanksgiving table makes wine pairing a less than straight forward exercise, and Sommeliers struggle with getting it right. But I say just follow a few simple rules and you'll be eating and drinking happily. First, be sure to drink what you like. Second, try and pair your wine with an accompaniment to the turkey like the gravy, or the cranberry relish. Third, whatever wine you decide upon, serve lots of it and your guests will be too tipsy to notice whether your pairing works or not.

Here are a few suggestions to get you through the day:

Konzelman Pinot Blanc ($10.75)
Peninsula Ridge Inox Chardonnay ($12.75)
Vineland Semi-dry Riesling ($13.95)
Cave Spring Gamay ($13.95)
Hillebrand Meritage ($12.05)
Primitivo Ogio ($8.65)
Rafale Merlot ($8.60)

An Ontario Pinot Noir would also work nicely. Personally, I'm looking foward to trying the Rosalie from Domaine Perrault.

So go ahead, have your wine and your turkey too, and while you're at it don't forget to give thanks for Ontario winemakers.

Cheers, and happy Thanksgiving.

blogs . friendships . food . wine

Over the last couple of weeks I've had the good fortune to attend a wine seminar, a wine and food pairing dining experience, and some Indian food cooking classes. Who knew having a blog would have such perks? Aside from the obvious pleasures of exploring wine and food in my community, I have also been lucky enough to meet some of my fellow bloggers, in person.

Tracey from The Lemon Kitchen

Marysol from She Eats Bears

Clarie from Foodie Prints

Jodi from Simply Fresh

Heather from After The Harvest

Rachelle from Rachelle Eats Food

If you haven't been to any of these blogs, I suggest you give them a gander. These women are out there eating and reviewing, cooking, shopping and sourcing out the freshest ingredients, testing recipes and cookbooks, interviewing chefs, hitting the markets, following events, and writing about it all. They know what's going on in your food community, and they do it all out of  love.

the wino's alphabet: c

The third letter in our alphabet comes to us via the hand of an Etruscan. It was written not much dissimilar to modern day C in the shape of a crescent, but it wasn't until 1066 and the Norman invasion of England that it got any regular use. There is a rumour that C is related to G in a linear kind of way: that both letters were derived from 'gamma' and used interchangeably at one time. But never mind all that, what we really want to know is what does this have to do with wine?

Well, the letter C gives us winos words like:

Carbonic Maceration: sounds like a big word, but it's just a type of fermentation process that differs from the way most grapes are fermented. If you've ever had a Beaujolais Nouveau, then you've been intimately acquainted with carbonic maceration. Grape clusters are placed in a stainless steel vat, uncrushed and whole, and left to ferment in a carbon dioxide environment. What happens is that the juice inside each wee berry ferments and the result is a light, and fruity wine.

Crianza: is one of the terms used on Spanish wine bottles (the others are Joven, Reserva, Gran Reserva, but those are for a different day) to indicate how long the wine has been aged and how much time it has spent in a barrel. In this case whites must be six months old, and reds must be two years old having spent at least one year in oak.

Classification: is mostly a French thing. The most famous classification process happened in Bordeaux, in 1855 when estates were rated in classes from Premier Crus down to Cinquièmes Crus. In Burgundy the top rated estates are called Grand Crus; in Alsace top vineyards also receive a Grand Cru classification. The only way to know these is to memorize them, not that any of us are ever going to get our hands on much of the wine from classed estates, but it can be a nice party trick. Wines are classified today, in the modern sense, by wine critics, awards, competitive tastings, and shows.

Cru: literally means 'growth', or 'vineyard' and is used in French quality classification systems (but we already know that).

Charmat: is the name of a process used to make sparkling wine (not Champagne) whereby the secondary fermentation happens in a pressure tank.

Now, pour yourself a glass of wine and give thanks to the letter C, and G for that matter, because otherwise you'd be drinking wine from a  lass that was perhaps rated by a lassification system.