Mrs. Beachley’s Mulled Wine: A Heart-Warming Holiday Drink

Sponsored Post While Mulled Wine is known by many names and enjoyed the world over–the Swedes call it Glogg; the Chileans Candola and the Dutch Bisschopswijn–this heart and tummy-warming beverage is best known for its British heritage. Mrs. Beachley’s Mulled Wine pays homage to the 1861 classic “Beeton’s Book of Household Management“, the go-to manual for how to run a home in Victorian England. In that book and in the 150 years since its publication, a wealth of usage occasions and mulled wine pairing ideas, have emerged. Whether you enjoy Mrs. Beachley’s out of a thermos at the outdoor rink […]

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Video: Unusual Wine and Cheese Pairings that Work with Laura Werlin

  Our guest this evening is one of the planet’s most authoritative writers on cheese, and cheese and wine pairings. She’s won six James Beard awards, that’s like the Oscars for the Food and Wine world, for her books and she also was a regular instructor at the Cheese School of San Francisco and she joins me live right now from her home in San Francisco Welcome to the Sunday Sipper Club Laura Werlin. Click on the “Follow” and “Like” buttons on this Facebook page to get notified when we go live. Watch previous episodes and find out who’s coming […]

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Video: Penfolds Wine Tasting of Grange, RWT, Magill, Bin 707

Penfolds’ DLynn Proctor Captivates the Audience   What a spectacular evening writer Rachelle O’Connor and I had with DLynn Proctor, Brand Ambassador Penfolds Americas, as he guided us through a fascinating and entertaining tasting of Penfolds’ most iconic wines and vintages, including the 2002 flagship vintage of Grange.     We broadcast 7 Facebook Live Stream videos in real time to capture the entire event at the Cordon Bleu’s Signatures Restaurant, and to include people coast to coast via social media who could not attend in person. Don’t miss DLynn’s answer to a final question in the this video … […]

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Travel the Wine World with Kevin Brauch (Video)

What a terrific chat with Kevin Brauch, Food Network TV Celebrity Host! Click on the arrow above to watch the video. Listen to Kevin’s stories about his adventures in the wine world. Discover more juicy tips that will make you wine smart. Cheers, Natalie       Click on the Follow and Like buttons on this page to get notified when we go live. We’ll be simultaneously broadcasting on Facebook Live, YouTube Live Stream and Twitter Live Video via Periscope. Watch previous episodes of the Sunday Sipper Club (SSC) and find out who’s coming up next.       Click […]

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How Oyster Bay Tamed Prickly Pinot Noir in New Zealand

By Greg M.P. Hughes Winemakers who specialize in Pinot Noir are some of the hardest working viticulturists on the planet. This grape’s thin skin makes it extremely vulnerable to diseases, makes colour extraction torture to get right, and yields are minuscule (not a tremendous ROI compared to Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz). Pinot Noir’s idiosyncrasies are enough to make even hardened pro winemakers tear their hair out. That is why Pinot Noir is one of the most misunderstood selections that wine experts explain to their audiences. Most people understand it as byword for a quality wine, but have no idea what […]

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What is Wine’s Role in Modern Madness? Finding Our Humanity Drop by Drop

​Editor’s Note: I wrote this magazine piece on wine and civility two months after 9/11. You can also listen to this as a podcast here. In Vino Civilitatis The trouble with moderation is that it’s hard to get excited about it. Until now. After September 11, moderation seems to be rarer than a California cult cabernet. Finding the moderate and the civilized in everyday life has become all the rage. Few things embody these values more than wine, and the food we eat with it. A river of wine flows through most of human history — from the ancient clay […]

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Recipe: Blue Cheese Hamburger with Red Wine Pairing

In celebration of National Hamburger Day, pair this savoury recipe for Blue Cheese Hamburger with the full-bodied red wine, such as Shiraz, Cabernet or Malbec. Please feel free to share this on social media with the hashtag #nationalburgerday Prep time: 30 minutes Total time, including cooking: 2 hours and 30 minutes Serves: 6 Ingredients: 1.5 pounds of lean ground beef 2 ounces of crumbled blue cheese ¼ cup of minced fresh chives 1/8 teaspoon of hot pepper sauce ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce ½ teaspoon of coarsely-ground black pepper ¾ teaspoon of salt ½ teaspoon of dry mustard 6 hamburger buns   Directions: […]

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Salmon Dill Crepe Recipe Paired with Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand

Salmon Dill Crepes Paired with Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc By: Shari Goodman When you need a break from the busyness of the holiday season, it’s nice to catch up over a delicious but deceivingly simple make-ahead brunch. I used to think crepes were too difficult to make home. I thought of them as something special to be ordered when dining out. But I’ve discovered that although the first crepe often ends up in the garbage, a batch of crepes is easy to make and impressive to serve guests. You can make the crepes ahead of time and store them layered […]

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Versatile Vinho Verde: Spring Splendor in the Glass

Last night, we were joined by special guest, Pedro Costa, Head Winemaker of Aveleda Winery chatting about his Vinho Verde wines and why they’re such a great wine style for spring. This was actually a 2-part video series as I managed to melt down my computer’s CPU with multiple simultaneous broadcasting streams to Facebook Live, Twitter Live vis Periscope and YouTube Live Stream ;) You can watch part one above by clicking the arrow, then part two below. Cheers, Natalie Join us on the Sunday Sipper Club, April 9​ at 6 pm eastern (Toronto time)​ ​with special guest Food Network […]

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Plonk Wine Videos Stumble Blindly into Brilliant Insight

In his book How to Love Wine, New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov observes: “I’m sometimes dismayed that sommeliers confuse their professional training with what consumers need to know to enjoy wine. We don’t need to know whether you can identify wines blind. “Those are just parlor games for professionals. I think that professionals, like sommeliers, need to be able to communicate with the public in a language that they understand and that they find useful.” When I tasted wines blind with Eric at the paper’s headquarters several years ago, he lived those words. The blind tasting was to […]

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