Top 10 Green Wine & Food Matches for St. Patrick’s Day

Which wines go best with the “green food” that we’ll enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day, such as corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew? How about those fresh spring vegetables that will soon be on our plates? Which wines go best with the “green food” that we’ll enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day, such as corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew? How about those fresh spring vegetables that will soon be on our plates? Green foods are the problem children of the wine world. But as a stubborn hedonist whose grandmother’s name was Brophy, I’ve found some terrific wines to […]

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Austrian Wine and Food Pairing: Wiener Schnitzel Recipe

This post is sponsored and written by the Wines of Austria   When you think of Austrian cuisine, you need to think bigger than the Austria we know today. Austrian cuisine, or Viennese cuisine, as it’s known throughout the country, is a mixture of all the culinary traditions of the many “Crown Lands” of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Recipes flowed in to the imperial kitchens from all the Empire’s peoples, and from there they made their way to dukes’ castles and eventually to middle-class tables. The 19th century saw a vast increase in the variety of household cookbooks, with Austrians  […]

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Wine’s Salad Daze: The Ultimate Guide to Pairing Wine and Vegetables

On CTV’s Your Morning Yesterday, the network’s national breakfast show, we paired wine with vegetables and spring produce. Click the video above to watch.                       Intro Pairing red wine with a steak is easy, but can you drink that same wine with fresh spring produce, like asparagus or artichokes? Here to tell us how to pair wine with veggies and salads is Natalie MacLean, the editor of Canada’s largest wine review site at nataliemaclean.com. Welcome Natalie Station 1 Host: Natalie, why are vegetables harder to pair with wine than say […]

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Summer Barbecue Wine Tasting

18:51:02 From  Christian Boyer : Hello from LaSalle, QC!18:52:01 From  Joann Dnistransky : Bonjour Christian!  Joann from Amherst NS18:52:54 From  Catherine Yuill : I’m logging in from Calgary, AB18:53:01 From  Christian Boyer : Bonjour Joann! I am going close to NS this summer :) 18:53:11 From  Joann Dnistransky : As long as you are not breaking bottles!!!18:53:29 From  Joann Dnistransky : Christian, where are you travelling to?18:54:29 From  Jo-Ann Mellon : Hi Natalie, Jo-Ann from Mont Saint Hilaire Quebec here.  Love the music again :).18:54:54 From  Christian Boyer : Travelling to the Magdalen Islands, passing through NB and PE18:55:36 From […]

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Support Ontario Wineries: Buy Direct and Ship to Your Home (Video)

On CTV News, Leanne and I chat about how Ontario wineries are particularly hard hit by Covid-19, what they’re doing to pivot and how you can help support these local businesses: – Tasting rooms are closed as are major clients, restaurants in general – Most wineries didn’t have wines in the LCBO to begin with because they don’t produce enough wine to fill that channel – The majority of the 180 wineries have fewer than 20 employees – Many are turning to direct shipping   You can get free shipping and other deals here: nataliemaclean.com/niagara   When you buy a […]

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Drinking the Green: St. Patrick’s Day Wines

March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day … which begs the question: Is there any wine that pairs with corned beef and cabbage? This in turn begs the question: Can we skip the corned beef and cabbage and just have wine? No matter. Traditional matches for this Irish meal usually include Irish stout, like Guinness. But what about wine? Corned beef is salty and cabbage is skunky: is there a wine for that? Yes, as long as you avoid those wines with a strong sulphur smell or taste, as well as big red wines with heavy tannins and oak. Your best bet […]

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Chili n’ Cheese Cornbread Muffins Recipe Paired with Pinot Blanc

Chili n’ Cheese Cornbread Muffins This November all I want to do is curl up by the fireplace with a good book, cozy sweater, and some comfort food – specifically cornbread. These little cornbread muffins are full of cheesy goodness and pack a punch with slow-cooked chili. So get ready to turn the heat right up with these Chili n’ cheese cornbread muffins. I like to start with quality ingredients made locally, like creamy Canadian Provolone cheese, which tastes like heaven when melted into these muffins. That’s best washed down with a fresh and crisp Niagara white wine, like the […]

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Thanksgiving Wines Top 10 Best Bottles

Here are my top 10 gobbling-good wines that I recommended on CBC radio this week. (You can listen to the radio interview below.) Got a favourite? I love matching wine with side dishes … pinot noir and cranberry sauce or riesling with green beans. The bonus is that they both work well with the big bird.       Enjoy your holiday weekend!       Mission Hill Family Estate Five Vineyards Pinot Blanc, Okanagan Valley, BC Terrifically fresh and vibrant! Like a basket of white melons on a summer afternoon. Lovely as an aperitif or companion to many dishes. […]

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Drinking Beside the Box: The Ultimate Guide to Pairing Wine and Fast Food

Knowing that saffron-flavored mille-feuille of red mullet and langoustine pairs perfectly with Dom Perignon, or that prime fillet of Kobe beef with braised oxtail and potato rosti will make Château Pétrus sing is useful if you have a fat trust fund and a kitchen staff of twenty. But when most of us are racing from work to soccer practice to ballet class and then home again, we’re far more apt to grab some take-out food or heat a frozen TV dinner than to prepare a multi-course dinner every night of the week. We’re more aware than ever of health issues […]

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Pierre Sparr Wines: Alsace Value and Taste Pair Well

Maison Pierre Sparr By Melissa Pulvermacher We’re all on a constant search of high-value wines for a great price. I always say that your chance of getting a great quality wine for a large price tag is high, and although the odds are less consistent, it feels great to find a killer bottle of wine that doesn’t break the bank. Maison Pierre Sparr, founded in 1680 by Jean Sparr, is a winery and brand located in Alsace, France. Sparr owns 15 hectares of their own Domaine, while also sourcing grapes from 130 hectares of trusted farmer-owned vines, to produce their […]

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