By: Travis Oke
Autumn is my favorite season. Not just because it’s my birthday and I get presents – but also because of the food. Parsnips, squashes of all shapes and sizes, and it’s now cold enough in the afternoon that I want to slow roast various cuts of animals in my oven. Three cheers for slow cooked meat.
A trip to the local squash farm is one of my favorite activities. Grey, red, white, stripy – it’s crazy how many there are at the Goode Family Farm near my place in Guelph.
My favorite thing to cook is the squash brulée – a savory twist on a French dessert classic. And the best part of it all is that I get to finish the dish with a blowtorch. Very manly indeed!
What do I drink with a blow-torched side dish? Willm Reserve Riesling. It pairs with the brulée and the overall flavour of squashiness (a word that my spell check tells me I just made up). I know Ontario makes some great Riesling but brulée is a French word and a French dish so a wine from Alsace seems right.
If you must drink from Ontario then I think you’ll find Strewn’s Two Vine Riesling / Gewürztraminer a great match too with its spice, pear, and apple undertones. A little sweeter than the Willm, but enough tartness to pair nicely with the turkey. And you get to say Gewürztraminer, which always makes my day.
I am a high school teacher by day and a wine writer by night. In fact I believe that I am the only wine blogger with a PE degree from York University (why is nobody ever impressed by that?).
My blog, PulltheCork, appears in the online edition of the Guelph Mercury. My primary goal in writing it is to make my brother and me laugh. I don’t take it too seriously – in fact probably the opposite.
I have a penchant for aged Rioja, Côtes du Rhône, and Ontario Cabernet Franc but I drink rosé when in the south of France. Also, my wife and I regularly drink Cava – because it makes me feel like we’re celebrating something. Gewürztraminer is my favorite wine word to pronounce but isn’t it everyone’s?
Recipe? Went to your blog and didn’t see it there either. Oh, and my fav wine words are “Montepulciano d’Abruzzo” :)