By Gaby Israel Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print. Italy – Piedmont – 2008 Patrizi Barolo (653527) – $23.95 Barolo for $24? My #1 choice for this Aug 4th release. The Manfredi Family has a long history with wine. In the Second World War, they delivered wine by wagon. 2008 was an outstanding vintage in Piedmont – RP rated it 93 indicating that the wines are age worthy. Argentina – Mendoza – 2004 Cicchitti Gran Reserva Malbec (155713) – $21.95 My #2 choice of this release. Yuval, this wine […]
Month: July 2012
A Rose of a Wine from Navan, Ontario
By: Holly Bruns Navan, Ontario is a small village in the Ottawa Valley. It’s an area of the world where the wind blows and temperatures drop to well below freezing in winter, but heat and humidity can bolster the thermometer to the mid-30s in summer. This is farming country and it’s an everyday agrarian landscape that greets the eye: rather flat with a few gently rolling hills, a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, a patchwork of fields. But something is happening in those fields. It’s a slow event, and only discernible to those who are paying attention, but grapevines […]
Bring Your Own Wine to BC Restaurants
By Mari Kane Friday night marked a turning point in our seven-year-long Vancouver dining experience – we brought our own bottle of wine into a restaurant. One day after the new Bring Your Own Wine (BYOW) law went into effect in BC, my husband and I proudly marched into a restaurant bearing a bottle I had purchased in a VQA store not 3 hours before. We set it on the table and the maitre d’ approached our table, saying “I talked to you on the phone. This is our first BYOW.” I told him it was our first BYOW as […]
Creating a Persuasive Brand of Wine: Arlene Dickinson Part 2
We’re back with Arlene Dickinson in this video chat below, one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs who has had phenomenal success in many fields, from television to books; consultancy to consumer products. We’re going about her wine Persuasion. Let’s start with your own experience with wine: Was wine on the family table when you were growing up? First time drinking wine? How did you acquire a taste for good wine? Do women buy wine differently from men? Women buy 80% of wine as the household purchasers of most consumer goods, the social organizers and dinner planners. Is their approach […]
Pizza Bianca Recipe Paired with Illuminati Riparosso
Pizza Bianca Not every pizza needs tomato sauce. Briny green olives, dried chile flakes and rich cheese make this pizza a perfect match with a fruit forward Montepulciano d’Abruzzo like Illuminati Riparosso. Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Ready in: 30 minutes Original recipe yield 4 to 6 servings 1 (10 inch) pre-baked pizza crust ½ cup coarsely grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese 5 basil leaves, torn 10 green olives, pitted and cut in half pinch of dried chile flakes ½ clove garlic 3 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into ¼ inch thick discs Preheat oven to […]
Live Video Wine & Cheese Tasting: Chat, Laugh, Sip, Savour
We did it, and we had so much fun last night! Despite a few technical hiccups, we were able to record Canada’s first ever Live Video Wine Tasting on Google +. We paired our wines with some delicious Canadian cheeses. The conversation was terrific … you can also see the Twitter tasting that led up to this where we trended #1 worldwide on conversational topics. We’ll be back soon with our next tasting, please join us! The cheeses and wines we tasted: 1 Year Old Cheddar Île-aux-Grues, Fromagerie de l’Île-aux-Grues, l’Île-aux-Grues, Québec Founded in 1977 by 14 dairy farmers, […]
Wine & Cheese Tasting Trends #1 on Twitter
I’m still blissfully recovering from our Ontario VQA wine and Canadian cheese tasting on Twitter this Thursday. Our crack team of wine reviewers did an amazing job with their tips, tasting notes and humourous tweets below. As a result, our conversation trended #1 on Twitter: more people were tweeting about Canadian cheese and wine than Jay-Z, Mitt Romney’s wife or any other topic or pop culture icon. Who knew?! The crew will be back again this Wednesday for a live Google + Hangout video tasting. New technology but the old comforts of good food, wine and friends. Please join us […]
Thai-style Shrimp and Cheddar Spring Rolls Recipe with Pinot Grigio and Rose
Thai-style Shrimp and Cheddar Spring Rolls A refreshing and delicious idea for a picnic What is it about eating outdoors that is so appealing? Is it simply the fact that we are trapped inside for most of the year and we need to get out come summertime? Maybe the increased amount of oxygen makes the food and wine taste better. Or maybe natural light soothes a primal part of our psyches, making the meal experience that much better. Whatever the reason, I just love eating outdoors, and I’m always on the lookout for new, easy and tasty picnic recipes. Thai-style […]
Restaurant Wine Service: the Good, the Bad and the Gross
In part two of our video chat below, Scott shares his most memorable wine experiences in restaurants, including a hilarious story about the worst one (watch him in the small screen with the bottle when he explains what the waiter did) The International Culinary Center Bastianich Adriactico Friulano A floral white with mouth-watering acidity and a pleasantly dry, bitter and refreshing finish. Drink 2012 – 2014 277467 13% XD 750 ml $18.95 Score: 87/100 You may also enjoy these video chats: Master Sommelier Video: What it Takes to be a Restaurant Wine Expert […]
Ontario VQA Wine and Canadian Cheese Twitter Tasting
What an amazing tasting last night! on Twitter with Canadian cheeses. A terrific group of wine tasters shared thoughts on the pairings and lots of laughs in a live tweet-up that everyone could join. (They had a whey with curds.) Most amazingly, our discussion trended #1 on Twitter: it was the most discussed topic on Twitter worldwide, more popular than Jay-Z, Mitt Romney’s wife and pop culture icons. Smokin! Join us this Wednesday at 8 pm as we get together again for a live Google + video group wine tasting. How do you participate in the next wine and cheese […]
