In the second part of our holiday wine series on the CBC radio drive-home shows coast to coast we chatted about great wines to pair with your turkey dinner. You can listen to my tips above on choosing those wines plus my top 5 picks. Join us again next week, on December 30, when we chat about great sparkling wines for the New Year. Natalie MacLean, editor of Canada’s largest wine review site, selects her top five wines for your holiday dinner to pair with turkey and the side dishes: Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut […]
Best Wines
How to Write a Wine Review: Tasting Notes that Tell a Story
Each week, I issue a challenge to those who post reviews on our site. If you’d like to get the latest challenge when it goes out, please e-mail me at natdecants @ nataliemaclean.com. Use All Five Senses Use all five senses to describe a wine. We tend to lean on just two as wine writers: smell and taste. But what about colour, texture (mouth-feel, weight) and even sound as you pour the wine, or other ambient sound in your environment, such as what’s playing on your stereo to make this wine even more memorable? Evoking all five senses will make […]
Toronto Sommelier at Four Seasons Pours a Glass for Chef Thomas Keller
Drew Walker, wine director at Café Boulud & D Bar in Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Niagara, in Port Dalhousie, with my parents Bruce and Nancy, and my older sister Kate. Tell us about a time when your life was different? When I was 19 years old, I lived in the Caribbean and worked long hours as a bartender in a great little bistro in the Cayman Islands. It was my first experience in the food and beverage industry, and it shaped me quite a lot. I learned so much from the […]
Peanut Noodle Salad Recipe Paired with Sparkling Wine
Peanut Noodle Salad Recipe by Courtney Flood This dish is a good go-to for me. I love the myriad of flavours in peanut satay sauce and I could eat almost anything that has it slathered on. It’s also a good way to use some fresh veggies you might have on hand. I used cucumber and carrot, but you could also use cabbage, zucchini, green onion, bell pepper, bean sprouts, peas, etc. You could also top with grilled chicken, pork, or beef if you are a meat eater. Ingredients: 1 large English cucmber 2 large carrots ½ small onion, thinly slice […]
Recipe: Steak Au Poivre Paired with Merlot
Steak “Au Poivre” Preparation Time: 15 MIN Total Time: 30 MIN Servings: 4 INGREDIENTS: 3 tbsp. black peppercorns 4 6-oz. beef filets, about 1½“ thick Salt 2 tbsp. butter 1 tbsp. vegetable oil 1 cup beef stock ½ cup heavy cream INSTRUCTIONS: Wrap peppercorns in a clean dish towel and crush them. Transfer pepper to a plate, then roll filets in it so that they are evenly coated. Season liberally on both sides with salt. Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add filets and cook until well browned, about 4 minutes on each side for […]
Chateau Palmer Tasting: Bordeaux Wine Seduces and Satisfies
Château Palmer By Melissa Pulvermacher Château Palmer is a much-respected winery in the Margeaux appellation d’origine contrôlée in Bordeaux, France. You may recognize Palmer better as one of the classified Third Growths of Bordeaux. Palmer has been known as one of the most popular of this classification and some even argue that its consistent delivery of quality held up against First Growth, Château Margeaux. I was given the opportunity to taste several of the Palmer wines at an organized tasting at The National Club in Toronto, Ontario. After tasting the 2004, 1999, 1995 and 1983 vintages up against one another, […]
Why is Rose Champagne More Expensive than Regular Champagne?
Rosé Champagne is often more expensive than white champagne because making it is more labor-intensive and time-consuming, and therefore, more costly to produce. The most common method in Champagne is to blend non-sparkling red wine into the champagne. The other approach is more difficult because it involves carefully limiting contact between the red skin and the juice during the part of fermentation called maceration (soaking the grapes in their own flesh, juice and skins to extract the colour, tannin and flavour compounds into the must or juice) to create the coveted pale salmon color known as oeil-de-perdrix or partridge eye. […]
Veal Chop Recipe with Portabello Mushrooms Paired with Merlot
Veal Chop with Portabello Mushrooms Preparation Time: 25 MIN Total Time: 40 MIN Servings: 2 INGREDIENTS: 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1 tablespoon butter 2 veal chops 1 portobello mushroom, sliced 1½ cups chicken broth 1½ teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped ½ cup red wine INSTRUCTIONS: Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil with butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chops until browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Once browned, stir in mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Add chicken broth and rosemary; cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in red wine, increase heat, and cook, uncovered, until sauce is […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews and Ratings: Vintages December 6
You can access the 136 wines that I reviewed for December 6 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for November 22. If you are a Paid Member, you can add my wine picks to your custom shopping list with one click and access that list on your smartphone to find the stock for each wine in your closest LCBO store. These are just some of the benefits of supporting out wine community as a Paid Member. Inventory stock numbers are usually posted online a […]
Pairing Wine and Lunch in the CBC Fridge for the Food Bank
CBC All in a Day host Alan Neal and I sneak into the CBC kitchen to snoop into employee lunches and pair them with wine. You can listen to our chat above from the drive-home show. It’s actually not as weird (or creepy) as it sounds … we’re kicking off the final 3 days of Food Fantasy fundraising for the Food Bank, with prizes like having a sommelier come to your home and pair wine and food for you and 11 friends. In addition to being your personal sommelier for an evening, I’ll also bring along 12 signed copies of […]
