Liquid Seduction: 9 Wines for your Valentine

Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. Wine has long been associated with romance. Here are my top 10 wines for Valentine’s Day, not only because of their sexy names, but also because the wine in the bottle is equally as seductive.   Fifty Shades Of Grey Red Satin 2011 California, United States No mention of the book that inspired this wine, but no matter, it was launched this month as the liquid seduction tie-in to the book. Of course, there are lots of aromas of fresh and tanned leather on the nose and it’s voluptuously full-bodied … Natalie’s full […]

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Pairing Wine with Love Songs

Leanne and I chat about pairing wine with love songs. Got a favourite that we didn’t include? Click on the arrow above to play the video. Here’s part one of our conversation on pairing wine with romantic movies.       “Whose bed have your boots been under?” – Shania Twain Ménage à Trois Midnight Red 2013 California, United States                 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” – The Righteous Brothers Nobilo Regional Collection Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, New Zealand                     “I Want to Know What […]

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7 Mouth-Watering Comfort Food and Wine Pairings

As the weather cools, we enjoy heartier dishes, including comfort food. But which wines should you pair with them? Here with her tips is Natalie MacLean who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes at nataliemaclean.com.   First off, are there such things as comfort wines?   After much research on this topic, I concluded there were no “uncomfortable wines” since I found them all of great comfort. However, I found that certain wines tend to pair better with comfort food than others.   Great! Tell us about your first pairing.   Comfort food tends to have rich, robust flavours. […]

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Pizza Wine: Perfect Pairings for Your Pie

Liza, Jeff and I chat about pairing pizza and wine on Global TV’s Morning Show (while the cameramen and studio crew edge in ever closer to the set). Click on the arrow to watch the video above. Queen Margherita Pizzeria made these mouth-wateringly delicious pizzas fresh and hot, featuring first the classic Margherita Pizza. This pizza was named in honor of Queen Margherita, the wife of King Umberto I, in 1889, when the couple visited Naples and wanted to taste the local pie.   Queen Margherita Pizzeria’s Margherita Pizza   A chef selected patriotic toppings with the colors in the […]

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Which Wines to Drink for Spring

We had such fun chatting about spring and summer wines on CTV’s The Social yesterday!   Are the wines we drink in the winter that different from the ones we drink in the spring and summer? · Yes, most people’s drinking habits change with the seasons. · We typically drink heavy, alcoholic, heavily oaked wines in the winter because they comfort us and keep us warm. · “Drink what you like” remains in effect no matter the weather, but for most people, lighter drinking in the summer generally means more consumption of white wines.     LIGHT & COLD This […]

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Celebrity Wines from Brad Pitt, Pink, Sarah Jessica Parker, Francis Ford Coppola

Today we’re chatting about wines owned by celebrities. Are the wines any good or is this just a marketing gimmick? Here to give us the inside scoop is Natalie MacLean who offers North America’s most popular online wine and food pairing classes at nataliemaclean.com.   Welcome Natalie.   So let’s start off with why celebrities would want to own a winery?   Owning a sports team or restaurant is just so 2021. These days, if you really want to show some class, you need to own a winery. There’s no better photo opp than one with you getting dirty pruning […]

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Best Barbecue Wines: Pairing Wine with Your Grilled Grub (Video)

Now that we’re officially into barbecue season, you may think of having beer with your grilled grub, but wine can also work. Whether you love BBQ seafood, veggies, chicken or beef, there’s a wine for that. Here with her tips for you is Natalie MacLean who offers Canada’s most popular online wine and food pairing classes at nataliemaclean.com/class. Welcome Natalie! Let’s start with lighter fare like grilled veggies and seafood. Which wines work well with those?             Loimer Grüner Veltliner Kamptal D.A.C., Austria                 Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling […]

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7 Best Wine and Book Pairings: What to Drink While You Read (Video)

Alex and I had so much fun chatting about pairing bottles with books on CTV’s morning show. What’s the first pairing you recommend? We’re starting on the west coast with The New York Times bestselling memoir, Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. After Cheryl loses her mother to cancer and her own marriage is destroyed, she decides to hike the Pacific Northwest Trail, more a thousand miles, from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State alone and without any training. It’s a deeply moving story of how this young woman heals through this treacherous journey     I’d pair […]

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You Say Tomato, I Say Wine: Let’s Pair Them All Off (Video)

On CTV News, we chat about pairing wine with tomatoes, from heirloom to vine-ripened varieties. In Ode to the Tomato, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described them as “the stars of the earth” that are upon the table, belted by summer” and “grant us the festival of ardent color and all-embracing freshness.” Now is the time to indulge in tomatoes while they’re in season with their thin skins that slide off plump like silk lingerie and yield their juicy, chin-dripping pleasure—the opposite of those tired February pellets that taste like mid-winter despair.     Tomatoes hang heavy in our backyards and […]

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The Best Online Wine Tasting & Pairing Classes (Video)

As the kids head back to school, let’s chat about how the adults have changed the way they learn about wine, especially with online courses. It’s a virtual world of wine learning at your fingertips. Yesterday, I chatted with Nicole Dube on CTV’s Morning Live show.   First, tell us why online wine courses have become so popular?   Online courses offer the best of both worlds: they’re accessible to everyone no matter where you live, they’re more comprehensive than a one-off class, but not as technical and time-consuming as college courses.   Plus, there’s no drinking, then driving home, […]

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