Dinner with wine used to be simple. The rule was white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat. But most of us don’t just eat meat and potatoes or drink claret and chablis these days. With modern fusion cuisine and wines from new regions around the world, the choices – and confusion – are great. One new school of thought is that any wine goes with any dish. However, most of us don’t put ketchup on our ice cream for the same reason as we don’t drink a delicate white wine with a hearty meat dish or […]
Taste Wine
Wine Tasting Party
In my book, seven friends come over to my home and we have an informal wine tasting. It’s a great excuse to get together and chat about the wines and, as the evening progresses, life in general. You don’t need to be a wine expert to host a tasting, just as you don’t need to have a doctorate in English literature to organize a book club. In fact, wine tastings work well for book clubs too, especially if you’re discussing a book such as Red, White, and Drunk All Over. I’ve posted lots of low-cost wines in the Wine Picks […]
Food & Wine 5
Of 11 wines on the tasting table, the Col d’Orcia Rosso di Montalcino, a full-bodied, fruity Tuscan red, was Tom Natan’s top choice. Adam Manson hated it. Both have well-trained and -respected palates. Natan is a partner in the Washington-based importer and retailer First Vine. Manson is a co-owner of Veritas, a popular wine bar in Dupont Circle. But the physiological differences in their tongues, coupled with their varied experiences, mean that the same wine tastes different to each of them. To Natan, the big, juicy flavors are luscious. To Manson, they are overwhelming, even bitter. Neither one is right […]
Spring Wines
Just as we put away sweaters and hockey gear at this time of year, replacing them with shorts and golf clubs, so too is it the time to adjust our wine-drinking habits to reflect the changing seasons. “We want to cast off all the heavy, alcoholic, over-oaked wines that might have comforted us and warmed us in the winter,” says noted wine author Natalie MacLean. “Now we want light wines that go with seafood, shellfish … because if you’re sitting out on the deck and it’s hot, the last thing you want is a really hot, alcoholic wine.” The most […]
Winter Wines
You call it fall but Brian Rosen knows this time of year as red wine season. “Last night, I’m not ashamed to say, I had two bottles of red wine. If it was two months earlier, it could have just as easily been a Gewurztraiminer or a Riesling,” said the 36-year-old Rosen, who shared the bounty with three others. Rosen, owner of Sam’s Wines and Spirits, a longtime family business in Chicago and its suburbs, knows wines. He also knows the Midwest weather. Like Rosen, for a lot of us here, the turning leaves signal more than winter is on […]
Paris: City of Light, Food & Wine
My family and I had a terrific week in Paris recently! So many great restaurants, wines and food. Some of my favourite restaurants included Guy Savoy, Taillevant and Dominque Bouchet. One of the highlights was a cooking class with cookbook author Charlotte Pluckett and former chef and tour guide Richard Nahem. Richard’s done a great job of describing the class, so why reinvent the wheel? You can read his blog post here. Cheers, Natalie
Food & Wine Pairing Rules Aren’t What They to Be
It used to be so simple: Red wine went with red meat, white wine went with white meat, and that, essentially, was that when it came to pairing food and wine. These days, it’s a bit more complex. For one thing, wines are being made in more styles and more regions than ever before. For another, our diets now include flavours from all over the world as well as casual fare that once we would never have dreamed of enjoying with wine. By Joanne Sasvari The old rules don’t always apply. But what has replaced them? Are there any rules […]
Frolicking with Sheep and Hawks in Niagara
One of the highlights of my recent visit to Niagara was meeting husband-and-wife Louis Engel and David Johnson at Featherstone Winery. They, in turn, introduced me to one of their hawks, Zeke. He was an adorable little fellow that we took out into the vineyard with us. I noticed that as we walked down the rows of vines, the birds went silent. That’s because Zeke is a hunter, trained to go after the number one enemy of ripened grapes: starlings. Other birds, such as robins and orioles, also attack the fruit, but starlings cost the industry hundreds of thousands of […]
Send back that wine bottle in a restaurant? Yikes!
Anyone who’s ordered a bottle of wine at a restaurant knows the ritual. The server brings the wine to the table, displays it for the customer’s inspection, then uncorks it with a flourish. A small portion is poured for the diner to sniff, taste and evaluate. If there’s something wrong with the wine, this is the moment for the taster to send it back. But few do… By China Milman Natalie MacLean, editor of one of the largest online wine newsletters, at www.nataliemaclean.com, said 5 percent to 10 percent of wines are “corked,” or tainted by a chemical compound introduced […]
