You can access the 68 wines that I reviewed for October 25 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for October 11. 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 day […]
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Vegetarian Poutine with Miso-Mushroom Gravy Recipe
Vegetarian Poutine with Miso-Mushroom Gravy Recipe by: Courtney Flood This recipe has several of my favourite ingredients that I love to promote. They sound somewhat “exotic”, but once you know how to use them they are great ingredients to have on hand and all have a great shelf life. Nutritional yeast is high in protein and B vitamins and has a cheesy flavour that is a great vegan substitute for cheese. You can find it in bulk food stores. Miso paste is made from fermented soybeans and adds a great vegetarian umami flavour. It’s a live food that is rich […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews and Ratings: Vintages Release October 11
You can access the 102 wines that I reviewed for October 11 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for September 27. 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 day […]
Kim Crawford Wines: Small Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir
“Several Ottawa sommeliers and wine professionals, along with noted author Natalie MacLean, enjoyed a wine tasting luncheon October 4, with an informative presentation from Kim Crawford’s Chief Winemaker, Anthony Walkenhorst and a scrumptuous meal from Maxwell’s Bistro. We were treated to several of Kim Crawford’s finest wines and each plate was introduced by the chef. The New Zealand winery Kim Crawford was launched in 1996 with a virtual vineyard … the actual land for the vines came later! With an unusual start, and in a relatively short time, the winery has made New Zealand as famous for its wines as […]
Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken Recipe Paired with Cheval Noir
Sponsored Post Pair this cool-weather recipe for Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken with the full-bodied Cheval Noir, a full-bodied, supple merlot from Bordeaux. Find this wine in your closest LCBO store now. Winemaker’s Notes: Cheval Noir has a fine, complex nose which combines ripe, red fruits with notes of grilled toast and spices. In the mouth it is rich, structured and powerful, perfectly balanced between fruit and tannins, with a long finish. TOTAL TIME: 45 MIN SERVINGS: 6 Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 cup dry bread crumbs 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon dried basil […]
Canadian Wine Harvest 2014: BC, Ontario, Quebec, NS Winemakers Weigh In
Join us Friday morning on Global Television as we discuss how the Canadian wine harvest is going from coast to coast. In the meantime, here are reports from the field: winemakers from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia give their impressions of how the 2014 harvest is looking so far. Tantalus Vineyards David Paterson, Winemaker, Tantalus Vineyards, British Columbia How is the 2014 harvest going so far? So far the 2014 harvest has been ideal. We are in the home stretch now and a couple more weeks of warm days and cool nights to finish off with will be […]
Win a Cooking Lesson with Top Chef Canada and Wolf Blass Wine Tasting
Sponsored Post Want to cook one-on-one with a Top Chef Canada and attend a wine tasting event with lots of terrific Australian wines from Wolf Blass? You could win: Enter now! One winner from Ontario and one winner from Western Canada will get a celebrity chef experience with Top Chef Canada winner Matthew Stowe, consisting of a cooking lesson with Matthew and tickets to an exclusive Wolf Blass event. Top Chef Tested Recipes Braised Beef Short Rib with Celeriac Purée and Red Wine Jus Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Sautéed Granny Smith Apples, Toasted Hazelnuts, Parmesan Foam Get the Recipes […]
Nicolas Catena: Argentina’s Wine Laureate
This morning, I’m driving to the Bodega Catena Zapata, the winery that changed my opinion of Argentine wine. I remember drinking a Catena red wine one night at a friend’s house and guessing that it was Australian Shiraz. My body hummed with contentment as I let myself down into its berry-decadence. I was pleasantly surprised to find out what it was, and started buying more Malbec. Now, as I follow the long gravel road, a space-age stone temple rises from the vines, framed against the Andes silver peaks. This extravagant architectural statement is the concrete gesture of one man’s desire […]
First Argentine Wine: Malbec Calling Catena
Continued from Part 1 of Catena Wine That robust work ethic has been in the Catena family for generations. In 1898, his grandfather Nicola left a small village in Sicily for Argentina. He started planting vines in 1902 and raised a family. His eldest son, Domingo, married Angelica Zapata, a daughter of a large land owner, increasing the family’s holdings. By 1973, the winery had become the country’s largest producer of cheap wines, pumping out 240 million bottles a year. Nicolás, the son of Domingo and Angelica, was a brilliant boy and finished high school at 15. At the request […]
Science and Wine: The Argentine Marriage of True Vines
Continued from Part 2 of Catena Wine That “little project” lasted fifteen years and involved planting 145 Malbec “clones”: the same grape, but from different parent vines, to see which clones would do best in different sites. (“Wine caters to obsessive personalities: it makes you worse,” Nicolás observes with a sigh.) He knew that until the late 1800s, when phylloxera destroyed most European vineyards, Malbec had been one of the most planted grapes in Bordeaux whereas today, it’s less than ten percent of vineyards there. Malbec still thrives in the warm region of southwest France called Cahors, which makes a […]
