By Mymi Myriam Mozart, the Alps, Baroque architecture and Schnitzels are some of the things that spring to mind when thinking of Austria. This alpine country is sadly not often first associated with wine, but when it is, the perception is that it produces mainly sweet wines. That’s quite odd for a country that has been making wine for over four centuries, whose value of recent exports has grown by an impressive € 6 million, amounting to an outstanding sales record of € 145 million (according to the 2014 Austrian Wine Statistics report). Austria ranks at #19 as a wine […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings February 17
You can access the 91 wines that I reviewed for as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for February 3. 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 or two […]
Video: How do you Pair Wine & Charcuterie?
Our guest this evening is the author of five books that have made the New York Times list of top cookbooks: Fat, Bitter, Bones, Odd Bits and Les Os. She’s also won four James Beard awards. Australian by birth, she left behind a degree in economics and politics to work as a chef, before becoming a writer based in Toronto. … and that’s where she joins me now live from her home: Welcome to the Sunday Sipper Club Jennifer McLagan! P.S. Tune in here for our next Live Video Wine Tasting: www.nataliemaclean.com/live Click on the “Follow” and “Like” […]
Video: From Champagne to Napa Valley: Wine Stories with Tilar Mazzeo
Our guest this evening is an Associate Professor of English at Colby College in Maine and she has a winemaking certificate from the University of California at Davis. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling “oenobiography” The Widow Clicquot: The Story of the Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Built It, among other wine books. Five years ago she emigrated to British Columbia where she is the owner and winemaker at her family’s winery, Parsell Vineyard, in Saanichton. … and that’s where she joins me now live: Welcome to the Sunday Sipper Club Tilar Mazzeo! […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings February 3
You can access the 121 wines that I reviewed for as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for January 20. 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 or two […]
Live Video Wine Tasting with Jane Masters, Master of Wine and Opimian
Our guest this evening is Chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW). She herself became a Master of Wine (MW) in 1997. She is also selects all of the wines for the Opimian Society, Canada’s largest wine buying club. And she joins me live now from California: Welcome Jane Masters! P.S. Tune in here for our next Live Video Wine Tasting: www.nataliemaclean.com/live Click on the “Follow” and “Like” buttons on this Facebook page to get notified when we go live. We’ll be simultaneously broadcasting on Facebook Live, YouTube Live Stream and Twitter Live Video via Periscope. Watch previous […]
Wine + Chocolate Killer Combos: Valentine’s Day Video
In our second video chat above, Master Chocolatier Derrick Tu Tan Pho reveals more of his secrets for pairing wine and chocolate, especially for Valentine’s Day. He’s also designed some lovely chocolate creations, and suggests rosemary-infused chocolate with habanero sea salt as an aprodisiac that pairs amazingly well with prosciutto and cheese (and a bear skin rug in front of a blazing fireplace) … What are your tips on pairing solid chocolate with wine? How about chocolate with raspberry or blackberry filling? How about Valentine’s Day? Anything special for the chocolate versus chocolate we enjoy at other times […]
Video: Valentine’s Day Wine and Chocolate Pairings
In the video chat above, Master Chocolatier Derrick Tu Tan Pho shares his tips for pairing wine and chocolate for Valentine’s Day and any other time of the year when you want to indulge. He knows his sweet stuff having won gold at the Culinary Olympics in the categories of sugar, chocolate, wedding cakes and dessert presentation. How did you train for the culinary Olympics? Your secrets to making great chocolate? What is the strangest chocolate sculpture you’ve created? Tell me about some of your specialized tools for making chocolate: induction burners, ganache frames, guitars, robot-coupes, heat guns and […]
Liquor up Your Lover on Valentine’s Day
I’ll be chatting with the hosts of the CBC radio drive-home shows from coast to coast this Thursday and Friday about wines for Valentine’s Day. But we’re going to depart from the usual natter about which wines are most seductive or how to pair them with chocolate. We’ll go straight to the heart of the matter: how do you liquor up your lover on February 14? More specifically, we’ll talk about why wines are getting more alcoholic these days and how does that affect their taste and ours? Is this just a cultural trend of winemakers responding to the market? Is […]
Chocolate and Wine Pairings that will Surprise (and Seduce) Your Valentine
We paired wine and chocolate for Valentine’s Day the Sunday Sipper Club! You can watch our Live Video Wine Tasting above — click on the arrow to play. Join is for our next tasting this Sunday at 6 pm eastern right here: www.nataliemaclean.com/live Sip with you soon! In this second Facebook Live Video Wine Tasting above, we also chat about pairing wine with chocolate for Valentine’s Day. We’re joined by guest winemaker, David Guimaraen of Fonseca to help us get ready for the big day, as well by guests from Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut. If you’d like to read 140 comments […]
