You can access the 128 wines that I reviewed for September 3 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for August 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 […]
How to Send Back a Bottle of Wine in a Restaurant (without crying)
I’d tell you where this happened, but I don’t want to blacken the reputation of an entire nation. I was travelling abroad on a magazine assignment and dining in the four-star restaurant of my hotel. I decided to treat myself to a special wine that I had first tasted just three weeks earlier … the memory of its smoky cassis aromas still lingered. So what if it cost $150 for a half bottle? So I summoned the sommelier. Unlike his confrères—the maître d’, the head waiter and a junior waiter who had brought me bread and water with civility—this functionary was a […]
Merroir, it’s a Thing. A Tasty, Tasty Thing; Wine and Oyster Pairings
By Rebecca Meïr-Liebman of Chef & Somm Photos by Signe Langford Oenophiles have always understood the concept of terroir; food- lovers are grasping this taste of place, too.Ingredients are just as terroir-driven as wine, sometimes the connection to the soil, sun, and air is even more pronounced in a cheese or a cacao bean than in a particular wine! And, what if that taste of place –or terroir– is underwater? Well, until I met with Patrick McMurray, author, oyster expert and shucking champion, I was unaware of how much terroir- or, rather, merroir-driven these beautiful bivalves are. Joining him at his […]
How I Survived My First Facebook Live Video Wine Tasting
LIVE Facebook Video tasting wine — first one for me… thank goodness I had a drink (or three)! Find the wine reviews here: http://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks/search Posted by Natalie MacLean on Thursday, 4 August 2016 I finally did it. I took the plunge and recorded my first Facebook Live video today. No editing, no re-do, no net. Yet this was the most electric wine tasting experience I’ve ever had. I’m hooked. The comments and connection are amazing: https://www.facebook.com/nataliemaclean/videos/10157249028750284/ Click to play the video above and let me know what you think. Cheers! Join me on Facebook for my next tasting: www.facebook.com/nataliemaclean
Is Zinfandel the World’s Most Misunderstood Wine?
ZINZEN, ZINZEST, ZINFUL: The licence plates in the parking lot warn me that this is no tweedy wine tasting. Closer to the wharves, a line of three thousand people, thick as an anaconda, snakes its way along San Francisco’s waterfront. Behind them soars the Golden Gate Bridge; Alcatraz Island sits brooding in the distance; and the glinting bay is dotted with tiny tissue sails. But no one’s admiring the postcard view: all eyes are fixed on the warehouse’s paint-peeled doors, waiting for them to open on the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers tasting, the world’s largest single-varietal wine event according to […]
Meritage Wines: Do They Blend In or Stand Out?
Are Meritage Wines a case of mistaken idenity or do they blend in to stand out? The words Perrier, Häagen-Dazs and Godiva may not be in the dictionary, but they’ve all come to mean a high-quality product. That simple guarantee of value, captured in a short and memorable brand name, was what North American winemakers were searching for a couple of decades ago, when they were first trying to establish their identities as producers of fine wine. Even before then, in the early 1960s, vintners were looking for a way to position their wines as something more than “cheap ‘n […]
796 Wine Reviews, 113 Wines, 16 Wine Writers and Sommeliers, 1 Terrific Tasting
Canada’s top wine writers and sommeliers gathered in our national’s capital yesterday to taste through an impressive line-up of wines. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were on fire as they posted their reviews live and shared on social media. You can get the complete list of wines here, along with their reviews and the closest liquor stores that have these wines in stock now. This list is also accessible on the wine mobile apps. Stay tuned: we’re already planning our next big tasting! Jacky Blisson above has just returned from Napa Valley where she wrote her final papers […]
Balderson Cheddar Cheese Tart with Summer Vegetables Recipe Paired with Cabernet Franc
Summer Vegetable and Balderson Cheddar Cheese Tart Pair this delicious recipe with Featherstone Winery Cabernet Franc 2013 Ingredients: 1/3 cup [75 mL] Lactantia Butter melted, divided 1 bunch green onions, chopped 1 cup [250 mL] chopped asparagus 3 plum tomatoes, deseeded and chopped 2 cups [500 mL] chopped spinach 2 tbsp [30 mL] chopped basil 6 sheets thawed phyllo dough 2 tbsp [30 mL] honey mustard 2 cups [500 mL] grated Balderson Heritage Cheddar Cheese 1 cup [250 mL] Lactantia 10% Table Cream 4 eggs, beaten Preparation: In fry pan over medium heat cook green onions in 2 tbsp [30 […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings July 23
You can access the 109 wines that I reviewed for July 23 as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. You can also see my wine reviews for July 9. 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 […]
Want an Instant Wine Library? 500 Wine Book Collection for Sale
Some of my favourite wine books … The Heartbreak Grape by Marq de Villiers, A Fool and Forty Acres by Geoff Heinricks, Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch, A Hedonist in the Cellar by Jay McInerney and The Billionaire’s Vinegar that I reviewed for the Globe & Mail. Speaking of heartbreak, all of these treasured books are among my wine library collection of more than 500 books that I am selling in its entirety. Why? I feel that these tomes are now a part of me so I no longer need their physical manifestations (translation: I’m downsizing homes and […]
