Whether you are looking to impress your next date, to be the wine expert in the family or for a serious career change, Ottawa’s Algonquin College has you covered. The college’s reputable Sommelier Certificate Program was initially developed in response to an increased demand for properly trained wine professionals. Enrico DeFrancesco, the academic co-ordinator of the Algonquin sommelier program, says that studying wine is no longer the pretentious act it once was. “It is wine education done in a fun learning environment, not done in an aggressive manner,” he said. “We make leaning about wine fun and interactive — half […]
Learning about Wine 1
A small child was being admonished by his piano teacher, who asked, “Why is it you always forget your homework? I never forget to correct it and bring it to class.” The boy looked the teacher straight in the eye and with a certain amount of awe in his voice replied,”You must have a mind like Santa Claus.” When I tell people that I’m a professional wine taster they often have similar reactions. They assume that I—like Santa is somehow able to determine who’s been naughty and who’s been nice— am blessed with an extraordinary palate, enabling me to detect […]
Riesling 1
Riesling has been called the wine for all occasions, and luckily, there’s plenty available in Washington. It’s one of the most versatile white wine grapes and can be made in styles to fit almost any mood or occasion and to match a wide range of foods. You can find a good one for under $6 a bottle retail, and it is often the lowest-cost wine on restaurant wine lists. Rieslings are versatile because they come in all measures of sweetness — from bone dry to syrupy sweet. The most popular seems to be off dry, with about 2 to 3.6 […]
BYOB 1
A Happier Happy Hour for Your Wallet Want to grab a drink tonight? How about meeting at… my place. In the tough economy, a night out drinking is looking like an indulgence. Liquor sales were flat at $18.7 billion in 2009, and volume shifted. While sales for home consumption rose 2.2%, sales for restaurants, bars, hotels and nightclubs fell 3%, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. Another reason people are drinking less: because bars are pushing pricey premium liquors and complicated cocktails. “The best bars are charging a premium because the cocktails take a while to make,” says Noah Rothbaum, the founder of […]
Bubbly For New Years
Natalie MacLean, editor of one of the largest wine newsletters on the web and author of “Red, White and Drunk All Over”, says: “Santa Margherita Prosecco, D.O.C., Veneto, Italy: A lovely summer day with bright notes of ripe white peach and toast. Toast your good fortune to be alive. Score: 89/100. Bollinger Champagne Special Brut Cuvée, A.C., Champagne, France: Green apple, toasty bread and lovely white peach goodness. An extraordinary complex bubbly. This was James Bond’s favourite bubbly: it makes every occasion special! $79.95 Score: 93/100 Why? I love to have 2 choices: one a value option for larger parties […]
Learning about Wine
In the new decade, we’ll know much more about what we eat The 10 years just past could have been dubbed the “foodie decade” – when “artisan” was attached to everything from bread to chocolates, when cupcakes went gourmet and food blogs gained big fan bases. It also was a decade of peanut butter recalls, contaminated spinach and “Super Size Me.” If anything, we head into 2010 much more aware of the origins and handling of the food we consume. Here are some trends to watch as the decade unfolds: More information, please As consumers hunger to know more about […]
Wine Mobile App Helps with Food Pairing
To assist both professionals and novices in pairing food with wines and other beverages, Natalie MacLean, publisher of North America’s largest wine e-newsletter (as well as the website NatalieMacLean.com), now offers the Nat Decants Food & Drink Matcher widget. It’s compatible with multiple platforms, including computer desktops, websites, blogs, and social media such as Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle; there’s also a smartphone application for iPhone, iPod Touch, or BlackBerry devices. The software comes in two sizes to fit various Internet and mobile operating systems. Once installed, it can be quickly searched for drinks to pair with meats, pastas, seafood, vegetarian […]
Champagne 4
Rappers pay homage to it. Marilyn Monroe was rumored to have bathed in it. And it’s probably what’s in your glass when you’re toasting the new year, your anniversary or any other special occasion. Champagne has long been synonymous with luxury. Although it is a sparkling wine, make no mistake — not all sparkling wines are Champagne. The only wines that can bear the name are those produced in the Champagne region of France — an area particularly primed (thanks to cold weather and chalky soil) for creating the more earthy taste that Champagne is known for. (Other types of […]
Champagne 3
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right,” opined the late great American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Many would tend to agree with Ole’ Fitzgerald, and fortunately this New Year’s may be the first one in a long time that those of us longing to party like rock stars can afford the good stuff. Shipments of champagne to the United States plummeted 41.2 percent from January to August, according to the Champagne Bureau, the U.S. arm of the region’s official trade group. The surplus left in storerooms still exceeds current demand, the excess supply resulted […]
Food & Wine 25
Some wines are definitely a better fit with certain foods, but I admit I lived many years without realizing just good a food and wine pairing could acutally be. On my one and only visit to Lumiere – during the Rob Feenie years – I ordered a ten-course tasting menu and the matched flight of wines for each course. I was humbled. The food was good. Each course was either a single bite of something quite special or a few bites of something sumptuous. There was Israeli couscous and paper thin smoked duck breast and goat cheese cheesecake and lots […]
