Cheese and Wine Pairing Video Part 2

In part two of our video chat, Janice Beaton and I discuss pairing wine with ash-crust cheeses (not as nasty as I make them out to me), including the lovely Tidal Bay wines of Nova Scotia … bring it! You can also watch part one of our wine and cheese chat. We’ll post part three of this trilogy before it gets mouldy … Janice sure has a whey with curds. You may also enjoy these video chats: Pairing Wine and Cheese: Cheddar, Gouda, Blue Dragon’s Den Arlene Dickinson talks about wine, women, business Social Media & […]

Video: Pairing Wine and Cheese: Cheddar, Gouda, Blue

For more than 10 years, Janice Beaton Fine Cheese has been known as Calgary’s best place to buy artisanal, fresh-cut cheeses from around the world. In the video chat below, owner Janice Beaton joins me today to talk about pairing wine and cheese. Why are many people as obsessive about cheese as they are about wine? What makes Canadian cheeses different from other regions? What are your best tips for tasting cheese? Pairing it with wine? Let’s pair the following wines and cheese to see how well they go together (or not). Mountain-Ash Goat Cheese from […]

Pairing Wine and Dark Chocolate Video Part 2

In the video below, Roxanne Browning and I continue our chat about pairing wine and chocolate, as well as the health benefits of wine. Get out a chunk of artisanal dark chocolate and a robust red wine and taste along with us! You can also watch part one of our wine and chocolate conversation. Roxanne leads a tasting of wine and chocolate: You may also enjoy these video chats: Pairing Wine and Cheese with Janice Beaton Dragon’s Den Arlene Dickinson talks about wine, women, business See all wine video chats here. Is there someone […]

Video: Pairing Wine and Chocolate with a Chocolate Sommelier

In the video below, New York Chocolate Sommelier Roxanne Browning chat about the difference between great chocolate and candy, pairing it with wine, Fair Trade and serving tips. Roxanne’s life-long search for the “ultimate bar led her down to the Ecuadorian Amazon rain forest where she helped with the cacao harvest. Here’s part two of our wine and chocolate conversation. Masi Costasera Amarone Classico, Veneto, Italy A full-bodied and richly flavoured red with aromas of black cherry liqueur, cigar box and dark spices. Hedonistic and satisfying. Food matches: dark chocolate, hearty meat dishes. […]

Pairing Wine and Dessert with a Sommelier and Wine Importer

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

Andrew von Teichman This interview was published in a recent edition of my column in Homefront Maagzine. Andrew von Teichman, Toronto sommelier, winemaker and wine importer, talks about wines to pair with summer desserts. You’re a sommelier by training, but now own a winery and wine agency. Why did you go into those fields? My father was a co-founder of Pelee Island Winery in southwestern Ontario, so I had a chance to work in the vineyards and cellar during high school summers. I wasn’t forced to do this; I just decided to apply for a job there one summer and […]

Creating a Persuasive Brand of Wine: Arlene Dickinson Part 2

We’re back with Arlene Dickinson in this video chat below, one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs who has had phenomenal success in many fields, from television to books; consultancy to consumer products. We’re going about her wine Persuasion. Let’s start with your own experience with wine: Was wine on the family table when you were growing up? First time drinking wine? How did you acquire a taste for good wine? Do women buy wine differently from men? Women buy 80% of wine as the household purchasers of most consumer goods, the social organizers and dinner planners. Is their approach […]

Live Video Wine & Cheese Tasting: Chat, Laugh, Sip, Savour

July 25, 2012August 3, 2012 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

We did it, and we had so much fun last night! Despite a few technical hiccups, we were able to record Canada’s first ever Live Video Wine Tasting on Google +. We paired our wines with some delicious Canadian cheeses. The conversation was terrific … you can also see the Twitter tasting that led up to this where we trended #1 worldwide on conversational topics. We’ll be back soon with our next tasting, please join us! The cheeses and wines we tasted: 1 Year Old Cheddar Île-aux-Grues, Fromagerie de l’Île-aux-Grues, l’Île-aux-Grues, Québec Founded in 1977 by 14 dairy farmers, […]

A boldly irreverent approach expertly crafting a pleasing concoction of seamless storytelling and voluptuous food and wine writing – The Globe and Mail

January 27, 2012January 28, 2012 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

By Kate Parsons In this ambitious and thoroughly entertaining book, Natalie MacLean chronicles her travels to five continents and eight countries in search of quality wines at good prices. Along the way, she meets the quirky personalities behind the wine and picks up a wealth of practical information about where they’re made, what to pair them with and how to find out more on your own. Like some of the winemakers profiled, MacLean is a master blender, expertly crafting a pleasing concoction of seamless storytelling, voluptuous food and wine writing and easy-to-use punch lists. This book is also part personal […]

Okanagan Wines Make the Grade in Wine Writer’s Latest Book – Kelowna Daily Courier

November 24, 2011December 4, 2011 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

Wine author Natalie MacLean is more than willing to pose for a photo mid-afternoon with a big glass of Okanagan red wine. And then polish off that glass of 2009 Montage from Naramata’s La Frenz Winery afterward. Full disclosure: I joined her and gulped down the same “This Montage is what I love about Okanagan wines,” said the Ottawa-based author of Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. “It’s packed with flavour, but is balanced with nice acidity.” I met up with MacLean at the Delta Grand hotel before her recent evening Unquenchablesession at the B.C. Wine […]

MacLean is a straight-talking wine everywoman who extols the virtues of bargain wines – Oregonwine.com

November 22, 2011January 22, 2012 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

This may come as something of a shock, but we don’t spend all of our time visiting wineries, collecting wines and swilling them in lonely, dark corners of our palatial McMinnville mansion. We occasionally read about wine, too, and this season brought two new wine books — Unquenchable, by Natalie MacLean, and Naked Wine, by Alice Feiring — across our desk. Both are second books by women who carved out their own unique wine beats in their first, critically received efforts: MacLean as a kind of straight-talking wine everywoman who extols the virtues of bargain wines; and Feiring as a […]