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Summer Favourites

August 11, 2018

While life is crazy and busy right now, I’m doing my best to keep up with things related to the blog. That’s been made a little easier because there are so many fantastic things that are making me happy in this realm. Below is a bit of a round-up of things I wanted to share with you.

In the French Kitchen with Kids by Mardi Michels

I have long loved Mardi Michel’s blog, eat.live.travel.write, so I was very excited to learn about her new book, In the French Kitchen with Kids. I immediately bought a copy, despite the fact that I don’t have any kids of my own (and am admittedly completely uninterested in the actual act of cooking – thankfully, Shawn loves it), and this is a great addition to our cookbook collection. Mardi’s recipes are easy-to-follow and super fun and I have recommended it to so many of my friends who *do* have kids. Mardi has embraced the importance of teaching children, in particular young boys, to cook and all the ways that this skill can help them make better health choices as they grow up. I love that philosophy and how in imbues this book.

Campo Viejo – Rosé

When I was in Spain visiting Campo Viejo last fall, I spent some time on the winery patio with a glass of this lovely, fruit-forward rosé. It is a memory I was happy to relive just a little bit when I discovered a bottle of this wine at my local LCBO. Typically only available for a short time in the summer, I suggest picking one up if you see it. Dark pink, full of summer fruit flavours and just dry enough to ensure it will still pair well with whatever you throw on your barbecue, this is well worth trying.

Chateau des Charmes Methode Traditionnelle Brut Sparkling

I recently had some of my girlfriends over for an evening of pizza and wine while Shawn was in Germany. This was our intro wine and we all agreed it was a winner. Crisp and tart with great bubbles, it’s a fantastic alternative to Champagne when that’s out of budget or just not appropriate. I love a glass of bubbles to kick off an evening and this one definitely did not disappoint.

Tasting the Past by Kevin Begos

I have taken a bit of a break from reading wine books of late after reading almost nothing else for several years. I needed time to catch up on the many thrillers, biographies and science books sitting neglected on my bookshelf and to cleanse my palate before diving back in. Given the mix of science and viticulture promised in Begos’ book, I’m looking forward to taking that plunge. I have been doing a lot more science writing of late and I love seeing a few of my passions come together.

 

Port Cocktails

Following our trip to Prague (an amazing and much-needed getaway), I was so excited to be invited to a port tasting with Taylor Fladgate and iYellow Wine Club. And then I got sick. Really sick. That meant missing out on a fantastic evening, but I was so happy when the iYellow team sent me some of the recipes developed for the event. I always enjoy Taylor Fladgate port (their 20 year old is divine) and this is a fantastic way to enjoy their younger port in the summer months.

Tawny Fizz

1.5 oz of Tawny 10

.5oz part Cognac

Splash of real lemon juice

Shake over ice and pour into glass

Top with sparkling wine, we used Veuve Ambal Cremant de Bourgogne

Garnish with a lemon zest

Late Bottle Vintage Portoni 

2 oz Taylor Fladgate Late Bottle Vintage Port

.5 oz Gin – we used Bloom Gin, (we highly recommend you use this gin as other gins have different flavour profiles such as pine needle or cucumber aromas)

.5 oz Campari

Stirred over ice

Pour into glass

Garnish with an orange peel

Credit to bartender https://www.instagram.com/thegeorgejetson/ for developing these!

Patio Sippers

You’ve no doubt heard me go on about Pommies and SoCial Lite in the past, so it should be no surprise that they are making my summer just a little better. SoCial Lite has two great new flavours of their no sugar, all natural cocktails, which make for a much less stressful cooler situation. The lemon cucumber mint and grapefruit flavours are fun new additions to their line and the grapefruit, with just a hint of flavour is my new favourite. If you love a vodka soda or can’t stop drinking La Croix (guilty), you will enjoy these.

Pommies new sangria does have sugar, but it’s a tasty alternative to cider from this Canadian company. Pommies is my go-to cider, so I’m always thrilled to see it on a menu and I’ll be recommending this to my friends who like their drinks a little sweeter. I enjoyed it at a recent get-together with friends and it was a fun alternative to beer.

Whew! That was a little more of a wrap-up than I had planned, but it’s great to be back and to share some of these fabulous finds with you guys.

What have you been enjoying this summer? Share your thoughts in the comments or on social.

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June Wine Adventures

June 17, 2017
Evolve Cellars Pink Effervescence

It’s been a little while since my last post and I’m not sure how good my reasons are for that. Honestly, I’ve been a little burnt out on wine blogging over the last few months. I still love learning about wine, but after a few years of regular blogging it’s hard to keep up the constant enthusiasm sometimes. Over the last few months, I’ve found my time split between competing passions. I’ve been focused on writing fiction, running and yoga—as well as spending more time with the people in my life who have often been overlooked because I was so busy juggling a full-time job and my wine blogging adventures. It’s hard to feel bad about making that decision.

That’s not to say I’m ready to give this up, I just might have to keep things a little less frequent as I strive to maintain some balance in my life. And with a running injury set to sideline me for much of the summer, I’ll likely have a little more time available to devote to blogging again. So, with that said, here we go with my latest round-up of wine stories!

Some Southbrook Stunners:

Southbrook 2013 PoeticaI recently had the opportunity to taste through some of the wines in Southbrook Estate Winery’s latest release. I’ve always enjoyed this Niagara producer and I wasn’t disappointed at this tasting. Some of the highlights included the new 2016 Biodynamic Bubbly Vidal, which is done in the Ancestral style to create a refreshing and light effervescent sparkler. The Wild Ferment Cider was another interesting surprise. It’s done in the style of Northern Spain and is a very dry cider with a hint of sweet apple juice. It’s fermented with wild wine yeast and priced reasonably at $15.95 – it reminded me a little of the sparkling cider I so love from The Old Third in Prince Edward County.

The 2013 Poetica Chardonnay was another standout for me with apple, pear and a touch of cream on the nose. This wine had nice fruit on the palate, with notes of pear and green apple. A lovely, small-batch wine.

The 2016 Estate Cabernet Rosé also impressed with strawberry notes all through and lots summer fruit on the palate. This would be a nice patio sipper this summer and a perfect wine for so many food pairings (I love the versatility of rosé). And the 2013 Estate Witness Block Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc was an elegant red with anise, raspberry and bramble on the nose. Another personal favourite of the tasting.

Another surprise was the 2016 Small Lot Natural Orange Wine. I haven’t always been a fan of Southbrook’s orange wines, but this one was more to my tastes. The tannins are still quite pronounced and the flavour is certainly unique, but it’s a little more fruit-forward and less bracing than some of the previous vintages.

Evolve Cellars EffervescenceB.C. Wine on my Mind

Over the last few months, Shawn and I have been going through some pretty fantastic B.C. wines from Evolve Cellars. Their lightly sparkling wines (Effervescence) are perfect for summer and bursting with lovely flavour. They truly are a perfect sparkling option for summer (though a quick peek at their website doesn’t show any available right now, so perhaps already a sell-out). We really don’t have enough access to B.C. wineries and it’s such a shame. Another favourite from that province? Time Winery’s 2013 Syrah – Shawn and I couldn’t get enough of this big, bold red. You can order wines from these producers online across Canada now and it’s well worth it if you have the ability to store these wines easily.

Roscato WineSweet Italian Wine Time

I was recently invited to an event at iYellow Wine Club to check out Italy’s Roscato wine. Sweet wines typically aren’t my thing unless they’re specifically dessert wines (or used in cocktails), but I like to keep an open mind and I found this wine interesting. It’s a slightly effervescent, very sweet wine from Northern Italy meant to be served cold and which the company’s representative explained was very popular with new wine drinkers. I get that, since I started my wine journey on Arbour Mist. And Roscato at least is a quality product – the effervescence is added via the charmat method and not carbonation, the grapes are hand-picked and they use the minimum number of pesticides. It’s also 7 per cent alcohol, so this is a pretty good option for adding to summer sangria (honestly, that would be my number one suggestion for how to use it) and it’s a sweet treat over vanilla ice cream.

What have you been drinking so far this season? Share your favourites with me in the comments or on social.

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Red, Red Wines for Winter

February 20, 2017
Chateau des Charmes 2015 Cabernet Franc

It’s been a red, red wine season at my place with big, spicy reds sounding pretty perfect on cold winter nights. I’ve been lucky to have a few sample bottles on hand that ensured there was always something new to try. Here are a few of my recent favourites.

Southbrook 2015 Triomphe Pinot NoirChateau des Charmes 2015 Cabernet Franc – Cabernet Franc is a grape that Ontario does extremely well and this 2015 from Niagara’s Chateau des Charmes is an excellent example. We cracked this one open for Shawn’s birthday and it was bursting with big, bold flavours. Lots of ripe red fruit, well-balanced spice and a hint of black pepper on the finish. This was one of the best Ontario wines I’ve had in the last few months. I highly recommend.

Southbrook Vineyards 2015 Pinot Noir – With cherry, raspberry, plum, vanilla and root beer on the nose and lots of red fruit on the palate, this Niagara sipper has a longish finish with lots of fruit. A pleasant and very drinkable wine from one of Ontario’s most reliable wineries.

Louis M. Martini 2014 Cabernet SauvignonLouis M. Martini 2014 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon – This wine is available for just a little while longer at the LCBO and it’s well worth seeking out. A value-priced California Cab Sauv, this has smoked meat, cassis and big red berries on the nose. The palate is smoky and earth with nice fruit on the finish. A nice wine to pair with dinner.

What do you have in your glass this month? Share your suggestions in the comments or on social.

*These three wines were samples–opinions are most definitely my own.

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The Best Wines I Tried in September

October 3, 2016
Southbrook Vineyards Triomphe Cabernet Franc is an organic wine from the Niagara region.

It’s officially autumn! I love this time of year so much and I’ve been signing up for races and yoga classes to celebrate the start of a new season. Even though I’m well past school age, September always seems like a great time for fresh starts and heathy changes.

And I’ve had lots of great wine in my glass this month to share with you! Shawn and I have been traveling and tasting and having so much fun on our wine-infused adventures. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you in the weeks and months to come. But up first, a few of my favourite sips from the past few weeks.

Southbrook Vineyards 2013 Triomphe Cabernet Franc – I am a big fan of Southbrook wines and of Ontario Cabernet Franc in general, so I was pleased when this sample arrived.  And as I inhaled the aroma of this Ontario red, it felt like fall in a glass – black and roasted pepper, blackberry and wet earth on the nose and lots of earthy, spicy goodness on the palate (blackberry, strawberry, a bit of chili pepper). Even better, it’s organic, which is something Southbrook takes very seriously. I had this with a dish of wild rice and beans that Shawn made for me and it was a perfect mix of earthy flavours on a cold, rainy evening.  I had spent my day taking an html and CSS course at Camp Tech (which I highly recommend) and let me tell you, a glass of this wine with a big bowl of rice and beans and getting sucked into part four of the excellent ESPN documentary on O.J. Simpson made for a pretty perfect way to end the day.

Seriously Cool Red from Southbrook Vineyards in Niagara, Ontario.Southbrook Vineyards Seriously Cool Red Blend – The Seriously Cool series is more of an entry-level wine for Southbrook, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. With its colourful and memorable label, it’s hard not to want to pick up a bottle. With dark chocolate, smoked meat and plum on the nose and black cherry and roasted plums on the palate, this is a really good food wine. Shawn and I cracked this bottle on a Monday evening, after we returned home from an adventure in Norfolk County (we’ll talk more about that another time). To celebrate the last day of our longer weekend, he made grilled cheese sandwiches with turkey bacon and we enjoyed an evening of comfort food and a marathon session of The Walking Dead (we’re trying to get caught up before the new season starts). This wine paired quite nicely with vacation day binge watching.

Burning Kiln Sparks sparkling wine is a lovely option from Norfolk County.Burning Kiln Vineyards – Sparks – There’s very little in life that I like more than a good sparkling wine. It doesn’t have to be French Champagne (not that I’ll ever turn that down), but a well-made sparkling will always steal my heart. Such is the case with Burning Kiln’s Sparks, which is made with seven different grape varietals and has a little bit of biscuit on the nose, along with nice notes of lemon that follows through on the very crisp palate. It’s a pleasant, refreshing sparkler and it paired quite nicely with the perch tacos I enjoyed on the winery’s patio last weekend. Burning Kiln is on a beautiful piece of property in Norfolk County, a place that has seriously captured our hearts. We can’t wait to go back, and when we do I know that more of this sparkling will be enjoyed.

Levendi Winery 2015 Reserve Chardonnay – I was lucky to recently attend the Napa Valley tasting event in Toronto (more on that in another post soon) and there I discovered Levendi wines. Their lively and fresh Chardonnay was a stand-out for me with balanced acidity and pineapple, pear and apple notes. This is a very good example of a California Chardonnay that could work both with food or on its own. A nice sipper that I hope to have again soon. This one is available via agent in Ontario, but you can grab their Cabernet Sauvignon (also very good) at the LCBO for a limited time.

So what did you drink in September? Share what you tried and loved in the comments below or on social.

Coming up in October on the blog, we’ll continue to look at the wineries of Lake Erie North Shore and our German wine adventures and I’ll give you a deeper dive into two recent tastings I did this past month, which I wanted to dive into with more detail. And I may even share a few more personal posts about my recent wine foibles – I’m told they’re pretty funny!

*All wines tasted this month were either samples or tasted at events where Shawn and I were guests. And thank goodness for that because my wine budget is already completely out of control and running this blog is a very expensive hobby! Opinions remain, as always, our own.