Shiraz, Shiraz, Shiraz!!!

Why is this varietal so popular right now? Everyone and their friends are drinking this Australian grape juice. What's all the hype about? Sure you can get a good bottle of it now and again, but it seems that every winery produces it the same way leaving it tasting a little bit less than unique. I find myself just skipping right past the Australian section at the liquor store everytime I am in there now.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I know it can be confusing sometimes when different regions give the same wine a different name like Syrah and Shiraz. Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape, in France it is called Syrah, but for the most part, in Australia, U.S.A, Canada, and South Africa it is called Shiraz.

Shiraz is usually made to be a New World wine (young, fruity,tannic, ripe), whereas Syrah is usually made Old World style (more elegant, complex, well-rounded). I personally prefer a Syrah from France, but would never turn down Shiraz if it's offered.

Shiraz is used in a lot of blends because it gives weak wines a full-bodied kick making them seem more complete. I personally love blended wines but I like big wines being paired with big wines, like a Cabernet/Shiraz blend, or better yet a Zin/Syrah/Cabernet blend....Drool.

Shiraz and Syrah should not be confused with Petite Sirah. I overheard a guy explaining to his wife in a restaurant that "It's like Syrah, but smaller." This is sort of true, the grapes are slightly smaller, and thicker skinned but I'm guessing he just figured the name is self explanitory. Kudos to the guy for taking a stab at it.
Petite Sirah stems from Syrah, but is a hybrid grape. It is a cross between Syrah and a grape you almost never hear anymore called Peloursin.

Petite Sirah is much more tannic and even fuller than it's sister Syrah because of the thick skinned grapes (tannins are derived from the skins and stems of the grapes).

I think I'm going to have to start drinking more Petite Sirah because I really like to feel my wine kick me in the mouth when I drink it. It should leave a mark.

Cheers,
Andrea

Congratulations to Stephane Dion!!

I know this doesn't have anything to do with wine, but I just wanted to mention how happy I am that Stephane Dion won the Liberal leadership race.

Here is a picture of me with Mr. Dion during his campaign in Vancouver.

On a wine related note, I bought a bottle of Le Petit Jaboulet the other day and opened it tonight to have with my pasta. It is about 90% Grenache (which is one of my favourite varietals) and had very strong notes of cherry. This wine is very smooth on the palate with a nice soft finish of light tannins.

Yummy. Oh, FYI it was only $13 a bottle.

Wine shopping

When shopping for wine, it does not have to be an intimidating experience. With all the different grape varietals, regions, and vintages (year the grapes were harvested), and different names for the same wines, no wonder wine shopping can be so hard.

I will do what I can to help make your shopping experience a little more enjoyable. Don't ever hesitate to ask me to come along if you're selecting wine for a dinner party, or just picking up a bottle to have around the house. I never turn down a wine shopping trip, I'm like a kid in a candy store! I might make you crazy though with how long I want to stay and look at everything.

Ok, so for those of us who enjoy a good bottle of French wine, this is the most confusing region to buy wine from, so let me make things a little easier by explaining some things. If you don't speak French (which I don't), it can be very difficult since all of their lables look VERY similar. Most wineries in France name their wines after the region that the grapes were grown in. For example, wines from the Bordeaux region of France are usually blends of up to five different grape varietals, most commonly though, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. Wine from the Burgundy region of France are most commonly Pinot Noir.

Something else that can be kind of confusing that people often ask me is "What is the difference between Shiraz and Syrah?" The only difference between Shiraz and Syrah is the region the grape is grown. In France, they call it Syrah, in Australia and most other regions they call it Shiraz.

Also keep in mind that the price tag on a wine is not always an accurate indicator of how good the wine is. I've found some great wine's in and around the $12 range per bottle like Castano's Monastrell, which I've blogged about at the bottom of this page.
If you pick up a bottle of wine, it sounds interesting, and the price is right, buy it. What's the worst that'll happen, you won't like it and you won't buy it again. When you order food in a restaurant, you're not gauranteed to like what you ordered, but you take a risk because it sounds good. Read the label on the back of the bottle, it will usually have a description of the wine and often they'll include food pairing suggestions.

HAPPY WINE SHOPPING!

Cheers,
Andrea

Pomegranate Wine

A friend from work, Aiden, asked me the other day if I knew of any wineries that produced Pomegranate wine, I told him I'd look into it because I hadn't heard of one.

The word pomegranate is derived from French pome garnete and means "seeded apple." There are over 800 seeds in one pomegranate, they're tasty but so hard to eat with all those layers between the seeds.

Interestingly enough, there are a few places around the world that produce pomegranate wine. There is a winery in Armenia that produces a semi-sweet pomegranate wine, which I would really like to taste.

The history behind the pomegranate is also quite interesting. The fruit has been used throughout history as symbols of fertility, hope, and royalty. In Greek Mythology, they believe that Aphrodite, the goddess of love, planted it on the isle of Cyprus. Due to the number of seeds in each pomegranate the fruit was connected with procreation and abundance.

One article I found was particularly interesting shows the super-health benefits of pomegranates. The article says that 100 ml of pomegranate juice has 3 times the antioxidants of 100 ml of red wine or 100 ml. of green tea. Researchers say that if you eat pomegranates daily for a long period of time, the fruit's antioxidants may help to prevent hardening of the arteries. If only they weren't so hard to eat! I better get some pomegranate wine.

The wine is said to be similar in taste to something between a blush and a dessert wine.
There is a winery in Israel that produces pomegranate wine as well called the Rimon winery. Rimon is hebrew for pomegranate.

Pundit Blogger

According to this test I found on Breanne's blog.

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Wine and Cheese

Here is a list of some wines pair very well (in my opinion) to some tasty cheeses.

First some basic guidelines when picking wines to go with your cheese:

-White wines generally pair better with soft cheeses and stronger flavours.
-Red wines are usually best with hard cheeses and milder flavours.
-Fruity, off dry and dessert wines pair with a wider range of cheeses.
-The stronger, and stinkier the cheese, the sweeter the wine should be.

It's generally better to pick white wines if you're having a wine and cheese party because a lot of cheeses leave a fatty taste on your palate that end up making red wines taste bland. White wines have more acidity that compliment this fatty aftertaste.

Some common pairings:

Brie and Camembert - Champagne or Sparkling wine

Mild Cheddar and Provolone - Chardonnay

Swiss and most German Cheeses - Gewurztraminer

Goat Cheese (Chevre) - Champagne, Gewurztraminer or Sauvignon Blanc

Gouda - Riesling

Sharp Cheddar - Shiraz

Blue Cheese - Cabernet Sauvignon

Stilton - Port

Feta - Beaujolais

Havarti - Red Bordeaux

Hope this helps anyone who is planning on hosting a wine and cheese party. Remember to taste the lighter bodied wines and milder cheeses first. Then move on to slightly stronger cheeses, and medium bodied wines, until you get to the strong stinky cheeses paired with full bodied, and dessert wines.

Bon Apetit

Okanagan Wine Tour September 2006

My dad and his lovely wife Sheryl were just recently married in the Okanagan (about 2 weeks ago). They were so generous as to fly Rob and I to B.C. from Saskatoon so we could be at the wedding. We stayed at this great little 9-hole golf resort called St. Andrews by the Lake in the Okanagan Falls. It was a gorgeous little spot! I golfed for the first time (poorly), during a night-golf tournament. I decided by about the second hole that instead of getting frustrated at my terrible game, I would drink beer along the way to make it a little bit more fun. So that is what I did.

The night golfing was only one night however, so we had some time to fill from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. The wedding was on Saturday, September 30th, right by the lake, and one of the greens. There was a very small group of us (only 9 people) but we had a LOT of fun! How? Well, the Thomas family knows how to party!

On Sunday, we drove in to Oliver which is only about 30 minutes from the Okanagan Falls, to do a little wine tour. Our first stop was Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards, the view from the winery was breathtaking. The giftshop/tasting room was very inviting and well laid out, the pours were quite generous (considering the tastings were free). We tasted quite a few of their wines but I was particularily excited about tasting their Meritage which is called "Ping." The wine had been built up for me when I worked at a VQA store in B.C. last summer so I had very high expectations. I think this wine has the potential to be very good in a few years but drunk young, the tannins were too harsh in my opinion (tannins are derived from the skins and stems of the grapes and cause that feeling of your lips sticking to your teeth). We also tried their Ehrenfelser Icewine which I thought was very good (this tasting was not free, icewines usually aren't), it had strong flavours of honey and apricots.

The next winery we went to was Wild Goose. Rob was not impressed that we all (Rob, Sheryl's daughter Meagan, her friend Tony, and I) got ID'd even though he has facial hair and wears a wedding band. I wasn't as upset about it because I'm used to getting ID'd, no biggie. We tasted some of their wines, one of which was their Bryant, which is a port style wine but they are not allowed to call it Port because it is not made in Portugal. This was very good, it was not too sweet and was quite plummy. Another one we tasted at Wild Goose was their Botrytis affected Riesling which I really enjoyed. Botrytis is another name for Noble Rot, which is a grey fungus that affects wine grapes. If the grapes are affected under moist conditions, the fungus can ruin entire crops of wine grapes. If the grapes are exposed when they are ripe, then are exposed to drier conditions, the grapes become raisin like and are literally hand picked one by one and can produce a fine, sweet, concentrated wine.

The Wild Goose Botrytis affected Riesling had strong flavours of honey and pineapple, I wasn't very fond of the aftertaste. It reminded me of the feeling you get in your mouth after eating a piece of pineapple. No one else thought it did this, so maybe I'm just crazy;)

The next winery we went to was directly across the street from Wild Goose, called Tangled Vines. This winery had something I would really like to support. They give proceeds of their rosé wine, called Tickled Pink, to Breast Cancer Research. Unfortunately I wasn't very fond of this wine. I really like the idea behind the donation, but it just wasn't very good wine in my opinion. This winery only produces white wines. We tasted their Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, and the Tickled Pink rosé. The gewurztraminer didn't have any spice or lychee taste at all. The Riesling was very bland with no tropical fruit flavours, so I was a little dissapointed. On the other hand, the tasting shop was the most inviting of all of the wineries we went to over the weekend. There were three very personable young guys pouring the wines and some cool art on the walls. It has a very young and modern feel to it; too bad the wines are lacking :(

We went to one right beside Wild Goose called Stag's Hollow where we started off tasting a couple of Chardonnay's. One stored in oak casks, and one stored in stainless steel casks. I tasted both and found the oaked chardonnay to have HUGE aromas of oak and vanilla, which I love, but then was very dissapointed at the flavours when I tasted it. It was very weak on the palate. Next we tasted their Pinot Noir which I found to be quite weak as well, it didn't have any earth or cherry flavours and was very bland. Their Merlot however was quite good, it was very chocolatey on the finish. I found their Meritage to be too tannic and too high in alcohol content.

Next we went to the Jackson Triggs winery which, as I expected, was very cold and large. Jackson Triggs is one of the largest wineries in Canada so it is hard for them to keep it warm and cozy. Their tasting shop was very large, with all their wine displayed nicely along the walls of the dim-lit tasting room. I've tasted a few of their wines before but tasted them again since we were there. We tasted their Grand Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, which was citrusy and grassy as a Sauv Blanc should be, next was their Viognier (pronouced: Vee-ohn-yay) which I really like, its very full bodied like a chardonnay but not oaky, or buttery like a chard. It has notes of tropical fruit and is very strong. Viognier is one of my favourite white wines. We then tasted their Shiraz, which is very spicy with berry flavours. Their Grand Reserve Meritage which I wasn't super impressed with, is too tannic, and their Cabernet Sauvignon is not that fabulous either.

The next part of the tour was kind of interesting. We were in the Nk'Mip(pronounced: Ink-ah-meep) area, so we thought "We must be close to the Nk'Mip winery!" we went in search of it and saw signs that said "Nk'Mip vineyards", so we followed the signs that led us to something that looked like it was fresh out of an Alfred Hitchcock film in the middle of the sticks with a bunch of semi-trucks parked and an old abandoned looking barn. We cruise up in my uncles BMW SUV and roll down the window to ask some sketchy looking guys wearing mack jackets if this was where the winery was. They looked at us like we all had three heads each and then told us that the VINEYARD was there, but the WINERY was in Osoyoos. We weren't even close to Osoyoos, so we rolled up the windows and drove back down the creepy windy road to civilization.

That was the end of our wine tasting for that day. Don't worry though, we continued it a couple of days later on our way to the Kelowna airport from the Okanagan Falls. We first stopped at Deep Creek & Hainle Vineyards in Peachland. A cool thing about this winery is that it plays a little part in wine history. Hainle is the birthplace of Icewines in North America which, as far as I know was an accidental discovery. I really like a lot of their wines and especially like the fact that their wines are organic, from the vineyards to the bottle, they do not spray their vines with pesticides or add a ton of sulphites. Organic wines are good for people that are prone to getting headaches from drinking wine. Sulphites make this worse, so although organic wines still have some sulphites, not nearly the quantities as other wines that are not organic.

I have a couple of favourites from this winery and have purchased them in Vancouver at a couple of different VQA wine stores. One of my favourites is their Gewurztraminer, which is quite spicy with strong flavours of lychee (my fav'). Another is their Deep Creek Zweigelt (pronounced: tzvi-gelt) which is originally a grape varietal from Austria and Hungary (the winemaker is Austrian) but has been brought to B.C. Deep Creek makes a Zweigelt that has soft flavours of plum, chocolate, and pepper. It's very good and I recommend you try it. We tasted a whole bunch of other wines here but I won't list them all, just my favourites, they're all quite good in my opinion.

Next stop was Mt. Boucherie. We tasted 4 wines here, their Semillon (pronounced: Sem-ee-yon), Ehrenfelser (my fav'), Blaufrankisch (pronounced: Blo-fronk-ish), and their Merlot. The Ehrenfelser was slightly sweet, with flavours of peach, and citrus. Rob really liked the Blaufrankisch, which tasted to me like tobacco and dirt. My sweetie likes his earthy, hearty wines! Those wines are NOT for me but hey, to each his own!

Ok, only two more wineries to tell you about!

We stopped in at the Quails' Gate Estate Winery to taste a few of their wines. We tasted their Chasselas-Pinot Blanc(pronounced: Chass-a-la) which is a great summer wine, its not very complex, but is very refreshing nonetheless with flavours of melon fruits and citrus. Their Old Vines Foch was Rob's favourite, from this winery. It is very fullbodied with a strong earthy(a nice way of saying "It tastes like dirt") and coffee taste. I was not a fan of this wine, but my hubby and I always manage to come to a compromise when it comes to buying wine.

The next stop was the MOTHER of all wineries in Canada, Mission Hill. The winery is HUGE and very elaborate. The proprietor, Anthony Von Mandl is a very passionate man with a $3 million bell tower, and pelican statues, and big empty rooms with beautiful tapestries on the walls. The whole place is beautiful, with a gorgeous view and amazing architecture. I guess that's what happens when a really rich and passionate person designs a winery and vineyard. We didn't taste any of the wines here because Rob and I have both tasted pretty much everything in their portfolio. When we lived in White Rock, B.C. I worked for a fine wine boutique called Mark Anthony's, Purveyor of Fine Wines Worldwide. Mark Anthony's is owned by Mission Hill, so even though they had a HUGE selection of import wines from all over the world, the only Canadian wines sold in the store were Mission Hill products. We did a LOT of in-store tastings so I got to taste all of them(I know...it was a REALLY tough job, but somebody had to do it).
If you ever get the chance to taste Mission Hill's Oculus, I strongly recommend you do. It is one of my favourite wines, which kind of sucks because it is quite expensive and hard to get.

So that was the end of our wonderful long weekend in the Okanagan with my dad and my new Step-mom(I'm sure she LOVES that new title! lol) We had a great time and are really looking forward to going back to BC for the Christmas holidays. We're hoping that our dear friends Dan and Kathy will organize another wine tasting party at Dan's house while we're home. ;)

Cheers!
Andrea

Apéritifs and Digestifs

I'm learning more and more about wine and fortified wines in my new job at Calories. Calories is a little french bistro in Saskatoon, which I consider to be the best restaurant in Saskatoon. I'm not just saying that because I work there. The food is amazing and truly a work of art, the wine list is impressive and ever growing. I'm hoping to start working the evening/dinner shifts as it is much more formal, not only is the money a LOT better than during the lunch shifts, but I actually get to put my wine knowledge to use.

The drink menu I'm not super knowledgeable on is the Apéritifs and Digestifs. So I've done some studying and am going to share my new found knowledge with you.


An apéritif is an alcoholic drink that you have before dinner to wet your appetite. It's supposed to make your meal taste better.

"The word is French and is derived from the Latin verb "aperire", which means to open. This etymology is fitting since an apéritif opens the meal." (Wikipedia)

Some common drinks served as apéritifs which are on the menu at Calories are:

Kir, which is a créme de cassis(black currant liquor) with white wine.
Kir Royale, is the same drink topped up with Champagne instead of white wine.

A Manhattan(which I ordered once in a restaurant in Vancouver and the bartender had never made one before) can be ordered a few different ways, the ingredients are Whiskey, Vermouth, and Bitters with a maraschino cherry in the glass. They can be ordered sweet, or dry depending on the ratio of Whiskey to Vermouth.

Now on to Scotch (My husband is a big fan of scotch, me not as much)

Laphroaig 10 year old(pronounced: LaFROYG) is said to mean "the beautiful hollow by the broad bay"
Laphroaig is known to be an aquired taste, it has a very strong peaty and smoky taste.
The distillery is on the island of Islay off the West Coast of Scotland.

Lagavulin 16 year old is also on the island of Islay in Scotland
It has strong flavours of iodine as well as peat and is not recommended for new scotch drinkers. It's one of those scotches that you either love or you hate.
In the 19th century, the owners of the Lagavulin distillery tried to sue Laphroaig because they were supposedly stealing their style of scotch making.
(These truly are the days of our lives....)

Glenmorangie is pronounced GlenMORanjee, with emphasis on the MOR, like orangey. A lot of people pronounce it GlenmorANGee, but this is incorrect. The scotch is first aged in American bourbon casks, then transfers the scotch to casks which have previously been used to mature wines using different wine casks to create different flavour characters in the scotch.
Calories carries the Port Wood Finish, which has aromas of butterscotch and dark chocolate, with a smooth feel on the palate. This is best enjoyed after a meal as a digestif.

Drambuie, meaning "The drink that satisfies"
It is produced in the Isle of Skye in Scotland and was said to be a gift from Prince Charles Edward Stuart to Captain John Mackinnon. The Mackinnon family has produced Drambuie since.
Drambuie has flavours of honey and herbs and is golden yellow in colour. It is made with Scotch whiskey liqueur, honey, and a blend of herbs and spices. It can be consumed on ice, straight up, or in a cocktail.


Ricard has an interesting story. When Absinthe was banned in France, the two major producers of absinthe, Pernod and Ricard, joined forces to make the same drink without the wormwood(which was the ingredient in absinthe that made you "trip out"). They made it with more star anise giving it the liquorice flavour(which I don't like..Blech!)
It's usually dilluted with water changing it from a yellow colour to a milky colour.
You can also mix it with flavoured syrups to make different cocktails. Some popular mixes are;
Perroquet(parrot) mixed with Green Mint Syrup
Tomate(tomato) mixed with Grenadine
Mauresque(moorish) mixed with Orgeat Syrup(almond flavour)

Pineau de Charentes is made from a blend of unfermented grape must and cognac, it was said to be an accidental discovery. A winemaker in Charente accidentally added grape must to a barrel which he thought was empty but it actually contained some brandy. The blend was put into the cellars for fermentation and a few years later when they opened the barrel to bottle the wine, the winemaker discovered the drink that is now associated with the region of Charente in France.
The drink is sweet, but also contains high levels of alcohol and acidity.

On to Sherry:

Amontillado is a sherry wine, which to me, was made famous by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" which is a great horror story about revenge and murder.
the drink however, started as fino which is a light and very dry sherry, but due to oxidization during fermentation is reclassified as an amontillado sherry which is slightly darker and sweeter.

Oloroso is a darker and richer sherry than amontillado. It is aged much longer and goes through an oxidizing aging process for a much longer period than fino or amontillado. It can be left to age for many decades in American and French oak casks.
Oloroso is said to be off-dry(slightly sweet) with hints of toffee, almond and fig. Depending on the winemaker, it can also have aromas of orange peel, and raisins.

Campari is alcohol and water infused with bitter herbs, aromatic plants, and fruit. It was originally made in Italy and the recipe contains over 60 ingredients that is still kept a secret to this day. The colour of Campari is from cochineal dye(derived from the cochineal insect which is crimson red and very expensive, mainly used in food colouring and cosmetics).
Campari is usually served with soda water, but can also be served with orange juice, or straight up on the rocks.

Pimms No. 1 Cup is a gin based digestif that no one really knows exactly what is in it. It is a dark colour with a reddish tint, and has flavours of spice, and citrus fruits. It was originally made in the 1840s by James Pimm as an aid to digestion.
The most popular cocktail using Pimms is "The Pimms Cup" which is made with one part Pimms No.1 to three parts lemonade or lemon soda and garnished with a slice of cucumber.

Calvados is an apple brandy that can be served as both an apéritif and a digestif. A well made calvados should have balanced flavours of brandy and apple.

Armagnac Sempe is basically the same thing as Cognac but it doesn't go through a double distillation like Cognac(Cognac and Armagnac are both a type of brandy). A legend says that King Henry IV of France had Armagnac and garlic put on his lips when he was born by his grandfather to give him strenth and wisdom for the rest of his life.
Rémy Martin XO is another type of Cognac brandy. It is one of the two most recognizable brands of cognac today.

Chambord is a liqueur made from raspberries, vanilla, honey, and cognac. It is made in the Loire Valley in France, and is the main ingredient in the drink Sex on The Beach.

Poire William is a clear pear brandy from Switzerland. Some bottles of Poire William have a whole pear inside. They could do this by placing a bottle over a budding fruit and allowing it to grow inside. Neat eh?
It can have strong aromas and be dissapointingly mild on the tastebuds.

Grappa is a grape-based spirit made from the leftover skins, stems, and seeds from winemaking. It is very high in alcohol content and can be added to espresso to make caffé corretto. Grappa was originally made in Italy.

That about wraps up this post. Wow! I didn't intend for it to be this long, I guess I got a little carried away! Oops. Well, I hope you all learned something here, at least some useless history that you can pass onto your friends next time you're enjoying a glass of Lagavulin, or Armagnac Sempe.

Cheers!
Andrea

The Wedding

It was absolutely fabulous! By far the best day of my life. Everything was so perfect, from the guests, speeches, music, dancing, and wine to the smallest details. All the guest had a great time, some got a little too tipsy but that's to be expected. All in all everyone had a blast. We danced all night longto everything from Louis Armstrong to Sir-Mix-Alot(baby got back). The wine went over well, and was very affordable. It went well with the food, and the labels matched our wedding colours ;). It was the Okanagan Vineyards Select White(just a blend of various white varietals) and the Okanagan Vineyards Pinot Noir(which went well with the salmon). We ended up with more red left over than white, but that was partly due to the fact that it was the hottest day of the year and people wanted cold drinks. It was a stinkin' 35 Celsius! We were all pretty sweaty but we danced our butts off anyway. We got our pro-shots back from the photographers and we were SO happy with them. They did such an amazing job of capturing the fun and emotion of the whole day, and they were quite reasonably priced compared to some of the other photographers we had checked out. I was very impressed with almost every person or business that we had to deal with throughout the planning process. Here are some photos for you to enjoy:)

Summer and Wine

The days are longer, the sky is blue, the sun is up every day....Summer is finally here! I just hope it sticks around long enough for the wedding. I've been spending much of my time down at English Bay, sitting on the sand, swimming in the ocean, enjoying the sunshine (wearing sunscreen of course) and having a great summer. The wedding is in two weeks, some of my friends are discovering new love; there's magic in the air. I think I might write this summer up as being the best summer ever.

What goes great with these wonderful hot summer days? I'll tell you, a nice cool glass of white wine and good company. Sitting on the balcony of our HOT HOT place eating salmon and a delicious salad I made of spinach, pear, blue cheese, green onion with a balsamic/olive oil dressing....Mmm, Mmm, Mmmm.

I picked up a bottle of Lindemans Bin 85 Pinot Grigio on my way home today. It's a little too acidic on the finish, but I thought I'd give it a try. It's a pretty good value wine for the summer. It's crisp and refreshing with notes of peach, honey and lemon.

Corked wine...

I made some butter chicken tonight with rice for Rob and I. We opened a bottle of Deinhard Riesling(which I've had before and liked). I poured a glass for us both and as soon as I took a whiff I could tell the bottle was corked. So I poured the wine back into the bottle and will bring it back to the liquor store tomorrow. Any reputable wine or liquor store will take back a bad bottle of wine.

How to tell if a wine is 'corked'

When you pop the cork, if its a ruined bottle, it will often look kind of slimy and have some green tinge to it; sort of mouldy looking.
When you pour the wine and smell it, it'll have a wet newspaper smell to it.
Next if you get to the tasting part of it, sometimes in a white wine, it will have a slight effervescence to it and if it is a still wine it should not have any fizzy characters so the wine is probably bad.

It always sucks to get a bad bottle of wine. Especially when you only picked up one bottle, and you were really looking forward to it. You get home hoping to relax with a nice glass of wine, or to enjoy it with your dinner and then you get a big whiff of something nasty in your glass. Don't worry though, its not as rare as you'd think. Supposedly 1 in 10 bottles of wine is ruined by cork taint. So if you get a wine that you've had before and you thought you liked but its bad this time. Don't worry you can always take it back and exchange it for a new one, or something else because chances are, its corked.

The liquor or wine stores should never challenge you on this. If you say its corked, its corked and they should give you your money back. If they don't, ask to speak to a manager.

Fork In the Road

Oliver Block White: This blended white consists of mainly Chardonnay, but also has some Pinot Gris, Semillon, and a little Viognier. The chardonnay sort of bites you with some nice oak. To some the oak is a little too much, but I'm developing a taste for oaky wines these days so I liked it.

Oliver Block Red: The blend in this wine is mostly Merlot, but also has some Syrah, as well as some Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a lot of berry fruit on the nose, but on the palette was too tannic for my liking.

Both of these wines are very young and would benefit from a little more time in the bottle. The tannins in the red might soften up a bit over time.

Rob and I are back in Vancouver and extremely happy to be here. We miss our wonderful friends in Saskatchewan and hope they get down here this summer. The wedding is creeping up slowly and we've just selected the wines for the wedding. I will save that for another post.

Francis Ford Coppola Rosso

I cannot wait to buy a bottle of this when I get back to BC! We don't have it here in Saskatchewan unfortunately. It is my favourite $20 bottle of wine, but its been so long since I have tasted it so I can't describe it to you. I'll try anyway, cuz I think I can sum it up on one word:

Silk.

Its a blended red wine made of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Syrah. I remember it being very big and fruity, finishing with vanilla or mocha.

If you get the chance to try this wine, I recommend it.

Yummy.

How to hold a wine glass.

A lot of people hold their wine glasses by the bowl not knowing that the proper way to hold it is by the stem. The purpose of stemware is so that you don't have to touch the bowl so your hand doesn't change the temperature of the wine. A lot of wines need to be served at certain temperatures. If you serve a wine that is supposed to be very well chilled and hold it by the bowl the heat from your hands could change the flavour of the wine making it not very good.

I found this picture of a wine snob sniffing a glass with his big snobby nose! BUT, he's holding the glass properly! I couldn't resist.

By request...Gewürztraminer (Guh-Vehrtz-trah-meen-er)

Gewürztraminer, is my favourite white wine to drink in the summer. I remember sitting on the patio at Cielo's(my favourite restaurant in White Rock, B.C.) drinking a bottle of Gewürz' with Rob while staring at the ocean and enjoying some the best bruschetta I've ever had in my life(seriously, I challenge you to find a better tasting bruschetta).

If you pick up a nice bottle of Gewürztraminer from the Okanagan in B.C.(I really enjoy Mission Hill's Five Vineyards Gewurztraminer) you'll find that its slightly sweet, very floral(honeysuckle and roses), jam-packed with tropical fruit flavours like mango, and lychee(gives it a hint of nutty flavour), and it'll have a little hint of spice.

"Gewürzt" means "Spicy" in German, and "Traminer" means "Coming from Tramin" which is a small city in South Tyrol, Italy where the grape was originally grown. Gewürztraminer comes both dry, and sweet. Depending on what your personal taste is like, you should be able to find a gewurz' that's right for you.

Any reputable wine shop will have knowledgeable staff that should be able to help you pick out a good Gewürztraminer or any other wine, just tell them what characteristics you like or don't like, they can then use the process of elimination to find a wine that you'll enjoy.

My friend Katharine from back home in beautiful White Rock, B.C. requested this post because her favourite wine is Gewürztraminer. Hope you enjoy! I'll bring a bottle for us to drink when I'm back in town in one month!

Wine Glasses

This is a Cab/Merlot/Bordeaux glass

I don't have any new wines to review, but Amanda asked a good question regarding wine glasses. Being that there are about a billion(Thats probably not true) different types of glasses out there, its really difficult to know what style of glass to buy for your wine drinking needs.

First you'll probably want to ask yourself, Do I tend to drink reds, more then whites? or vice versa? If you drink reds the majority of the time, and rarely drink whites, you would benefit from a Cab/Merlot/Bordeaux style glass. The more standard style tasting glass is called a Chimney Shape, its usually wider at the bottom of the bowl, and narrows a bit at the top. The wide bottom makes it easier to get a really good swirl, and the narrow top holds in the "Bouquet"(as Mark so eloquently put it ;)), so you can get your nose right in there for a good whiff!

I personally love really big wine glasses, the bigger the better! Its important when drinking some wines, to have lots of room for the wine to breathe. These large glasses are great, especially if you don't have a wine decanter.

You should also select glasses that are clear, and don't have any engravings, so you can clearly see the wine.

Also, when you're washing your wine glasses, don't use soap(I know this sounds weird, but you're not supposed to) Rinse each glass under really hot water for 20 or 30 seconds each, and hand dry. It sounds really annoying to do, but the soap, overtime, can actually ruin the glass, and eventually the taste of soap will forever be stuck in your glasses. Its pretty gross when you get a nice glass of red and you can taste a hint of Sunlight, or whatever brand you use.

(Hope all this helps Amanda) The glass on the right is a standard tasting glass

Poker and wine..again.

My wine drinking in the last couple of weeks seems to be revolved around Rob and Mark's poker nights. Last night, Rob, Mark and some other friends got together at their friend Josh's house to play poker. Since I didn't want to sit at home and do nothing, and I had a bottle of wine just sitting in our little mini winerack collecting dust, I decided to give Amanda a call. She invited me over to watch the movie "Waiting" with Ryan Reynolds(which we didn't end up watching) and to drink some wine. Amanda is my unofficial wine drinking partner, my last 3 wine reviews have been wines that I drank with Amanda.

The bottle I brought over to her place last night was a 2003 Inniskillin Cabernet Sauvignon(VQA). It had blackberry, and currant on the nose, and plums, cherries, and oak on the palette.
Inniskillin has vineyards in both Ontario and in BC. I'm hoping to get out to the Okanagan this summer to do a little wine tour. When I worked for Mark Anthony Fine Wine Merchants, I didn't get the opportunity to visit their winery(Mission Hill), which was disappointing. I've heard that the Mission Hill winery and vineyards are gorgeous. I've seen pictures, but I'm sure they don't do it justice.

Anyway, back to the Inniskillin. It was yummy, the tannins were a little strong at first taste, but softened up after being exposed to air for awhile. I think this Cab Sauv would compliment any kind of pasta with a thick tomato-packed marinara sauce.

Osborne SOLAZ 2003

On Friday night, Rob and I went over to our friends Mark, and Amanda's place to play some poker. We brought the bottle of Castano Monastrell, and Amanda had also picked up a Spanish wine called Osborne SOLAZ. It was a 2003 Vintage and is a blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon, a very tastey wine. I found it to be big in fruit(cherries, raspberries and blackberries), with a little bit of spice and a nice long finish. It was a very rich cherry red colour, and had been aged in oak barrels a minimum of 4 months.

Tempranillo pronounced: Temp-rah-nee-yoh, is a very strong aromatic spanish grape which has different names in different regions in Spain. It is the most widespread grape varietal in the world.
Cabernet Sauvignon in Spain is mainly grown in Catalonia, Navarre, and Ribera del Duero.

This blended wine would pair very well with Barbequed red meats, and pasta. You can pair any kind of wine with whatever food you'd like, whether you like your wines to contrast or compliment, is totally up to you. Contrast, example: A spicy chicken stirfry with slightly sweeter white wines(Gewurztraminer, Riesling). Or Compliment, example: Big Full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with Steak and Potatoes.

I give a big thumbs up to Amanda for picking this wine!

Oh and when I say that we went over to their house to play poker, I mean that everyone else played poker while Amanda and I sat on the couch gabbing with our plate of fancy cheeses a bottle of wine(or two) and the Trivial Pursuit SNL edition DVD. Much more fun then losing money, in my opinion.

Essays and Midterm are done!

So as I promised, now that my essays are handed in and my midterm is done, I'm back on the blog!
Tonight I picked up Rob's favourite under-$20 bottle of wine, called Castano Monastrell. Monastrell is a thick-skinned sweet grape, which in France is known as Mourvedre.

Until recently, Mourvedre was rarely bottled by itself. It is usually found in blends with grape varietals such as Syrah(Shiraz) which is usually a little bit spicy, and has very good strucure, as well as Grenache, which is a very rich grape.

The grape on its own has a very gamey taste to it when drank young. If you get a good year, it can be a very intense, fruity wine with a hint of blackberry on the palette. You could age this wine, if you're into that. Me personally, I just like to buy it, and drink it. None of this, waiting 10 or 15 or 20 years to drink a bottle. I'm just WAY too impatient. Get me a corkscrew!

I was very tempted to buy a bottle of port(fortified wine) while at the liquor store but stopped myself. Next time I will buy the port, and I will tell you all about it. If you like sweet, body-warming alcohol that you don't drink, you sip very slowly whilst enjoying good company, you'll love port. Thats for another time.

Also I'd really like it if anyone had any ideas for topics on wine that I could write about. I'd love to hear any questions. If you're looking for wines to pair with food, and you're not sure what compliments what, I'm your lady.

How to tell if a wine is 'good'

You hear about all these wine ratings by critics who may, and probably do, have a completely different palate then your own. Let your own tastebuds be the judge of what wine is 'good'. I personally can't STAND South African Pinotage, I think it tastes like mud, I don't care if it was rated at 94-points. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean other people can't.
There are other factors in determining what makes a wine 'good' such as, whether or not it has any faults(TCA, its a bacteria that makes the wine and cork smell mouldy, like wet cardboard), or if it is well balanced(containing just the right amount of alcohol, fruit, body, tannin, sweetness, and acidity), and complex. The simple answer is just, trust your tastebudes, if you drink it and you don't like it, don't buy it again. If you like it, and nobody else does, drink it anyway.
So you see, go with what you like, and everyone will be happy. Always trust your 'gut'.

All this wine talk is making me thirsty.

Why is Wine so complicated?

As history has it, wine was sort of an 'accidental' discovery. It started with the Egyptians in around 6000 BC as you can see in some of their hieroglyphs with big earthenware jugs called 'amphorae' and grapes. Thank god for the Egyptians! I guess they figured out that when you leave grapes in a jar, over time, they ferment(the process of sugar converting to alcohol). I won't bore you with too much wine history, but I thought it was kind of interesting. Who can forget about Jesus' miracle? Turning water into wine, I hear about 6 amphorae worth! Jesus knew how to party;).

Really though, I just like to drink the delicious grape juice, who cares where it all came from! I thought I'd share the little bit I know about wines roots, but I'm leaving out some really important parts of wine history, because its way too long to write about and I simply don't know the whole history. If you'd like to know more about the facsinating history of wine, buy a book, or you can ask me and I'll check out some of my books and get back to you.

I'm just a gal who likes to drink the vino.
Cheers!

The Tasting Process

Quite a few of my friends both in Saskatchewan and in British Columbia drink wine, but not many of them actually 'taste' wine. I'm going to go through the process of wine tasting. As silly as it may seem, it can be a lot of fun, and it makes drinking the wine that much more enjoyable.

You should have large wine glasses, but any standard wine glass will do.

1st: You lift your glass up so thats its directly across from your nose. Have a good look at the colour of the wine, try holding it up to a light coloured background so you can really see through the glass. Is it a rich ruby red, or a pale dull red with almost a yellowish tinge? The colour of the wine will give you a hint as to the age of the wine. For reds, as they age, they become lighter in colour. When a white wine ages it becomes darker. If its a white is it almost water clear, or a rich golden yellow?

2nd: The second part of the tasting is the swirl. I usually set the glass down on a table or other flat surface like a counter, and holding the glass by the stem putting the slightest bit of pressure start circling the glass on the table or counter to create a sort of whirlpool with the wine in the glass. Don't be shy, really give it a good swirl. The purpose of this is to 'release the bouquet' when you swirl, the wine coats the glass to release the smell of the wine. You'll notice little drops of wine either slowly, or quickly making their way into the glass. These are called 'legs', some people call them 'tears', I call them legs. If the legs are slow moving and thick, they are said to be 'long legs'. The longer the legs the higher the alcohol content(sweeter wines have long legs).

3rd: The smelling of the wine is my favourite part of the tasting. After the look, and the swirl, I like to smell the wine while it is still circling the bowl of the glass from swirl. Put your nose right over the glass and take a deep breath in through your nose. Again don't be shy about this, smelling the wine, in my opinion, makes the wine taste that much better. As you all know, the VAST majority of your taste comes through your sniffer. Its difficult at first to determine what exactly it is that your smelling, but you should be able to detect a couple of key aromas. Does your red wine have 'earthy'(read:dirt) smells? or does it smell like rich ripe fruit, like cherries, or blackberries? Take a couple good whiffs before you move onto the next step.

4th: Last but not least, the grand finale of the tasting process is to actually taste the wine. After the big sniff of the wine, you tilt the glass and make sure to get a good mouthful. Roll the

wine around on your tongue and tilt your head back just slightly to let the wine cover all of your tastebuds. This is where you feel the 'weight' of the wine. To give you an easy comparison, think of milk, Skim milk would be 'light bodied', 2% milk would be 'medium bodied', and homogenized would be 'full bodied'. Wines have similar weight minus the creaminess of milk.
While the wine is still in your mouth, tilt your head back and opening your mouth slightly, suck a little bit of air onto your 'palette' to get oxygen on the wine. This will bring out the full flavours of the wine. Now swallow the wine and wait for the finish. The finish is the after taste that, if its a good wine, should linger. Often crappy wines will have NO finish at all, and that is just simply unacceptable!

Thats it for the tasting process! Enjoy, and don't worry about looking silly, try it at home first with a couple friends before you attempt it at a restaurant. It really becomes a habit, you'll find yourself swirling all kinds of drinks, I do it with pretty much everything, without even thinking about it, but thats because I'm a big wine nerd! Don't laugh, you may be a wine nerd one day too!

For my first post I'll explain how my amazing wine blog came to be. Rob and I went to a little restaurant in Saskatoon this evening called "The Living Room" where we had some dinner. I ordered the Thai Chicken noodle salad, Rob had the baked brie and garlic plate and we ordered a bottle of wine (Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon, which I will review later). We got on the topic of what living a life of content meant to both of us. We were both pretty much on par with our vision of 'the good life' which was good since we're getting married this summer ;).
My idea of what the good life is consists of the obvious simple pleasures in life such as love, family, friends, good company, warm climates, a view, good food, and last but not least, wine.

I've really only scratched the surface in the complex world of wine in the last two years. I held a position as a wine consultant at a specialty wine store in White Rock, BC, where I learned LOADS (thats right, loads!) about wine and got to taste more wine then I could ever possibly dream of. If you had asked me a couple years ago what my favourite wine was I'd have said "Arbor Mist" that GROSS sweet fizzy crap that they sell at beer stores and pass off as 'wine'. Now my palette is much more developed (read: expensive) which might not be a good thing since we can't afford my taste in wines, being poor students in Saskatchewan.

I may as well start with my first blog review on the wine we drank this evening (which got me a little tipsy).

Woodbridge(by Robert Mondavi) Cabernet Sauvignon
California (2003)
It consists of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon/2% each Cabernet Franc, Barbera, Petit Verdot/1% each Merlot and Zinfandel

It had very little finish (aftertaste). For me the finish is as important a part of the wine tasting experience as the swirling, sniffing, and slurping. It was just sort of a low-tier Robert Mondavi wine that I would classify as a 'table wine'; its cheap, its drinkable, not overly fruity with a little bit of spice. If you're not looking for something overly complex, not necessarily to pair with food, but to pair with good company, where the main focus isn't the wine, but the conversation, then this wine would go very nicely.

Thats my bit for today. There really isn't a huge selection of wines in beerstores, liquor stores, or restaurants here in Saskatoon, but I'll do what I can with what I've got available to me. We'll be back to Vancouver for the summer in 2 months where the wine industry is HUGE, so my posts will be about a wider selection!