Bubble, bubble, no toil, no trouble.

Well here's a reason to do some chug-a-lugging on a hot summer day. Last week Karen and I ran out of wine (you're shocked, I can tell), and all that was left was a bottle of Peller Estates Ice Cuvee Rose that had been chilling in the fridge for a few weeks. It was a gift from Karen she brought back from Niagara; a thank-you for watching her kids over the weekend, while she and her hubby ran away for some grown up time. I'd resolved not to drink it until strawberries were ready, but what's a girl to do? Pop went the cork and into the glass it went.

Honies, darlings, you cannot buy this at the LCBO. But I highly suggest we organize some sort of field trip to this winery and deplete them of their stock. Remember that scene in When Harry Met Sally? You know the one, the "I'll have what she's having" scene. This wine gets three Yes!es and an O My God! Sparkly, light, very strawberry to my palate, it was lovely and fresh and really quite refreshing. And now it's gone. Sads. The empty bottle sits on my desk, teasing me. And I resolve to drink more sparkling wine! Why don't I drink more sparkling wine? It's delicious and you don't need food with it. That's it, dammit! This is my vow, to always have a bottle of sparkling something chilling in the fridge.

On the opposite side of yum, we dove into the last of the Cambridge wine, and in this case, Eileen--my dreamgirl, my wine steward--was off the mark. Or maybe it's just me learning I don't like really dry wine, but the San Marco Frascati was not my bag. Is it just me, or does very dry wine smell just a little bit like throw-up? It improved after it warmed up a little (it was very cold when first poured)and I got whiffs of raspberry off of it, but other that that..bleh.

On a final note, I'll leave you with a link to an incredibly funny video I found on another wine blog. It's the Celebrity Guide to Wine, featuring some of your favourite 80's stars. Let Herbie Hancock teach you about Beaujolais. Watch as Kelly LeBrock properley demonstrate the correct way to open a bottle of wine. Feel kinship with Shelley Hack as she honks down appetizers and drinks wine out of the bottle. It's treasure, trust me.

http://vimeo.com/10339784

'Til next time, kittens!

Barb

Trip wrap up, and heaven closer to home...

Windy road in New Hampshire.


So I'm back lovelies. What a GLORIOUS week I had. Full of wine and cheese and art and architecture and splendiferous nature, my eyeballs ache from beauty overload. Speaking of overload, I am terrified to step on the scale after a week of cheese as my primary food group. Thank goodness I'm so lucious at any weight, or I might pass the cheese tray altogether, and that would be a great loss indeed. Speaking of cheese, our Cardullo's cheese man with the muscular forearms has a name--Dan. Dan the cheese man dispensed four incredible cheeses to accompany our wine, which were:

Truffle Tremor--made me tremor. A really neat, complex flavour that lingered for a long time.

Chevre Noir--a goat cheese and cheddar mix that I'm currently researching building a house out of.

Pecorino Tartufo--rich and lovely, guaranteed to trigger endorphin release in women over 35.

Guinness Cheddar--thought this might be icky, as I find Guinness about as delicious as chewing on a log, but it was wonderfully delicious! Don't be shy, even if Guinness isn't your favourite.

If you pop into Cardullo's for any or all of these cheeses, tell Dan he's missed terribly and I'll see him in my dreams.

Anyhoo, after our adventures in Cambridge, Mlle. K and I hiked it up to New Hampshire to stay with my friend Christine for the evening. Christine lives in a bubble of perfection called Etna, which is part of Hanover, which is the home of Dartmouth College. It was the tour of Ivy league schools for Karen and I! Such an incredible place, green and mountainous and full of history. My index finger on my right hand practically sprained from depressing the shutter button on my camera, but I couldn't help it! So beautiful! And what a perfect evening we had to pull out a bottle of Cave Springs Reisling Dolomite 2008. Karen and I had two bottles tucked in the trunk after our stop in Jordan, Ontario on the first leg of the trip. We had an unforgettable lunch there (for me it was Pecan and Blue cheese salad with Reisling-poached pears, and mussels for the main course). Now bad news, kittens: this wine is not available at the LCBO, just at the winery. But trust mama when she says gently slip the credit card out of your husband's wallet and order a few bottles for yourself from Cave Springs. If he protests, remind him of how suggestable you are after a couple of glasses of wine. Seriously, this Reisling was as ripe and pert as the Prell girl, with all of those lovely Niagara fruit flavours just bursting out of the glass. Drink at the right temperature though; too cold or warm and those fruity flavours will not be at their showiest.

I'll end it there; more to post about the last leg home, but it derserves it's own space and I'll write again soon.

Cheers,

B.

Cambridge, Cardullos, Heaven

I am a died in the wool atheist, but I may have found my personal heaven here in Cambridge, Mass. What am I doing here you ask? Kismet. Fate. Luck. Happy chance. Call it what you will, this place is basically Barbsville.

So for real, my doves, I am here following my sister Lorri, who is here taking a course at Harvard U. You cannot believe how much mileage I've gotten out of her being a student here. So how's your family Barb? My sister's at Harvard! That'll be $4.99 ma'am. My sister's at Harvard! Why are you visiting the USA Ma'am? My sister's at Harvard! Elitism by association. Let me have it; it's the closest I'll ever come to being hoi polloi.

Anyhoo, here I am, crashing at my sister's hotel, here courtesy of my soul-wife and travel partner Karen, and I'm taking pictures for my business--www.wordstockphoto.com--shameless self promotion over. I can tell you Karen and I walked for 10 hours today around the town of Cambridge Mass., while I snapped away, gathering photo letters in a visual, mental ecstasy. It is a visual treat to be here. There are buildings that are older than Canada. My camera is exhausted and so am I. But I'm not here to write about my pictures. I'm here to write about food and drink. And I have had the BEST in the last 24 hours. No shit. For reals. Listen, people. Listen hard.

In the last 24 hours I've been to the same store 4 times. Four flipping times. What could bring me back 4 times in 24 hours? Only the most amazing food and wine store I've ever experienced. It's in Harvard Square, it's called Cardullo's and it's basically the best thing ever if you are a woman in her mid thirties who is sensory driven.

The first trip to Cardullo's we basically wandered the aisles with mouths open, goggling at the gourmet until we stumbled into the wine section. This is something a Canadian can't get used to. Wine in any store. Not government regulated. Just gorgeous wine, sitting there amonst the sea salt crackers and salmon roe. And in that wine section was a bonafide wine goddess name Eileen.

Eileen. Eileen. Every time the wind blows, her name whispers Eileen, Eileen, Eileen. Eileen sat in the corner, wine steward name badge discreetly pinned on her left shoulder. Twenty-something, adorable and clearly with an I.Q. of 196, Eileen chimed "Can I help you find anything?"

I cooed that I loved the stoney minerality of Chablis, and you could see a wiggly excitment bubble to Eileen's surface. She showed me at least 4 different wines she knew I'd love. I ended up with Frederic Gueruen 2007 Chablis. Don't bother, my Ontario loves. No way you'll find it. No way.

Lemony. Stoney. Zing zing sing. All those things that make Chablis, Chablis. In a word--mahgahhvahhhweep.

I've been back to Cardullo's 3 times. Today. In the last 12 hours. Intermittently between picture taking. Once to buy gifts and wine. Next to buy cheese and bread and wine. Lastly, to stumble down for more wine before close because we loved the next two wines so, so, so much.

Eileen, on our first and last meeting, chased me down with Cardullo's card in hand which read: Aia dei Colombi FALANGHINA. She squealed something about Falanghina not not normally being available anywhere else in North America. I hung on to this card like a Gold ticket from Willy Wonka.

People, I tried this wine a mere few hours ago, and it was THE BEST WHITE WINE I HAVE EVER DRANK IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. I am not shitting you. The vintage is 2008. I know of no other place that it can be purchased except Cardullos. But from me to you, it is worth buying from this store by the case. They ship anywhere. It was...butter, clotted cream, faint citrus, smooth, smooth, smoooooooooth. Heaven--if it exists--has a river of this. There is a website on the back of the bottle: www.aiadeicolombi.it which I've yet to visit but will probably make my homepage.

Next up: Fleur Pinot Noir 2007. I picked it for two reasons: I am continually searching for wonderful Pinot Noir, and the label is totally beeeautiful. I am so thankful for the pretty label, because this wine-- Oh! This wine! THIS WINE! This wine make me so happy! It was like sticking my face in the lushest, freshest, greenest spring garden and inhaling. The first thing, the very first thing I thought of when I inhaled this wine, was rose garden! If I could have fashioned some sort of device to harness a glass of this wine to my nose, I would have. This wine is Catherine Deneuve. This wine is Pinot Noir heaven.

By the by, we purchased several unreal cheeses to accompany our wine. The perfect combo, ever: the Fleur 2007 Pinot Noir with Pecorino Tartufo. By the by, served by a guy so smokin' hot, he left scorch marks on our minds.

Can't post more right now. Trying more wine. Floating...floating...floating...more coming. More later. More. Mmmmm...

'Til next time,

Blissful Barb

The Laundry List

Hello gang. Don't let my lack of posts fool you. I have been drinking wine over the last few weeks. Okay, maybe not quite as much, but I am squeaking it in where I can. Here's the laundry list of the wines I've tried, and I'll try to be brief in my descriptions so as not to bore you:

Stoneleigh Marlborough Pinot Noir 2008: I picked this up after enjoying the Mission Hill Pinot Noir so much, wanting to try the same grape from another cool climate. Not dissapointing, but it wasn't the Mission Hill either. Definately could detect notes of foreign, tropical fruits, which is really not to my taste. I liked the spicy flavour of the Mission Hill, while Stoneleigh is much fruitier. Not bad, but not taking it home to mama.

Bouchard Pere& Fils Petit Chablis 2008: Boo. Was so looking forward to that lovely stony minerality from previous Chablis experiences, but was disappointed. Since learned that this wine is from a higher elevation, so it doesn't have the lovely sea-shelly quality of Chablis. Won't repeat.

Prospect Winery's Larch Tree Hill Riesling 2007: I liked. I didn't loooove, but I did like. Very peachy to my palate. Not as light and fruity as my previous riesling experiences, but definately a likeable wine that goes with lighter meals.

Henry of Pelham Baco Noir 2005: 4.5 moans of ecstasy out of 5. It's a lovely deep red, and tastes earthy and smokey with a long finish. Oh yes! Love love love! Had it tonight with a dinner of foccacia-stuffed artichokes and chicken sauteed with Italian Seasoning, 2 kinds of mushroom, shallot and fiddleheads. This wine really suited the earthiness of our Italian meal. Magnifico!

I did repeat the Mission Hill Pinot Noir last week for dinner with dad. Damn good wine!

I'll try to be more prompt about recording my wine experiences in the future. Had an art show this past weekend, which kept me hoppin and away from my computer. It was awesome! I made a small fortune and treated myself by purchasing 4 lovely bottles of wine from the Bradford LCBO, which of course can't be had in Midland.

Good news dollies! I go to the good ol' U.S. of A next week, and my partner in crime and road trip buddy Karen has suggested we go to a winery on our travels. Happy day! I'll try and post from the road!

All of the wines listed above were purchased at the LCBO for $24.95 or less.

Til next time,

Barb