Sparklies for the New Year!

Hello hello my sweetie peaches!

Here we are, another Christmas over and the New Year looms right around the corner.  I am actually for the first time in years going to a real, live, grown-up party on New Year's Eve.  No Dora or Mario Bros. or cheese-only pizza--a real party with real adults.  Okay, we might BEHAVE like children after a drink or two, but that's what parents do when there are no kids to mind.  But I'm getting ahead of myself; I should talk about Christmas wine...

So between my dad, my sister and I, there was more wine than you could wave a poopy stick at this Christmas.  I tasted my sister's Cab Sauv but didn't catch the name (was it the Bonterra organic?  Help me, sister!).  After that my dad and I tucked into the Cave Spring Riesling, which was everything apricoty and yummy as it always is (Dad said it reminded him of his trip to Germany).  Following that, we all made short work of the Cuvée Catherine Sparkling Rosé (Brut).  And when that was all gone, we mmm'd and ahhh'd over a CduP that Lorri brought, and again I didn't catch the name.  I wasn't paying much attention to labels; I was having too good a time!  But what a wonderful way to wheedle away the day, drinking delicious wines, laughing, playing music and lots of talking.  Since then, I've only tried one other wine--Karen and I split a bottle of Malivoire's Guilty Men 2008 Red today while watching Young Victoria.  I think the only thing Malivoire is guilty of here is over-exaggerating on their back label, which reads: "Roguishly fruity, cunningly dry, guilefully supple and wickedly good, Guilty Men Red is for all occasions."  I didn't find much that was roguish or cunning about this wine; it was good, not great, and now it's gone.  I liked their other red blend much better, to tell you the truth. 

But back to New Year's Eve; I'm having trouble deciding which sparkly to bring!  The Henry of Pelham's Cuvée Catherine Sparking Rosé Brut was very dry, pretty and quaffable---inexpensive too (I think the bottle was less than $30).  But I am secretly hoping I can find a bottle of that Mumm's Napa at our LCBO; I had it earlier this year and truly loved it.  Or, maybe this is the time to try something else, like Spanish Cava or Italian Asti.  There's a sparkling red I'm very curious to try, though I haven't any hope of finding it here I'm sure; red Spumante from Piedmont is made from barbera or nebbiolo and is apparently quite delicious. I here German Sekt can be very refreshing (I'll have to find out for myself someday). Crémant and sparkling Saumur come from France's Loire region; they're made in the same method as Champagne, but usually with chenin blanc instead of pinot noir.  Australia, South Africa and New Zealand all make sparkling wine too.  I guess what I'm trying to illustrate here is that one need not break the bank on French Champagne when there are so many other kinds of sparklies from the world over.  If you try something fizzy and different this New Year's Eve, do tell me about it  I would love to hear about your bubbly wine experiences!

I'm off to give myself a facial and do all of those other prettying-up things a girl does before a party.  But before I do, I will leave you with a big HAPPY NEW YEAR!  And please, if you're marinading yourselves from the inside-out with sparkling wine or any other alcoholic beverage this New Year's Eve, don't drive.  I think you'd have a very hard time keeping up with my blog from prison if you do, and those jumpsuits are so drab!

Kiss kiss,

B.

Odds and sods, or should I say drips and drops?

Too many days between posts means I'll be rambling about a mish-mash of catch-up news. 

I am the elated new-owner of a 33 bottle capacity wine fridge!  Oh Santa, you shouldn't have!  Does this mean I will start buying Bordeaux futures now that I have a safe place to put them?  Probably not, but I could if I wanted too (My new temperature-controlled fridge will allow me to store wine at a perfect 55 degrees).  No, what I will likely do is endeavour to fill it with as many different kinds of wine as possible, so I always have the right wine for the right occasion.  I know 33 bottles will seem piddly to some of you folk, but if I reserve the fridge for special 'I'll drink them later' wines and use my wine rack for more immediate- drinking wine, I could end up with a nice little stash.  I'll be quite happy to slowly, thoughtfully fill the fridge over the course of the year.  There's no rush.  Although I say that right on the heels of a little spending spree at the liquor store...

...or rather, I should say my Dad's spending spree at the liquor store.  I was just there to point at stuff for him to put in the cart.  Last Saturday morning, I got a call at 9 o'clock from my mother.  "We're in your driveway.  Dad wants to go to the lcbo."  Sure, what the hell, nothing like shopping for wines and spirits first thing in the morning! It was unexpected, but I was very happy to go on this little field trip; I've wanted to wine shop with my dad for a long time.  He doesn't get out a whole lot, and he loves wine, and I think that he loves that I love wine too.  So away we went to check out the Penetang lcbo for the first time.  People, I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but the Midland liquor store actually has a better wine selection than Penetang.  Although this is not much of an accomplishment; I am really just surprised that it can get worse.  The 'Welcome to Penetanguishene' sign should have " I heart Rye" written over it.  Their Vintages 'section' is a round rack with about 12 wines, plus and aisle end-cap full of ice-wine.  Dad was in fine form, stocking up on his wine for the year; I'd say, "This wine is yummy" and he'd say "Get 4." What a rock star!  Dad is donating a portion of our haul to my wine rack as an early 'not-a-Christmas-present' present, so Dad, if you're reading this--THANK YOU!  And I promise to take you to Barrie for our next wine spending spree.

It's the middle of the night, and I am up because I've been very bad...in a good way.  I spent the day with Karen.  My son Neil brought his new video camera, so the kids spent the day making a movie, pretending they were in Egypt, running around, squealing and talking with British accents (?!), whilst the mummies ate Brie and Camembert on baguette slices and gabbed.  We slowly enjoyed the bottle of Domaine du Haut des Terre Blanche 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape (gorgeous!  Every yummy thing a CduP should be) over the course of the day, and finished it off with a dinner of boeuf bourguignon, followed by red velvet cheesecake.  Lawd I am so, so, SO lucky to have a friend like Karen.  Not only is she pretty much awesome in every way, I am learning a lot about food and cooking from her.  I will never, ever be able to match her mad skills in the kitchen, but I will happily benefit from them as often as she will allow.  Of course I made a complete pig of myself, and am now up rambling in the middle of the night with too much food in my belly.  Methinks I see an hour on the cross trainer in my immediate future.

Alright, I should try and sleep.  Nite nite peeps,

Barb

Garnacha.  Garnacha, Garnacha, Garnacha, Garnacha, Garnacha. 
Did you every take a word and repeat it until it just sounds like a bunch of nonsense?  Usually you pick something familiar, like your name, but it's fun with Garnacha.  Garnacha, Garnacha, Garnacha.  And NO, I'm not drunk, I'm just a deep thinker like that.

With over 5000 grape varietals in the world, there's plenty of wine names out there for us to make fun of.  Cork'd lists a ton of grapes on their website; my favourites to snicker over are:

Garnacha
Albalonga
Juhfark
Bastardo
Scuppernog
Uva Rara
Blauburgunder
Dinka
Foch
Gaglioppo
Hondarribi Zuri
Ladikino
Rotberger

Mmmm, pass me some of that delicious Rotberger.

Okay, back to Garnacha.  I had a little spendy spree at the Midland LCBO a couple of nights ago.  Pigs are surely flying, because they actually had some new and interesting pickins this go 'round.  Must be on account of the holidays being right around the corner; they're stocked up on lots of 'gifty' wines and spirits.  Usually their Vintages section has lots of $20 meh-to-okay wine, but they've taken it up a notch with some good looking offerings in the $40-$50 range.  I bought some Brunello, some Rioja, some Barbaresco and--you guessed it--Garnacha (Grenache to you and me).  Specifically, Las Rocas 2008 Garnacha, which I've since tried.  Las Rocas is from Spain, which is a region I have no experience with; this is the bottle that took my Spanish wine virginity! It was a very unusual wine for me; it tasted a lot  like Grenadine or kirsch, and a bit of licorice too.  Unfortunately it didn't really go with any of the food I paired it with, and I might not choose to drink it on its own as it's pretty high in alcohol (14.1%).  I'm glad to have the opportunity, and I probably will have another glass tonight, but I won't be repeating my purchase with this one. 

Garnacha Albolonga everyone!

Barb

And the winner is....

Allison Menegoni--you win the knuckle duster corkscrew!  Congratulations!  Thank you very much to all who entered; I truly enjoyed reading your wine anecdotes. 

Allison-- you're a rock star!  I'll be contacting you shortly.  Everyone else--if you haven't had the chance to read the winning entry, please enjoy the following:

"It was 1995 and I was piss-poor, living in the heart of the Okanagan Valley wine region in Penticton, British Columbia, working as a server at a local restaurant.



In a desperate effort to educate the slightly hooligan-esque serving staff, our Manager had convinced a Vintner from one of the local wineries to offer us a wine tasting. We were duly seated, a polite, albeit ignorant audience of twenty, breathless in the anticipation of getting hammed for free on a weekday at 10am.


The Vintner was a tall, elegant woman with sharp features and expensive shoes. We were captivated by this strange and alien creature. It all started smoothly. She taught us how to hold our glasses, how to swirl and marvel at the sugary legs, and how to enjoy the bouquet of the wine by sticking one’s entire snot-locker right into the glass. We were impressed.


For the first while, we followed correct wine-tasting etiquette; a few refined sips from the vintage being presented, then into the swill bucket with the remainder. A new glass, a new wine. Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Chianti, Cabernet… this was the “No Wine Left Behind” tasting.


We were well on our way to being nicely drunk when the tasting took a left turn.


The Vintner, having really hit her stride, took a particularly enthusiastic slurp of wine and held it in her mouth, drawing air over it with the classic wine snob’s “puckered slurp”. We looked on with mild interest as the unfortunate Vintner then got a panicked look on her face. Her colour went increasingly deeper shades of crimson, and then she choked completely, blowing a firehose of wine out of her nose, soaking both her delicate white blouse, and the entire first row of her audience in a jaunty Beaujolais.


The tension broken, we cheered with delight, losing whatever faux-dignity we had managed to pull off to that point, clapping and hooting wildly. Mayhem ensued. Bottles were passed mouth to mouth as we milled around, hysterical with giggles, stealing bottles off each other’s tables.


After blowing her nose in a tea-towel the completely flustered Vintner tried to regain order, but it was no use. I signaled the formal end to the wine tasting by standing on a chair, tipping a swill bucket up to my lips and drinking the contents.


It had been a very educational wine-tasting indeed."
 
My hero!
 
'Til next time,
 
Barb
 
 

Edible Hibiscus

My hibiscus and champagne cocktail.  La-di-da!

You know when you have one of those really, really crummy days, and then something extra shitty happens to turn it up a notch?  That was my day yesterday.  I was at my store, not feeling at my most chipper, and when a customer needlessly freaked out at me.  I was ready to say "That's enough of this day, I'm going to the pub!", when my husband talked to said customer, and you know what?  The same person who had just yelled at me a half-hour before was as sweet as pie to my hubby.  I know, wtf, right?

A woman had just wandered into the store and the following is an abbreviated excerpt from our following conversation:

Trevor: (laughing into phone) Okay!  Bye now!

Me: Was that X on the phone who just yelled at me?

Trevor: Yup.  X is fine.

Me: (incredulous) What the hell?  Why was X nice to you? (To lady who just walked in) Excuse my language, but what an xxxhole!

Customer:  Ha ha!  You sound like me!

Me:  Good!  Then what I meant was "What a xxxxing xxxhole!"

Customer:  X probably has small xxxxx syndrome.

And thus a friendship was born..

Bindy is a New Zealand transplant, a gorgeous and funky designer-type who is just one of those great people you instantly get along with.  We gabbed for 40 minutes or so; she is hilarious and interesting and she enthused about her new favourite treat: edible hibiscus.

Edible hibiscus is this neat little flower from Australia that you can eat.  They're preserved in a cane-sugar syrup (the syrup taste is a lot like grenadine).  You pop one of these little lovelies into your champagne flute, pour in your bubbles and the flower unfurls.  Streams of bubbles rush up from the blossom, making it extra pretty.

Bindy was good enough to come back later and bring me some hibiscus from her own stash (THANK YOU!!), and I immediately had Trevor pick me up a small bottle of bubbly so I could conduct my own taste test.  Now Trevor picked a sweet champagne, so the concoction turned out as sweet as a soft-drink; I would recommend something drier if you're going to try it yourself.  Still, it was a lovely little sweet treat; I imagine you'd enjoy this the same way you would icewine--a little with dessert to finish off the evening.  With a drier champagne, this would make a nice starter to go with apps.

A cozy night in with hibiscus champagne was the perfect antidote to my blahs.  Thanks Bindy for making me laugh, and introducing me to this very tasty, pretty treat.

If you are interested in buying edible hibiscus, this is a good place to start.

'Til next time,

Barb

Pffft. Big deal. Let's see her do it with a magnum of champagne.

Prepare to laugh hard.  Sort of NSFWish.  Enjoy.

Amendment

Hey kids,

Just read a little thank-you from Peller Estates for including their Ice Cuvée Rosé in my top 12 wines of the year.  I have happy news--I made a mistake!  You do not have to go to the winery if you want to purchase this wine.  You can buy it from Peller Estates online--thank you!  Here's the link: http://www.peller.com/niagara/product-details.php?Products_Category_ID=&options_ID=3&options_values_ID=621&Products_ID=489

I guess I know what I'm drinking this New Year's Eve.

xoxo

Barb

Barb's Top 12 of 2010

All of the following wines receive 10/10 on Barb's Alan Rickman Scale of Wine Worthiness.

Here we are. December. The months have whizzed by and Christmas is at our door. I’ve spent the better part of this year trying as much new wine as my liver and pocketbook could stand. I know it’s not quite over yet, but now is as good a time as any to reflect on my top 12 wines of 2010. These are my most memorable wines of the year; some by virtue of what I was doing at the time I tried them, all by virtue of how they tasted. Counting down from 12, they are:

12. Malivoire 2008 Red. What value! This Merlot, Gamay and Cabernet blend was super juicy with hints of cedar, oakey vanilla and spice. Definitely wins the 2010 Most-Bang-for-your-Buck Award.



11. Chimères Chateau Saint-Roch 2007. This wine taught me that Grenache, Syrah and Carignan mixed together is sexy-times in a bottle. Toasty, spicy, lush wine, (picked by Karen), I’d be happy to drink it all winter.



10. Mission Hill Pinot Blanc (no vintage on menu, my guess it was 2008). I tried this grape for the first time in the most excellent pasta restaurant ever in Quebec City. I was really surprised at how this wine was both refreshing and sweet at the same time. It made me want to try more Pinot Blanc (and mark my words, I will!).



9. Il Coroncino Fattoria 2007. A Verdicchio from a winery near Ancona, Italy. This wine really grew on me. It was a lovely golden yellow colour and was extremely refreshing to drink. It smelled like apples, nectarine and lime. Taste was wah-hoo! Racy, acidic, limey and slightly bitter in a curiously pleasing way.



8. Peller Estates Ice Cuvée Rosé. A present from Karen for watching her kids one weekend. I tried a lot of yummy rosé this year, but this sparkler was the standout for me. I wish, I wish, I wish I had a bottle right now! Can only be purchased at the winery (boo!), but gives us an excuse for a road trip to said winery (yay!).



7. Domaine du Haut des Terres Blanches 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape. Not my first introduction to the wines of this famous region, but definitely the best. Full of rich red fruit and deep caramel. Chewy, with a long finish with fascinating flavours that unfolded on my tongue. The most complex wine I’ve tried all year. Tasting this wine made me understand the obsession over region. I’ll try and find more for Christmas day.



6. Le Clos Jordanne (Grand Clos) 2008 Chardonnay. If you follow the blog, you’ll know I just posted about this wine in the entry previous to this one. I won’t go on about it, except to say THANK YOU to the winemakers at Le Clos Jordanne for making me love Chardonnay after having been burned by so many others.



5. Domaine Chevallier Chablis 2007. This is the first wine of the year that I remember going absolutely koo-koo-ka-ka for. Also the first unoaked Chardonnay I ever tried. I can practically taste the sea-shell minerality now. Drink it and you’re instantly transported to the ocean. A must have the next time I go on a seafood binge.



4. Fleur Pinot Noir 2007. Catherine Deneuve in a glass. So incredibly elegant. And yet there was a hint of that sunshine flavour that says “I am from California”. Like stepping into the most amazing, lush rose garden after the rain, I’d bathe in it if I could.



3. Cave Sprints Riesling Dolomite 2008. This ranks high on the list partly because I enjoyed it at the start of my road trip to Cambridge. Karen and I stopped in Jordan for lunch, and went to the winery restaurant. I could have sat there all day drinking the most gorgeous Riesling that ever touched my lips. I would have too, if we didn’t have to shake a leg and continue our travels south. I had it with a blue cheese and pecan spinach salad with Riesling poached pears. I remember ever bite. A great wine and a great memory.



2. Aia dei Columbi Falanghina 2008. I could weep just typing those words. What a wine! Lorri, Karen and I were in our room at the swankiest hotel imaginable in Harvard Square when we cracked this bottle. I remember how crazy excited we were upon the first sip. Beyond delicious with butter, cream and citrus flavours, it was unlike any wine I had ever tried. Falanghina is hard to find up here in the land of ice and snow, so I will make it one of my life’s missions to go to Campania, lie on the beach and drink nothing but Falanghina for a week. Yes, you can come too.



1. Was there ever any doubt? Belle Pente Yamhill-Carlton 2007 Pinot Noir is my #1 best wine of the year. I screamed. I jumped up and down. I paced. I raved like a lunatic. I took the lord’s name in vain about a hundred times. I’m sure the neighbours thought we were filming a porno by the sounds I was making. I called my sister and yelled into my cellphone for a half an hour about how good this wine was. If I hadn’t been at the cottage at the time, I would have immediately rushed to the airport, flown to Oregon, found Belle Pente, kneeled in the vineyard, bowed over and over again and chanted “I am not worthy! I am not worthy!” I truly, madly, deeply hope I get to try more from these amazing winemakers again. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but like Capt. Picard, I’ll just have to ‘Make it so.’



There was one Honourable Mention: Les Aphillanthes L’Ancestrale du Puits 2007 Carianne Côtes du Rhône-Village. The first Côtes du Rhône I loved (but not the last). The sultry, leathery, smoky Syrah blend makes me want to undo a few buttons and recline in front of the fire. Never, ever be without Côtes du Rhône in the wine rack—EVER.


And there it is. My bestest of the best. Six reds (including the honourable mention), six whites, one rosé. Two in the top five were Pinot Noir. French and Canadian wines dominated the list, and all but two wines were cool-climate. Clearly I like both refreshing and complex, spicy wines. I’m discovering my palate! This is progress!


In 2011 I’d like to branch out more into other parts of the world. I’ll endeavour to drink more from Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia--they are all on my short list. Okay, okay that’s a long list. But I’m in for a penny, in for a pound. I can’t stop now! Leave no grape untasted!

'Til next time,

Barb

Chardonnay Redemption

Chardonnay. It's like the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she's good she's very, very good, and when she's bad she is horrid (Unlike me. When I'm bad, I'm very, very, VERY good.).

I cannot think of a single wine that I have had more bad experiences with than Chardonnay. Some are downright hateful. Burning, fuming with alcohol, bitter as a runner-up in the Miss America pageant, bad Chardonnay will violate your taste buds and burn off your nose hair. Others are so oakey you might as well throw it to the beavers.

Can I tell you how elated, how overjoyed I am to have finally tried a truly wonderful Chardonnay? And it from ONTARIO. La!

Now if you'll remember, I was not fond of Le Clos Jordanne Pinot Noir.  But after trying their Chardonnay, I'm going to buy a bottle and give the Pinot Noir another chance.  Because the Chardonnay (Le Grand Clos 2007) was OUT OF SIGHT.  No lie.  Maybe I drank the Pinot Noir too early.  I'll tuck it in the wine rack and wait patiently for a year or two.

The Chardonnay is perhaps the most elegant wine I've experienced to date.  So perfectly balanced with mineral, fruit and buttery richness, the exact flavours are hard to put a finger on.  The mineral taste I can't describe, it's just not in my taste repertoire (until now).  The fruit seemed yellow/orange stone fruit, like apricots or yellow plums.  And there was a rich, not buttery but somehow like that flavour, somewhere in the caramel spectrum of things but I can't place it exactly.  Not honey, not butterscotch, not butter, but something really, really good.  Go find out for yourself; waggle down to the LCBO, plonk down two twenties and take a bottle home.  It's worth it.

Switching gears, I had the pleasure of having lunch with one of my favourite people--Mlle. Karen--at one of my favourite restaurants--The Explorer's Café.  Thank Dionysus for the Explorer's!  It's the only restaurant in town that cares about serving good, interesting wine.  And I am so pleased to report that along with their new lunch menu, they have some new wine.  I washed down my squid salad with Accuro Torrontés 2009.  Very floral and refreshing, and Torrontés is a new grape to me!  This is a signature grape in Argentina.  A little online snooping and I found photos of the winery:

I want to go to there.

Seriously, Mendoza, Argentina, sunshine, mountains, wine, me, forever...Heavy sigh.  I am ready for my wine adventure.

'Til next time,

Barb

Who's in?

Road trip, Prince Edward County, winery tour. Correction--Fifth Town Cheese factory is in PEC, so we'd have to make it a wine AND cheese tour. Perhaps an overnighter? We could finally go visit Long Dog and taste their Pinot Noir! Dates flexible. Who's in?

Visit here to learn more about Prince Edward County and its excellent wineries.

Ps. You've got 10 days to cobble together your contest entry! Tell me your most memorable wine experience for a chance to win a Knuckle-Duster Corkscrew! Post your story in the comments section here.

P.p.s. Happy Birthday James!

Well, we already know Chianti goes with human liver...

Apparantly Pinot Grigio is the appropriate choice for human brains. Who knew? If you don't believe me, watch this cartoon:



People, I am getting a kick out of reading the contest entries, so keep 'em coming! Enter by posting your most memorable wine experience in the comments section here, and you might wine the awesome Knuckle-Duster Corkscrew!

Happy December all! I've got lots planned for the blog this month, so keep checking in!

'Til next time,

Barb