Wine Show Wind Up--Part 5

Have you ever tried raw milk cheese?  I'd never really give the whole raw milk/raw milk cheese thing much thought until I tried some at the show.  Apparently some folks really have their knickers in a knot over the whole raw milk product thing.  If this is all new to you, I'll give you the Cole's notes version on both sides of the argument:

-People who like raw milk products say unpasteurized milk is healthier for you, as helpful nutrients and organisms are killed by pasteurization (that's a fancy word for boiling milk and cooling it down really quickly).  They also say raw milk/raw milk cheese is more digestible and tastes better than pasteurized, and that for hundreds of years people have enjoyed milk this way so what's the bfd already?  Discussion boards on the subject are plastered with comments like "I've drank raw milk all my life and it never did me any harm" or "I never had stomach problems until I moved from the farm to the city and started drinking pasteurized milk" etc etc.. Lots of cheese in European countries is made with raw milk, where the rules are more loosey goosey than here in North America.  These folks argue too that artisan farmers that produce raw milk are cleaner and more careful than evil factory farms.

-People against raw milk products say "Fools!  Have you forgotten that TB and e.coli and listeria killed all kinds of people pre-pasteurization?  The olden days weren't necessarily better you know!" One elderly discussion board participant brought the message home by recalling a story from her youth, of how her mother died and she and her sister became seriously ill by drinking TB infected raw milk. Our government (Canada) forbids the sale of raw milk, but hard raw milk cheeses are perfectly legal, if they've been aged a minimum of 60 days, and farmers can drink raw milk from their own farms.  As for taste, anti-raw milk persons argue that raw milk is simply higher in fat, which would account for why some people find it richer tasting.

My big, fat opinion is this: I get why the government forbids it.  Harm reduction on a large scale is always their biggest concern, particularly when it comes to health and epidemics.  Laws are made to protect the many, not the few, I get it.  But, I don't see why a fully informed person with a desire to drink raw milk couldn't source out a clean, disease-free farm of their choice and go for it.  One could argue that alcohol and gambling machines pose an even greater social threat, and yet the government is our 'dealer' in both these cases.  Could raw milk not come with a warning, a la cigarette packaging?  ANYWAY...

I did try the most exquisite raw milk cumin-infused Gouda at the show, and guess what?  I'm still here!  In fact I think I'm better off for having it; this cheese was so good it has made me absolutely determined to go and investigate raw-milk cheeses further.  It took all my willpower not to run off with the half-wheel sitting on the sample table in front of me.  Made by Adam and Hanny van Bergeijk of Mountainoak Farm in New Hamburg Ontario, this cheese was seriously, seriously to die for.  Their black truffle Gouda was outstanding too.  Adam and Hanny have been making cheese for a looooong time, first in Holland (they know a little something about making cheese over there!) and now here in Ontario.  These nice people are moving, so their cheeses won't be available until later in the year.   Email them at mountainoak@can.rogers.com to find out when/where you can buy their insanely supple, flavourful cheeses.  Below is a clip of Adam talking about Mountainoak cheese:



Next on Wine Show Wind Up--How Sweet It Is: Dad and I drink Sauternes!

Wine Show Wind Up--Part 4

I have not yet had a bad bottle from Ontario's Malivoire winery.  Doubters of Ontario wines take note, Malivoire consistently delivers good wine at a very good value.  And that's kind of what it's all about, isn't it?  I mean, we'd all drink the Mouton-Rothschilds and Chateau d'Yquems if we won the 6/49, but most of us can't afford expensive or even mid-range priced wines on a regular basis.  We want the best wine we can afford; if all we can part with is $10, it should be the best damn $10 bottle we can find.  I've had $30 and $40 bottles that don't hold up to Malivoire's $15 offerings.  So it should be no surprise at all that I was very enthusiastic about the samples enjoyed at the wine show.
Malivoire sampled their Guilty Men red and white, Ladybug rosé and Gamay; I partook in the red and Gamay.  I've had Guilty Men red before, so I just had a little sip and let Lorri and Karen slurrup those samples up (which they liked very much); then it was the straight up Gamay for me.  Wowee!!  I was expecting something much fruiter and lighter but this had a wonderful intense spiciness to it, coupled with deep, ripe red berry flavours.  DELICIOUS!  Malivoire, you've done it again *pat pat pat*  I think you would all do very well to put a bottle or two in your wine racks this spring.  This wine would be superb at a bbq!!  I just popped over to their website, and the '08 Gamay is $17.95/bottle, but you have to purchase at the winery or order a case online.  It'd worth it going splitsies with one or two people on a case of this one!

Here's the winery website: http://www.malivoire.com/ 

Next on Wine Show Wind Up--Raw Milk Cheeses by Dutch-Canadian Dairy farmers.  Are you salivating?  : )

xoxo

Barb

Wine Show Wind Up--Chablis and Oysters Video

Watch me eat oysters and drink Chablis above, then run out and find your own.

xo

B.

Wine Show Wind Up--Part 3

In one of my favourite cookbooks--Obsessions, by the Two Fat Ladies--Jennifer Patterson describes oysters as "..lovely, like kissing a mermaid!"  She is, of course, dead on in her description.  Oysters are as delicious as they are ugly; I think its such an odd coincidence that a food so scrumptious should look like a giant booger, and I can only imagine that the first man to eat an oyster did it on a dare (this would be one of those rare circumstances where the dare didn't horribly backfire!). 

My first introduction to oysters was from my dad and sister. Years ago they brought me to Rodney's Oyster Bar in Toronto, where you can buy every critter that crawls the sea for your gastinomic delight.  We ate tray upon tray of oysters, washed down with raspberry wheat beer from the Kawartha Lakes brewery.  Heaven!  It was there I learned the finer points of oyster cuisine, comparing East and West coast offerings, experimenting with dabs of horseradish and squirts of lemon.  I have to say I am content with absolutely no garnish on my oyster at all; straight up in a puddle of its own juice is just fine with me!  I am partial to Malpeques above all others, and East coast oysters over West coast, but if anyone wishes to challenge me on this please feel free to fly me out to Conneticut or Galway Bay or anywhere else and I'll happily gobble up the challenging oysters for a comparison!

Lorri was the first to spot the giant banner reading OYSTERS at the wine show, and with a crazed gleam in her eye, she ran knees-up across the floor to secure her place in line.  While Lorri was busy loading up on Malpeques, I beelined to the Vintages preview booth just 10 paces away, where I got everyone a nice glass of Drouhin Vaudon Les Clos Chablis Grand Cru 2008.  I'd been dreaming of this moment.  The moment where I'd finally, finally get to have oysters and Chablis together.  I'd had both multiple times, but seperately, and I knew that there could not be a more perfect food pairing in the world.  You often hear of folks pairing oysters and champagne, and that's just fine, but nothing could possibly be more perfect than a knobby, plump, cold oyster--maybe with a teeny squeeze of lemon--followed by a mouthful of stoney, seashelly Chablis.  For the uninitiated, Chablis, a region of Northern Burgundy, used to be entirely under the sea.  The tiny town of Chablis and it's immediate area make the most stunning unoaked chardonnay.  The wine is kept in steel or cement tanks, preserving that wonderful seashell flavour.  The best Chablis is like a razor's edge-- bone dry; it's a sharp balance between minerality and lemony-citrus flavours.  This particular sample fit the bill perfectly, and I can tell you there was a lineup for samples at the booth as word got out.  In fact, the shelf in the neighbouring LCBO store had just two bottles left when we went wine shopping at the end of day, and I don't imagine they had any to pack up and take back with them at the end of show.  No small achievement at $75/bottle!

So there we were, hunkered down at a cafeteria-style table having this otherworldly experience.  Funny, I'd always pictured myself having oysters and Chablis for the first time in some posh bar or restaurant, not out of a plastic container in a food court.  No matter; nothing could have diminished the extrasensory delight of eating these two foods together.  I just feel bad that poor Karen, who detests all seafood.  She had to endure a table full of fishy blobs and discarded shells while Lorri, Dad and I moaned and went on and on about how wonderful it was!

Before I sign off, I will say that I tried another wine at Vintages preview that would also appeal to Chablis lovers.  Domaine Jean-Marc Les Caillerets Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru 2007--phew, that's a mouthful!  But what a nice wine!  It's from further south than Chablis, in Burgundy still, and was more peachy and floral than the Chablis, but still very refreshing.  Like Chablis, but muscled up with fruit a bit.  Again, $75/bottle, so maybe it's a birthday gift to self.

The LCBO #'s for these wines are:  222133 for the Drouhin Vaudon and  205955 for the Domaine Jean-Marc Morey.  These wines are not available quite yet, but look for them later this spring.

Next on Wine Show Wind Up: Malivoire!  I swear they are one of Ontario's most reliable wineries! 

xoxo

Barb

Wine Show Wind Up--Part 2

Okay, so I've already got you hungry for cheese after singing the praises of Thornloe's Camembert and blue goat cheeses (not to mention those curds!  Anne, you're so right!  All others are pretenders to the throne!  And yes, they do squeak!  The squeakiness is all part of the pleasure of eating them.).  But what to wet your whistle with whilst enjoying your creamy blue?  Lucky for us, across the aisle from cheese heaven was the Fielding Estate Winery booth, where we got our mitts on a sample of their upcoming pinot gris. 

I love pinot gris! I don't think I've met a pinot gris/grigio that I haven't liked.  True story, I used to pronounce it pinot 'grig-ee--o', because I am so very, very lame when it comes to languages.  I have trouble saying 'haute couture' too.  It's a disability, I swear.  ANYWAY, no matter how you say it, pinot gris is always soooo refreshing.  It's great for starters and goes with so much.  And this particular example is extra yummy AND it comes from Ontario, so isn't that a nice bonus (I'm looking at you Lorri!)?  Fielding's offering was very honey and citrusey, and tasted really fresh and lovely in the kind of way that you could sip through a bottle in no time.  There was a lovely acidity to it too, that'd cut through those fatty cheeses making for a nice balance.  Now tsk tsk to Fielding Estates for not providing any vintage information, but cheers for giving us the where's and when's and how muches: you can find Fielding Estates Pinot Gris at the LCBO starting in May, LCBO number 223610, and it'll cost you $18.95 for a bottle (nice price!).

Tomorrow on Wine Show Wind Up: Chablis and Malpeques--I can finally cross this one off my bucket list!

xoxo

B.

Wine Show Wind Up--Part 1

Okay peeps, you might think I've been neglecting my wino duties, but if you do you're WRONG!  Nooooo, in fact, I've been a drinkin' and testing and trying loads of the good stuff.  It's all for you, you know.  I don't want you to waste your hard earned dough on something crummy.  See, I'm only thinking of YOU *guffaw guffaw*.

This past weekend I was sipping and stumbling at the Toronto Wine and Cheese Show.  I was accompanied by my three main winos: Karen, Lorri and Dad, man, did we have a good time!  I have so, so, so much to write about, I'm going to have to do it in installments.  I figure we tried at least 20 wines, and noshed on lots of goodies too, so I'm breaking up these posts to make things more organized.

First on the Wine Show Wind Up list: Thornloe Cheese.  Thornloe Cheese is a 70+ year old institution, and part of my family history.  I was thrilled to see them front and centre at the show!  Thornloe is a teeny zibbity-zibbit of a town North of New Liskeard.  When we were kids, my folks would pack us into the car and make the monthly trek from our suburban home in the South, back to the North for a visit with parents and siblings.  We would always break our trip at Thornloe Cheese; in fact, on the ride up it was one of the signals that our journey wouldn't be *too* much longer.  We would get loads of the most delicious cheese curds; I've tried many since but none have ever been as good as Thornloe's.  They also made ice-cream that was better than anything you could ever get at the grocery store (and probably still is). 

And there they were, Thornloe Cheese at the Wine and Cheese show.  Dad was tickled!  And I'm happy to report they are still making top quality cheese, using local fresh milk.  We parted with a few of our show tickets to try their artisinal cheese and WOW.  The standout for me was Evanturel, an ultra-creamy Camembert that has a slightly earthy quality.  We also tried a blue cheese--I think it was blue goat cheese--that was lovely.  And good news, my foodie friends: you can buy Thornloe cheeses online at www.thornloecheese.ca .  Isn't that good news?  Ps. Dad, if you're ordering, buy me a bag of cheese curds.  I want to make sure they're as good as I remember.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about a wine that would go brilliantly with either of the above mentioned cheeses. 

xo

B.

The bottle said "Drink Me."

I had the strangest dream...

I dreamt I broke out into a million hives.  Only it wasn't hives.  It was a thousand tiny little oak barrels.  I panicked, thinking I was having an allergic reaction to something, so I ran for the antihistamine.  Only by the time I got the medicine, the 'oak barrels' were already subsiding.  The allergic reaction that caused my oak barrel rash was already beginning to fade.  I took the antihistamine anyway, just to be on the safe side.

What does this dream tell us?  It says:

a) I think too much about wine.

b) I should refrain from snacking before bed.

c) When a little girl sneaks into 'the middle' after a bad dream, she will pinch and slap you all night, making your sleeping self believe you are having an allergic skin reaction.

After a non-stressful day of playing dollies with my daughter, doing laundry and catching giant snowflakes on our tongues whilst walking to town, I am relaxing with a bottle of Pecchenino 2005 San Giuseppe Barolo.  Barolo is still pretty much uncharted territory for me, but I am willing to explore further if future offerings are as delicious!  It has very pleasing licorice, raisin and red currant flavours, with very smooth tannins.  Nom nom!  Not cheap, if I remember correctly (I think it was in around the $40 mark), but so worth it!

Short and sweet, my pretties.  Next time, I will explore the origins of winegums!

xo

B.

Beware, it'll kick your ass...

Just 2 posts for the entire month of February.  Pathetic.  Miserably pathetic.  Wretchedly, miserably pathetic.  Wretchedly, miserably, inexcuably pathetic.  You get my drift.

If I were a smart wino I would have written this down as it happened, but seeing as my fingers have had a case of the lazies, here's a recap of last month's drink and foodables:

-Karen and I made homemade ravioli a few weeks ago, and I now have a homemade pasta fetish.  Making your own pasta isn't hard; it's just time consuming when you're doing more involved things like stuffing ravioli.  Fettucine would be a breeze!  Still, how zen is it to hang in the kitchen for hours, drinking wine, rolling out pasta and preparing the filling.  We had butternut squash with goat cheese and sage.  Proud to say there was no ravioli leakage this time around.  I absolutely couldn't tell you what we drank; sadly it wasn't memorable, but the rest of the meal was. 

-Realizing I had 5 turkeys in my freezer, I brined one in wine, cranberry and orange.  Hell yes!  I love brined turkeys, you can't fuck them up.  You could cook them within an inch of their lives and they'd still come out perfectly brown and moist as can be.  Also for the first time I overcame my turkey dyslexia.  I have a special talent for roasting turkeys upside-down.  I am aware of it and I still do it.  I think to myself " Self, take the turkey, and put it in the pan the way you think it should go, then do the opposite."  I do this every time, and every time I cook that bastard breast side down.  This time I didn't!  Not only did my turkey turn out gorgeous, I had a wonderful wine to go with it: Masi Costasera Amarone Classico 2006.  This was my first amarone; I learned this wine is made with corvina, rodinella, molinara and negrara grapes.  They are picked super-late so the grapes are busting with sugar.  Then they're spread out and left to dry a bit so the sugar is even more concentrated.  The result is massively concentrated flavours and very high alcohol content. Freaking incredible.  Italy, Italian winemakers, I heart you.  I heart you a lot.  Flavours are a mix of earthy, raisiny, spicy goodness.  Just beware and take care; amarone will kick your ass.  One glass is enough.  Two glasses and you'll lose your underpants.  Three glasses and you'll call your ex-best friend at 2 a.m.  Beware.

-Loving the Masi amarone, I ran out and bought another: Tesdeschi 2006.  Know what?  It was kind of a let down.  At 15.5 % alcohol, I am surprised I have any eyebrows left this wine was so hot.  My tongue was instantly paralyzed.  I just couldn't taste the nuances with a tongue so immobilized by alcohol.  Is this what Newfie screech is like?  I even tried it with strong cheese, as you're supposed to do.  No luck.  At least I don't have to landscape any nose hair for awhile...

-Left over turkey turned into homemade turkey ravioli.  My wee girl had a cold, so I kept her home from school one day, and we spent the afternoon making ravioli--she was in charge of cheese, I did the meat.  This was awesome fun for us both.  She's one of those craft-loving kids who can spend hours doing fiddly things, so this was right up her alley.  How proud was she when her daddy said "You made this?  It's delicious!"  We have a young foodie in the making.

-Visited Dad this week who was quick to open a bottle of Franciscan 2006 Merlot.  Why is merlot out of fashion?  I don't get it.  Merlot is totally easy to drink.  This one had a nice, vanilla oakey flavour.  Note to self (and to all): do not brag about being an anti-merlot snob.  Not only will people think you're behaving like a self-important douchebag, but you'll also be missing out on some very yummy wine.

-Lorri, my brilliant sister who's taking a course at Harvard (that never gets old), went back to Cambridge for a week and had drinks with Eileen, our favourite wine steward.  Eileen, modest Eileen, who I hear is shy about being mentioned in this blog, to which I say phooey, Eileen, you are wonderful and wonderful at what you do and it's all because you LOVE wine as much as anyone can.  Lorri brought back two very special bottles for me to try: a 20 year old white Rioja (it has netting, just like the wine bible said it would!  Squee for authenticity!) and a 5 year old Barolo, which I'm not sure if I'll drink or hold.  Lorri tried and loved both, and said the barolo was pretty muscley, so I *might* hang onto that one for another year *if* I can stand the suspense.

March: wine show, poeple!  Cheese and wine show at the international centre in Toronto!  If you're a Wine Align member you get $5 off of tickets bought online!  So buy your tickets online already!  And don't drink too much Guinness on St.Patrick's Day, because the show starts the very next day!

Done fer now.  Stay tuned for Cambridge wine reviews!

B.