This is what happens when you eat chili before bed.

Okay, before I get to the clip, a quick blurb about what I'm up to.  Light posts lately, I know, forgive please!  I am exhibiting in a trade show which starts Sunday, so there's a lot of scramble! scramble! in the month of January.  Also, I am behaving myself and eating super crazy healthy and drinking no more than 10 oz of wine per day, if at all.  Doesn't leave a whole lot of space for sampling, but I have very much enjoyed Generation Seven from Chateau des Charmes 2009 red this month.  When I first read the list of grapes that goes into the bottle, I thought someone had gotten a bit over-zealous in the lab--Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Gamay Noir.  I know!  Seems like a wacky combo, right?  In fact, it's really nummy.  This is one of those good value wines; I think I paid all of $12 for the bottle, and the wine totally overperforms for the price.  It's in the VQA section, so go find and enjoy.  Score one Ontario!

Okay, the real reason I got off my butt to post was to show you this.  I thought maybe I was having one of those dreams again, the kind you have when you eat chili or cheese right before bed.  Vincent Price as a polar bear selling wine coolers.  Because that makes sense, right?

Enjoy!

Toronto Wine and Cheese Show

Hell yes.

Folks, the Toronto Wine and Cheese show is coming up in March.  Do you think I can get John Szabo to autograph my bosom?

Ticket's are $15 in advance.  I'll be getting a hotel room nearby so we can wine and cheese without having to drive.  Who's in?

http://www.towineandcheese.com/

2011 Spring Show


Friday March 18 to Sunday March 20, 2011

International Centre, Hall 5

6900 Airport Rd., Mississauga

Friday: Noon - 10 p.m.
Saturday: Noon - 10 p.m.
Sunday: Noon - 6 p.m.

Wine shoe revisited

What a month so far!  Besides having a gold-star hangover on New Year's day, I managed to give myself food poisoning, and had a kid sick at home this week.  Oh, and there's a mountain of work to do before the gift show at the end of the month.  Needless to say, wine has not been on the menu for almost two weeks now.

Now that I've chased the evil micro-invaders out of my stomach, I should be back to wine reviewing in no time.  Meanwhile, I can't believe I forgot to tell you all this: at Christmas, I opened a bottle of wine with a shoe!  Remember that wine shoe video that was going around a few months ago?  Well, we were in a pinch with a broken cork, so I borrowed dad's shoe, headed out to the garage and gave it a go--and what do you know, it worked!

I will have to repeat for the video camera sometime, but meanwhile, please enjoy this drunk French dude doing the very same thing out on the street.  At around :51 he bends over to pick up his shoe, and I thought for sure he was going to land on his ass.  Apparently drunk Frenchmen weeble and wobble, but they don't fall down.

Enjoy!

The cure for champagne is...

...champagne!  And lots of it.  If you find yourself jonesing for the bubbly, do what Karen and I did on the first day of 2011 and kill four bottles of the sparkly stuff.  Guaranteed to make you not want anything bubbly for at least 4 days.  Or at least that"s true for some of us.  While I lay in bed having a near death experience, Karen popped in to coo and pat my head and feed me gingerale, with barely a scratch to her liver!  It's those good French genes, I tell you!  Karen, you were meant to drink champagne EVERY DAY, preferably on a chaise lounge, in a satin dress and feather mules.

ANYWAY, I reveal my champagne-drinking inadequacies not to garner any sympathy (I deserve none), but rather to share with all my lovely precious-doves (you) the different bubbles that led to my near-demise.  Now I've been saying champagne, but truthfully I don't think any of our bubbles were actually champagne!  Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now; we drank alternate bubblies on purpose to sample fare from different countries!  Starting with

MezzoMondo Sparkling Rosé from Italy



With nice, fine bubbles and all the yummy goodness of the berry patch, this off-dry sparkler was a nummy way to start the night.  When that bottle went bye-bye, we moved on to...

...Mumm's Napa Brut Prestige.  We've had this before, and I was looking forward to the repeat.  I swear on my life you can taste the sunshine in this wine!  Light as a fairy, fruity as a fashion designer. 

Next up we have Bottega Brut Prosecco from Italy...



The design on the bottle is a bit sperm-like, so I already know you sluts out there are going to be all over it *heh heh heh*!  But seriously folks, it truly was the best find of the night. (Know-Nothing wine education alert: Prosecco is the grape in this delicious offering.  According to Karen MacNeill's Wine Bible, Venetians quaff spumante prosecco every afternoon as a 'pick me up'.  How civilized!) This is what I would say is a good value wine.  It had lovely, never-ending fine bubbles, was just the right amount of dry and a pleasing acidity that made it very refreshing.  AND it was a mere $12.95!  Bargain!  I am making this my default sparkler until further notice.

Still adding to the mix, we tried a wee bottle of Freixenet Brut Cordon Negro Cava.  It's those little black bottles of sparklies you'll see at the cash counter in the LCBO.  This was my first foray into the world of cava.  I think I need to keep searching.  The most memorable thing about it was asking Trevor to please help me open this bottle (as I was beyond tipsy at this point), only to have him discover that underneath its faux plastic stopper lay a screw top!   Hardly any bubbles at all, and they were 'frog-eyes' at that (big, clumsy bubbles, not those lovely fine streaming bubbles you'll find it finer offerings).

Lastly was a bottle of President's (This was my affordable drink of choice as a young acting student.  I remember drinking the pink version once at a closing-night party for a play, and having a killer hangover the next day.). We intended it for orange juice, but what to do?  We had cleaned up our other fare.  So chug a lug.  And you know, it wasn't that bad.  Not really.  You could do worse.

I am much recovered, and frankly, not drinking ANY wine at all.  I have a feeling the next few posts will be largely academic, rather than actual wine reviews.  And that's ok, right?  I mean, it's the new year--we're all being a little extra good right now...at least for another 2 weeks until we all decide dieting and exercise in large doses is BORING and go back to our wicked ways.

Wicked me, signing off,

B.



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