I'm Cured

I've been playing with my new iPhone (sexy!) and snapped this pic of Jimmy eyeing up the dinner table. Bad boy! Get away from Mommy's wine!


I took my dose of Alan Rickman like a good sick wino, and lo and behold I'm back in the rosé! Happily no one else in my home has it (yay!), but unfortunately my Dad is now housing the angry tummy troll (boo!). So Dad, if you're reading this, get better and I'll bring you something delicious to drink.


Two fermented grape nectars have passed my lips recently, both from Ontario: one ok, the other MWAH! gorgeous! They're two from the haul Karen and I brought back from Barrie a couple of weeks ago. You should have seen us filling our shopping cart with Vintages wine. It was so full you could barely push it. None of it bargain wine either--nope! This was our holiday haul, and damned if we were going to be stuck with Midland LCBO wine as our only option. There were a few raised eyebrows as we went through the checkout with that assload of wine at 11 a.m., but phooey. It's not like we were buying two tallboys for breakfast (the Midland early bird special). This is for RESEARCH, haters! Research for my very important self-created imaginary project with no supervision, deadline or grades. So angry snaps to you!

ANYWAY, on with the wines! First up was Château des Charmes St. David's Bench Vineyard VQA 2008 Gamay Noir 'Droit'. Gamay Noir Droit, you ask? What is this Gamay Noir Droit? Well I'll tell you, it is in fact Canada's first 'vinifera'. Born in the Château des Charmes vineyard, Gamay Noir Droit matures more quickly than Gamay Noir, and has more colour and sugar. Okay, cool, but is it yummy? Sure. It has that characteristic berry fruitiness of Gamay, but is smokier, and more savory. The sweet and savory flavours together reminded me of teriyaki or spicy plum sauce. I'd try it again with Chinese food, just fer fun.

The next wine, and the real standout for me, was Malivoire 2008 Red. SISTER--pay attention! I know you think there is no worthwhile Ontario wine to be had, but this wine will change your mind, trust! I give this wine two thumbs up, one hell ya and one of these:



A blend of Merlot, Cabernet and Gamay, this wine has a lovely, juicy fruitiness to it, but enough tannin to give it a backbone. Cedar, a bit of oakey vanilla and spicy cocoa hit your palate too. AND its not a Vintages wine! It was only about $14, and regular LCBO stock (unless--you guessed it--you live in Midland. Sorry.). I think this wine is an extremely good value and I won't be sorry when a few more bottles find their way into my wine rack.


Playing with my new iPhone camera again. You're looking at tomorrow night's dinner. It's duck, marinading in a lovely bath of red wine, cranberry juice, cranberries, mint, fresh ginger, lemon, lime, orange and sea salt. Le drool. I'll let you know how it turns out.

In honour of being cured of the flu--and of a divine Ontario wine--I'll leave you with The Cure:

There's an angry troll in my tummy..

Oh flu, flu, why hath thou chosen me?

Absolutely nothing about wine in this post. Just a little eyeball medicine to help me feel a tiny fraction of a bit better.



See? I'm improving already...

'Til next time (when I evict the evil, stabbing troll from my belly),

B.

I Smell.

I have a huge honkin' nose. Not the long, elegant kind either. Nope, no ski-slopes here. I have one of those round, pudgy noses that resembles the GE lightbulb. If Karl Malden and Ginger from Gilligan's Island made a baby, it'd look like me.






Yup, that's me in a nutshell. Glamorous ain't it? It's probably just as well; I'm vain as it is already. If I had a pretty nose I'd be unbearable.

I've always detested 'Bulby', but besides keeping me humble (ha!), it turns out my honker has another, newfound purpose. If you guessed my crater nostrils are really good for trapping wine molecules, then ding! ding! ding! You win a prize (not really)!

My rudimentary research (me surfing the internet, drinking coffee and Bailey's instead of going to work) shows that our sense of smell is far more acute than our other senses. And women, it seems, can detect odours in smaller concentrations than men. My husband jokes that I can smell through time; I can detect dirty diapers and dog poops on the carpet before they even happen. I no longer have children in diapers (wahoo!), but I do have the joy of living with a farty Boxer named Jimmy, who fuels his butt-tank by doing things like eating a dozen butter tarts at a time (he's the ultimate food scavenger). Is it any wonder I shove my nose into a wine glass at any given opportunity?

I've threatened in previous posts to give my nose a workout, so today I'm going for it. I've been sticking my nose in all sorts of interesting things (get your mind out of the gutter). Things like hay and leaves, see?




I accidentally snorted cilantro up my nose (achoo!). I huffed chopped onion at dinner, to the bewilderment of my son. I practically got a grape tomato stuck up there. Coriander, I learned, smells like pickles. Fresh basil smells a little bit like licorice. Timothy hay smells really sweet (no wonder the guinea pigs love it.). And while I give my nose a major workout, I'm trying to peg the different scents by visualizing the thing that I'm smelling, so I won't struggle for the right word when I'm trying to describe wine.

While Bulby and I do our homework, please enjoy this vintage commercial of Ginger selling gasoline:



'Til next time,

Barb

Drink Your Medicine: Part 2

Hello gorgeous. You're looking young and fresh and lovely! It must be all of that red wine you're drinking! Well, pour yourself another glass and we'll continue our lesson on the health benefits of red wine.

So last go 'round I went on about sulphites and red, and now you know there's nothing to worry your pretty heads about. Unless you have extreme sulphite sensitivities, you're free to swish and slurp to your heart's delight. And now I have even better news: there's stuff in red wine that's actually good for you.

Surely by now you've heard of the French Paradox. Basically it's the term we use instead of saying "those skinny French bitches eat fois gras and drink all day without having heart-attacks or gaining an ounce." Well, one of the cornerstones of that theory has to do with the fact that the French drink way more red wine than the rest of us.

So what the heck is in our ruby-juice that makes it so healthy? For starters, there's a compound called resveratrol. It's found in the skins of red grapes, and is particularly more concentrated in cool-climate grapes (think Burgundy instead of Bordeaux--sorry, sister). Resveratrol has been proven to have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-obesity and blood-sugar lowering properties, as well as cardiovascular benefits. Animal studies show that resveratrol extends the life span of yeast cells, fruit-flies, fish, mice and rats (okay, granted we humans are a little more complex than the above list, although I do have a few ex-boyfriends who are about as complex as a yeast cell). Currently there are human trials studying the effectiveness of resveratrol on melanoma and colon cancers. And it's been shown to be an effective treatment for inflammatory arthritis. There's not a crazy huge amount of resveratrol in red wine, but the good news is that it's bio-availability is better than if you take it as a supplement. It's also better if you savour instead of guzzle, but that's true of fine wine anyway, n'est pas?

The good news doesn't stop there. Wine has anti-coagulant properties; a glass at night can help prevent a heart attack the following day (effects are only good for 24hours). Wine is also full of something called procyanidin, which is thought to be a powerful antioxidant, and helps to prevent fat absorption. Recent studies show moderate wine consumption can help to ward off dementia. And happily, the natural anti-bacterial properties in alcohol can keep you from getting the scoots when you're off in other countries eating weird food and drinking germy water.

Now I know I don't need to tell you people this, but I'll say it anyway: the benefits of drinking red wine are based on MODERATE consumption. Overdo it and you'll undo all of the helpful stuff by replacing it with all of the crap that comes along with binge drinking. So don't be a ding-dong and end up like your (circle one)
Crazy Uncle/Neighbour/English teacher/Friend's Mother who yells at Wheel of Fortune/Wears nothing but saggy underpants/drinks in his car during spare/calls you sweetheart and wants you to sit on her lap whilst kicking the dog/stealing your underpants off the line/sucking on 15 Altoids at a time/wiping the vomit off her shirt. This is not you. Be sensible about it. At least most of the time.

I bought SO MUCH good wine on Friday, and I'm dying to tell you all about it! I tried a new grape yesterday and I have much to say about it. But it'll have to wait until after I come out of my turkey coma. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Canadians!

'Til next time,

Barb

N.B. There's a ton of information on this topic in the internet ocean. Here's a couple of links for reference if you want to investigate further:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resveratrol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_and_health

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Paradox

Drink your Medicine: Part 1

Well my sweetie peaches, sharpen your pencils and put on your little plaid kilt, because you're about to have a lesson on the health benefits of red wine. There will be a test afterwards (by which I mean I will be testing the red wine in my glass to see if it's still delicious).

I have a beautiful, talented, charismatic friend named Laura. Laura and I were pretty good buddies in high school, and have recently re-connected through the modern miracle of time-wastery known as Facebook. Laura, besides being uncommonly pretty, is also a sister in wine-loving (she plays in an all-ukulele band too, which imo exponentially raises her cool quotient). Laura posted this on my wall:

"Hey Wino, I am wondering if you have had the chance to taste any Sulfite free organic wines? Having a hard time finding them and they are supposed to be the best thing to drink if you are trying to lose a bit of weight (which I am)."

Well Laura, I've seen your Facebook album. You don't need to lose anything in my opinion, but you did get me thinking about sulfites and the overall health benefits of red wine. So I did a little research (meaning I surfed the internet for an hour while eating cereal and avoiding work), and this is what I came up with.

Sulfites: the word is just a bit ominous, isn't it? This scary-sounding chemical ranks right up there with Mono sodium Glutamate in the healthy-sounding food additive department. There are those who claim that sulfites cause migraines, asthma, hives, racing heartbeat and seizures. In fact, there are few who have true sulfite allergies, but many who have sulfite sensitivity, to varying degrees. My sister teases me that she knows what kind of wine I'm drinking by the colour of my chest--red. True enough, my chest can become remarkably flushed when drinking wine, which is oh so attractive when you wear a shirt that allows for cleavage (it is a myth, however, that red wine contains more sulfite. In fact, sweet wines typically have the most sulfite, followed by white wine, and lastly, red). Sulfites are used as a preservative in a list of foods as long as Crystal Gayle's hair (we all know somebody who gets wheezy after visiting the salad bar--that's the sulfite keeping the lettuce from going brown). I will say that no where online could I find anything that suggested that sulfites make you fat. But, it stands to reason that sulfite-laden food could make you fat, because sulfites are used in heavily processed foods, and most heavily processed foods are not the healthiest choices. It's a bit of a stretch, but it's the best I've got.

When it comes to the most delicious of all liquid food--wine--bad news for sulfite-haters: it is virtually impossible to find wine that does not contain some sulfite. Why? Because sulfites are a natural by-product of the fermentation process. So even organic wines with no added sulfites still contain low-level amounts. And what about added sulfites? Are they evil? If you're not sulfite allergic/sensitive, then the answer is no. In fact, they're a wine-lover's friend. Sulfites have been added to wine for about 200 years or so as a preservative. They're added to put the breaks on the fermentation process, thus preserving wine's flavour and keeping it from turning to vinegar. Wine without sulfites can be unstable; their shelf life can be dramatically shorter, as they become prone to bacteria that causes spoilage.

In Part 2 I'll explain why red wine makes you healthier, younger and better-looking, and not just in your own mind either.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to test this glass of Baco Noir while listening to some ukulele music here:



'Til next time,

Barb

Mama's new toy came in...

...and it's not in my night table drawer, so get your mind out of the gutter.

No, my pets, it's my new wine wheel, see?


(Update Oct. 6: The Wine Aroma Wheel is Copyright 2002, A C Noble. Photograph Copyright 2010 B. Rowlandson. No part of the Wine aroma wheel or this photograph may be reproduced without permission).

What is a wine wheel, you ask? It's a clever little laminated, colour-coded wheel that helps you to describe wines you're tasting. The inner-circle of the wheel has general descriptors like Fruity, Herbaceous, Nutty, Caramel etc. The centre ring breaks down those descriptors a little further into more specific categories, ie. Fruity-->Citrus/Berry/Tree Fruit/Tropical Fruit/Cooked Fruit. The final outer ring pinpoints actual flavours, ie. Fruity-->Berry-->Blackberry/Raspberry/Strawberry.

How handy is that? If tasting wine leaves you struggling to articulate clear descriptions whilst floating on a nebulous cloud of sensory memory, this wheel can help you pinpoint specific flavours very quickly. Of course the word you're looking for may not be on the wheel (plum didn't make their list! Weird!), but you can still get a ballpark idea of which category your wine fits into. And may I point out that this tool was cheap and cheerful--I think I paid ten bucks for it. Seems to me like a more economical way to train our wino brains that a certain $400 aroma kit, non?

You can go look for yourself at www.innovinum.com.

'Til next time,

Barb

Look what I can do!

ôôôôôôôôôôôô!!!

See? I am learning things! Like how to put accents over the o's in Côtes du Rhône! This excites me (I don't get out much)! I also learned that it's Côtes du Rhône, not Cote de Rhone. My grammar and spelling just got a little less offensive; don't expect the same from the rest of me.

So last night Trevor made a gorgeous beef stew, but what to drink? Alas,there was nothing in my wine rack (my wine keeps disappearing into a mysterious hole, which I figure is somewhere very near my face). So hi-diddle-dee-doe, off to the LCBO, where I laid hands on Le Ferme Du Mont Le Ponnant Côte du Rhône-Village 2007 and a bottle of Henry of Pelham Baco Noir 2008. The Côte du Rhône seemed like a safe bet for beef stew, but Baco Noir? Baco Noir was uncharted territory for me. Still, all the glossy LCBO posters assured me Baco Noir is good with grilled beef and beef stew, so I picked up a bottle to go. I figured if I loved it, we'd make a point of stopping into the Henry of Pelham winery for a tour next Tuesday, during our winery trip to the Niagara Escarpment.

Dinner was scrumptious. No doubt, as Trevor is an awesome cook. And the Côtes du Rhône was every bit as yummy as dinner. Oh you clever French! I adore you! You make wine that tastes like angel sweat. And Lard (a typo but it stays), I do love Grenache; lovely and ruby and deep and fruity, with a bit of Syrah thrown in for manly man-ness. It was such a nicely balanced wine; it's a treat that's not to be missed, so hustle your gustle to the Vintages section and pick up a bottle for Thanksgiving. Not a break the bank wine either; I think it was $17.95. Bargain!

The Baco Noir however...oh I so would like to like this wine. Why? It's local, for one. It's from a very well respected winery that all the critics like. And at $13.95, it's cheap and cheerful. But when it came to pairing with beef stew, there was no contest--Côtes du Rhône all the way. I'm sorry, but it just seemed too syrupy next to a warm, spicy stew. It was a dark, inky reddish-purple, and in a way tasted like biting into a green banana. I want to like it. I understand Henry of Pelham makes Baco Noir that is adored by important wine-types. But in the context of our dinner, it just didn't fly. I'll give it another try, on it's own and with some other dish. I won't give up just yet.

I'm going home, hopefully to leftover stew (if it hasn't already disappeared down a second mysterious hole, somewhere near my husband's face).

'Til next time,

Barb