Grape Aspirations

Asian-inspired salad with sesame dressing and...

2011-01-21T04:06:00.000-08:00

It's always interesting to see what happens when we put our heads together over dinner - or rather, what to serve and drink for dinner. Last night we prepared a light and wonderful meal of mixed greens with sweet red peppers and sesame dressing, topped with grilled chicken breast in a slightly spicy peanut glaze. We both wanted to try something other than the usual go-to for this kind of food - a riesling or gewurztraminer - so I pulled out a bottle of Brachetto d'Acqui from I Quaranta (Italy, of course).
If you've ever had the pleausre of trying the Brachetto, you'll know why I went for it: slightly sweet (probably a 2 on the sugar scale) and ever so slightly fizzy, with loads of fruit and a pleasant acid/tannin edge. It was the perfect match for the spicy salad and chicken.
So the next time you're looking for something to balance a spicy dish and are up for something new, try the Brachetto - there are a few different ones around if you can find them.

Lake Erie perch and Alexander winery's 2009 Pinot Grigio

2011-01-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Just back from a jaunt around the corner (okay, three corners) to a local landmark historic restaurant, King's Landing (http://www.kingslandingrestaurant.ca) on the waterfront in Kingsville. Paul and I both enjoyed the perch dinner; me with rice and vegetable preluded by a caesar salad and Paul with fries and vegetable preluded by the soup of the day (onion).
The perch was, as usual, tender and lightly grilled and we enjoyed a bottle of Alexander winery's 2009 Pinot Grigio (visit the winery online at www.aleksanderestate.com). At first, I thought the wine would be too strong for the tender fish, but I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to have just the right amount of acidity to complement the grilled fish and a light yet satisfying floral and citrus edge to take the entire meal to a very pleasant finish.

How far gone is too far?

2010-08-20T06:08:00.000-07:00

Last night, I opened my last bottle of Pelee Island Winery's 2002 Baco Noir. We fell so deeply in love with this vintage when it first came out that we cleared out all of the shelves we could find and even went to the winery to ask if they had any bottles sitting in a corner somewhere (they did have a few!).

So here we are in 2010... a full eight years past the vintage date (six or so since release)... I thought surely (and with a little tear in my eye) I had let this one sit too long.

The cork was soft and saturated, but not crumbling, and the wine still hadn't soaked all the way through to the foil. A test taste told me that it did indeed still have the full flavour profile we had come to love - ripe red fruit with the perfect balance of peppery spice - but had indeed gone a bit too far on the acid scale. I said a little prayer that it would still work with our dinner of lightly seasoned steak (montreal steak spice, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian herbs), heirloom potatoes and super sweet local peaches-and-cream corn (all done on the barbeque).

Thankfully I was right on the money. The steak which, of course, was perfectly done thanks to Paul's expert touch, was moist and tender and still a bit pink in the centre and balanced the increased acid in the wine perfectly.

The moral of this blog entry? Just because a bottle may be a little bit past its prime doesn't mean it won't still work with the right food.

A sparkling summer evening

2010-08-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight, with a dear friend from Ottawa, we lingered over a hot and humid late summer evening with a simple dinner of mixed greens topped with an asian sesame dressing and seasoned and grilled shrimp with bacon-wrapped scallops grilled on the barbeque and drizzled with maple syrup.

To drink? Pelee Island Winery's Canadian Sparkling Wine.
Crisp, dry, light, and slightly fruity... a perfect pair with the salad.
Leftovers? I should think not - of neither the salad nor the wine!

Beer can chicken on the 'que

2010-07-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Beer can chicken on the barbeque last night - if you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. Tasty, juicy, tender fall-off-the-bone chicken flavoured on the outside with onion, garlic, parsley, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper and perched on a tall-boy of Rickard's Dark... YUM! And the potatoes and carrots that cooked in the beer drippings were amazing!

Instead of more of the Rickard's Dark, I paired it with a 2008 Peller Estates Chardonnay. A perfect complement for the seasonings inside and outside the chicken.

Now we're cooking down the skin, bones and bits of chicken in more Rickard's Dark and a bit of the Chardonnay for a wonderful home-made chicken stock...

Pelee Island Winery does it again!

2010-07-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit, I'm biased, but the newest creation from Pelee Island Winery, the "Alvar" series of four wines, is breathtaking.
The first that I've tried out of this series of four wines is the 2008 Chardonnay Gewurztraminer blend -- VQA Ontario, so don't get your knickers in a knot.
Okay, I hear you: "What on earth is an Alvar?" See the wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvar.
By the way, in case you're wondering just how "new" these wines are, they're not even on the Pelee Island Winery website yet. Ah, the joys of living five minutes from the winery!
This wine is not only the only Chardonnay/Gewurztraminer blend I've been able to track down, but it's well worth the drive to Kingsville to get your hands on some. The usual flavours and aromas you would expect from both the Chardonnay (crisp acidity, balanced with fresh citrus) and the Gewurztraminer (lychee, tangerine, grapefruit with a lingering hint of spice) are, in my humble opinion, perfectly married in this blend. It is impossible to say that one overpowers the other and, paired with a barbeque dinner of chicken/bacon and mixed vegetable kebabs on the patio on an evening that was thankfully blessed with a cool breeze and a very welcome break in the extreme heat and humidity of the past week, I dare say that I was as close to a state of total and utter bliss as I have been in a long time.
The next time you're looking for something refreshing for a summer evening on the patio, either with or without food, with a group of friends or just that special someone, reach for a bottle of this - if you can get your hands on it, that is!

Would you like some wine with that?

2010-06-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Picture it: Kingsville, 2010... a Sunday evening with eleven people snuggled around our dining room table as I host my first wine tasting dinner at the house.

A glass of Prosecco greeted everyone upon arrival and gave us time to put the final touches on dinner. Caesar salad with homemade dressing started the meal, followed by pork tenderloin with risotto and asparagus, finished off with mini sponge cakes topped with mixed fresh berries and a dollop of vanilla yogurt.

I poured four wines with the meal, each from a different winery in the Erie Shores region: a crisp riesling, an oaky chardonnay, a light rose (sorry, no accents on this laptop) and a medium-bodied pinot noir. The consensus was that the rose was the best match with dinner. With dessert, I served a late harvest cabernet, which was ideal with the fruit and yogurt.

What's next? Who knows? My calendar is practically empty and I'm open to all offers and requests - and challenges!

Vinturi, part II

2010-06-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

Last night saw us sitting down on the back deck to a wonderfully grilled, lightly seasoned steak with boiled potatoes topped with home-seasoned sour cream, butter and chives alongside grilled asparagus. The beverage of choice was, yes, it's true, a 2009 Fuzion, the near riot-causing (in Ottawa's LCBO flagship store, at least) Argentinian blend of Shiraz and Malbec.

While I would have normally let this one age for a few years, I wanted to see what effect the Vinturi would have on it. Well, my friends, I was once again pleasantly surprised. Pre-Vinturi: a relatively full body, lightly fruity and tannins so intense I almost gagged. Post-Vinturi: still the same relatively full body, but more fruit on the nose and palate and nicely mellowed tannins. The real kicker came when I tried some non-Vinturi afterward... OUCH!

Those of us who are die-hard cellarers will, of course, continue to stock up on wines and see how they age naturally with time. That is, to my mind, one of the great joys of wine. For those of us who can't wait to enjoy that bottle of wine, thank Bacchus/Dionysus for the Vinturi!

To decant or not to decant? Vinturi solves the problem!

2010-06-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

People often ask me about the benfits of aeration and how to preserve any wine in the decanter that is not consumed. Aside from the obvious answer -- to drink all of the wine -- I have never known what to say. Who, me, at a loss for words? Yes, indeed, it does happen!

That all changed when Paul gave me a Vinturi wine aerator (http://www.vinturi.com/). From its sleek teardrop shape to its ease of use, the Vinturi is indeed a wonder to use, and a conversation piece to boot!

We tried it with my brother-in-law and his wife on a 2005 Shiraz from Pelee Island Winery (with pizza - one ham and pineapple and the other a combo with mushrooms, green peppers and pepperoni) and were pleasantly surprised at the effect. The fruits were more prominent and the tannins were slightly mellowed. Essentially, giving an already excellent wine just that extra touch that only comes from decanting, but without the fuss -- not to mention the challenge of cleaning the decanter afterward!

No longer does anyone have to wonder how to get the benefits of decanting a bottle of wine in a single glass.

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Icewine - not just for dessert anymore!

2010-05-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

... but was it ever, really, *just* for dessert?

The next time you're faced with the decision of which wine to serve with a spicy dish (thai, eastern, middle eastern, etc. or just something you've spiced up on your own), think sweet! The higher sugar and lower acid in icewine are a perfect pair for spicy food because they minimize the effect of the spice and heat on your tender tongue and palate.

Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

Selling the house calls for champagne!

2010-05-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, my friends, the house in Ottawa is sold. No realtor and no hassles, just an eager and very pleasant couple with charming kids who were in love, I would say, with the house from the moment they walked into our moving sale on April 24.

And thanks to a couple of dear friends who gave us a bottle of Maleta Winery's 2006 Old Vintages Brut Sparkling Wine (VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake), we had a little celebration on Wednesday night.

I have to track down more of this bubbly... it was fruitier than I expected and still crisp and highly acidic. It was definitely not a Dom, and that's definitely a good thing!

Hello, Kingsville!

2010-05-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, almost a year to the day of putting in our offer on 136 Main Street West, we are arrived and (almost) settled. Just a few more (hundred, it seems) boxes to unpack.

A family birthday celebration kicked off our arrival. On the menu? Coq-au-vin with pancetta, pearl onions, mushrooms and herbs served with basmatti rice, carrots and green beans. The coq-au-vin bubbled away for six hours in Pelee Island's 2008 Baco Noir and, naturally, that's what I served with the meal. An excellent pairing for the mushrooms and herbs.

To make matters more interesting, dinner on Monday was a re-creation of the above (leftovers with corn instead of carrots and green beans heated on the stove). I also added some hot sauce to give it a bit of a zing. We enjoyed it with an Alsacian Gewurztraminer which, in spite of the red wine in the original sauce, was a perfect complement for the spicy re-creation.

The moral? Proof that the same dish does not have to be served with the same wine. Get creative and let me know how it works!

Niagara-on-the-Lake and Hillebrand

2010-02-22T14:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Paul's family, we just got back from an amazing weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Queen's Landing is a great place to stay, with high-class dining and within walking distance of the historical district--lots of shopping!

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Queen's Landing on Saturday night and treated ourselves to the "Icewine Dinner Tasing Menu" for dinner at the Hillebrand Winery Restaurant on Sunday night. Get this--we had the *entire* restaurant to ourselves. How cool is that? The food was out of this world: six courses, each paired with wine... I'm honestly still digesting almost 24 hours later, so more details on that dinner will come in a later post.

Thanks again to Paul's family, to the wonderfully attentive staff at Queen's Landing, and to the chefs and our server at Hillebrand for a fabulous experience!

Peller Estates Private Reserve

2010-01-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

A wonderful dinner last night of boeuf bourgignon and a Peller Estates Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 - a mouthful of a title and unfortunately a bit past its prime. Still a wonderful nose and lots of fruit, but a hint of that ready-for-vinegar type of acidity. Not so much as to be unpleasant, but enough to say, "I'm glad I drank this now instead of waiting another six months." So if you've got the 2004, drink away! If you're hanging on to the 2005, I'd dare say it's ready to drink, too, before it starts the downward spiral. Unfortunately, I didn't have a 2005 in my cellar to compare.
Bottoms up!

late night wine and steak - YUM!

2009-12-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

Ah, the joys of a trusted butcher and a 2005 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from Farnese (Italy, of course). It was originally from Vintages, but unfortunately my cellar recording process isn't up to snuff yet, so I can't tell you how long it has been doing its thing in our basement. Who could ask for anything more? Okay, there were sautéed mushrooms and "broasted" seasoned mini multi-coloured potatoes, too.

At any rate, it's hard to say whether the star of the meal was the steak (angus boneless prime rib) or the wine, but it doesn't really matter since together the pairing was a match made in heaven, if not merely in our kitchen.

The steak was wonderfully seasoned with my better half's unknown (to me, anyway) combination of herbs and spices. Drop the steak into a hot grill pan and let the heat do its magic.

The wine was lightly chilled, which brought out just enough of the ripe red fruit (think strawberries, cherries, plum and a hint of black currant) and a balancing note of spice. Together with the seasonings and light charring on the steak, the aromas and flavours were a delight--if far too short-lived. Yes, we both inhaled our steak and the wine was gone before we knew it; a very good sign in our home.

wine and food matching "thesis"

2009-11-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a tip of the hat back to my first days in the "Advanced Sommelier" program at Algonquin College - the paper I wrote to go along with my final project for the Wine and Food Pairing course. I hope you will find it amusing, if not somewhat informative.
Carmen
-----
Students of the Advanced Sommelier program at Algonquin College have a total of seven courses to complete. Most of us did them in different order, but all with the same aim: our certification! One of the first courses I took dealt with wine and food pairing.

When we were first told about the final project for this class, I knew that I was in trouble. My first instinct was to bring in a home-made dessert of some sort - probably either my homemade rhubarb pie or apple pie (my mother's recipes, with slight modifications of my own, of course) - but I had never tried to match either of them with wine, much less thought that I would ever be presenting my pairing to a panel of experts.

Nonetheless, I chose my apple pie, mostly because of the fall season and fresh rhubarb being hard to come by at that time of year. But to make things worse, I decided to serve the pie with old white cheddar cheese from my grandfather’s cheese factory, which has the pungency of really old white cheddar but is also creamier than the usual old white cheddar. What was I thinking?

My anxiety went through the roof when we learned that cheese can be very difficult to match with wine. Never one to back down from a challenge, I stuck with my decision. Besides, time was moving on and I had to get started on my research.

Things just kept getting complicated; I could not find my recipe for the pie! Thankfully the brown sugar, flour and seasoning mixture was easy enough to replicate; but this also created another complication as the pie is very sweet and creamy. Pairing that with a powerful and slightly creamy cheese had me thinking sparkling wine – to cleanse the palate and counter the mouth-coating creaminess.

I compiled a panel of my own – a few friends who admit to knowing very little about wine, and three who know what they like, but don’t often stray from their comfort zone. We tried three sparkling wines – a Château des Charmes “Sec” from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, a Mariandl Austrian Sparkling Apricot Wine from Austria, and an Asti (which, it turns out, we met in class the week before our projects were due), from Italy, naturally.

The Sec had a light yellow gold colour and was almost bland; not much on the nose aside from a bit of fruit – apple and pear were the most prevalent – and acid, mineral and metal. The palate brought out the same and I knew right off that it wouldn’t work with the dessert. Indeed, it was the worst of all as it was too dry and the acid taste went through the roof when it came up against the pie.

The Mariandl was the one that I had hoped would win out because of the apricot/apple element. It had a lemony golden colour and a good dose of fruit on the nose – mostly apricot, as its name suggests, and some green apple – and honey, with a nice hint of nuttiness, with a slightly bitter acidic edge. The palate was not as rich as I had expected, as the apricot was almost overpowered by the nutty taste. This, too, fell short when confronted with the sweetness of the pie, although (surprisingly) the nutty flavour was enhanced when it was paired with the cheese alone.

The Asti had a pale yellow colour and was sparkling – literally – on the nose and palate. Bright, fruity and sweet on the nose with a sweet, fruity palate that I had hoped would linger. This was the best of the three – wonderful with the cheese alone – but still fell short on sweetness, and spiked in acidity against the pie.

We also tried a 2000 Château des Charmes Estate Bottled Late Harvest Riesling, again from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and La Face Cachée de la Pomme – Neige – Ice Cider from Québec; I knew that I had to kick up the sweetness in the wine to balance the pie. Unfortunately, while we all agreed that the Ice Cider – an “explosion of taste” was the best descriptor – with a bright yellow gold colour and lots of apple and ripe fruit and a bit of acid on both the nose and palate with a crisp yet medium finish, was the best match for the pie, it did not stand up to the cheese. As for the Riesling, which was great on its own – a rich yet light golden colour and a pleasant blend of fruit and acid, sweet without being syrupy, the pie and cheese reduced the sweetness of the wine and the combination left an unpleasant acidic after-taste.

A number of people recommended that I try a port, and while I do have a few bottles in my cellar, I wanted to stay away from the traditional “port and cheese” pairing. Still others recommended another ice cider from Québec – as there are many of them – or Calvados, but after the Face Cachée experience, I decided to stay away from the apple/apple pairing.

For the next week’s test, I brought out what I thought were the big guns in terms sweetness: a sherry – an Apostoles Palo Cortado Muy Viejo Jerez 30-year-old, nonetheless, from Spain; a 2004 Wolf Blass Gold Label Riverina Botrytis Semillon from Australia, which we also met in class the week before the final project was due; a 2004 Lenz Moser Prestige Trockenbeerenauslese (now there’s a mouthful) from Austria; and a 2003 Château Haut-Mayne Sauternes from France.

The Palo Cortado had a comforting dark amber/toffee colour and was wonderfully luscious with a nutty and caramel nose and a very syrupy, full-bodied palate with lots of fruit and woody/herbal notes. This had such a long finish I was wondering if it would ever stop. It was very pleasant on its own, but no match for either the pie or the cheese, either independently or together. The sweetness of the pie simply overpowered it and the cheese totally masked its taste.

The Wolf Blass Semillon had a rich, medium gold colour and was delightfully sweet and very fruity on both the nose and the palate. It proved to be a great match for the pie alone, but was overpowered by the zing of the cheese.

The Trockenbeerenauslese had a slightly darker colour than the Wolf Blass Semillon, almost a medium-to-dark golden colour and was very similar in aroma and taste to the Semillon, but a good bit sweeter and turned out to be a perfect match for the pie. Surprisingly, it was also the best contender yet against the cheese; acidic enough to slightly – but not entirely – counter the mouth-coating creaminess of the cheddar, which made for a wonderful combination.

Finally, the Sauternes had a fresh medium golden colour with notes of tropical fruit, which surprised me, and honey on the nose with a rich, somewhat mouth-coating texture and lots of sweet fruit on the palate. This was also a great match for the pie, but not quite as good with the cheddar as the Lenz Moser; although it had a mouth-coating quality as well, it did not stand up to the kick of the cheddar.
Therefore, I am pleased to conclude that the winning combination with my apple pie and old white cheddar cheese is the 2004 Lenz Moser Prestige Trockenbeerenauslese – a mouthful to pronounce and delightful in the mouth.