What is the right temperature for wine? Depends on if the wine is red, white, sparkling or dessert. However, all wine is often served at the wrong temperature, with red wines too warm and white wines too cold. Too cold, and a wine’s complexity and aromas are numbed; too warm, and it tastes alcoholic, flabby and astringent (that mouth-drying feeling we get from walnuts). The old advice about serving reds at “room temperature” comes from the days when the “room” was a drafty medieval castle of about 18 degrees Celsius (64.4° Farenheit), not today’s toasty, centrally heated homes where the […]
Dessert Wines
Vertigo Flights of Wine: CN Tower Restaurant Wine List Dazzling (and Dizzying)
James Muir, is the sommelier and maitre d’ at the 360 The Restaurant at the top of the CN Tower in Toronto. James manages the world’s highest wine cellar and has served many celebrities from Michelle Obama to John Travolta. What was your first wine experience? It was likely some low-end import wine from the depanneur, the corner convenience store where I lived in Montreal. I also tried Baby Duck at some point back then. However, more interesting wines were those from British Columbia in the 1980s. At that time, I experimented with pricier, imported bottles when I went out […]
Red Wine and Cupcake Pairings: Red Velvet and Chocolate Guinness Meet Their Match
In our second video, we chat about pairing red wines with cupcakes: think red velvet, chocolate chocolate and chocolate Guinness (Belgian dark chocolate dipped in Guinness beer). Even lighter and drier red wines, such as pinot noir, have a place beside cupcakes. Discover some great combinations with the owners of Ottawa’s Cupcake Lounge. You can also watch part one of our chat where we pair carrot, butterscotch bourbon and maple cinnamon cupcakes with white wines and sparkling wines. The research never ends ;) Natalie: We are back with Claudia Arizmendi and Bill McGuiness, owners of Ottawa’s Cupcake Lounge. We are […]
