In our first video chat, Carol Anne and I discuss beaujolais nouveau wines to try this year. However, for those who want to try other easy-drinking red wines this week and during the holidays, we’ve got more suggestions above for you. On the third Thursday of every November, Beaujolais producers in southern Burgundy, France, release wine from the new harvest. More than 60 million bottles make their way around the world to bistros, bars and restaurants. Nouveau is a knock-it-back kind of wine to be enjoyed in the spirit of celebrating the harvest! Here are my top 10 […]
Junk Food & Wine
Flying with Flavour: Travel and Wine Stories with Stephanie Piché
Introduction In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, we’re chatting with Stephanie Piché, a chef who in her never-ending quest for new flavours and experiences, has travelled the world to over 30 countries to gather insight and knowledge in international travel, luxury dining, local recipes and the world’s best wines. Enjoy! Highlights How did Stephanie stumble upon a secret cellar in Nice, France? What did Stephanie find in the old cellar? What was Stephanie’s Australian kangaroo encounter like? How can you pair wine and kangaroo? Why did Stephanie have to cringe at her driver’s etiquette in New […]
Behind-the-Scenes Peek at Writing Red, White and Drunk All Over
Introduction What role have books played in my exploration of wine regions around the world? What’s it like tasting ultra high-end wine? How is wine portrayed in literature? Today we’re talking about all that and more in a behind-the-scenes peek at Red, White and Drunk All Over. Today’s show is a little different from the usual. I’m excited to share this episode from the Behind the Bookshelves podcast, where I was interviewed by Richard Davies. Richard has kindly given me permission to include this interview on my show for you. If you love books as much as I do, be […]
Sommelier Secrets on Weird Wine and Food Pairings, and Dream Cellar
In our latest sommelier profile, Jay Whiteley, who has been the sommelier and wine director at several of Canada’s best restaurants, most recently, The Chase in Toronto, shares his favourite and weirdest food and wine pairings, as well as tips on choosing from a restaurant wine list. What was your first wine experience? Learning how to say the word Gewürztraminer. Why did you move from BC, where you were working at one of the top restaurants in Vancouver, to join The Chase in Toronto? I moved for some personal reasons, but also to learn about the LCBO distribution system. Toronto […]
Food and Wine Pairing + Canadian Harvest: CTV
Join me on CTV’s Canada AM this Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EST when we’ll chat about how the harvest is going across the country in various Canadian wine regions, from the Okanagan Valley to the Annapolis Valley. We’ll also discuss how to pair wine with seasonal tomato dishes. On Friday, tune into CTV’s new national talk show, The Social: think The View, but with smarter hosts and much stronger social media angle. We’ll be having fun with unusual wine and food pairings from poutine to potato chips at 1:20 p.m. EST. It’s prime time for wine this week! Cheers, Natalie
Wine, Chips and Snack Pairings Video
In our second video chat below, sommelier Mike Pierce gets into some specific and fun snack food and wine pairings. There were some surprising insights (really) as I thought all snacks would go best with sweet wines … Skittles proved me wrong, though I loved the Cracker Jacks pairing best. Have you discovered an unusually great pairing? What things do you have to keep in mind for the chemically-enhanced flavors of snack food? Any wines that really don’t work with snack food? Why do more obscure and expensive wines seem to go better with junk food? You can […]
Wine and Junk Food Pairing from Maverick Mike
Our guest this evening is Mike Pierce, Sommelier and Co-Owner of San Francisco’s Maverick Wine Bar and he joins me now live from San Francisco. Welcome to the Sunday Sipper Club P.S. Tune in here for our next Live Video Wine Tasting: www.nataliemaclean.com/live Click on the “Follow” and “Like” buttons on this Facebook page to get notified when we go live. We’ll be simultaneously broadcasting on Facebook Live, YouTube Live Stream and Twitter Live Video via Periscope. Watch previous episodes of the Sunday Sipper Club (SSC) and find out who’s coming up next. Anyone can pair filet […]
Fast Food and Wine: Drinking Outside the Box
Knowing that Kobe beef with braised oxtail and potato rosti will make Château Pétrus sing is useful if you have a fat trust fund and a kitchen staff of twenty. However, most of us are racing from work to soccer practice to ballet class and then home again, so we’re far more apt to grab some take-out food or heat a frozen TV dinner than to prepare a multi-course dinner every night of the week. Although wine consumption has increased 20 percent in the last five years, only 42 percent of drinkers say that they have wine with take-out […]
Food & Wine 25
Some wines are definitely a better fit with certain foods, but I admit I lived many years without realizing just good a food and wine pairing could acutally be. On my one and only visit to Lumiere – during the Rob Feenie years – I ordered a ten-course tasting menu and the matched flight of wines for each course. I was humbled. The food was good. Each course was either a single bite of something quite special or a few bites of something sumptuous. There was Israeli couscous and paper thin smoked duck breast and goat cheese cheesecake and lots […]
Food & Wine 13
Students can enjoy wine at mealtimes without having to shell out big bucks, said Natalie MacLean, an accredited sommelier and author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. “Wine is an ideal way to dress up all sorts of dishes that are fairly straightforward,” she said. “It’s like putting rhinestones on jeans.” MacLean said students should look for wines that are undervalued and underpriced, such as wines from Chile, Argentina and South Africa. She suggested trying popcorn with Chilean chardonnay, nachos with California Zinfandel, potato chips with French Champagne, pizza with Italian Chianti […]
