Holiday Wine and Food Pairing: CTV Morning Live

  In the video above, Leanne and I chat about holiday wine and food pairings for the Joy to the World Holiday Wine Match. Nominations are still open until Friday, so name your favourite wine and vote daily! The Twitter hashtag is #WHWM. Cheers, Natalie   Posted with permission of CTV Morning Live.       Holiday Wine and Food Pairing: CTV Morning Live Leanne: We are looking at some wonderful wines here and actually all under the price tag of $25, Natalie MacLean is joining us. You’ve had a ton of fun reaching out to your readers. Natalie: Exactly. […]

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8 Great Holiday Wines & Spirits (Video)

On CTV’s Your Morning, we chat about the holidays. As they approach, we look forward to entertaining friends and family. What’s a good drink to serve to guests when they arrive?   Sparkling wine is the drink of celebration, especially at this time of year. I’d recommend these two:             Township 7 Vineyards & Winery Seven Stars Sirius 2015 Okanagan Valley, British Columbia BC, V.Q.A., Canada                 PondView Estate Winery Bella Terra Sparkling Rosé 2020 Niagara Peninsula, Ontario V.Q.A., Canada         Both are zesty and […]

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8 Perfect Gift Wines and Spirits for Your Holiday List (Video)

As the holidays approach, we look forward to entertaining friends and family. Here with her tips and sips is Natalie MacLean, who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes at nataliemaclean.com.   What’s a good drink to serve to guests when they arrive?   Sparkling wine is the drink of celebration, especially at this time of year. I’d recommend these two:           Queenston Mile Brut Blanc de Noirs St. David’s Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario V.Q.A., Canada                     Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco Veneto D.O.C., Italy         […]

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Best Canada Day Wines: CTV

Marci and I chat about the winners of The Great Canadian Wine Match on CTV this morning. We focused on the winning wines that paired best with cheese, chicken, beef, seafood, pizza and dessert. You can find the complete list of Canadian wines here that were nominated. Here’s a text shopping list of more wines in stores now to celebrate July 1. Happy Canada Day! Natalie   Marci: Thousands of Canadians have spoken and out of 279 entries six Canadian wines have emerged victorious in the first ever Great Canadian Wine Match. Here this morning to unveil the winners is […]

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Best Wine for Canada Day? Blockbuster Bottles for Backyard BBQ

Our Canada Day BBQ party on the studio patio of Canada AM this morning was a blast! We revealed the winners of The Great Canadian Wine Match: BBQ Edition, as well as delicious food pairings. (Click on the arrow to play the video above as well as on the one below for the second video.) We had such fun out there … I could have lolled on the patio all day, especially with those wonderful wines! Please congratulate the finalists by clicking on the social media buttons for each wine – the script and links are already there for you, […]

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Canadian Wine and BBQ Food Pairings Video

Leanne and I chat about the great Canadian wines nominated to pair with grilled food in The Great Canadian Wine Match: BBQ Edition. Find out why  these wines are great matches for barbecued chicken, pork, beef, seafood, vegetables and dessert. The wines hail from all of Canada’s major wine producing wine regions, including: Okanagan Valley, BC Niagara, Pelee Island, Lake Erie and Prince Edward County in Ontario Eastern Townships in Quebec Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia Just 4 days left to vote for your favourite Canadian wines! Hashtag #GCWM       Canadian Wine and BBQ Food Pairings Video   […]

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Plonk Wine Videos Stumble Blindly into Brilliant Insight

In his book How to Love Wine, New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov observes: “I’m sometimes dismayed that sommeliers confuse their professional training with what consumers need to know to enjoy wine. We don’t need to know whether you can identify wines blind. “Those are just parlor games for professionals. I think that professionals, like sommeliers, need to be able to communicate with the public in a language that they understand and that they find useful.” When I tasted wines blind with Eric at the paper’s headquarters several years ago, he lived those words. The blind tasting was to […]

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Balderson Cheddar Cheese and Canadian Wine Pairing Contest

You can read the 85 comments from our interactive tasting on Facebook. Savour your holidays with these terrific Balderson Cheddar Cheese and Canadian wine pairings. Congratulations to the winners of the Balderson Cheddar Cheese and Wine Pairing contest! It was a fierce race for 10 days …   Lori Kilmartin Sommelier & Blogger           Lynn van der Linde Certified Sommelier and Event Planner       Donna Hargrove Wine Blogger & Tasting Group Leader                 Which Balderson Cheddar & Wine Pairing Gets Your Vote? This poll closed on December […]

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Sex in a Glass: Getting up Close and Personal with Pinot Noir

By Rebecca Meïr- Liebman of Chef & Somm “Pinot Noir is like young love,” opined my private sommelier client in his luxurious house in Muskoka as I pulled the cork on a Romanée-Conti.  “You do not know what to expect, but it will always make the blood run hot; either melt your heart or break it, sometimes even both.” Pinot Noir has been described in many ways. Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon went so far as to call it “sex in a glass”. So what is it about this grape – a variety also known as the heartbreak grape – that inspires […]

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