Canadian Wine and Cheese Pairing: Tasting Our Whey Through the Best

Leanne and I chat about the top three wines in the six cheese categories for The Great Canadian Wine & Cheese Match on CTV News. You can watch the video clip above if you click on the arrow. Stay tuned next week for the announcement of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards on CBC Television and Global Television. Please share this post on social media by clicking on the social media buttons at the top of this post and using the hashtag #CdnWineCheese.     To choose the winners, our team met this past Saturday to taste the wines and cheeses […]

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Niagara Integrated Film Festival June 2015

By Alex and Priya – A Vine Romance Watching movies under the stars sounds lovely, watching them in the beauty of vineyards with a glass of wine in hand and it’s downright poetic! That’s what awaits you if you head out to the Niagara Integrated Film Festival June 18-21. The festival is entering it’s second year and recently held a media tour to give a hint of what attendees will experience. Let us tell you, you’re not going to want to miss out on this unique collaboration of wine & film. In fact, we’re giving away a pair of tickets […]

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Canadian Wine and Cheese Pairings Meet Their Match

CJAD, Montreal’s most popular talk radio station, featured The Great Canadian Wine & Cheese Match yesterday. You can listen to the clip above by clicking on the arrow. Winners and runners up will also be announced on Global Television and CTV News in June. You still have time to nominate and/or vote for your favourite Canadian wines to pair with Canadian cheeses. If you do, you could also win one of three Balderson Cheddar Cheese and Gourmet Gift Baskets, each worth $500.   Canadian Wine and Cheese Pairings Meet Their Match Sheila: I know you like wine. Well I like wine […]

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The Great Canadian Wine & Cheese Match

In 2013, we launched the first People’s Choice Wine Awards with The Great Candian Wine Match. Thousands of wine lovers from coast to coast (and around the planet) voted for their favourite Canadian wines online and via social media. This friendly (and increasingly social ;) competition brought wine drinkers and winemakers together to celebrate the best of what we produce in this country, and garnered considerable media recognition for both nominees and winners. Last year, we hosted The Great Canadian Wine & BBQ Match, firing up competitive juices for our reds and whites. We’re building on that success this year […]

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Canadian Blue Cheese and Wine Pairing: The Great Canadian Wine Match

Get tips on pairing Canadian wine and blue cheese and where you can buy them in Canadian cheese shops. Here’s how to store and serve Canadian blue cheese. Find Canadian cheeses in this searchable directory by province or by cheese producer, as well as a complete list of Canadian cheeses. When you nominate or vote for a wine, click on the wine bottle. Then on the wine review page, just click on this link beside the larger wine bottle: “Add My Review” Please share a few thoughts on why you like this wine and cheese combo. You don’t have to […]

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Canadian Cobb Salad Recipe Paired with Riesling

Spring into April Nothing says the weather is getting warmer than some April showers. It’s time to roll up your sleeves, get out your rubbers, and get your green thumb ready. Or at least start your gardening with this simple and elegant garden salad, the Canadian Cobb Salad. This is a great dish that’s easily made when expecting company and sure to have everyone leaving satisfied. Toss together some chives, chicken, and lettuce for that fresh, crisp salad that marks the start of spring. Top it off with delicious crumbles of Canadian Blue Cheese for a salad that bursts with […]

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Wine App Pours its Way to the Top of the App Store

Thanks to reporter Trish Crompton with the technology magazine Communitech for this terrific review of our new wine mobile app! Wine app pours its way to the top of the app store Natalie MacLean may have uncorked the secret to helping even the most amateur of wine drinkers to become their own sommelier. As an award-winning wine writer, MacLean is constantly asked for recommendations on the perfect wine. “I would get lots and lots of emails all the time,” MacLean says, and they were filled with questions like, “I want to buy an anniversary wine for my parents, I have […]

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Pairing Wine with Blue Cheese, Stilton, Gorgonzola, Benedictin

The most difficult cheeses to pair with wine are blue cheeses, as their strong taste and powerful saltiness tends to make red wine taste bitter and hot. Salt accentuates many aspects of food, including its flavor, and that’s usually a good thing. However, it can also intensify both tannins and alcohol. The best foil for salt is sweet, so avoid dry and off-dry wines and go straight for the sweeter ones: late-harvest chenin blanc, gewürztraminer, and riesling all have the required richness and flavor. Better still is the French dessert wine sauternes, made from grapes that are attacked by a […]

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Wine and Cheese Matching to Maximize Pleasure

How do you marry cheese and wine? As with any hopeful pairing, a little counseling never hurts. “I always think you should drink what you like and eat what you like and put them together in ways that create the most pleasure for you,” says Natalie MacLean, a wine expert who wrote Unquenchable and Red, White and Drunk All Over. “But I wouldn’t have a job if I didn’t give more guidelines for which wines work better with certain cheeses.” Among useful features on her website, nataliemaclean.com, is the Wine & Food Matcher, which allows you to select a food […]

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Wine and Cheese Pairing with a Blockbuster BC Wine

In our second video, we chat about visiting Quails’ Gate winery, winner of the Gold Medal in The Great Canadian Wine Match: – Tips on visiting the winery, including the special menus at the winery’s Old Vines restaurant – How long can Optima age for those wanting to cellar this dessert wine? – Why don’t more Canadian wineries make botrytis affected dessert wines? – What role do people’s choice awards play in our wine and food culture? Natalie: And we’re back with Matt Steeves the wine lover who championed Optima, Quails Gate Optima in the Great Canadian Wine Match and […]

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