No other holiday celebrates the gift of wine like Thanksgiving. But which wines to pair with turkey and all the side dishes? Here with her tips is Natalie MacLean, who offers Canada’s most popular online wine pairing classes at nataliemaclean.com What’s your top tip when it comes to pairing wine with Thanksgiving dinner? Wine is a taste of the harvest along with all the delicious dishes on the table. But actually choosing a bottle can feel like a thankless task, especially with so many flavors to match from sweet creamed corn to more bitter greens and veggies, plus […]
Pinot Noir Wines
10 Best Pinot Noir Wines to Buy Now + 5 Surprising Facts about Pinot Noir
Leanne and I had fun chatting about Pinot Noir this past Wednesday on CTV News! I’ll be posting the wines we featured soon. Pinot Noir is a wine of great sensuality, a silky texture and seductive aromas. “God made Cabernet Sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot Noir,” winemaker André Tchelistcheff once remarked. This thin-skinned berry is known as the “heartbreak grape” because it’s difficult to grow and is unstable even bottled. That’s why you often pay more for Pinot Noir than most other red wines. You’ll find my top 10 Pinot Noir reviews and ratings here, including pinot […]
Pairing Movies & Wines: Video Tasting
You can still purchase the Ontario or B.C. wines (or both!) with the time-limited discount here (stock up for holiday entertaining and gift-giving): Get the Ontario Wines Here Get the B.C. Wines Here Join me for my next online tastings: Scary Great Pairings October 21 Holiday Hosting December 2 Chocolate and Wine Pairing February 10 Thirty Bench Small Lot Pinot Noir 2019 Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario V.Q.A., Canada Trius Distinction Baco Noir 2020 Ontario V.Q.A., Canada […]
How Oyster Bay Tamed Prickly Pinot Noir in New Zealand
By Greg M.P. Hughes Winemakers who specialize in Pinot Noir are some of the hardest working viticulturists on the planet. This grape’s thin skin makes it extremely vulnerable to diseases, makes colour extraction torture to get right, and yields are minuscule (not a tremendous ROI compared to Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz). Pinot Noir’s idiosyncrasies are enough to make even hardened pro winemakers tear their hair out. That is why Pinot Noir is one of the most misunderstood selections that wine experts explain to their audiences. Most people understand it as byword for a quality wine, but have no idea what […]
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 […]
Garden Variety Wines: The Best Bottles for Outdoor Dining
By Rebecca Meïr-Liebman of Chef & Somm Spring and summer means outdoor parties – casual barbecues to white-glove garden soirées – and there’s a perfect wine for every al fresco occasion. Flip Flops and Fine Wine – The BBQ When food is smoky and beefy, you might automatically think of an oaky Cabernet Sauvignon, but let’s not forget how hot and humid it can be, so a nicely chilled, oaky white wine or slightly chilled lighter red – may be just the thing! An oaky white – think Norman Hardie Chardonnay or La Crema Chardonnay will complement smoky, grilled chicken, […]
Winemaker Eduardo Chadwick: Errazuriz Wine Tasting
By Mymi Myriam On a beautiful, warm and sunny fall day, I rode my bicycle to the Ritz Carlton for the extraordinary opportunity to sit down with Mr. Eduardo Chadwick, the President of Vina Errazuriz and iconic ambassador of premium Chilean wines. I walked into the Ritz’s sumptuous, modern lobby and headed up a staircase towards TOCA, one of the hotel’s restaurants where our luncheon was taking place. Mr. Chadwick stood in a magnificent dining room and welcomed me with a warm smile and handshake. I joined the few selected guests at the dining room table and kept […]
Mac and Cheese Pizza Recipe Paired with Pinot Noir
Mac and Cheese Pizza What’s true comfort food? Hint: it involves the words “mac”, “cheese” and “pizza”. Say no more. Mac and Cheese is really having its moment. And, well, why wouldn’t it- it’s amazing! Take a break from take-out and whip up this mouth-watering and fun take on an old classic: Mac and Cheese Pizza. With cheesy grated Canadian Mozzarella, it’s sure to become a family favourite fast. Here are some excellent wine pairings to complement the melted Canadian mozzarella in the mac. The first is a medium-bodied Pinot Noir from Mission Hill Five Vineyards. It’s a beautifully complex […]
Canadian Wine Harvest 2014: BC, Ontario, Quebec, NS Winemakers Weigh In
Join us Friday morning on Global Television as we discuss how the Canadian wine harvest is going from coast to coast. In the meantime, here are reports from the field: winemakers from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia give their impressions of how the 2014 harvest is looking so far. Tantalus Vineyards David Paterson, Winemaker, Tantalus Vineyards, British Columbia How is the 2014 harvest going so far? So far the 2014 harvest has been ideal. We are in the home stretch now and a couple more weeks of warm days and cool nights to finish off with will be […]
Cabernet Sauvignon, King of Red Wines: Best of the LCBO Bunch
Cabernet Sauvignon hits the spotlight in the March 1 LCBO Vintages Release. This robust red wine is one of the most recognized wine styles and grapes universally, and is grown in many wine producing regions around the world. The LCBO is featuring Cabernet Sauvignon wines from a wide array of regions, including Ontario (both as a stand-alone varietal and in blends with Merlot), California (both reasonably priced Cabernets as well as those in the collector’s pricey range), Chile (always a source of great value), Australia (re-tooling its Cabernets to be less oaky, and often blended with shiraz), and France […]
