Tag Archives: wine

A #Twasting we will go

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Last weekend I joined a group for a tasting at family-run Niagara-on-the-Lake winery Chateau Des Charmes, organized Twitter by Director of marketing Michèle Bosc.

A 10 minute drive from downtown St. Catharines, the Château sits on land with historic ties to grape growing and wine. The Château was opened in May 1994 and was immediately hailed as an agri-tourism landmark.

The tasting began with a flute of 2006 Rosé Sparkling Wine, Estate Bottled. A blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes that were harvested in September 2006, the wine is made in the classic Méthode Traditionnelle. The traditional method is similar to the process used in the Champagne region of France to produce champagne. This particular wine has been bottle fermented and aged with yeast (to learn more about this method go to Wikipedia – it’s interesting).  The wine looks beautiful: Pink and bubbly, with bubbles that tingle the tongue rather than bite it. This is advantageous to me because carbonation is one of the types of stimuli that I’m hypersensitive to. (I’ve never been able to drink soft drinks. When I was a child the bubbles hurt.)

This wine retails at $28.95.

The 2008 Sauvignon Gris, Estate Bottled, retails at $19.95. It has a fresh scent with a hint of banana. On its own, the flavour is subtle. With Bleu Bénédictin cheese, the flavours come alive.

While these two didn’t wow me, I was more impressed with the final three, all reds:

The 2007 Paul Bosc Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir has a burgundy hue and a gorgeous scent; sweet and smokey with honey. The taste is smooth with berry and vanilla notes. With St. Honore cheese it’s mild and buttery.
It retails at $35.

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is a dark purple, smells of smoke and pepper and is full bodied. It’s aged in oak barrels for one year.  It had been decanted 3 hours when it was poured for us.
Retail price: $25.95.

The final wine, my favourite, is also the most expensive at $40 a bottle. 2007 Equuleus (Paul Bosc Estate Vineyard) is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (50%), Cabernet Franc (25%) and Merlot (25%). The blend is aged for one year in French Tronçais and Allier oak barrels. It smells of smoke and caramel and tastes of honey, caramel and warming spices that I think I identify with nutmeg and cinnamon. It too had been decanted 3 hours prior.

About the name: “Equuleus is the name of the “Little Horse” constellation, best seen when it rises in the night sky at harvest time every September. This equine symbol celebrates Château des Charmes’ founder Paul Bosc’s passion for Egyptian Arabian horses which are stabled at the Paul Bosc Estate, the family’s home vineyard.” (Source: Chateau Des Charmes website)

The wines were accompanied by a cheese tray: A sheep cheese from Montforte Dairy in Ontario that was mild and smokey; Grey Owl from Fromagerie Le Détour in Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Quebec; with the aforementioned Bleu Bénédictin and St. Honore, also from Quebec.

We managed a supplemental trip up to Megalomaniac Wine in Vineland, Ontario and quickly tried a few before closing time. The few were good, but I’d abandoned note taking and instead focused on the view and the atmosphere. At Megalomaniac the tasting is conducted next to big, steel drums of fermenting wine in a cavernous room. Among the labels hanging off the taps of the drums were “08 Reisling”, “06 Pinot Noir”, and “2009 cab sauv”. The winery is up on a hill with this view:

A wedding had just concluded when we arrived. Photos were still being taken. A little girl in a flower girl’s dress was fighting with a little boy her age in the way that child siblings do.

Many people in our group left laden with wine.

If you’re looking for a day trip without a car, Chateau Des Charmes is easy to get to: Sarah of Toronto Tasting Notes and I took a bus from Toronto to St. Catharines and a 10 minute cab ride to the winery. Megalomanic is farther out of the way, near Tawse, Wayne Gretzky Estate Winery, Stoney Ridge Estate Winery and others. With a couple of hours to spend before the scheduled arrival of our bus home, we wandered downtown St. Catharines and had a nice dinner. The bus station in St. Catharines turned most of the lights out for Earth Hour.

It was a beautiful day, and I apologize to those who I might have sniped at, sneered at or scowled at during our winery visits. You know those days when you’re just feeling irritated and can’t seem to snap out of it? I was having one of those.  Crankiness is like a toddler; a toddler that I couldn’t subdue with wine (or I didn’t drink enough), but dinner seemed to quiet the sniveling.

Here are some more photos (and some duplicates, because WordPress is like that):

Also see what Food with Legs said about the Chateau Des Charmes tasting.

Eat well, be well.

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5 wines, 5 cheese pairings: Foodies meet. Part 2 of 2

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…Continued from here.

Course #4: Bring on the livestock. My least favourite course of all.
Alright, I can definitively say that I don’t like Malbec, until someone tells me that “this Malbec is different”. Regarding Legends Estates Malbec I wrote the words “smoke” and “tobacco” and, my favourite descriptor of the evening, “Like drinking a pipe”.

Malbec, meet “Clandestin” cheese, a sheep and cow milk cheese. The lady serving it called it her favourite but it was too pungent for me. You can find information about the cheese here and here. I noted that it tastes like an animal. When Sarah declared it to be “barnyardy”, I agreed. The flavour was musty. This cheese reminded me of the smell of rotting hay (some might say “herbal”), like waking through Riverdale Farm’s petting zoo. I might be the first person ever to say that the cheese tasted like a petting zoo. I didn’t like it. Sarah, however, proclaimed, “I like barnyardy cheeses” (one of my favourite quotes of the evening and immediately tweeted).

When at first I tasted the wine and cheese together they mellowed each other out, but then I found that I had two strong tastes in my mouth. I finished the wine, spit out the cheese.

So, a petting zoo-tasting cheese and a wine that tasted like pipe. The next and final course was like heaven in my mouth.

Final wine and cheese combination:  Baco Noir and cheddar

I don’t know if it’s because I disliked the previous course so emphatically or if it was just that good but I was pleased when we concluded with Sandbanks Winery Baco Noir (2007) and Jensen 2 year old cheddar. Who doesn’t like cheddar? The baco noir, from Prince Edward County, was light. I tasted orange and strawberry. I recall that baco noir is characteristically peppery but I didn’t overtly detect that. The high salt content of the cheese might have been responsible for making the wine taste a little bit sweeter but not cloyingly so.

Gamay revisited

Those of us who paid for the full experience then had a chance to revisit some of the five wines. I had another few glasses and noted a change in the taste of the Chateau des Charmes gamay. Whereas earlier I’d only noticed the predominantly cherry taste, my second experience resulted in a honey aroma and the taste of brown sugar. Someone pointed out a petrol smell, which I also caught a whiff of after it was pointed out (I think that wine tasting is in many ways psychological). I tasted more sweetness than previously and wondered if it was my perception of the wine that changed or if the flavour itself had changed as a result of the bottle being open longer.

It wasn’t all wine

Other happenings:

  • Author Kathryn Borel read from her soon-to-be-released book Corked: A Memoir. I can’t decide if I want to read the book or not. The content sounds interesting but at times the use of adjectives seemed contrived as if she was trying too hard to paint a picture. It was too adjective heavy for my taste. I commend her for writing the book.

Interestingly, yesterday’s National Post has an article titled “Eat some cheese: Canadians are much more than cheddar people”.

If you’re interested in future events like this and are on Twitter you can watch for the hashtag #foodiemeet. If you’re not, I’ll try to remember to post upcoming events here. Cafe Taste runs a number of events and are looking to fill a bus for a road trip to Prince Edward County on Labour Day weekend. Reserve your spot now and get information about other upcoming events at Cafe Taste at their website. If Jeremy’s on board you know it’ll be a good time and educational. He knows his stuff.

Update: Read Sarah’s review at Toronto Tasting Notes. We were hanging out at the event together so it’s interesting to see which opinions we share and where we differ.

5 wines, 5 cheese pairings: Foodies meet. Part 1 of 2

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Once again, Andrea Chiu (@TOfoodie) and Suresh Doss (@spotlightcity) organized a lovely evening where food and wine enthusiasts could come together to eat, drink and mingle.

Not one to reinvent the wheel, here’s the description of the event that Andrea posted to the Facebook event page, with minor changes to make it blog-friendly:

We had so much fun with our first #foodiemeet, we’re throwing another one!

This time, Parkdale’s own Cafe Taste will be hosting. Its resident wine geek and local wine expert, Jeremy Day, will lead us in a tutored wine tasting (with paired local cheeses) of some of what Niagara’s sub-appellations have to offer.

Author Kathryn Borel will also read from her upcoming wine memoir, Corked: A Memoir, an uncensored account of her father-daughter tour through the wine regions of France.

To accommodate everyone, we’ve set up a tiered ticket system of $45, $25 and $5:

A $45 ticket is the best value! You’ll get the full tutored-tasting of 5-7 wines plus paired local cheeses. Jeremy describes this as the “hedonistic tasting” with free-pours.

A $25 ticket gets you 2 oz. pours of all the wines being reviewed.

A $5 ticket is ideal for folks who can’t stay for the full tasting or prefer to choose their own wines, cheeses, and snacks.

*All attendees will receive a raffle ticket for prizes and of course, are welcome to order from the wine and food menu at any time.

I went with the “hedonistic” full tasting and it was fantastic.

Tweets from #foodiemeet last night, in revere chronological order:

“I like barnyardy cheeses.” @sarahbhood #foodiemeet about 13 hours ago from txt

Liking the “Red Conception” wine from Fielding Esates.#foodiemeet about 13 hours ago from txt

Won the first door prize, books, at #foodiemeet about 14 hours ago from txt

At #foodiemeet. The education has begun. about 15 hours ago from txt

(@sarahbhood is Toronto Tasting Notes._

The evening began thankfully NOT at the called time of 7pm but closer to 8. My tendency to be late aside, the writer’s block that I’d been experiencing cleared shortly before the time I intended to leave for the tasting. I felt no anxiety about being late though, knowing that that more than a few writers would be present and understanding of deadlines and writer’s block. I arrived to a sunny covered patio, name tags on which we were to name the most recent Ontario wine that we’d enjoyed, and baskets of bread placed throughout accompanied by dishes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the breads, baked on site, was made with grape must, a by-product of the wine making process.

The wines and cheeses

First up: Gewürztraminer + Riopelle

Calamus Estate Winery Gewürztraminer (I didn’t note the year) with Riopelle cheese were up first. The cheese, unpasteurized and made from cow’s milk,  was buttery and soft, reminiscent of a brie. The wine, our only white of the evening, was easy drinking with slight complexity (who’s writing this?). I didn’t take notes about this wine but there’s a review of the 2007 Gewürztraminer at Ontario Wine Reviews.

Rather than take notes I was listened as Jeremy talked about environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, and organic certification in the wine industry. He mentioned Southbrook Vineyards, who earlier this year released the first biodynamic wine produced in Canada,  a 2008 Cabernet Rosé. I recently became enamored with Malivoire chardonnay, which was recommended to me by an LCBO employee who explained some basics of organic wineries to me including the fact that some wineries – such as Malivoire – engage in organic principles without being certified. Jeremy touched on this in his talk as well. Then again, as Daniel Speck of Henry of Pelham told Margaret Webb when she interviewed him for her book Apples To Oysters, “organic” is somewhat of a misnomer since it could be natural but still toxic (I’m paraphrasing).

Second course:   Gamay Noir Droit+Le douanier

Next up was Chateau des Charmes Gamay Noir  and Le Douanier cheese. The wine tasted of berries, especially cherries. It was bright (if that’s a suitable wine word) and jammy, but not like Port is jammy. The cheese was nutty, soft and sweet. Jeremy explained that there are two lines of this cheese.  One is made from milk collected in the morning, the other is made from milk collected in the evening. Morning milk contains more colostrum, the evening milk more minerality. Both the wine and cheese were yummy and the fat content of the cheese coated the tongue to add another level to the wine.

Third course: Fielding Estate Red Conception + Le  baluchon cheese

The Fielding Estates Red Conception is many reds in one. It’s made with so many varietals that Sarah and I were comparing our notes and asking Jeremy to repeat the list. I gave up trying to list them all because that’s what the internet is for: Looking these things up. Here’s what the winery’s website says:

Varietal Composition:

Pinot Noir 29% Syrah 6%
Cabernet Franc 25% Aglianico 4%
Cabernet Sauvignon 22% Sangiovese 4%
Merlot 8% Chardonnay 2%

See wine full description here. I can’t even spell many of those. My friend Jennifer declared this her favourite. I noted the words “oak” and “plum”.

The Le Baluchon cheese was soft, mild and buttery. Some, including Sue Riedl of the Globe and Mail, describe it as “barny”. For me, the barny cheese was the next one. In the interest of space and time, I’ll save that for part 2 and leave you with this: While describing this wine Jeremy spoke one of the best lines of the evening in reference to government rules and regulations,

…LCBO. Or, as we refer to them, the KGBO.

Stay tuned for part 2…

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Chenin lovin'

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Two weeks ago while Meghan and over 90 others were drinking nothing but blended fruit and vegetable drinks I was at the Hobbs and Co. Wine Merchants Inc. 3rd Annual Portfolio Tasting at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, tasting wines and eating my weight in cheese and bread. It was a rainy evening that would have kept me indoors if it weren’t for the wine event and a magazine launch that followed it. My tour guide:  Kerri Henman. Kerri, you may remember, is the friend who told me about truffle salt. She used to work for Hobbs and occasionally works their tastings. The event was part of a day of wine education, that had, earlier in the day, included sommeliers and buyers.

It’s great to have friends with differing interests that help provide varied experiences and from whom I can learn.

We hit the event in two circuits: Whites, then reds. I won’t go through every wine we tasted but I will go through my tasting notes, scribbled inside the booklet provided to do so along with a list of wines and their description and prices.

Without even looking at my notes I can tell you this: The tasting event reminded me of how much I like chenin blanc. I believe it was Kerri who introduced me to chenin blanc.

First wine of the evening, on the white circuit: Quails’ Gate Winery Chenin Blanc (2008). I tasted citrus – lemon and lime – and pear. And the thing is, I really did taste those flavours. I turned to Kerri and enthused that I “got it” and didn’t feel like a poser.

First up on the red circuit: Quails’ Gate Old Vines Foch (2006). I wrote that it was sweet and jammy. I want to try it again to see how it compares to Port. I like Port. I put an asterisk next to it although now I don’t recall what that means. I think it means that I liked it, because check marks mean that I tried it but didn’t take notes.

Moving over to New Zealand: 2008 Tinpot Hut Sauvignon Blanc (link is PDF) from the region of Marlborough. The description says, “Lively and refreshing with  grassy, grapefruit and gooseberry aromas and flavours. Lovely minerality, richness and Sauvingnon pungency. A dry, silky palate and long finish.” I wrote, “smokey”, which makes me think that this is one I didn’t like. There was one that was very distinctive and really not my taste.

Going red in New Zealand: The sweet and fruity 2006 Takutai Pinot Noir. Say “Takutai” out loud. It’s fun. Your tongue tap dances between your teeth and the roof of your mouth.

Tried some Australians, didn’t take notes. There was the Chalker’s Crossing 2008 Semillion (2008 reserve is not listed on their website) and a Clairault Wines 2008 Sauvingnon Blanc.

Down to South Africa for another chenin blanc: 2008 Franschhoek Vineyards Chenin Blanc. I like South African things (their accents are cute and I’ve never met a Jew of South African decent who wasn’t a mench)  and I like chenin blanc. I therefore had high expectations. This one blew me away with flavours of butter and brown sugar. These flavours weren’t in the description but hey, that’s what I got from it.

Also from South Africa, the Juno Cape Maidens Chardonnay was subtle with a hint of sweetness.

Ich mag das essen, ich mag das wein. Ich mag das Leitz wine.
(I like food, I like wine. I like the Leitz wine.)
I remember no German from when I studied it in university, but anyway… The wine I refer to here is Leitz Riesling Kabinett and Leitz Rudesheimer Magdalenenkreuz Riesling Spatlese, both 2007. I’d link to the website but it’s all in German.

Regarding the Riesling Kabinett: It was a nice drinking experience. The wine feels bubbly but it’s not. It wants to be a sparkling wine but it’s not. It seems to pop in your mouth.  My notes say “stone fruit” “sweet” “Like bubbly but not” “Spicey”. Regarding the Riesling that’s too long to say: “Sweet” “dessert”. Bigger name, less of an impact. :)

Bienvenue! Time for a little French wine action. The 2006 Château Grand Moulin (French website) St. Jean tasted of strawberries. The Bioghetto RM13 Blanc 2007 was nice.  I tasted bananas.

Almost done, over to Italy to be served by a charming guy with an Australian accent (*swoon*): 2007 Cantine di Monteforte Ponte Pietra Merlot/Corvina and 2005 Alpha Zeta ‘A’ Amarone dellaValpolicella . Both reds. The first was handpicked by Jamie Oliver to be on his restaurant wine list but to me – Kerri too – it was the Amarone that really shined. By that point I’d had enough wine. I wasn’t going to bother with those last Italian wines. The I tried the Amarone, and then I needed to sample it again. I noticed cherry vanilla and fruit cake and overall yumminess. I noted cherry vanilla in the merlot too but it wasn’t as delicious as the way more expensive Amarone (not that I’m looking to buy).

What stands out from the evening? That last Amarone, the South African Chenin Blanc (Franschhoek Vineyards) and the Chenin Blanc from British Columbia (Quail’s Gate). Also, sharp cheese, a pecorino perhaps (I never identified it) and the creamy brie.

So that’s my overdue wine post.

Eat well, be well.

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We got links!

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As usual a little late…

  • Policy Review feature: Is Food the New Sex? It’s a long read but an interesting one. For me it’s “print out and read while waiting for something” material
  • UK chef Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant The Fat Duck temporary shut down because of the possibility of food poisoning in 30 to 40 diners. Initial reports said that “electrical problems” were to blame. Is “electrical problems” to temporary restaurant closings what “exhaustion” is to celebrities in rehab? Blumethal will emerge unscathed.

“Secret meat,” rice, beans, bacon and All-Malt Porter mixed together. Bake with Porter-marinated bacon then wrap in Porter-soaked tortillas and additional Porter-marinated bacon strips. Finally, dip in beer-batter and deep fry.

I repeat: What’s wrong with people?!

  • This is better. From the “If I still ate meat” department: Homemade Corn Dogs. (Thanks to Slashfood for the tip.) The “healthiest corn dog you’ll ever eat”?

Every so often I’m impressed with writing that I do elsewhere. I mean, I write something and think, “Wow, I like that! If only I wrote like that ALL. THE. TIME.” (in quality, not necessarily tone). Like rants. I recently posted a rant about poor customer service in response to a TasteTO restaurant review, and I hope that the restaurant owner is reading their review and comments.

Admittedly, sometimes I’m deliberately trying to be caustic but I don’t recall that being the case here.

Stonegrill @ the Cabbagetown Wine Route: Bad start, but great save

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Stone Grill Menu

Stone Grill Menu

My friend Kerri (of Wines Constantly) and went to the Stonegrill last night, for the Cabbagetown Wine Route. This is an event that a number of neighbourhood restaurants participated in, a 3-course meal with wine pairings.

The evening started out with problems:

1. I got there after Kerri but couldn’t find her. There was no host or maitre d’.  I waited perhaps 5 minutes for someone to acknowledge my presense. I noticed that the reservation had been checked off but when a waiter came to seat me he couldn’t tell me if my friend had arrived or if the checkmark was a mistake.  That in itself isn’t so bad, and it got sorted out, but absense of host was problematic, as was the wait. Kerri said that she waited longer (I got there 15 minutes late for the reservation and she must have just gone down to the bathroom before I arrived).

2. The place was too noisy. It was the the large group of lawyers. “The first thing we do…” I can’t fault the restaurant for that.

3. Kerri ordered a drink first pre-appetizer, a prosecco-based beverage called a French Kiss made with Stoli Raz and chambord (?). We like prosecco. When her drink arrived I was about to order myself a prosecco-based drink but learned that they were out of prosecco.

4. That last bit in the bottle was flat, and her drink tasted like cherry cough medicine to both of us. I suppose that the bottle had been sitting around for awhile and wasn’t properly covered.

…After that it got better. The waiter whisked away the offensive drink (“It never happened”) and the meal was quite nice. The first two courses had two options, a meat option and a non-meat option. This was perfect for us. For the appetizer she got the roasted tomato soup with chorizo and basil and liked it a lot. I had the salad of baby arugula, strawberries and feta. The salad got better the longer it sat.  The flavours deepened as I ate it. The accompanying wine was a Rockway Glen Pinot Gris. I don’t remember what that was like. Pear? Melon? I didn’t take notes. I know I liked it and I remember that it had the right amount of sweetness to go with the spicier arugula.

For the main course, she ordered the AAA sirloin and I ordered  the gnocchi, made with a spicy sundried tomato-hemp seed peto, spinach and goat cheese. This is when I recognized why the restaurant has its name. The steak was a slab of raw meat, served on a stone grill (a collective “ohhhhhh!” is heard). The ‘grill’ looks a little like a flagstone. It’s heated above 400F and presented to the diner, meat sizzling on top. I had a tiny piece of meat, a size that I’d refer to as kezayit – a small piece. I think my eyes rolled back into my head. HELLOOOOO. I want to go to my organic butcher and buy a big ol’ steak. Then I want to thank the cow, the farmer, the butcher and everyone else involved in the raising and slaughtering of the animal.

It reminds me of my final year of university, when I tried to go vegetarian but kept eating meat ocassionally, my roommate once referred to me as a “vegetarian who eats meat” and himself as a “meatatarian who eats meat”. I think I was “flexitarian” before that word existed.  Now when I do eat meat, which is rarely, it’s a morsel of meat.

The gnocchi was delicious. It had a nice bite to it, a nice spice. Deliciously seasoned. Great consistency. Again, I wish I’d taken notes.

For wine there was a choice, and we chose different wines. Hers, a 2007 Henry of Pelham Gamay (winery tasting notes – PDF). Me, a 2006 Barrel fermented Chardonnay, also Pelham (winery tasting notes – PDF). The Gamay tasted of stone fruit and something I couldn’t place. My chardonnay tasted like pine and herbs, basil maybe. I kept going back to pine and grass. Kerri tasted melon (or maybe that was the dessert wine – why didn’t I take notes when I intended to blog it?). Henry of Pelham’s description says, “Full bodied and multi-faceted with layers of tropical fruits, flinty mineral flavours off-set by notes of fresh cream, caramel and toast.” Perhaps the fruit and mineral flavours were there for me. I think I need to drink more to see. Lots more.

Dessert was macerated berries with lemon basil zabaglione, served with Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Reisling Ice Wine. The wine wasn’t too sweet like some ice wine, only slightly pineappley with citrus and honey, maybe melon (can’t remember).

Not bad for $40 including tax and tip.

Next time I’ll take notes so that my descriptions – wine descriptions in particular – aren’t so vague.