Entries

2008 Syrah Rosé - Stonechurch Vineyards

2010-02-22T01:26:30Z

This is one of the wines that I picked up while I was visiting wineries during the Niagara Ice Wine Festival. The first stop that we made was at Stonechurch Vineyards. Ever since I tried the rosé from Malivoire I have been on the hunt for other good rosés. When i went into Stonechurch they encouraged me to try the 2008 Syrah Rosé that had just been released. I haven't found very many Syrah's in Ontario that I like but until visiting Stonechurch Vineyards I had never tried a Syrah Rosé from ANYWHERE before. I would definitely drink an Ontario Syrah Rosé again. This particular rosé has a strong green pepper on the nose. The initial taste is also of green pepper, it is very refreshing. The mid-palate is red fruit, such as strawberry, with some of the familiar pepper that you get from a syrah, and the finish is still of red fruit but I get more of the bitterness and tang of raspberry. I think that this wine would pair really well with fish, seafood, or even grilled chicken.

The Generosity of Wine Lovers and Foodies

2010-02-18T01:09:54Z

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Eat, Drink and Give to raise money for the Doctors Without Borders disaster relief in Haiti. On February 9, 2010 several local restaurants, wineries and wine distributors gathered in donated space at Roy Thomson Hall for an evening of good food, drink and music. It was truly amazing to see how many vendors, wine lovers and foodies turned out in order to raise well over $40 000 for Doctors Without Borders. It was such a relaxed atmosphere and everyone looked like they were having a really good time. I particularly enjoyed eating a scrumptious Buddha Dog while sipping some Cabernet Sauvignon from Megalomaniac. Who knew that a hot dog could taste so good AND go with wine??

On a more serious note, there were several speakers who addressed the crowd, one of whom was Communications Advisor/ International Press Advisor for Doctors Without Borders, Isabelle Jeanson. Isabelle had recently returned home from Haiti and had some stories to share. I felt uneasy standing there in nice clothes, in a beautiful building, eating and drinking while so many people in Haiti had lost everything. However, I felt proud to be a part of such a generous community. I have been following Isabelle Jeanson on Twitter since she went to Haiti immediately after the earthquake. Through her tweets I have been keeping up to date with everything that Doctors Without Borders has been doing in Port-Au-Prince and the surrounding area and I know they are doing tremendous work. Hopefully with the money that was raised they can help many more people.

Thank you to everyone who organized and attended Eat, Drink and Give!

Trumpour's Mill 2007 Pinot Gris

2010-02-06T01:06:48Z

After spending the afternoon taking care of my sick boys I've decided to kick back and try something new. I have just opened up a bottle of The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards and Estate Winery's Trumpour's Mill 2007 Pinot Gris from Prince Edward County. It has been years since I've tried anything from Canada's newest wine region and Pinot Gris is not something I drink very often. This wine has a nice bright straw colour. I didn't get much on the nose. The taste is light and I definitely get apple and some tropical notes. The acidity and minerality balances out this wine well. This wine reminds me of summer. I would love to sit out on a hot sunny day and sip this wine all by itself. If you wish to pair it with food, I would definitely say chicken or seafood, something that won't overpower this light fruity wine.

Niagara Ice Wine Festival

2010-01-21T02:30:46Z

Well I had a great time at the Niagara Ice Wine Festival, how about you? Since I was out with the kids I only had a chance to visit 3 wineries but it was a great afternoon nonetheless. We stopped in at Stonechurch Vineyards, Southbrook Vineyards and Strewn Winery. We also tasted a lot more than just ice wines, however for this post I'll focus specifically on the ice wines from Southbrook. Southbrook offered 2 Vidal ice wines for tasting, a 2004 barrel fermented and a 2005 steel fermented. I thought both of them were fantastic. At the time, I thought I liked the 2005 better but now that I think back, I really want to try the 2004 again! The 2004 barrel fermented Vidal tasted like baked apples to me, delicious. A lot of people think that it actually tastes like Christmas cake! It definitely has a sweetness and breadiness to it that the 2005 steel fermented ice wine does not have. The 2005 was much lighter in both taste and colour. Much more of the tropical notes came out, making me think that it would taste awesome with coconut.

On top of having the chance to taste some great ice wine, I also ran into Ann Sperling, the Director of Winemaking at Southbrook Wineries, and had a nice chat. We had met previously at Wine Camp TO. It is really nice that I'm starting to recognize people out at the wineries.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

2010-01-14T02:45:56Z

I know I have been away for a while, but no I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about the Niagara Ice Wine Festival. That fantastic celebration that takes place during the coldest, darkest, dreariest time of the year, January. What better time to take a mid-winter break and head out into wine country to taste the wine that Canada is known for worldwide?

To me ice wine conjures up some great memories. Just a few months after my husband and I got married we decided to take a short weekend trip to Niagara. When I travel I like to keep myself busy, so I decided to search around on the web for something to do. I came across an ad for an ice wine seminar at Konzelmann Estates. Knowing nothing about ice wine I thought I would sign us up and see what we could learn. Well, it was that event that started my passion for wine. As it turned out, by chance alone, the night before this seminar was the one and only night of the year that the frozen grapes were picked from the vine. The opportunity for me to taste the fresh pressed grape juice that was still cold from the freezing temperatures where the grapes came from was an eye opening experience. Wine and wine production has fascinated me ever since.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Niagara region from January 15 - 31, I highly recommend participating in the festival. Take part in some tours or seminars, enjoy some great food and find out why Niagara ice wines are highly sought after both here in Ontario and on the other side of the world.

Fedex Direct Shipping Wine to Canadian Consumers

2009-11-30T01:26:52Z

According to winelaw.ca, Fedex has announced that it is now legally allowed to direct ship wine from US wineries to Canadian consumers in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. While this means a more open market, it also means that American wineries have an advantage over Canadian wineries due to the fact that it is still illegal to direct ship wine from one province to another. Even more strange, it seems that the main stakeholders in the Canadian wine industry had not been involved in the decision making or planning of this direct ship system.

As someone who appreciates fine Canadian wine, and who would love to have the opportunity to order wine from other provinces, I am disappointed in this news. I am usually in support of opening up the market as I feel that this will only lead to stronger competition and therefore higher quality. However, I believe that the LCBO, AGBO and BCBO, as government controlled organizations, have the responsability to ensure that Canadians have the ability to easily support Canadian product. That means that Canadians should be allowed to ship wine from one province to another. I hope that by being legally allowed to ship wine from the US to certain Canadian provinces that this will lead to changes to the laws relating to shipping within Canada. I just wish that these changes would have come ahead of the announcement to allow US wines to be direct shipped the their northern neighbours.

2008 Inox Chardonnay - Peninsula Ridge Winery

2009-11-16T02:04:08Z

If you are looking for a very light, fruity chardonnay with great minerality and acidity then the 2008 Inox Chardonnay from Peninsula Ridge Winery is it. This chardonnay tastes unlike any other chardonnay I have ever tried. Immediately upon tasting it I love the acidity and minerality. These are not often the first things I think of when I taste a chardonnay. Then on the long finish I can taste citrus fruit ranging from orange to lemon to lime. Although I can appreciate chardonnay, it is not one of my favourite varietals. However, this one stands out.

For those of you who don't know what inox means, as I didn't, inox is another term for stainless steel. This would indicate that this wine is unoaked.

2008 Ladybug Rose - Malivoire

2009-10-26T23:54:36Z

Well this came as quite a pleasant surprise. I have not tried a rose in several years, mostly because when I do I have flashbacks of nights where I drank way too much of the sweet strawberry-tasting stuff as a student. This rose is different though. This is what they call a 'serious' rose. It is very light, dry, yet complex. It is made up of 80% Cabernet Franc, 12% Gamay, and 8% other vinifera. It has a tartness of raspberry and cherry but it also had a definite green-ness that I was not expecting at all. The first thing that came to mind was green pepper with a touch of celery. The finish was long and spicy. This wine has me excited about trying more roses. I hope I can find some more out there that can stand up to Malivoire's Ladybug.

2008 Trius Riesling Dry - Hillebrand winery

2009-10-08T01:46:56Z

Well I decided to pop the cork, ok well unscrew the cap, on a bottle of 2008 Trius Riesling Dry. This wine is definitely much dryer than the other rieslings that I have been drinking lately. I found this wine quite acidic with a lot of minerality. It does have some tropical notes to it but it had even more of a citrus component to the taste. I drank this wine on it's own but I think it would be much better paired with a rich food such as a fatty fish or perhaps even a spicy asian dish.

2007 Red Moose - Konzelmann Estates

2009-10-01T00:05:42Z

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go on the Cellar Rat Experience tour at the Konzelmann Estate Winery in Niagara on the Lake. While our guide was showing us around the vineyard I noticed on a map that Zweigelt vines were grown onsite. This caught my attention because I was very unfamiliar with this grape and it was one of the varietals that was in the Pelee Island Eco Trail Cabernet Franc wine that I have previously reviewed. I was suprised to find out that Zweigelt is not only found in blends but that Konzelmann Estates actually bottles it and sells it as a single varietal wine. The guide told us that they had been selling Zweigelt for years but it never sold well because people didn't know how to pronounce it. They decided to label the wine as Red Moose and it has now increased in popularity. During the second part of the tour we had the opportunity to taste the 2008 Zweigelt vintage right out of the steel vat and on the way out I picked up a bottle of 2007 Red Moose at the boutique.

Personally I was pleasantly surprised by this wine. I wonder why I hardly ever see this varietal sold outside of a blend. The 2007 Red Moose was very deep in colour and full bodied. I found it quite fruity, with notes of cherry and raspberry. I also found that it had a wonderful spiciness to it.