The Sound of Wine

Our second to last stop on the European trip was Switzerland. Known as the neutral country (how many times have you found yourself not wanting to get into the middle of someone else's fight- I'm Switzerland). They are also one of the only countries in Europe to NOT belong to the European Union. This was slightly frustrating on our trip as we were so used to traveling between countries without border checks or even having to switch currencies. Not only did we have to go through a border, but we had to change our money into Swiss Francs. Normally this is no issue but when you're only there for a day, it's hard to determine how many Francs you really need!

The land of Sound of Music and the Alps and watches and knives and cheese, normally you don't think of Switzerland as a wine making country. I certainly didn't. Even the Swiss (my guide was Swiss) will admit their wine is terrible.

But of course I had to judge for myself. So on the day we were there, on a beautiful little boat that took us across the lake into Lucerne from our Gondola ride, I was the ONLY person on the entire boat to try Swiss wine.

Admittedly, I wondered what I was doing when no one, not even the Swiss, would drink the wine. But what kind of wine reviewer would I be if I didn't try? So I plunked down my 2 Euro and had myself a glass of Swiss Gamay.

And guess what? It wasn't bad! And that's saying a lot seeing as I had just had my fill of Italian wines. Maybe it was the high altitude or the fresh breeze across the blue and idyllic lake or maybe it was just me wanting to really like the wine, but I didn't mind it at all!

Now did I run back and have seconds? No. But I didn't have any issue finishing my glass and I did appreciate the romance of me drinking a nice glass of red wine (ignore that it was in a plastic cup) and drifting into the harbour of a mountain village (well, Lucerne isn't a village and there was a fair going on with boatloads of teenagers everywhere speaking very harsh German)- and holding hands with a hot European Man (sorry Karyn!!), my point being that the wine was just fine.

Now this was my only experience with wine in Switzerland that I remember. That night I ended up at a Sports Bar, an Irish Bar and a dance club but I'm pretty sure I didn't drink any more wine.

Oh and have I mentioned that  I spent the night in a Swiss jail? Sadly I have the pictures to prove it! Maybe the wine wasn't so good after all...

It's Wine Amore!

I have been delayed getting this post up, mostly because I've been lazy to write it. But it's time people, it's time. One of the countries I visited on my European vacation was Italy. I had three stops in Italy- Venice, Rome and Florence. Rome, I doubt I'll visit again but Florence and Venice are both cities I would like to go back and explore some more.

My wine experiences in Italy were good. Very good. So good in fact that on most nights I forgot to even write down what wine I was drinking!  But I'll give you some highlights.

I also realize that there isn't much to learn from this posting other than the wine in Italy is plentiful and is almost always good. They often don't tell you the names of the wines- it's just simply a house red or a house wine so if I had been better prepared, I should have researched what the indigenous grape was to region and I could've figured it out. So, I don't offer much in terms of actual wine pickings other than I 

In Venice, we did the famous gondola ride (no singing however, we were told they only do that in Hollywood [or Vegas I supposed]). But we did buy three bottles of sparkling wine, Italy's answer to France's champagne- prosecco! Between six of us, that was half a bottle each. For safety (we think anyway), we had to drink out of plastic cups as you can see in the picture, Karyn is holding her glass of prosecco.


We felt good. We had all the bottles finished within the half hour. It was an enjoyable ride and some of us were a little tipsy I have to say. I have since had prosecco a few times (love it) and I have a bottle ready and waiting for review. We're having it for Kristin's birthday next week.

Also in Venice, we went to this very charming little restaurant whose name escapes me (I'll ask my tour groupies and fill this in later) for a 7 course meal. Yes- seven courses! It was nuts. We had so pastas I started to lose count. But with good pasta comes good wine! The table wine was a Vinoda Tavola and came in both red and white. I do know our table (all Canadian women and an honourary Canadian Irene from California) managed to polish off a few bottles. The accordian player wasn't so bad either!

We also drank a lot of wine at the restaurant we went to in Rome (I really need to remember to write down restaurant names, I write down everything else!). This was only (ha- only) a three course meal but again, the wine was never ending and delicious.  Two of the wines we had here were Falamus Catello Romani and Tavola Rosso (a red and white)

Not to be outdone was the Tuscan dinner in a former monastery when we arrived in Florence! Oh we had so much fun. Along with a ton of dancing, food (see the delicious assortment of pasta on my plate!) singing and piano playing, the meal was also very delicious. While only 5 courses, it was still amazing and so was the wine that was never ending! (as long as you drank, they brought out more).

I can't wait to go back to Italy and try more wines. I had already picked up three bottles in Germany and over the limit for what I could bring back into Canada so I was S.O.L for bringing any Italian wines back. But I definitely will on the next trip. And if you find yourself over there, feel free to bring me back a bottle!

#36- Shiraz (Syrah)

He's definitely sick. He just didn't realize at the time. Poor Craig just didn't realize his taste buds were coming down with the flu. It's the only logical explanation for his reaction to tasting the Shiraz.

A Shiraz! The go to red wine when you don't know what else to bring to a dinner party and you want to make an impression but not come across as a wine snob but also be able to impress the host and attendees with a decent bottle of wine. You can't go wrong with the Shiraz! Or can you? Craig, the youngest of our clan, has put doubt in my mind. He is a sick man (literally).

Okay, so here's a bit of the back story without the melodrama. Kristin and I love Shiraz wine. It has been our go to wine for a while as we really can't go wrong with it. I thought this wine was a slam dunk win.

The winery is Nugan Estate in Australia. Their wine is called Vision and the grape is the Shiraz grape (also known as Syrah) a very popular grape grown in Australia. It is a very dark wine, quite red, even perhaps described as burgandy (and not to be confused with the French wine region of Burgandy) but the dark colour comes from the dark skin of the grapes.

The wine itself always has very distinct and toned tastes to it. Often it's very earthy or peppery. There is nothing subtle about this wine. Both Kristin and I enjoyed this wine as we usually do. I can't believe Craig couldn't even drink it. My mother told me it took a few shots to get him to take a decent picture without a crinkled brow (and I've chosen the random picture with my other brother Jim getting his mug into the pic- just because that's how my family rolls).

So I only got four words out of him "I don't like it." Well I did. We have another split decision. There's only one way to solve this problem- drink another Shiraz! And I have just the bottle in mind--we'll defer back to the no fail winery of all wineries- Layer Cake! I have the bottle sitting and waiting in my wine cabinet and I'll whip that bottle out at the next family get together (luckily for us we have two birthdays coming up so the opportunity is upon us soon...).

Kristin and I drank this wine on Halloween and I have to say it goes very well with chocolate, even at 12:30pm at night and with a four year old hyper kid who refuses to go to bed! (though I have to give credit where credit is due and inform my loyal readers that Owen officially took this picture of me drinking the Shiraz all by himself). We may just have a future photographer on our hands- he certainly does not inherit the skill from his maternal grandmother! Oh we kid (and besides, she is very aware of her mad skillz with a camera...) I just really enjoyed this wine and found it very easy to drink and went very well with the pasta. It had an earthy taste to it which I do enjoy when it comes to a red wine. It wasn't overpowering in taste and was very typical of the shiraz I had in the past. Shiraz's are often. It's moderate in acidity but is considered a heavy wine for red so it is an acquired taste (but again, a safe bet when it comes to a red).

Being that it was Halloween, dinner was not a huge priority so Kristin made a huge pot of pasta for the family! Homemade sauce is hard to beat and her dinner was still very good, even when made en mass! But the point of the night was to enjoy our wine and send the little kiddies on their merry way to get us some chocolate. I've included some pictures for you to appreciate the cuteness that is the next generation of my family (note: I have not in any way shape or form contributed to this next generation, I only write about them).

The next grape is another grape and Craig better be better and taste buds healed...it's the Barolo grape!

Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Festival

We might be a province that produces just fruit wines (two wineries at last count) but we certainly know how to enjoy a wine festival! This afternoon was some of the best wine tasting I've had in a long time.

My sister in law managed to snag a free ticket to the Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Festival and passed it on to me (a $27 savings- thanks Sharon) and I asked my mom to come with me to the event. Both Kristin and Craig are sick so they were out this year. Mom and I split the cost of the second ticket and bought $30 worth of tasting tickets and headed inside.

On the way in we were given a tasting guide and a wine glass. We were ready to go.

There must have been over two hundred wineries and distributors in the Shaw Conference Grand Hall. And along with wineries there were restaurants and hard liquor booths and other booths that I couldn't quite figure out the relevance (pet food anyone?)

So with a couple of hundred booths to visit, that meant hundreds of wine tastings. $30 worth of tickets is 60 tickets and most of the samples ranged from 3 to 8 tickets. Mom and I needed a plan.

We went through the list (took us a while even at a skimming pace) to find wines I hadn't already bought for the weekly grape. This will give you  an idea just how tough this challenge is going to be. Of all the hundreds of wines available- there were only four wines that I hadn't tried (of course I'm excluding any blend wine- just the one grape variety). We highlighted those four, found them on the map and set out to find them.

It is so much fun to go and taste wine! If you haven't gone to a festival like this, you definitely should, especially if you are a little weary of trying new wines. It's a great way to learn about wines even before you try. The wineries are so knowledgeable about their wines they can tell you all sorts of things about them- what other wines they're similar too, what taste you should encounter, what to eat with the wine etc. We had one gentleman tell us to wait on trying the Semillon wine because it was so sweet that it would ruin our palette for the rest of the day so to come and try it last. Good to know!

I won't bore you with the details but mom and I made our way over a two hour period and tried 12 wines. Without trying to, we evenly split the tasting between six white and six red. Mom also tried the Southern Comfort as she had never tried that liquer before (she liked it, like- a lot!).

We asked a ton of questions and read little tid bits on all the wines we tried. I asked where we could purchase them and made notes about our first impressions on all the wines. Oh, and we ate too. Mom and I were hungry so we made sure to get some food samplings while we were there. We had a cheese and cracker platter where we had the best Swiss Cheese I'd ever tasted. Thank-you Paddy's Cheese! I know where I'll be stopping by for Christmas!

We also tried garlic prawns with orzo and Asiago cheese from the Chateau Louis Hotel. Our last dish was a dessert- carrot cake stuffed with an amazing goat cheese from Sunshine Village ski resort in Banff. All were very delicious.

Overall my mom and I had a ridiculously good time and will definitely be coming back next year. We will however make sure we buy tickets early as the price ($27 is steep) especially when an early bird ticket is $17.

There is another wine festival coming up in February called Celebrate Wine Fest. Guess where we'll be?\

Our 12 wines list (in alphabetical order of the winery, not in the order that we drank them) and some quick tasting notes. I hope to be reviewing at least 4 of them in the near future!

1. White- De Bortoli and Vina Tarapaca- Noble One Botrytis Semillon 2007 Australia (one I will review in the future). We actually drank this one last because it was so sweet. Very viscous.  We both liked this one and of the two very sweet wines we drank, I liked this one better.

2. White- Gladstone Vineyards- 12,000 Miles Sauvignon Blanc 2008 New Zealand. Mom really liked this wine and I have to agree, it's good. Very crisp and as mom put it "not too sweet, not too dry, just right!"

3. Red- Organic Wine Collection- Girasole Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 USA. Chosen because it had sunflowers on it. Mom could immediately taste the smoke and oak without knowing that's exactly what you should taste based on the reading notes given to us. It was quite good.

4. Red- Painted Wolf Wines- "The Den" Pinotage 2009, South Africa. One of my favourite wines for sure. I found this wine delicious. Loved that I could really taste the fruit (berries) in this wine. Will definitely buy this wine.

5. Red- PMA Canada- Spadina Una Rosa Nero D'Avola 2003, Italy. (one I will review in the future). When she handed me the sample, she described it to me as dark and inky. That's all I'll say other than do not drink this wine while eating cheese, specifically Brie.

6. White- Spy Valley Wines- Sauvignon Blanc 2009, New Zealand. Another nice wine, we were 2/2 with the Sauvignon Blancs. Both had very strong citrus tastes to them that we both loved. Nice to drink.

7. Red- Tinhorn Creek /Tapiz- Yabby Lake Pinot Noir 2008 Australia. It was recommended to us by the merchant as we showed up at her booth with the plate of garlic prawns and looking to try a white. She recommended the light body pinot noir instead. While it was fine to drink, I'm guessing this would finish last on our list of 12.

8. White- Tsantali Wines- Organic Assyrtiko, Greece. (one I will review in the futre). This get the nods up from mom and myself. A great white wine.

9. Red- Tsantali Wines- Rapsani Reserve 2005, Greece. The only booth where we tried two wines. And it's because Greek wines are so hard to come by. This one was a blend of three grapes that are indigenous to Greece. It was ok but nothing to write a blog about (wow, lame).

10. White- Vintage West #2- Middle Sister Drama Queen Pinot Grigio 2009 USA. I have to say, it was the name of the wine that caught our attention. And when you want people to drink your wine, a name says a lot. We loved this wine!! (and no Kristin, there is no hidden message here...says the oldest sister...). I will also recommend to our local liquor store to bring in this wine. They're fairly new but mom and I enjoyed the wine for sure. They had other wines with equally good names as well.

11. Red- Voga/ Giorgio & Gianni- Negromaro 2008, Italy. (one I will review in the future)The first wine of the day and I didn't make a note! But if my short term memory serves me right, my mom and I liked it and knew we were off to a good start. And I'll be reviewing it more in depth in the future so my memory failure is okay in this instance.

12. Warrego Wines- Ice Wine Impersonator, Australia. Lockup Liquer. So much to say about this wine! First, the merchant was fabulous and gave us great information. The wine is an imposter ice wine because it's Australian and they don't get a freeze up so they mix the wine with a brandy to get it to ice wine sweetness. Mom super enjoyed this wine (family member who picked mom for Christmas take note about this wine-- Sherbrooke Liquor carries it!)

There was one wine we really wanted to try but unfortunately the shipment hadn't arrived so we were left to wait until the shipment comes in. It is also with Warrego Wines at it is a red bubbly called Scarlet O'Bubbles (great name don't ya think?) I'll be sure to pick up a bottle of this bubbly stuff for the Christmas season as well.
Two thumbs up to a great day with great company, my mom! Cheers.

#35- Muller-Thurgau (Rivaner)

Happy Halloween! What a great evening filled with family and little ones. But let's not kid ourselves, we got drink to wine! Random fact: any wine will do on an evening where one has to dress up and put up with little kids screaming "trick or treat" at the top of their lungs in the hope you throw a candy or two into their bag? True story. A second random fact: all wine pairs great with chocolate.

But I'm not even on that wine yet. I am reviewing the wine that we drank on Friday evening. After a long week of hating my job, Kris invited me out to her place for the evening to bitch, drink and do whatever grown ups do on Fridays. I brought us out a Rivaner. The Rivaner grape is one I hadn't heard of before but it is a cross breed of a Riesling and a Madelaine Royale grape (it was once thought to have been crossed with Silvaner but that has been proven wrong). It is quite sweet.

The name of the Winery is Black Tower in Germany, more specifically the Rhine Valley (note: I was just there three weeks ago- the Rhine Valley, not the winery). What a beautiful place on earth that I got to visit. I really enjoyed this part of Germany so it's nice to be able to drink a wine from there.

The Rivaner is also known as the Muller-Thurgau grape (and much easier to pronounce). On the varietal table, it appears as the Muller-Thurgau grape and it's also known as Liebfraumilch (direct translation if I remember my German correctly is Love Woman Milk) or something to that effect. it is moderately acidic and is a light lightweight wine, in other words, very easy to drink. And sweet.

Did I mention sweet? When Kristin took her first gulp of it, she was taken aback. It took us a while to get used to how sweet this wine was! Looking at the varietal chart, it is right next to the Pricesso grape, an Italian grape used for sparkling wine so you can imagine that it is indeed on the sweet side for sure. At first, Kristin said she wasn't sure if she'd be able to finish her glass it was that sweet.

She did.

In fact, she did ask if we had to leave any wine for Craig to try. I said she did.

I enjoyed this wine a lot. It is very fruity but hard to decipher exactly what fruit it is. Kris and took stabs at it- she guessed kumquat. Wrong. The fruits are apparently pineapple and mango.  It was sweet but we paired it with some maki from one of our favourite Japanese restaurants in the city- Teriyaki Corner. They had this new menu item- Dragon Rolls (spicy salmon deep fried and rolled with rice and a special dragon sauce). It was spicy all right but was nicely offset by the sweet crispness of the wine. Looking up the wine online, we found out it pairs nicely with a lot of spicy dishes.

I wouldn't suggest this wine if you're looking for a wine to go with a typical, American style food. It's much too sweet to drink with anything but spice or if you were treating as an aperitif or dessert. The Black Tower winery does indeed do this wine justice and comes in a very funky wine bottle (Black of course...)

The next wine is one of the favourite wines on our list- Shiraz. It is the one we drank this evening while the kiddies dug into their candy. They had their candy, we can have ours!

Craig was left at home to hand out candy to the kids so I stopped by to drop off the Rivaner to him; told him to pair it with something spicy. He ate a tuna fish sandwich with it. When I asked him what I thought of the wine, he said "all I can taste is tuna". Yup, we're related...