When you think of Sherry, a few things come to mind.  It might have been your Great-Aunt Matilda’s favorite drink (does Harvey’s Bristol Cream come to mind?).  You may love to cook with it or you may associate it with drinking it out of a paper bag.  What ever your connection, Sherry drinking has been on the decline for the past 10 years or so.  Sherry is a fortified wine that comes from or around the town of Jerez, Spain.   One of the biggest myths about Sherry is that is tends to be sweet, but actually it can be made in a dry or sweet style.  That said; remember that Cream Sherries are always sweet. 

Sherry comes in many different styles so here are a few to consider:

Manzanilla Dry - ­ This is light, very dry style sherry with delicate flavours. Pair it with almonds, ham or even olives.  Most of these Sherries have a saltiness to them that is picked up from the near by ocean.  Made with the Palomino grape variety.  Try the Lustau Papirusa Manzanilla Sherry available at Vintages (Ontario only).  Serve chilled. 

Amontillado Dry -­ Another dry sherry with hints of smoke and raisins with a distinct nutty bouquet, medium Amber colour.  Aged in the Solera method where new sherry is continually being blended with other aging Sherries to ensure consistency.   It is made with the Palomino grape variety.  Try the Lustau Solera Reserva Dry Amontillado Los Arcos, Parker gave it a score of 90 which is available through Vintages.  Serve slightly chilled.  Great on its own or with some Spanish cheeses. 

Oloroso - ­ Don¹t let this Amber coloured sherry scare you away!   This is a great match with tapas, salty nuts, olives, antipasto and my favorite Manchego cheese from Spain.  It is a dry sherry made from Palomino grapes. Try the Marqués Del Real Tesoro Almirante Oloroso Sherry for $16.95.  Serve slightly chilled. 

Pedro Ximenez -­ Sweet, Sweet, Sweet!  This is a classic dessert sherry made exclusively with the Pedro Ximenez grape.  Lots of figs, dried fruits, honey and raisins flavours.  How they acheive the sweetness is by drying the grapes under the hot Spanish sun (therefore concentrating the sugars) then aging in Solera.   Try the Osborne Pedro Ximenez 1827 Sweet Sherry over your next bowl of vanilla ice cream, it is an amazing pairing! 

It is definitely an acquired taste but hopefully after reading this, it may just inspire you to pick one up.  And if you decide that you don’t like Sherry, you can always keep it around for cooking.

So, last night I decided to recreate the same meal, but pair the food with a white wine.  I decided to go with a Chardonnay from Le Clos Jordanne, ‘Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard’ and it was the 2004 vintage. The vines are located in Jordan, Ontario, west of St. Catharines, and are right at the foot of the escarpment.  A perfect location to benefit from the warming of the lake in winter and cooling in summer months and, of course, the shield of the escarpment behind it.

The nose had a lot of tropical fruit notes such as banana and pineapple, indicating a very warm late summer.  There were also the typical notes of butter, vanilla and cream corn, with some minerality from the limestone soil, as well.   When I tasted this wine, it had great mouth watering acidity followed with a pineapple finish at the back of your palate. 

It paired well with the smoked chicken and very well with the parmesan risotto.  Later on, I decided to pair it with buttered popcorn and sugar cookies…what a crazy combination, it worked!  The butteriness of the wine paired was perfect match with the buttered popcorn and the cookies gave the wine a bit of sweetness and creaminess in your mouth. 

So, who wants to help me finish my second bottle of this outstanding wine? If you do, please remember to bring buttered popcorn or your favorite sugar cookies!

I love it when I find the perfect pairing.  Last night I had smoked chicken from Beretta Organic Farms located in King City, Ontario.  With that, I made parmesan risotto and grilled zucchini (courtesy of my husband). All day I had been craving Pinot Noir and I was hoping the smokiness in the chicken would really bring out the fruit in the wine I chose. I picked the 2000 Artesa Pinot Noir (made with grapes from Santa Barbara County , winery is actually in Napa) that I purchased on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Niagara Falls, NY on the way home from one of many cross-border trips.  It¹s a great store with a ton of hidden gems, once you get past the bounty of “jug wine” at the front.  I had been cellaring this Pinot for some time and I truly felt the food was deserving of the wine.  The wine was made from two different vineyards in Santa Barbara then aged in French oak barrels for 14 months.   It must have been a hot year in Santa Barbara as the alcohol was big at 14.2%. Jack from Sideways would have approved whole heartedly (and probably not shared any, either).  After 8 years of aging, this wine has evolved on to its own with strawberry pie, cloves, and vanilla on the nose.  In the mouth, the ripe fruit coated your mid-palate with lots of baked strawberries and the finish was very long.  It paired perfectly with the smoked chicken as I wanted, really extenuating the fruit flavours of the wine in your mouth. Even my 9 year old son thought our meal was enhanced by the wine & food pairing but, alas, his parents weren¹t sharing!

We all know how the song goes but why do some people get headaches from red wine and others do not?   Some say it’s from the tannins in the wine.  Tannins come from the skins and the seeds and are included in the fermentation process when making red wine.  The skins are need in the fermentation process to give red wine its great colour.  Tannin also gives you the dry feeling in your mouth (think of sucking on a tea bag…uggh!).  Tannins can also come from the oak barrel the wine was aged in too.  But recently I’ve heard and read that it is also caused from the histamines in the wine.  Histamines are contained in grape skins and as I mentioned early, the skins are fermented with the juice therefore adding histamines to the wine.  Therefore, taking an anti-histamine before having a glass of red wine may prevent that red wine headache and flushed face.  To read more on the subject go to: http://www.wineintro.com/glossary/h/histamines.html 

 
They also have a great article on tannins, wine and migraine headaches: http://www.wineintro.com/glossary/t/tannins.html

While most of us were getting buried under snow this past weekend in Ontario, did you know that it was actually cold enough to pick Icewine?   Yes, we hit that magic number last weekend, -8 degrees Celsius and some Niagara wineries have been known to pick early in the season.  If my memory serves me correctly, Henry of Pelham, who make fabulous Riesling and Vidal Icewines, picked some of their grapes in the fall of 2005 when we had a cold snap in late November/early December. According to VQA standards, Icewine can be picked when the temperature drops under -8 degrees Celsius and that temperature must remain constant (or get colder). This is explains why most picking of Icewine grapes occurs overnight—and why wineries are always looking for help picking, too.  Both Inniskillin and Henry of Pelham have had Icewine picking events in the past, so check out their websites or contact the winery for more information.  Get your friends together for a truly fun all night party!

It’s Beaujolais Nouveau time again!  The third Thursday of every November is the official release date of this very fruity Gamay wine of the same year.  Beaujolais is located in the Burgundy region of France. It is a very easy drining, fresh wine with very little tannins.

How they make the wine so fresh is through carbonic maceration where most of the juice ferments while it is still inside the grape.  When the juice is finally extracted it has very little contact with the skin therefore make the wine less tannic.  Which also means this is a “drink now” wine…without tannins, this wine will not age.  Italy is also jumping on the bandwagon and are starting to make some great Beaujolais Nouveau as well. 

Here are my personal picks:

2007 Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau, Georges Duboeuf $15.95 (personal favorite)

2007 Novio Vino Novello, Italy $9.95 (LCBO recommended..can’t wait to try)

2007 Mommessin Beaujolais Nouveau $13.25

2007 Cantina di Negrar IGT Novello del Vento, Italy $9.45 (has a lion on the label)

Have a great “Beaujolais” weekend!

This is a very exciting Vintages release here in Ontario.  Lots of great wines; white, reds and spirits, especially if you are into Grappa.  Here are a few of my choices:

Tawse Winery – They have released their Echos White and Red, Riesling and Cabernet Franc all of which are true gems.   This amazing boutique winery in Niagara is situated on the Beamsville Bench and I can guarantee you these wines will sell out fast.2005 J.Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon – They have released both there 750 ml and 1.5L at $19.95 and $39.95 respectively.  I’ll be picking up a few of their 1.5L bottles for Christmas gifts and parties this season.   2004 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon – It’s not the Insignia but it’s pretty darn close.  Either blow the budget on the 1.5L at $149.95 or try out the half bottle (375 ml) for $39.95.Australia – If you are an Aussie fan, I would try the 2006 Two Hands Gnarly Dudes from the Barossa Valley.  Very consistent producer who makes wine from very ripe fruit with great structure.   If you are Robert Parker fan, he gave the Kilikanoon The Lacey Shiraz 2005, 90 points, and at $17.95 this is real bargain.   He also gave Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz 2006 96 points and it is only $44.95.Italy – My go-to wine is none other than Sa’ Solin Ripasso Della Valpolicella 2004, $15.95.  This wine gets released every couple of months and I always pick up a few bottles.  I love pairing this wine with pizza and spaghetti with meatballs, it also holds up nicely with some hard cheeses too.  My splurge here would be the 2003 Antinori Solaia but at $149.95 if you are not going to lay this one down for a few years, then definitely save your money!  For Grappa, have a look at the Antinori Tignanello Grappa for $82.95 that is distilled from the left over grapes used for the Tignanello!France – If you like unoaked Chardonnay try William Fevre Chablis Montmains 2005, $32.95.  This is a premier cru Chablis and William Fevre is an excellent producer.  For reds, I would suggest the Maison Champy Bourgogne Signature Pinot Noir 2000 that drinks like a New World wine with lots of berry fruit and it’s only $18.95.Unique and Interesting – Definitely the R. Lopez De Heredia Vina Bosconia Reserva 2000, $34.95.  This wine from Rioja made from primarily Tempranillo grapes is aged in oak barrels for 36 months then 3-5 years in the bottle before it is released.  Can’t wait to see how this one is drinking.   Also curious in trying the Chateau De Candale 2000 from the Haut-Medoc in Bordeaux.   For $35.95 for a 7 year old Bordeaux that apparently “rivals many much pricier Bordeauxs”, the only way to know for sure it to try it yourself. Happy drinking this weekend!

If you’ve been keeping up with the advice given in Wine Cellar 101  and you now have so much wine that it is overflowing on your kitchen table or counter.   So, where do you store all this wine?  There are many choices:College Student Budget – IKEA shopping trip!   IKEA sell great build-it-yourself shelving for wine in their Warehouse section of the store.  In my local IKEA, the shelving is located just outside the Marketplace section.  And, yes, the shelving will fit in the smallest of cars…well maybe not a Mini  or a Smart car. 

Late Twenty-Something Budget – Wine fridge!  They come in various sizes and prices to match.  I started out with a Haier wine fridge that I bought at Costco some years back.  It hold about 70 bottles, is temperate-controlled and isn’t overly tall.  This baby will fit into any minivan or truck too so you can bring it home with you.  Home Depot even sells two wine fridges or coolers by Danby.  Sub-Zero also has a great selection as well but tend to be on the pricey side for what you are getting.

Thirty-Something Budget – Check out Rosehill Cellars  collection of 250 – 500+ wine fridges.  And yes, they will deliver it to you.  They are quite huge so if you live in a 800 sq. foot condo, it’s going to take up quite a bit of space.    Forty Plus – The Wine Establishment  and Rosehill Cellars in Toronto do custom wine cellars that are quite stunning.  If you’ve got the space this is definitely worth checking out.  If any of these choices are not suitable to you, just remember to keep the wine stored in a dark, cool room or basement with a consistent temperature.  If the wine is being stored in your basement, make sure it is far away from the washer and dryer, as wine does not like vibration or the heat that these machines will give off.   Think of it as a sleeping guest and when you wake it up 10 or 20 years from now, if given the proper rest in the most ideal conditions, it will end of being the guest of honour.

The most common comment I hear from someone that tells me they want to start a wine cellar is “I drink my wine too fast for it to last.”  Building a wine cellar does take discipline…think of it as saving for retirement.  Here are a couple of tips to get you on your way:-         When you go to a wine store or visit a winery buy two bottles – one to drink now and put one bottle away in a safe spot. -         When you have people over for a party, make sure you have more than enough wine for your party and your good stuff is hidden.  I’ve been to many a party where it is the wee hours of the morning and there is nothing left but someone’s $100 bottle of Silver Oak that ends up getting opened without thought or appreciation for the wine.  Unless you really want to drink it, of course -         Splitting a case of wine with family or friends – Most people shy away from buying a case of wine because of the cost involved in buying so much wine at once and it is only ONE wine.  Join a wine club or get a group of friends to split a case where you share your interesting wine purchase.  You can share a case with 2, 3, 4 or more people! Stay tuned for a future post on how and where to store your wine.