On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…two tickets for the wine and food event at Akerley!

Happy December everyone, although it feels more like September out there...

I wanted to share with you all details of a very exciting event that is happening here at Akerley Campus, organized and exeuted by the Tourism Management and Culinary Arts programs.  The learners are really excited to share all that they have learned this semester during their wine courses and to prove their wine and food pairing skills they have teamed up together to present a special evening of food and wine!

Join us Wednesday, December 14th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm to sip and nibble your way through an evening of spectacular food and wine pairings. It will an evening of celebration and a perfect opportunity to engage with our creative learners to gather tips about pairing food and wine just in time for holiday entertaining!

Mark it on your calendars and call today for tickets!

Tickets are $45/person and part of the proceeds will go towards Feed Nova Scotia.

For additional information, please contact Amy Savoury at 491-4972 or by e-mail at amy.savoury@nscc.ca

Look forward to hearing from you….

Cheers,
Amy

The traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings certainly poses a challenge when trying to find the perfect wine to accompany all the flavours of a meal of this style. If your Thanksgiving day feast is anything like mine the table is usually full with an array of flavours laid out on the table for a free for all to be dished out on the plate. My challenge is always finding the room on my plate and in my belly to try everything. And when it comes to finding one wine to go with everything, I say why try one wine when you could have many! A sure fire way to satisfy your guests is to pick some really food friendly grapes, like a crisp Riesling or a fruit filled Pinot Noir. These grapes tend to make wines that will shine with any food. Most of our Nova Scotia wines are awesome food partners and this is the route that I like to go. On my table this year I will be laying down as many bottles of wine as there are side dishes to go with the turkey. There will be many styles of wine to shine, not only with all the dishes on the table but also to satisfy the palates of the many family and friends that will be gathered around the table! I will have whites, reds and roses and maybe even a bottle of bubbly…after all it is a celebration! Here’s what will be on my table this Thanksgiving feast!! (all wines suggested are available at a NSLC near you)

Nova Scotia Selections:

• Gaspereau Vineyards, Seyval Blanc
• L’Acadie Vineyards, Prestige Brut Sparkling
• Domaine de Grand Pre, Moulin Rouge
• Avondale Sky, Tidal Bay
• Blomidon Estate Winery, Rose

Great Value Selections:

• Canaletto, Pinot Noir: Italy
• Cono Sur, Riesling: Chile

Every year when the temperature dips and I have to turn the furnace on for the first time I get a slight feeling of sorrow for the summer that has passed! This happened to me last night and I have to be honest there was even a tear in my eye when I finally fired up the beast in the basement! As the wave of warmth slowly filled the house I started to feel a wee bit better and felt a whole lot better, almost joyful, when I saw the weather forecast for this weekend! Perhaps summer isn’t lost and with the sunshine and warmer temperatures returning, even for a few days, I began rejoicing in all the wonderful things that Fall has to offer! There are many things to be thankful for this weekend, for one I may be able to turn the furnace off for a couple of days but more importantly it is a long weekend, Thanksgiving! A time that will hopefully be filled with plenty of food and wine shared with friends and family! It is also an exciting time for the Nova Scotia wineries and grape farmers throughout the province as the harvest has begun in some cases or is drawing imminently near for others. Another reason to celebrate this weekend is the newest member of the Nova Scotia wine family, Avondale Sky Winery, is having their official grand opening celebrations on Saturday! With so much to be thankful for I would like to toast Fall this weekend and all the passionate producers around the province that keep my glass full of Nova Scotia wine and keep food on my table! I shall honour you all this weekend by eating and drinking my fair share…perhaps even over indulging a little bit….and not once will I feel sad that Fall is officially here!

PS. There is still time to register for one of my Fall courses, Wine Tasting or Wine Uncorked…yet another reason to celebrate! Check out the course details at coned.nscc.ca

Wine of the Week

Avondale Sky, 2010 Tidal Bay

(available at the winery and select NSLC locations and Private Wine Outlets)

I had the pleasure a few weeks back to leave work early on a bright sunny day and head to Avondale Sky Winery for a visit and a tasting! Located on the Avon peninsula, it was a stunning drive through the rolling hills and following the flow of the tide of the St. Croix and Avon Rivers. When I finally arrived at the winery (a short 45 minute drive from the city) I was overwhelmed by the stunning stature of the wine shop…the floating church from Walton! And the wines were equally as impressive…a must try is their 2010 Tidal Bay. It is a stunning blend of L’Acadie Blanc and Geisenheim grapes beautifully crafted by their young, talented winemaker Ben Swetnam. It is a wine that encapsulates what Nova Scotia wine is all about. It is wonderfully aromatic filled with aromas of candied citrus and hints fresh garden herbs. On the palate it is off-dry and nicely balanced with a bright, vibrant kick of acidity on the finish.  A great wine to impress your friends and family with…try it chilled on the deck as you soak up the sunshine this weekend!

Avondale Sky Winery

Wow hard to believe it’s already the end of September! The fall is always a fun time of meeting new students, introducing them to world of wine, getting a chance to visit our local vineyards and markets and of course taking part in many great local wine events.

I plan to get back in the swing of things with regular blog posts including a pick of the week. In the meantime, if you’re interested in evening classes, I have two upcoming sessions of Wine Uncorked – one in Halifax at NSCC’s Institute of Technology Campus (starts October 6) and one in Dartmouth at the NSCC Akerley Campus (starts November 3). I’m also looking forward to offering a brand new course this fall – Wine Tasting: Learn to Taste Wine Like a Pro. There is still time to register - check out the course details at coned.nscc.ca .

And hope to see you at some of the other wine events – the Nova Scotia Fall Wine Festival is underway and ends October 15 and the Port of Wines Festival taking place this weekend.

Until next time. Cheers! 

Last night was the last class of my current Wine Uncorked session. I always enter into this last evening with mixed feelings. There is always sadness, knowing that we won’t be spending our Thursday evenings together anymore (it is amazing to me the wonderful relationships that develop in only four weeks)! I am also filled with excitement, as this last tasting is always done blind. And by blind I mean, I carefully wrap each bottle in a brown bag (and for those of you reading this that know me…if there is one thing I love, it is a bottle of wine mysteriously wrapped in a brown bag). This helps eliminate any preconceived notions that an individual may have about a certain grape, region or winery! It also takes away the marketing of wine; consider how many of us buy a certain wine because we are attracted to the label. I love a brown bag tasting and always eagerly anticipate what the response of the group will be to the wines! And last night’s tasting did not let me down! There were many surprises throughout the evening and the result in the end was that the group began to think about wine differently. They were going outside of their wine drinking comfort zone and discovering that they enjoyed wines that they would probably have walked by in the store! This to me is the true success of the course….with so many wines, of so many different styles, why not try something new…you never know it may surprise you! And if you want to add some mystic to the experience wrap the bottle in a brown bag…

Our brown bag surprise of last evening was from Gaspereau Vineyards, the red blend “VITIS”… it always puts a great big smile on my face when a Nova Scotia wine comes out on top as a class favorite!! “VITIS” is one of Gaspereau Vineyards premium red blends and stars three fine grapes, Lucie Kuhlman, Dechaunac and Baco Noir. It is a non-vintage wine so the wonderful and talented winemaker, Gina Haverstock, carefully blends these grapes from different years and varying amounts of oak aging to create a balanced, intriguing wine! A must try indeed…and my advice is to slip it into a brown bag and surprise your guests at your next dinner party!

I have always classified myself as a seasonal wine drinker, matching what is in my glass with the weather of the day and in Nova Scotia we all know that there are days when your wine choice may change hourly! But all jokes a side, being a seasonal drinker I tend to match my wine with the weather, which subsequently provides a good approach to matching wine and food! Imagine a warm summer’s day on the deck with a crisp, refreshing white wine paired with the lighter fare we tend to crave in the summer! Or on the other hand warming up in winter with a rich hearty red wine when we tend to crave roasted and braised dishes from our oven! Perfect wine and food pairings and perfect wine to match our seasonal moods and cravings! Of course there are also days I simply crave a glass of wine to drink on its own at the end of the day to match my mood. This brings me to the reason for this post. Last week you may remember we were in the middle of a severe cold snap but that didn’t stop the participants of my current Grape Varieties course to gather at the wine lab to taste and explore some unique wines. And what we found in the last wine of the evening was a little red Portuguese beauty…warm, rich and comforting…a perfect bottle to cozy up with on a cold day and sip the winter blues away! The only thing missing was a crackling fire in the corner of the wine lab! I have included below the details for this Portuguese beauty if you want to try it for yourself and test the seasonal wine drinker theory!

2008 Casa Santos Lima, Foral de Lisboa

Available at Cristall & Luckett and a fantastic value at $12.86 (plus tax)

This is a cozy, cold winter day ready red wine! It is a blend of traditional Portuguese grapes, Casteleo and Touriga Franca, with a touch of Syrah. It is approachable, soft and juicy which makes it easy to sip. Loaded with ripe fruit and a pleasant hint of spice makes it a simple wine to cozy up with at the end of a complicated cold day!

I think the little skiff of snow that we received this week has got me into the holiday spirit especially early. As I drove home with the snow clinging beautifully to the trees, my mind began to wander to the joy of gathering in celebration over the Holiday season. And what better way to celebrate than with a glass of our favorite libation, wine! Nothing says “it’s time to celebrate” than sparkling wine in your glass. With the release of (and almost sold out) Benjamin Bridge method classique sparkling wines a few weeks ago it has concreted the fact that Nova Scotia is quickly becoming the trendiest sparkling wine region to hit the market! In fact, at the 2010 Canadian Wine Awards (CWA) it was a Nova Scotia wine, the L’Acadie Vineyards “Prestige Brut” that received top honours in the Sparkling category…this was the first time a Nova Scotia wine beat out a BC or Ontario wine to make the top of the list but probably not the last time! Below I have featured some elegant descriptions of what Nova Scotia has to offer for method traditional sparkling wines. Both won medals at the Canadian Wine Awards, both feature regional defining grapes and are examples of the breadth of wine making ability that we have in our province. So this holiday season add some sparkle to your festivities and tip your glass to Nova Scotia, guaranteed to put you into the holiday spirit!

Non Vintage Champlain, Domaine de Grand Pre
(CWA Bronze Medal)

At the Cellar Door: $ 29.50

A delightful wine that was created in honour of Domaine de Grand Pre’s 10th Anniversary, boy time flies when you’re making good wine! This wine is a classic Brut…dry, fresh, loaded with crisp apple notes and all tied together with aromas of lemon biscuits. Made from a blend of L’Acadie Blanc and Seyval Blanc, made with Swiss precision in true Nova Scotia style!

2008 Vintage Cuvee, L’Acadie Vineyards
(CWA Bronze Medal)

At the Cellar Door and at select NSLC stores: $ 26.50

This wine will definitely be a crowd pleaser at your next gathering! Made from a blend of L’Acadie Blanc and Seyval Blanc, it is beautifully balanced with a slight hint of residual sugar. The wine was aged on its lees for 18 months which adds complexity to tempt your taste buds…a charming wine, at a charming price :)

Check out the full results for the 2010 Canadian Wine Awards in the current issue of Wine Access .

I usually have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. I love sleep way too much. So my usual routine is to press the snooze button at least three times until I am finally persuaded to make the move to start the day. But yesterday was an entirely different story. It was November 17th, 2010 and I was going to be a wine tasting. As soon as my alarm rang, I sprang into action.

Seven lucky people were invited to this tasting. We all got to hear the story and taste the results of Benjamin Bridge’s Méthode Classique Sparkling wines. I feel so fortunate that I was invited to share in the moment and it will be a day that I will never forget! To hear the story behind the wine; the time invested (10 years), the money spent (over $3 million), the uncompromising passion for quality, the dedication to Nova Scotia soil and climate, was inspiring and made me proud to be a Nova Scotia wine drinker and proponent. 

And then there was the wine. We tasted both “Méthode Classique” sparklings, the 2004 Brut Reserve and the 2004 Blanc de Noirs.  Both the wines were exquisite and beyond comparison. Each wine was uniquely expressive, complex and confirmed on the palette with elegant mouth watering acidity “I am NOVA SCOTIAN”!!! They left me speechless (indeed a hard feat), put a sparkle in my smile and a tear in my eye. Many dreams were realized yesterday, and it will change the Nova Scotia wine landscape forever.

Get these gems while they last, only 200 bottles of the Blanc de Noirs will be available and 1000 bottles of the Brut Reserve. They go on sale on Monday, November 22nd at select NSLC stores, Bishops Cellar, Harvest Wine and Premier Wines & Spirits. I am certain they won’t be on the shelves long!