essex wine report

I just have to talk a little more about carousel. Spent Saturday and Sunday going to the sites and I just really enjoy it so you'll just have to put up with me.

Some yankee friends (syf) came over Saturday to carousel with tso and I. I was kinda disappointed that more were not open but oh well we had enough choice.

As usual, I had our tour organized to minimize travel time therefore maximizing the food and drink time. Therefore, our first stop was the German pavilion for food and beer. I wonder what happened to the two Tibetan monks that used to cook for them. This was years ago but man those two guys were good. Strange, #1 we get there and the adult dance troop from the Scottish club were there, deja vous. The major problem was that the tree trunk wasn't there. I had looked forward to it. They have a real old tree trunk where you get three hits to drive a nail. It really can't be done with the baby hammer, but the fun is good. An old German engineer told me that in the old country it's the privilege of the architect to drive the last ceremonial nail. Well being construction guys they would grease the head of the nail so the head of the hammer would just slip off. You would think the architects would figure it out. Well it seemed to be an oldie but goodie. Well real strudel, real beer and a porkfest made this real good: as usual.

From there it was to the South Asian Village. TSO  claimed it was her idea to invoke the "go to one you've never been to before" rule so that was that. Walking in was a smell paradise. Now ordering the food was kinda fun so I got a D; mutton curry, tomato curry, roti then some sweets. This lovely lady informed me that I bought the Sri Lanken  platter and smiled. Then I found out why. Man was it hot. Man was it good. May I add here that I had eaten 2 days worth of tandoori chicken before this. My eyeballs were sweating. Boy. did I need a beer, but of course there was none available. The sweets were, ahhhh, rather odd. Not at all what I expected. The dancing on the other hand was really interesting and quite exotic.

Next its off to, you guessed it, the Scottish club. And guess who was there, the adult dancers were back. Saw the pipe band again and they did the drum solo. Amazing, simply amazing. I just love pipe bands.

We were running out of time so we headed for Jamaica. Just have to finish the night there. Their dancers were , well just so erotic. With the drums and the dancers, wow.

TSO and I took the yute Sunday afternoon to the Scottish(I know) and then to the German for food. Well he enjoyed the highland dancers and the pipers. So we headed to the German for food and guess who is there, the pipe band. I was starting to feel like a groupie. Well the Germans loved them and everyone seemed to cry after the encore-Amazing Grace. The sound was just devastating-extremely powerful, but really deja vousey.

It just baffles me that more groups do not enter this. Just read the paper and there seems to be so many issues between ethnic groups, but we are just so ignorant of each other. I really feel that if we voluntarily meet, see the food, history, culture we can all find some middle ground. Face it we have to get along and I am just such a fan of the melting pot ideal.

Well, I am giving over to the dark side. Seems app wants to proof read me as I have made a spelling mistake or 2. See the blog word processor has no spell check. Or one I can find so this is on word. Ok everyone, I've capitalized, against my will because I hate word and don't know how to make it just type what I want instead of that damn paperclip.

The star ran an article on something that doesn't bother me at all but seems to rile up many of you. The LCBO has decided that the future of wine sales is in tetra paks, those lovely little juice containers that were available just after I was a kid. Well they are putting wine in them. I've bought some Chilean red and really see no problems. It falls on the cool meter, and for an intimate dinner I would not proudly put a tetra pak of wine on the table. Bottle or carafe only. Actually I remember bringing a box of that rabbit wine to a friend's house as a gift and he just laughed at me. Well I did it as a joke and I guess it worked.

But seriously what is the problem here. I put my reds through an aerator, and as such I always decant so if I can save a buck or 2, I just don't see the issue. Whites may have some issues as the tastes are a tad finer and well it just doesn't seem right.

One thing to remember is that this marketing scheme is being done for wines that are meant to be drunk young. I've seen a pinot and some merlots and the various plonk that we don't age, aren't supposed to age and aren't meant to be good wine. I just can't see buying a $70 Tuscan in a tetra pak. I just couldn't do it.

I bet that these will be limited to value wines, that is below that magic $12.50 mark and to get you to buy they will give you a liter rather than 750 mls. So don't freak, the tetra pak isn't the mark of the beast, it gives us some savings which when used with an aerator allow us to enjoy some more wine and that's ok with me.

why doesn't anyone down here make a sparkling wine? i have been to every winery and have yet to see one.

last weekend we enjoyed some and i couldn't have been happier. i opened a bottle of konzellmann sparkling riesling and it was just beautiful. it had all the attributes of a good bubbly. i think its way better than freix, which i really like. my only regret is that i only bought one bottle when i was at the winery. the taste was simply wonderful; the bubbles were spot on and the right size. they were small and released in that nice way, not the golf ball size ones that explode out of the cheapie ones. i've had sparkling rieslings from alsace and germany and i really like this better. obviously, this isn't dom, but i like it better than several of the french champaigns at newly 1/3 the price and no, i still prefer mumms.

now there are several locals which would be perfect for the beautification project. obviously, the wine has to start off good, so i look to rieslings made by pelee, aleksander or erie to be fine candidates.

as you know, we make the classic champagne grapes down here so we could do a version. theres alot of good chardonnay and a bit of pinot noir so it could be done. it would be totally different, but it may become its own product. if you've had a specific niagara variety which uses ice wine for the secondary charge, you may have seen the light too. now that is a truly canadian product. what could we use here to be special: well how about rasperry ice wine, a personal fav

now here a challenge to allanparkpete-- fruitini-- now app likes to think that he is a martini guru -- well having had ice wine martinis in niagara on the lake, i wonder what app can do with local product; whether the fruit variety or the grape variety 

as an aside; i find ice wine too sweet, so my first choice would be a late harvest riesling -- no, not what you think -- in niagara they sell this as 2nd pressing ice wine-- yes after the frozen grapes are pressed there is still alot left in them and when they defrost a little, they are re-pressed and the result is a little drier, thinner version of ice wine-- i like it alot better than regular ice wine and i think this would make a fine fruitini. use iceberg vodka and voila, a truly canadian drink.

one of the good things about living down here is carousel. it's basically ethnic festivals held during a three week period. the ethnic halls open their doors to the public and display their history, food and culture. its a great way for the cultures to meet.

when i lived in toronto i went to their's but you had to pay and as toronto is so big it was difficult. here its free and luckily it seems alot of the halls are close together.

the best ones have the kids doing the historical dances. tso and i were unbusy last sunday so we headed to the polish and scottish villages. well the scots put on a great show and it was nice to see alot of people who look like me(sad for them but i see the genes are strong). they had the highland dancers and the little ones were so cute. they had the broadswords and could barely carry them. it was just too cool. now the society pipe band playing and marching in the hall was a very amazing experience. very powerful. whats really cool is that they are closing their village with dancers from the south asian village- thats the way to do it -- congratulations-- hope you are sending some highlanders down there too. we won't talk of the 50/50 draw which netted me a bottle of wine-- it was ok as it was erie shores and as you know i like them. if someone from the scottish club reads this offer me a membership and we're square. trust me one meeting of the league of gentlemen held there and you would be in the black, the tso and i would take a little longer.

the polish village is always good. they have their act down quite well and their food is always good. they also feature the youth dancers. i was amazed at the difference in the regional costumes. these must have taken ages to make. the effort of the kids was great the announcers did a great job explaining the regional differences. i feel bad for them as a storm was pending and we ran for the car as the rain started.

i have to mention the greeks and germans as they take the dancing very seriously too which makes it fun-- haven't got to them yet this year and jamaican as well. well they are just soo cool- they have a church next door to their hall and  as it was saturday night there was a mass scheduled-- well they kept cars out of the church lot then as the mass was to start they announced that they would be quiet until mass was over then voila after the people left the reggae restarted -- polite and cool.

if you live down here its got one more weekend so support your favorite ethnic group and go see one that you have no knowledge of. this is a great ways to build bridges. i've got friends from detroit coming over for this weekend so i bet we'll end up at the hungarian hall.

 well this is a reprint of a previous post. its about aeration which to me transforms a wine. i would never willingly drink a red without aerating it. if i can decant it for 4 hrs good or use an aeration funnel and drink right away.

it transformed the Mastrnardi Merlot and makes D'Angelo's Baco-Foch drink far better than the price they give it away for. i think its so important that i am reprinting this one.

tootles, here we go again:::

well i tried to use ms word for the post but i gave up as it was making me capitalize things and i couldn't get rid of that damn paperclip. i just wish wp could be used here.

so here we go.

anyone who knows me knows i love my toys. when it comes to enjoying wine, why not?? well i'll give you my favourite, but first a little rant.

glasses: why do i need a separate glass for each wine??? i fully understand that it would be bad to drink dom out of a dixie cup, but i find it hard to believe that a glassware company can design a glass specifically for each wine. i love the marketing but come on. we lived for years with red, white and champaign glasses. i guess i'm missing something. i manage to break so many that my table would look like an orphanage. i like the stemless glasses but i really like the knockoff brands who are 2 bucks a glass.

now for my fav. it the airation funnels. seen one of these??? tso found them when we went to niagara last year. i scoffed at the idea until i tried the difference. i bought one on the spot.

the basic concept is to airate the wine just like you would if you decanted it for several hours but you do it instantaneously. for a wine pig like me this is great. i'm kinda impatient. 

there are several styles so i will try to discuss the ones i've used.

welfare mother: take a freezer bag and use it like a pastry bag. pick a corner and poke several holes around the corner, pour wine in it and watch the sprinkler. this works remarkably well but you need a pitcher to cath the spray. this is a great way to test the theory and/or shame the boyfriend into buying you one.

i have a wmf stainless steel one. it resenbles a funnel with the base blanked off and holes put around the perimiter above the blanked off end. mine has a short tube, but this is great for my decanter. mine is a modern type and as such it doesn't have much of a neck so i wanted the wine to be spayed to the side of the decanter asap. it works great

if you have a captain's type decanter a longer stemmed funnel can be used. i ended up buying tso a french one with a real small diameter tube and it works really well-- better tham mine and half the price.

there are avariety of style, from pewter to glass to stainless and the price is all over. i would avaoid expensive ones as i'm cheap and i just don't see the added utility. try to find one with multiple holes rather than a slot -- holes create more surface area therefore more airation therefore more smoothing out.

there is another variety which i own and one which i would definitely have if i ran a restaurant or winery. its called final touch and its a glass device which goes into the bottle like a pourer and airates as you pour. its real handy but does about 80% of a funnel/carafe combo.

for red wine the results are amazing. it improves the enjoyment of the wine about 75%. you can drink cheaper wines and better wines are just so much better, i just won't drink a red without airating it first. if you doubt me go buy a bottle of inexpensive red(or anything you have on hand) and make a welfare mother funnel. pour off a glass then decant the rest thru the freezer bag and taste the difference. you can thank me later, enjoy the wine and all your potential savings. do this on a tuscan and life is very good.

i've shared a secret of mine, enjoy. 

during the dark days there were no wineries here and the best canadian wines could best be described as carbarator cleaner, but boy did nafta change this. our illustrious gov't decided to protect the beer industry. in return it opened up the wine market and thus would sacrifice the domestic vitners. well fast forward to 2006 and guess what?? canadian beer is getting worse by the second and the wine; well, it wins awards.

prior to prohibition essex county grew grapes and made wine.  well it took about 50 years for the industry to restart.

my happiest one has to be erie shores. its tucked down in the southest part of the county(just south of harrow) on county road 50. its not big and the retail store is quite small. don't bring in 50 of your closest friends with you or you'll be tasting in shifts but its cute. its funny but it seems all the little wineries down here feature the winery cat and yes they have one. i really don't understand the relevancy of this but i just realized that the wineries i like all have cats.

county road 50 goes along the lake and they are on the north side of it. the other side features a small farm field then some "quite small" cottages so they definitely get the lake effect.  there must be something special down there as there is a cluster of wineries opening up in the area. down the road will be viewpoint(when it finally opens). if its all i hear it will be, it will be a destination winery worthy of any appellation.

in years past my favorite summer/deck wine was vinho verde. happy bright and just was great with a barbee or sippin. i'd keep a case on hand.

now, its erie shores. their rose is superb and now replaces vinho verde for me. their reiesling, blanc de blanc do it for me too.

 rose- it was the first modern one i had had. forget mateus or the cheap french rose's. this is crisp and fresh and not sweet. this is the perfect deck wine. the ones i bought in niagara are real nice but they lack the happiness of this wine.

riesling- another winner. crisp in style, very refreshing. i tend to like the big round ones but guess what, i really like this one. was at the winery with a friend who likes big round german rieslings and he liked it too. another great summer wine.

blanc de blanc- crisp fresh. had this while making pasta with the yute. maybe the fact that he turned the pasta machine rather than me helped but i really enjoyed it.

chardonnay- here we go again tso( the significant other) likes chardonnays so i buy them in protest. but i'm starting to like some of the good ones and this one i like. i guess i've just had to many over oaked australians. 

as its been real hot down here lately, i haven't been drinking reds but theirs are good too. i especially like the duet.

to sum it up, they make happy wine. its not expensive and is actually quite a bargain. go to the winery and meet alma and harvey and you will get it too. they are just real nice people who seem so happy making wine. this comes across in their product. the snootiness of some of the niagara types isn't here. what i'm struck with is that they look so pleased when you try the wine and like it.

that sums it up. my basic rule is that if i can see a 20ish sofia loren stomping the grapes when i try the wine its a winner and their wines do it for me.

i have to admit that i am not good with kids. anyone who knows me knows that my goal in life is to hang out with tony bourdain and mario battalli and of course tso (the significant other). that would be real cool but probably not kid friendly.

well i remember mario talking about getting kids involved with cooking. and just as the great sage says it works.  well the tso has a son and as usual he is a wee bit picky about food. well i was off to the country and we made pasta and got the wee one involved. he started by supplying the muscle to the pasta machine ( i'm not stupid and besides, i believe in child labor) then moved into feeding the sheets and then cutting them. the best part was that i sat back and drank wine and supervised the yute and tso. the yute really got into making the "pasta fart" which was my way of telling him that that the pasta was done at the widest setting as the pasta had been worked enough. he laughed and got into understanding the textural changes that went on. i had a great time.

it was really fun to get him to take ownership of the meal and guess what-- he ate hazelnut pesto with goat cheese - why -- cos it was his noodles

well its funny that i intend this to be about my local wines, then my first column is about niagara wines -- oh well

one of my fellow league of gentlemen members always talks of the bench-- i listened and last fall went to niagara falls and was basically lost about this sub area but on friday i proved him right.

i had to go to hamilton and pay my respects to a great man who really helped me. the funeral was over ~ 12 so the question became- how to honor his memory?? go home and mope ( 3 hour drive) or drive 20 minutes to wine country- i think joe answered this himself "go to niagara and go the slow way". well we did go slow -- we got really lost as hamilton is strangely laid out and of course no map. hey joe trained me as a surveyor and had all these moss directional stuff i wished i had listened to. so i persevered. we found hwy 8 and off we went.

forget the 402 go the old way, its really pretty.

it was a perfect day and would only have been better if i was driving a morgan or a 356 spyder california. these roads are made for a sports car, my old fiat spyder would have been great but it probably would have broken down and certainly wouldn't have made it up the escarpment. but that wouldn't have been all that bad, case of wine a 3 day wait for parts- this may have become the niagara wine report. 

if you're like me and really love riesling and pinot noir- this area is nirvana- kurt would have become happy and the band would still be around. the rieslings just were beautiful- they made me happy- if you like the alsace type you might save a few bucks and get the same quality here.and face it, supporting our own people and helping them create something special is in our countries interest. politics over.

pinot pinot pinot what can i say- thay are great and no not just due to the movie-- i didn't like the movie. along with the pinot noir they use its cousin gamay noir and do that well too -- if you grew up on beaujolais like me this was heavenly. why go to france?? other than wine, scenery, cheese, food, history and smelly locals i just don't get it. these are real good.

pick of the litter is still konzelmann- yes, fellow league of gentlemen man, they are not on the bench but this is my blog so i can talk of them. riesling, gewurz, rose are all excellent. i can just picture the rhine in every sip. just thinking i am smiling. but you have to try their pinot -- exceptional. this is the best i have had. when i am crowned king i want to serve this wine, actually i'd give them a royal seal kinda like liz does over in england.

peninsula ridge is so beautiful- the "opening soon" episode just doesn't do it justice-- wine is pure class, just don't like the parking lot. its fine but i just don't like it. i want to go there to just eat on that patio

malivoire- i had never had the wine before but had read about them. the winemaker's name is shiraz- like how cool. this place is really beautiful. i commend the architect(this is a big thing for me to admit as they are evil little critters). thier wines are all so good, so classy so nice and the better ones are just so much better than their lower siblings but the cheaper versions are still really good. by this time i've got a little glow on. go for the gamay and hold on, the chardonnay. classy place and they turned me on to some other good ones. i'll be back!

angel's gate- the view, the view -- this ain't canada this is like somewhere else -- the wines are fabulous too and the staff was great, nice-- i want to stay there, they had wine in humungo bottles- cool

met the winemakers at ridgepoint and kacaba -- these guys were so cool so understated- they just love their wine- by this point i'm glowing and smilin and the trunk runneth over -- i seriously thought of jettisoning my golf clubs.

well it was off to stoney ridge-- heard they had artisinal cheese there and of course wine. the staff was great and the cheese, well the quadruple brie was to die for. it was so nice, kinda the texture of a fine goat cheese, i need more but i don't need a cardiologist. their wine is really good to -- stay out of the higher level unless you have a trust fund but i like it.

well joe would have approved and i know was there in spirit. my advice is to stay off the freeway, go to the little wineries and have a girlfriend with good vision, not the "turn here" when you are already past it. sorry dear, i really do love you.

well i guess i have to do this and you'll just have to burrow thru.

let me introduce myself.

i am simply a lover of wine and being with my friends so i decided to share some of my views on food, wine and just enjoying myself. i don't work in the industry so i have nothing to gain, BUT i happen to live just north of canada's  southernmost two wine regions. these of course are peelee island and lake erie north shore.

so i've really enjoyed discovering these and simply think you should too. the wines are good and getting better. the winemakers are a laid back lot and there is little or no pretentions here- i like that.