Hello November

I’m sitting here on this Saturday morning, drinking my Starbucks Christmas blend coffee, the blend I love the most that is only offered for two months out of the year! I now realize, as my wine blog this week is called Hello November, that once Halloween ends they really start to push Christmas at us. Of course, if I were to be honest, most retail stores had Christmas in their stores for many weeks.

So that’s got me thinking, on a bit of a different wine blog. The wind is howling outside my window and I’m going to make one of my favourite comfort foods today, Beef Bourguignon. I am a huge fan of the Food Network and it’s on a lot in my home. The recipe I will use today is an easy but delicious version from Food Network star Ina Garten

I absolutely love this hearty stew served on bread as shown in her picture here . I love to serve it with mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and more bread.

This recipe is really quite easy and people will be super impressed. Find it hereIna Garten Beef Bourguignon

And here is that perfect wine to go with it

It’s the wine next to the carrots I plan to use in my stew. The J. Lohr Merlot is the perfect partner for today’s comfort food. This wine is actually comprised of 85% Merlit, 13% Malbec, 1% Petite Syrah and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. You can tell it’s going to be luscious, right? Trust me when I tell you this wine and this combination is a crowd pleaser! Dark smoky fruit and velvety tannins greet you. When my friend Amber at the NSLC poured me some of this yesterday evening, I knew I had to have it and I knew what I was going to serve with it. It’s $29:99 a bottle and who among us doesn’t deserve a little treat. Screw candy, this is my kind of trick or treat!