Monthly Archives: May 2022

I had a bit of a scare this morning. When I first got up this morning, I decided to do a few housekeeping things before getting my first coffee. Then, when I was just about to get my first coffee of the day, when Bam! The power went out. Then I read a notice on my phone that my friend Cassandra sent me said it was going to be out all day. Well, there was almost no wine blog, as I had no internet for a while. But luckily it came on a short while later, just as I was getting dressed to go out for coffee. I wasn’t taking any chances, I made two. A quick Nespresso while my other coffee was brewing.

Last Friday night I went out to dinner with some friends, and they were surprised when I took an ice cube and put it in my red wine. They were shocked. I know regular readers of the blog know how I feel about ‘room temperature’, but I’ve added a lot of new readers recently, and I thought I would share it again.

The room temperature of wine is the temperature of the wine cellars where winemakers store the wine. This is usually 55-degrees Fahrenheit or 13 – 16-degrees Celsius. Some big bold reds can be served at 18-degrees Celsius. The lighter fruitier wines should be served a little cooler. When I was recently in France, I encouraged everyone I went with to touch the bottles of wine in the cellars we toured. Most were underground and the bottles were very cool to the touch. Wine was never meant to be served at 24-degrees Celsius. And wishing my friends Judy & Gary a very Happy 50th Anniversary.

I have always promoted this blog as being about great wine at affordable prices. Today, I’m going to focus on some wines that are under the $20 mark that you and your friends will love.

It’s Rose Season!

Here’s a great one from the Niagara region and to my Newfoundland friends and readers, you can get it there as well. The Lola Cabernet Franc rose from Pelee Island is priced under $20 and perfect for patio sipping.

To my white wine loving readers, here’s a new white. Last week I told you about the Burnt Ship Sauvignon Blanc, I’m still on that kick. Here’s a great value, the Canyon Road Sauvignon Blanc.

Priced at $12, you read that right, $12. They make a Chardonnay as well, but I love the Sauvignon Blanc. Crisp and fresh with tropical fruit notes. Very good.

And last but not least, a new red I’ve tried that is under $20.

Malbec is not normally a go-to wine for me, but did I ever enjoy this Argentinian one from Gauchezco. To my friends in Newfoundland, it has a different label, but you can get this brand there. It looks like this

Priced in the $17 range, this rich deep Malbec is was perfect with my favorite meal.

BBQ baby back ribs, crispy wings, corn on the cob and rice.

Great wine doesn’t have to expensive. Be adventurous, you might be surprised, like I was with this wonderful Malbec.

That’s it for me for this week. Thank you for reading. And a big hello to our new readers over seas.

Till next week, Cheers

Darlene

Who doesn’t love a long weekend. Especially the May long weekend, it’s like the unofficial kick off to Summer.

I’m sitting here, writing this blog, and I have my patio doors open and the sun is shining. Perfect. My apologies for no blog last weekend. After working all week, the Covid fatigue really got to me, and I just didn’t have it in me.

As you all know, the price of gas is over the top atrocious here in Canada. And the price is not changing once a week, sometimes it’s a couple of times per week. Well, I have the perfect picture my boss sent to me yesterday. So for this weekend, I’ll save gas and drink wine. It’s much cheaper and makes me feel better than gassing up my vehicle.

Remember the wine salt I told you about last week, the combination of wine and salt I bought in Bordeaux. Wishing I bought more!!

Wine salt combines sea salt, super-reduced wine, citrus zest and fresh herbs, adding a fruity tang and also making a great salt substitute for all sorts of things. I’ve been having fun using it on meats of all kinds. If you find it online, buy it and try it.

I love it on pork chops, I also used it in the top picture in my au jus gravy for my mashed potatoes. It adds a really interesting taste and I’m kicking myself I didn’t buy more.

Ok, let’s talk some wine. With one of those meals above, this is the wine I had with it.

Sauvignon Blanc is one of my favorite white wines, and this one from Canada was fantastic. My friend Arla gave me this last week and it was delicious with my pork chop and mango chicken. Now that Summer is almost here, I am definitely going to add more Sauvignon Blanc to my wine rack. It’s such a food friendly wine. It goes with just about everything. The Burnt Ship Sauvignon Blanc sells for about $19 here in Nova Scotia at the NSLC, and it’s a beautiful wine with notes of citrus and tropical fruit. I loved it.

And for the red wine this week, this is my wine of the week.

Before I went to France, I went down to a locally owned independent wine store in Halifax, and picked up this beauty. The Leaping Horse Cabernet Sauvignon is 80% Cabernet, 10% Cabernet Franc and 10% Syrah (Shiraz). What an interesting wine, and priced at just $19 a bottle. It’s made by Ironstone Vineyards in Lodi California, reflecting their love of horses. It was so good, I was sad I only bought one.

That’s it for me for this week. Enjoy your long weekend, stay safe.

Till next week, Cheers

Darlene

Last night was my first time in a week having a glass of wine!

I know right? Well, I arrived home from France last Thursday night and woke up Saturday morning with a headache, sore throat, cough and run down feeling. Booked a PCR test, and the next morning it confirmed what I already knew, I had Covid-19. Although France is in Level Alert 3, they don’t have mask mandates. There were only 63 passengers in total on the river cruise, and we wore masks everywhere, so I’m thinking it was the airport in Paris. Shoulder to shoulder and most people weren’t wearing masks.

So, I guess you could say I had lots of time to recuperate from the 23-hour journey home and boy did I sleep lots. I definitely feel 10,000 times better than I did earlier in the week, and after having wine for lunch and dinner for a full week, my body didn’t object from taking time off from the vino.

I had a wonderful trip before hit by Covid. One of the highlights of the trip for me was getting to see the winery of Chateau Lafitte Rothschild. We didn’t get to go in, but check your local liquor store and check out the prices of the wine from this winery. Here in Nova Scotia they start at $1000 per bottle and go up from there.

Although most people think all Bordeaux wines are red, they do make some mighty fine white wines as well. The grapes are Sauvignon Blanc and/or Semillion or a blend of both.

White wines in Bordeaux cannot be labelled to a specific regions or appellations, for example Saint Emilion or Margaux, or Pomerol. White wines in Bordeaux are labelled as Bordeaux, like the above Bordeaux Blanc.

We enjoyed some fantastic wine, and fantastic foo.

But my favorite part of the entire trip, were the people I went with. I met some great new people and we had so much fun.

I didn’t do a lot of shopping while there, I really soaked up the area and the culture and enjoyed time spent with these fun & fabulous people. I did however, buy one item very unique to the area.

Wine salt! It’s a real thing

It came to by an accident. Salt was a very valuable commodity and a wine barrel tipped over and coated the salt. They couldn’t afford to throw away the salt and wine salt was born. It’s delicious on meats and vegggies. I had it on a steak and it was so flavorful.

So what was the wine I had last night?

Gran Passione Rosso is an Italian blend made of Merlot and Corvina. It hails from the Veneto region around Venice and is priced at $20 a bottle here. Delicious, full-bided and fruity, it’s a great wine at a great price.

That’s it for me for this week. This is Day 8 and I’m feeling much better. Staying put for today. Stay safe everyone, and till next week, Cheers.

Darlene