Father’s Day Grilling Weekend

Like many Dad’s, mine loved a BBQ on Father’s Day weekend. He passed away in 2020, 3 months before he turned 90. He lived a great life and was always known as Johnny Smiley. I miss him so much. So in honor of all the Dad’s out there that love to fire up the grill this weekend, and the people that love to grill for Dad, this blog is for you.

I love grilling. I have both a BBQ and a Master Chef pellet grill. I live in an apartment building so I’m not allowed to have a charcoal BBQ. This past week, a week with no chemo treatments, I used my pellet grill to do a steak for the first time.

I usually do my steak on the BBQ but tried it on my pellet grill. That’s some corn and garlic break in the tin foil. It was my first time and I did overcook the steak a little. I put the grill on 450-degrees and did about 6 minutes per side. That was all good, but I left it on a little long, on the top rack and it was a little more done that the medium I usually enjoy. It was still good and I really enjoyed the flavor my pellets put on the meat.

I use these pellets from Costco because I like the combination of oak, hickory, maple and cherry flavor. Plus they are a really good price.

Plus I had a new wine with that steak, and the wine came from Canada.

A Meritage wine is a blend of two or more noble Bordeaux grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petite Verdot. Meritage started in the late 80’s, by Mitch Cosentino of Cosentino Vineyards, and made internationally famous by Robert Mondavi. This Canadian made Meritage from Jackson Triggs, made in the Niagara region of Ontario, was so good. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, priced at around $20 and is the perfect wine for anything meaty you put on the grill. Good tannic structure, full-bodied and dry, I really enjoyed this wine.

For my white wine loving friends here’s a gorgeous Chardonnay that pairs well with anything on the grill.

This company plants a tree for every bottle purchased, which I thought was cool, but the best part of this company is the Chardonnay in the bottle. Gorgeous flavors of citrus, pear and toast.

And finally, another new wine that I have had a couple of times, and even suggested my friend Cassandra buy this as a gift.

This Australian beauty is priced under $20 right now here in Nova Scotia, but I believe they may be discontinuing it, so you may want to pick up a bottle soon, if you wanted to try it. Because it was originally $25 a bottle. That’s a 1966 Ford Falcon Sedan on the label, and it was the winemaker’s first car. Another great wine for Dad’s BBQ, made from 2 hearty grapes, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

That’s it for me for this week. There may not be a wine blog next week, I have IV chemo on Monday. Enjoy your Father’s Day weekend.

Till next time, Cheers

Darlene