Author Archives: darmyers

A Radio gal who loves food & wine! I'm a Certified Sommelier with the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers.

To Oak or Not to Oak

I love red wine that has been oaked. Many times you’ll hear people say ‘I don’t like oaky wine’. I am not a huge fan of what I call ‘manipulated oaky wine’. Unfortunately, some lesser priced wines can taste oaky, even though they have never seen the inside of an oak barrel. Some mass produced wines use oak chips or oak staves inside of tanks to give it an ‘oaky flavor’. This is why you’ll hear me say I’m not a fan of overly oaked wine, but I love wine that has been aged properly in oak. 50 of the world’s most expensive wines are oak aged in some way.

Old world winemakers have been using oak for hundreds of years and have it down to a science. There are 3 types of oak used for wine, and each imparts a different flavor and nuance. There is French oak, American oak and Hungarian oak (also called European oak). Most of the wines available to us here use mostly French oak or American oak. I have, however, had Hungarian oak.

This Mas Buscados Tempranillo, Syrah & Petite Verdot blend from Spain, which we used to be able to buy here, was aged in Hungarian Oak. The tannins were soft and the fruit of the wine highlighted. This was such a great wine at a great price, it’s too bad we can’t get here in Nova Scotia anymore.

The interesting part about oak is that the more an oak barrel is used, the more subtle the flavors it imparts. If you are into reading the back of the wine bottle, like I am, you’ll see sometimes they use ‘new and used’ oak. The newer a barrel, the more oak flavor it imparts.

MacMurray Wines used this technique a lot with their fantastic Pinot Noir wines. Run by Kate MacMurray, she is the daughter of Hollywood actors Fred MacMurray and June Havers.

American Oak imparts a lot of flavor, more so than French oak. Wine experts often describe the American Oak flavors as vanilla. You’ll often see the word ‘vanilla’ flavors mentioned on the back of a wine bottle, and that flavor comes from the oak. One thing is for sure, it adds ruggedness to clean, fruit-forward new world wines. An American oak barrel costs between $350 – $650 and a French oak barrel costs between $650 – $3600, depending on quality. Wow.

Let’s talk some new wines. This is so good, I’m going to call this my wine of the week.

From Central Chile, this beauty is called the perfect blend of wine and art on its label. Quatro means 4, which a perfect blend of 4 grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Shiraz, and Malbec. My friends Angie and Pat shared this wine with me, and they both loved it. So, there you have it, 3 opinions, all loving this wine. And it’s priced at $21, which is a great value for this wine.

Quick update for my readers and friends I have enjoyed a two week break from treatments, but that is coming to an end. On Monday, I have a CT scan, and on Wednesday another scope, which will determine how the first 5 weeks of Radiation and Chemo did to that tumor. Then the next round of treatments will be determined. Feeling great though.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Darlene

The Wines of March

You’ve heard the saying “Beware the Ides of March”, well this wine blog is about the wines of March. I hope everyone had a wonder St. Patrick’s Day yesterday. I’m sure some celebrations will continue throughout the weekend. I had a busy but uneventful week, still feeling really good, and enjoying my time in between treatments.

I want to take a moment to share a fun story. At work, we had a contest. It was to try and identify your co-worker from their baby picture. This was my picture at 10 months old, weighing in at a whopping 36 pounds. Look at the size of the head on me, I’m glad I grew into that head. It’s a wonder my Mom is still speaking to me. LOL

I also have a recipe I tried this past week to share with you called Chicken Diane. OMG, I eat a lot of chicken, because I can’t eat fish. I’m always looking for new ways to do chicken. I found this on a site called http://www.outgrilling.com and had to give it a try. You can find the recipe here.

I used both boneless skinless chicken breasts and boneless skinless chicken thighs. I live alone, so I took one chicken breast, cut it in half, and pounded them to a uniform thickness.

I cooked my sauce ahead of time on the stove.

It turned out delicious. I hope the picture does it justice. This is how it turned out.

Grilling them first was yummy, but I think they would also be delicious if I had done them in a cast iron frying pan on top of the stove.

Ok, it’s time to talk some wine.

Last Saturday evening I had some friends in, and my friend Angie bought this wine. Josh Cabernet Sauvignon is a great wine priced at $25 a bottle. Named after his Dad, Josh Carr, Joseph Carr is the winemaker and started selling the wine out of the back of his truck. He started with one wine, this Cabernet. His vineyard now features many different wines, but it all started with this one. Delicious, full-bodied and a great pairing with meat of any kind.

So, remember last week I told you I visited my friend Rick, who manages The Port downtown Halifax. He told me if I was going to buy one wine from his store, make it this one.

I don’t buy many wines from South Africa, but Rick told me this wine was the best wine under $25, voted by their staff, and I believe he said it was two years in a row. Don’t quote me. At $22 it’s a big robust wine Internationally acclaimed wine journalist Jancis Robinson, who says when producers offer more than one tier of a particular wine, the ‘best buy’ at release is more often than not the second-tier wine. This Cabernet Sauvignon is considered a second tiered wine from this producer. It’s getting some good critiques, it was a little earthy and had notes of cedar and spice.

That’s it for me today. Thanks for reading. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Darlene

I’m Baaack!

I’m back baby. For a while anyway. It’s been an interesting 6 weeks since my last blog. I’ve done 25 Radiation treatments and during those 25 days I did 2 chemo treatments per day for a total of 50. Everyday Monday to Friday except for holidays and weekends.

The Radiation techs who work in this department of the Cancer Clinic are amazing, kind and so understanding. Every day I would trek to the VG hospital in Halifax and change into these gowns to do my daily treatments.

Everyone that I had to deal with was wonderful. OMG, people are so heartwarming and helpful. Thank you to everyone who works helping people with Cancer. And all those who work in Health care. It takes a special person.

During the last couple of weeks of my treatments my Mom, my Sister, my Brother-in-law and of course Maggie came to visit.

My Sister and Brother-in-law have more money than me, LOL, and Craig decided I needed a wine treat because I was going through Cancer treatments. So he came home with 3 bottles of wine that cost $240.

The amazing line up includes a Zinfandel and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Caymus Vineyards and a Cabernet from Stags Leap. When he went to the Liquor Store he said ‘My sister-in-law likes California wine”. The lady said ‘I have some amazing ones, but you’re not going to like the price. He bought them anyway. The first one we tried was the Stag’s Leap.

Spectacular. And probably one of the best Cabernet Sauvignon wines I have ever tried. Now this wine sells for $70 a bottle here in Nova Scotia, so it’s definitely a treat wine. But if you have a special occasion coming up and would like to treat yourself, I recommend this beauty. So easy to drink, it was flavorful and nuanced and smooth. Fabulous.

My Mom drinks white wine, and Craig bought her the Conundrum White, Chardonnay based wine. Craig and I ended up finishing the bottle Saturday evening. This is one of my favorite white wines, because it’s a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillion, Muscat and Viognier. There are grapes with acidity and grapes with body. Together they make a great blend that is one of the most interesting white wines I have tried. In this case, I actually like the white blend better than the red. And it’s affordable at $25 a bottle.

After we finished the Conundrum and were playing some cards, we opened this beauty. It was actually my second time enjoying it, I went to visit my friend Rick, who manages the Port downtown Halifax, and they had it opened and he let me try it.

It was so great to see Rick and Taylor again. We danced, we laughed, we hugged. Now at $110 a bottle, I know this is a very special bottle of wine. Caymus is located in the heart of Napa Valley in California run by Chuck, Charlie & Jenny Wagner. This group also makes the Conundrum wine and several other brand names. Fantastic wine makers, but this Cabernet is the jewel in the crown. Like I said, it’s $110 a bottle but it’s Cabernet perfection. The other wine in the trio is the Caymus Zinfandel, which at $75 a bottle, is sitting in my wine rack.

I’m going to end the blog with something a little more affordable.

This is a treat wine for my pocketbook. This is a fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon from Knotty Vines. This winemaker is all about taking wine and making it indulgent yet affordable. At just $21.99 this is an amazing wine with mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah and a splash of Zinfandel. Together they make a juicy full-bodied delicious wine that we all can afford. It’s new here to Nova Scotia, and I’ll definitely have it again.

I want to take quick moment to say thank you

When I wrote my last wine blog 6 weeks ago, telling you about my Cancer diagnosis, I heard from hundreds and hundreds of people. I am completely blown away by the love I was feeling from all my readers. This blog was something I started many many years ago, and never had I imagined I had so many wonderful people follow the blog. On March 27th I have another CT scan booked, they want to make sure it still hasn’t spread anywhere else. Around that date, I will also have another scope. This will determine if the radiation and chemo that I’ve done has shrunk the tumor. Then it looks like it will be another round of chemo, and then possibly surgery. I was lucky, I had minimal side effects. There were some, fatigue among the top one. I’ll keep you all up to date as I go.

Thank you again, it’s great to be back. Till next week, Cheers

Darlene

The Last Blog! (For A While)

I have some news to share, which I will get to a little later in the blog. But first….although it’s not the last day of January until Tuesday, it is the last weekend of January 2023. I always found January the longest month of the year. The holiday day in this month is the 1st and then it tends to be 30 additional days of bad weather usually, however, this 28th day of January, looks like this in Halifax.

This was taken yesterday evening from my patio. Except for one snowfall last Friday, it’s been a pretty green January. Ok, enough about the weather, let’s talk some wine.

Over the Christmas season I tried a few new wines that I haven’t had the chance to tell you about them yet.

Chile continues to put out some great wines and the Chateau Los Boldos is a great example of this. The Tradition Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is full-bodied and the grapes come from vines that have aged at least 60+ years. Leathery and spicy, this wine is priced at the amazing amount of $15.99. Great for hamburgers, beef, & charcuterie boards.

Staying in South America, let’s head to Argentina. I think I had this one when I was home in Newfoundland for Christmas. Priced under $20, this Cabernet is on sale in Nova Scotia right now. Rich with peppery notes, it’s a great Cabernet Sauvignon at a great price.

Ok, so for my news. I thought long and hard about including this in the blog, but I thought I owed it to my regular readers about a potential break in my blog writing (and my wine drinking)

On November 25th, I got diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then I have been poked and prodded, LOL, but honestly, lots of tests and scans. On Monday, I start both chemo and radiation at the same time. My first round is 5 weeks, Monday to Friday 5 days a week, both chemo and radiation. Although they told me I can have a glass of wine if I feel like it, I don’t know how much I’ll be sipping. And since fatigue is the #1 side effect I’ll be feeling, I can’t guarantee I’ll be in the mood to write a weekly wine blog. I’ll play it by ear. After the first 5 weeks, I’ll be scoped and scanned again to see if the tumor has shrunk enough to operate to remove it, or if more chemo is needed.

I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of you that has come along for any part of my wine blogging journey, which I started doing almost 12 years ago. I’ll give you an update on my next blog.

Take care

Darlene

Our First Snowfall

Would you believe our first snowfall of the year came yesterday! That’s very unusual for Halifax. My hometown of Corner Brook received 114.9 cms in November alone. Being home at Christmas felt like I was living in a snow globe. I have to admit, I do love a snow day.

However, it did not stop me from smoking and grilling some ribs. Hey, I’m from Newfoundland, outdoor cooking in the snow is something I grew up on.

A warm hat, jacket and scarf and I smoked some ribs, grilled some chicken and did some potatoes. I have an overhang over my balcony so I was fairly well protected. While cooking, I had one of the best red wine blends I’ve tried in a while.

You know I love an interesting label, and this one caught my attention. It was funny, I was strolling through Port of Wines and was in the New Zealand section, and I didn’t realize I was actually in the Australia section. This red blend from South Australia is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Shiraz and 20% Merlot. It was over the moon delicious, but I think our local NSLC may be clearing it out. It was $25 and I got it for $21, and it wasn’t on sale, it said clearance. So run, don’t walk to try this wonderful wine. It was full-bodied and rich and not oaky like some Australian wines. The Mo Sisters, are 3 sisters that grew up in a prominent wine family in Australia, and they have only just launched in 2019. This wonderful wine was from the 2017 harvest. I loved it and it was definitely my wine of the week, so it wouldn’t be fair to the other new wines I have tried recently. I had no intention of going out today, but I’m having friends in today and I want to share this wine. That’s how much I loved it.

Where ever you are, I hope the clean up is not too much of a pain. And if it’s snowing where you are, enjoy the snow day

Till next week, Cheers

Darlene