Drink Pink: Savvy Company Rosé Reports

Such hard work, having to try all these delicious Ontario rosés and then write about them, about what goes best with them ... *sigh*.

Read my latest Savvy Company reviews of great rosé wines here and here ... enjoy!



(PS ... While it may not have been featured in the Savvy reports, the pretty pink number in the picture at left is the elegant Marilys from Domaine Perrault, right here in the Ottawa Valley! Be sure to stop by if you're in Navan, Ontario this summer!)

Savvy Company: From the Bosc Family

The blog might be on hiatus, but I did have a chance to chat with Michele Bosc about what's new at Chateau des Charmes recently. You can check out my article over on the Savvy Company website.

Cheers!

Mothering

May was a long month. I ain't gonna lie.

Just in case you were wondering where I've been ... Hubby was in New York for a marathon session at the UN. From the end of April until just last weekend. A month. Me and the kiddies. Single Mom Detail™ of epic proportions.

La Girolle: Une grande folie de goût!

Two years is a long time between visits. Yet somehow when my BFF and I get together, it's as though time kindly waited for us to take a break in our crazy-busy lives. And then we pick up right where we left off.

Part of this most recent mini-vacation to Québec was spent at La Girolle, a small-ish, crowded French bistro on Chemin Ste-Foy (pronounced FWAH, if you please.) The noise is deafening, the proximity to other patrons' elbows a little too close for comfort ... but the food more than makes up for it.

Taste of the Commonwealth

Q: What two things do Uganda, Malta and England have in common?
A: They're Commonwealth countries. And they make wine. (No, really!)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the 85th anniversary of the first Commonwealth Games, and international Commonwealth Day (which is today), the Ottawa branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) held its inaugural Taste of the Commonwealth event on Sunday, March 8, at City Hall's Jean Pigott Place.

On Getting Drunk

One should always be drunk, that’s all that matters.
So as not to feel time’s horrible burden
that breaks your shoulders and bows you down,
you must get drunk without ceasing,
what with wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose.
But get drunk.

My Bunker Valentine

Because nothin' says lovin' like visiting a fallout shelter.

Seventy-five feet beneath the frozen tundra of Carp, Ontario, in the dead of a most miserable winter, there was a party going on. Deep in the bowels of the Diefenbunker, a crowd of wineaux, Cold War enthusiasts, chocolate lovers and cheese aficionados were gathered for Savvy Company's 3 Steps to Survival: Wine, Cheese and Chocolate. 

Oh Canada!

The nation turned 147 years old today, but us Canadian wine fans have been partying it up for a few days now.

June 28 was the second annual Canadian Wine Day, the anniversary of Bill C-311, which brought an end to Prohibition-era restrictions on the inter-provincial movement of wine. Notwithstanding some provinces still balking at the idea (without actually having a legal leg to stand on) we celebrated with plenty of samples from coast to coast.

What the Truck?!?!

Shut the front door! Wine trucks? I'd heard of food trucks (who hasn't, really, they're everywhere and filled with far more than your traditional chips and hot dogs these days.) But a wine truck? This I had to see.

Rosé among the Roses (and peonies, bleeding hearts, impatients ...)

PINK! For whatever reason, the wine world screams pink when summer comes along, and suddenly the LCBO is awash in a tidal wave of blush. While I try not to limit rosés to the warm months (since there are so few of them in this Canadian climate) I gladly accepted an invitation to Jane's Place for a tasting of all things pink.

Chardonnay Day for the ABC type: Trialto and 10Fourteen

It's #ChardDay in the Twitterverse, but as you know, I'm more of an anything-but-chardonnay kinda gal. I'll drink it, sure, but it's got to be a) steel-fermented, unoaked or 'inox'; b) from a cooler climate; or c) free, with a side of mind-blowingly good food and shared in the company of good tweeps.

Lucky me, I got friends in great places (thank you, Shawn!)

Just *smell* the Somewhereness in that one

Somewhereness. That sense of place and time measured in a glass; the effect of soil and rocks, wind and water, and shifting seasons on the grapes. Flavours imparted by million-year-old shelves of limestone and clay. Sun and rain changing from vintage to vintage. The essence of terroir, right here in Ontario.

Ottawa's Food Fest: Eat Drink Spring!

The inaugural Spring edition of the Ottawa Wine and Food Festival launched at the EY Centre in Ottawa this past weekend. Joan Culliton, director of the festival, and her crew rolled out the welcome tulips to bring a much-needed burst of colour and light to us poor snow-bound masses.

#winebandnames

Here's what us wineaux do for fun on a Friday afternoon on Twitter:

We're having fun on a Friday, playing #winebandnames Who's in? > here's one: "Little Feet Stomping Grapes"
— Ken Alawine Waggoner (@alawine) March 21, 2014

Things very quickly went off the rails for me ... (Productivity what??)

TGCWC Cheat sheet

Just a disclaimer about that title: I have maintained my all-Canadian wine purchase/opening status without fail. I can't help it if someone shows up with something that isn't Canadian. (Like I'm gonna turn down free booze??) And Hubby isn't doing this challenge, so if he opens something, it doesn't count, right?

Dry Spell

Blogging, I mean. Over a month since my last post. The complexities of life meant I've had to put a few things on the shelf while I attend to my top priorities: Hubby, Doodle and The Smurf. Family first.

Not to say that I haven't been drinking. (GAWD no! How else would I get through this??) Distinct lack of time to write, yes, but the glass has always been full.

TGCWC Week 2: Got something that goes with spaghetti?

Normally I'd reach for the tried-and-true bottle of chianti (usually Ruffino, or if I'm feeling particularly flush, a Brolio) when it comes to spaghetti night.

But this is the Great Canadian Wine Challenge. Italian wines need not apply for the next few months.

Canadian Wine Challenge - Week 1

Really, is it that hard? To drink Canadian wine for a whole year? Pfft.

(Of course, now that I've said that, some existential non-Canadian wine crisis will rear its head in the coming weeks ... zoiks.)

I've started off on the right foot, stocking the cellar with everything red, white and sparkling - even a few sweet wines in there. I've got selections from Jost Vineyards on their way, and just picked up a half-case of homegrown hybrids grown a mere 45 minutes south-west of Ottawa, at Smokie Ridge. (Keep an eye out for a full review of that marvellous afternoon ...)

Canadian Wine Three-Sixty-Five

The first Canadian Wine Day was on June 28, 2013—the one-year anniversary of Bill C-311 coming into force. The feds had finally made it legal for wine to move across provincial borders, from coast to coast to coast. (If the provinces would just follow suit, that would be great.)

Wishing for more summer

I've been told never to start a letter with an apology; it's not proper correspondence etiquette. But they didn't say anything about blogging. So here it is: I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for the giant gap between posts recently. Stricken with a doozy of a stomach bug, I was laid out for two weeks straight earlier this month; even the third week wasn't so hot, to tell the truth. Not just because I couldn't eat or drink, I couldn't have any WINE. For THREE WEEKS. Even ON MY BIRTHDAY.

But I'm all better now. And trying to catch up.