I was at the party

It was not just a party! It was a wine tasting, of course!
 We were at the relaxing spot downtown, at c-lounge, iYellow wine's club place.

It was a wonderful and relaxing atmosphere. There were lots of new wines from South Africa. Their reds had a very distinctive smokiness on the palate. The whites were crisp and fresh. There was one, which especially caught my attention. So sweet, so lovely."Odelia" Bukettraube with Muscat like flavors.The guy explained to me, that the grape comes from very old roots, even before the Gewurztraminer became popular. Some of the wines were very tasty and unusually blended.  So, next time I'm at LCBO, I'll go to South African section, to try something new! Try them too, and share with me!
 And thank you Angela for a beautiful party!

Let's talk!

Why did I start this blog?
I live in Toronto,Canada. Next door we have our own wine country, the Niagara region. People here love and understand wine.We have very wide spectrum of wines from all over the world. And in the vintage section LCBO has big variety of wines from France and California, Italy and Australia.
Wine tasting are very popular in Toronto. We have clubs, restaurants, wine makers, bars, dedicated to doing tastings.
When I started my wine courses, I opened a whole new wine world for myself, but I am also a foodie. I love to cook. Something nice and easy, not very complicated .
So, when I drink wine, I always have to eat something. And that's how I started noticing difference in taste. Wine vs. wine+food.
And I've gotten an idea to share my knowledge with my friends. And in the future, share with guests from Toronto. Give them a chance to try something new.
If you reading this blog,what do you think? Do you like the idea? Would you want to try new sensation on your palate for yourself?
What is your favorite wine?

I want to share a secret!

I was not always a wine entusiast.
But I have always loved food and animals. In fact, I used to work as a dog groomer for 8 years.
But I hurt my hands in the field and could not work as much as I used to.
I have a dog, a toy poodle named Jessica. She is nine years old, wonderful and smart. And I'm big fan of Cesar Millan.

So happy!!

I passed the exam!!;)

I had company yesterday

We did some tasting as usual.
We had Pinot Gris from California 2008.
It's  fruity on the nose, fuzzy peach on the palate.Very nice!


Also Riesling from Niagara's Konzelmann estate winery 2009. Lovely, off dry, green apple on the nose.Very tasty Riesling.

Beringer's Cabernet Sauvignon from California.Wonderful, balanced, medium bodied with a lot of black berries on the palate.



And Zinfandel.
Our appetizer was salad caprese, first entree-shrimp in marinara sauce with feta cheese.
Second-chicken alfredo and mushrooms with leek.
The desert was individual apple tartes with french vanilla ice cream.The wine, Spatlese, late harvest. Sweet, but not too sweet. Fresh and aromatic, very good with the apple tartes.



Some of my friends don't drink wine at all. Some prefer only certain types of wine.
So I introduced the wines I had picked out. I like California wines more and more. The south sun gives the grapes a very pleasant richness and aroma. A balance and good level of acidity.
Pinot Gris was lovely and fizzy. The Pinot Grigio is a grape mutated from black grape Pinot Noir.
Pinot Gris itself is dark grape too, but white wine is made from it.



In every region Pinot Gris tastes different. You can try to compare wines from Alsace and Italy and taste the distinction for yourself.
And so, after tasting wines we started tasting food with all the wines. And again new sensations surprised my friends.The varieties in food and wines worked in contrast for everyone.
My friends were interested very much. So I think our tasting was a success!