Uncorked Ontario

Most people know you should choose white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat, but what about dessert wine? Is there a protocol for choosing a dessert wine? One of the most important things to remember is to not serve desserts that are so sweet that they give the wine an overpowering taste. You want to choose a wine that will complement your dessert and add to an already elegant taste. If you do anything less you are not doing a service to your dessert, wine or guests.

One of the dessert wines is that of port and comes in tawny, ruby, and vintage varieties. These wines are usually very sweet and are a good pairing for fruit desserts including pumpkin pie and cobblers. The tawny ports have a nutty flavor and are a good pairing for anything in the milk chocolate variety while vintage ports work well with dark chocolate.

Some of the French wines that have a very high fruity taste are recommended with cheeses, creamy desserts and fruity creamy desserts. Ice wines are a good pairing with grapes, light-flesh fruits, tropical fruits and hazelnuts. They are also a very good complement to nutty or desserts containing Carmel.

There are other varieties of dessert wines as well that you may wish to pair with different desserts you may be serving. You may want to take the time to try the wine on your guests by having them over for a tasting party before you actually serve any of the dessert wines. Choose one or two that you feel would be good matches and get the opinions of some people you normally invite to your dinner parties. . Getting some opinions before you pair any dessert wine with a dessert will allow you time to make another selection if your first selection is not well received. You may even want to have a few different dessert choices in order to discover which ones your guests feel may go the best with the wine you plan to serve.

Keep in mind that dessert wines are not like ordinary wines—they are much sweeter and as such will have a much stronger flavor if you serve a dessert that is too sweet. You are much better off staying with fruity desserts and choose a dessert wine that will complement your dessert rather than overpower it.

Many of us are not even vaguely familiar with the different varieties of wine that are available for
purchase. In fact, some of us probably thought red wine and white wine were the only ones in
existence. Most of us don’t have any idea of the number of varieties of wine that are in
existence. We have dinner wines, dessert wines, red wines, white wines, dry red wine, dry white
wine, sweet red wine, sweet white wine and much more. Before you serve your first dinner that
includes wine, make sure to understand something about wines. Know what is proper to serve
with different meals.

A general rule of thumb is white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat, but there may
sometimes be variations to that. For instance, although chicken is a white meat, red wine is the
customary wine of choice because it complements a chicken meal better than white wine.
Another variation is turkey which has both white meat and dark meat. Because of both white
and dark meat on turkey, one can choose to serve either white or red wine while some may
actually serve both—red to the guests who choose dark meat and white to those who choose
white meat.

Another thing that is important to understand is the relationship between red wine and fish.
Customarily you would serve white wine with fish but in the event you choose to serve red wine,
it’s important to choose one that does not contain any tannins since the presence of tannins in
twine you serve with fish may give the wine a metallic taste. Though the taste itself is not going
to cause any harm, one drinks wine for the flavor thus having a metallic taste takes away from
that. To avoid this possibility either serve white wine with fish or make sure the red wine you
serve is free of tannins.

Before you have your first party or even serve your first wine with dinner make sure you know
exactly what you should serve with the meal you have chosen. Taking the time to research and
learn about how wines complement food, you will be able to make a better selection of wine to
go with the dinner you are serving. The more dinners you serve the more educated, you will
become about the proper wine to serve.

The 2009 “All Canadian Wine Championship” was held last week in Windsor Ontario. Wineries from British Columbia to Nova Scotia entered over 1100 different wines in the championship.

The “Best of the Best” trophy winners were:

Best Red Wine of the Year
Church and State Wines, BC 2006 Quintessential $50.00

Best White Wine of the Year
Lang Vineyards, BC 2007 Riesling Farm Reserve $19.90

Best Sparkling Wine of the Year
Peller Estates Winery, ON Peller Estates Ice Cuvee Rose $35.00

Best Dessert Wine of the Year Sponsored by Ontario Viniculture Association
Pentage Winery, BC 2007 Ice Wine $55.45

Best Fruit Wine of the Year Sponsored by Ontario Viniculture Association
La Face Cache de la Pomme, PQ 2007 Frimas Ice Cider $39.87

Wineries in Southwest Ontario appellations (Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island) won 29 Medals of Merit.

GOLD
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery – 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon
Colio Estate Wines Inc. - 2008 CEV Pinot Grigio
Pelee Island Winery – 2007 Pinot Noir
Pelee Island Winery – 2008 Riesling Dry
Viewpointe Estate Winery – 2005 Balance Pointe
Viewpointe Estate Winery – 2006 Ideal Pointe

SILVER
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery – 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Colio Estate Wines Inc. - 2007 CEV Pinot Noir
Colio Estate Wines Inc. - 2008 Girl’s Night Out Chardonnay
D’Angelo Vineyards Estate Winery – 2006 Vidal Icewine
Pelee Island Winery – 2007 Pinot Noir Reserve
Pelee Island Winery – 2008 Cabernet Franc
Pelee Island Winery – 2008 Late Harvest Riesling

BRONZE
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery – 2006 Cabernet Franc
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery – 2007 Riesling
Colio Estate Wines Inc. – 2008 CEV Pinot Grigio
Muscedere Vineyards – 2004 Vidal Icewine
Muscedere Vineyards – 2007 Syrah
Muscedere Vineyards – 2007 Baco Noir Reserve
Pelee Island Winery – 2006 Cabernet Merlot Reserve
Pelee Island Winery – 2008 Eco Trail White
Smith & Wilson Estate Wines – 2008 Riesling
Smith & Wilson Estate Wines – 2008 Smith’s Vidal
Viewpointe Estate Winery – 2005 Focal Pointe

A few local wineries celebrated Mother’s day by releasing several new wines.

Mastronardi Estate Winery: Release their 2007 Brianje VQA wine just in time for Mother’s Day! Join them for the launch of our newest Riesling. They say it’s stunningly fruity aromas and sweeter citrus flavours make it their best Riesling to date. It is the perfect Mother’s Day gift, a gift of life, as proceeds from the sale of each bottle is donated to Batten Disease Research, a charity close to the Mastronardi’s hearts. They also gave a long stemmed rose to every mother that visited the winery on Mother’s Day.

Aleksander Estate Winery. AEW Celebrates Mother’ Day & Chardonnay – treat Mom to a taste of their new 2008 Chardonnay paired with yummy treats. A wine tour in the County is a great way to spend time with Mom.

Muscedere Vineyards celebrated Mother’s Day with the release of two wines. A 2007 Baco Noir Reserve and their 2007 Unoaked Chardonnay.

The new wine releases come just in time too. Adding wines to the review site at EssexWineReview.com has slowed down over the past few weeks as I am waiting for more wineries to offer new wines.

Wanda and I didn’t visit any of our local wineries this weekend. Instead, we spend the weekend bottling some of our own wine. We will have a nice supply of riesling, oak chardonnay, and a couple of fruit wines ready for the summer. We are looking forward to trying the new wines and plan on visiting the wineries soon.

I just received an email notice that Mastronardi Estate Winery’s annual Dionysus 2009 VIP tickets are sold out and very few of the general admission tickets are left.

I have never been to this wine event but from everything that I have heard you will have a wonderful time. This is an event that I will have to plan to attend next year. If you want to go and do not have your tickets yet I suggest that you get them soon.

For more information on Dionysus 2009 visit:
http://www.essexwinereview.com/news/dionysus-2009/

Gary