Our bags are packed and we're ready to go!

What a flurry of a week it has been! Partly (okay, entirely) our own fault. In a mead soaked evening (thanks Tallgrass Mead! ), Shane and I decided that we absolutely needed to visit our friends who had just moved to Michigan. The texting commenced, and plans were confirmed. Until everything came to a screeching halt with a devastating realization: we were making plans for a weekend less than 2 weeks away, but Shane's passport had expired a couple months ago and we hadn't gotten around to renewing it yet! 

Let the scrambling begin. We went to the Service Canada office the next day, who told us they couldn't process it that quickly and we'd have to go directly to a Passport Canada Office to get it done. The best one is in Scarborough, about 2 hours away. So Shane went up the next day, got the application in and was told it would be ready the following Wednesday (2 days before the trip). But of course, he's not able to go that day, so I went up and got it for him. This is all amidst kids soccer games, football games, meetings, work fun days, and regular life! Anyways, all is set. We will be on the road this afternoon, driving the 7 hours right after work. And we're very excited!! 

But seriously, check out Tallgrass Mead, it's Elaine's meadery, and they have some absolutely amazing products! Their flagship product, Honey Pops, is her take on a mead wine cooler, and is bubbly and delish. If you're ever in the London area, some of their products are available at a few restaurants. 

September 29, 2016

This week we were both feeling like something pink. Not sure what brought that on, but when things like that happen, you just have to go with it. We went a bit above our normal price range because none of the other pinks were calling our names. So Chandon Rosé it was. 

There was a strong strawberry scent on the popping of the top, along with a yeasty, sour scent. I thought it might have almost been a sour dough bready type deal, but Shane wasn't sure. In the glass there were oodles of bubbles, and they lasted the length of the bottle. Shane thought it had a dry finish, and I thought it had a dry start, so I guess it was dry. 

It had a bit of a bready flavour going on, along with something we couldn't quite id at first... The second glass brought notes of cranberries, and FrankenBerry Cereal (whatever that is... Shane gets that flavour every now and then, most recently back in July). 

I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if I liked this one right off the get-go. I didn't get much more than dry, and a flavour that was driving me crazy because I couldn't quite reach it. It would have been something that if someone said "it's _____" I would have known right away that they were right (or wrong), and it was very frustrating. By the third glass, I was quite enjoying it though, and I swear it's not because I'd been through two glasses already. Maybe it's because it was starting to warm up a bit? Anyways. By the end of it, we decided we liked it (or I did by the end of it, Shane liked it the whole time). 

I asked him if he liked it $15 more than our usual price range stuff and he said "I like it $15 more than our regular price range stuff lately". I guess we haven't been finding the spectacular ones lately. In any case, we're a bit divided on this one. I thought it was good, but not $35 good, he did. 

Have a great weekend! I know we will!!

~S

• Brand: Chandon
• Type of Grape: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
• Sweetness: 9g/L
• Price: $33.95
• Tasting Notes: Dry, bready scent, cranberry forward flavours. Would pair nicely slightly chilled with pumpkin pie, a fire and a blanket. 

Oops, we didn't do it again!

I'm behind, I know, I appologize... Things just kind of got in the way, and unfortunately (for me) my writer's block has continued. Okay, so recap of the last two weeks: there was a rootin'-tootin'-gun shootin' day for Shane and the boys with my dad, Shane was in Toronto for a couple days, there was golf and dinner with Gord and Donna, an impromptu trip to Elginfield (which is close-ish to London, Ontario) to celebrate an engagement, Survivor started, and here we land, with only one week left in September. Seriously 2016, can we slow down a bit? 


Also, Shane got me a new Champagne Thursday hat. I love it, but it can't be part of the uniform, because Shane looks funny in most hats. Anyways, onto the two weeks of bubbly. 

Tyson is looking very stoic here

September 15, 2016

This was after a couple drinks on a patio, so we just used one that we had at home. We picked our bottle of Bottega: Vino dei Poeti Prosecco. We have had this one before, and quite liked it. 

It's got a lovely nose, it smells sweet, but tasty, a fruitiness going on that we couldn't identify. It's got a dry-sweet flavour, in that it dried out the mouth a bit, but was still reminiscent of a sweet bubbly. It made me think of a winery we visited in the Niagara region, Megalomaniac, but I couldn't tell you why. Something about the smell and sweet flavour... Not sure. 

As far as flavour goes, it's got something of a honeysuckle, or a sweet nectar-y fruit thing going on... With a touch of minerality. 

Overall, it's a lovely, predictable bubbly that maintains its flavours through the full course of the bottle. 

September 22, 2016

This week we were feeling a crémant vibe at the LCBO, and our wine guy steered us to the Crémant du Loire, by Château d'Avrillé. 

On popping the top, Shane immediately got "Strawberry Carnation Instant Breakfast". Luckily, this didn't transcend into the actual wine. As we've found in the past with crémants, this bubbly had a very creamy mouth feel. Lots of soft bubbles, not like a soda pop's sharp bubbles. 

This one has an essence of sweet while still being dry. After it warmed up a bit, it was giving off a very tart flavour, I marked it down as "cranberries?". Shane said that he was getting citrus notes, but not sweet citrus like oranges, but not sour citrus like lemons or limes... so I'm not sure which magical citruses he's been tasting without me, but there you go. Again, there was no strawberry flavour in the glass. 

Overall, it's a nice bottle, we'd probably get it again. It's a solid bottle at this price point. 

Until next time!

~S


September 15, 2106

• Brand: Bottega
• Type of Grapes: Glera
• Sweetness: 14g/L
• Price: $14.95
• Tasting notes: Sweet scented, light mineral flavour, honeysuckle or nectar notes. Would pair nicely with salty popcorn. 

September 22, 2016

• Brand: Château d'Avrillé
• Type of Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grolleau Gris, Chenin
• Sweetness: 11g/L
• Price: $17.95
• Tasting notes: Sweet essence but dry flavours, cranberries or citrus fruits, tart aftertaste. Would pair nicely with a baked brie and crackers.

A VERY long weekend, and a very happy birthday!

Where should I begin this week???  I suppose I should start by saying that Sam has suffered a touch of writer's blog so this week's blog has a guest author once again... although, "once again" might suggest that I do this often when in reality out of 58 posts this is only the second one that I have written, hence the "Guest Author". (Thanks Sammy!)

Protocol would suggest that I begin the post with a quick update on our week before jumping into our very professional assessment of the bottle of bubbly from last night.  So here we go:






Friday

On the way home from work Friday afternoon of the long weekend we decided to take a quick drive by a brand new brewery in Napanee, aptly called The Napanee Brewing Company.  I had read some good things about the place online so we thought it would be fun to give it a shot.

The beer was fantastic and the owner/brewmaster was very welcoming.  We loved almost everything (Sam thought their Black Lager was a little too heavy - even after detecting a slight hint of fire-toasted marshmallow in the taste), and wound up taking a dozen cans home to enjoy.  We spent the rest of the evening sitting in our Muskoka chairs watching Tyson run after bunnies and squirrels.


Saturday

Our original plans for Saturday fell through so Sam and I found ourselves with a very unusual free Saturday.  So after a very short discussion of our options we wound up getting ready for a quick trip over to Prince Edward County.  A colleague of mine had been there the day before and from her Facebook post it seemed that The County Cider Company had their amazingly delicious feral cider on tap again, so that was the primary target!

If you haven't had the feral cider before you really should.  Think tart raspberries, cranberries and apples all mixed together in one glorious pint of fall sunshine!  That's what you get.  It's fantastic.  But you better hurry - it's only available at the end of the summer and early fall and in very limited quantities...  But if you get some I'm sure you won't be disappointed.  If you are, then call me and I'll drive out to the county and drink it for you.


Sunday

Sunday started out very relaxing.  Sam was working on various projects around the house and I cut the lawn.  After that I got out the chainsaw and cut down a tree that was dying.  We can use it for firewood this winter - and even though it's been crazy hot and humid lately, this winter is supposed to be cold and snowy!

Around 2:30 or so I was quite hot and tired so I decided I'd grab a quick pint of beer from the keg machine.  I texted Sam who was still up in the house and asked if she was interested.  To my surprise and delight, she said she was and would be right down.  Long story short, after countless pints from the keg and not one but two bottles of bubbly (left over from our wedding), we finally shut things down around 3:30am!  13 hours later.  Ugh. 

Monday morning was a bit rough to say the least.  When I took shop class in high school we learned just how dangerous a workshop can be... but even that didn't prepare me for shop night in Morven!  Anyone who has visited our shop for one of these nights knows exactly how dangerous it is... right, Cristin??? :)

Wednesday

Wednesday we celebrated Tyson's 7th birthday with Emma.  They boys were stuck at  
Football practice so it was just the 4 of us, but it was nice.  There were carrot cupcakes, presents and of course the obligatory singing of "Happy Birthday"  Tyson loved it.  Emma did too.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

I realized that I talk (type) WAY more than Sam usually does in these posts, so I figure it's time to get on to the real business of the blog.  Champagne Thursday.

We worked very hard at getting home on time this Thursday.  The day usually consists of a big grocery shop at Costco, Loblaws and of course the LCBO, which often means getting home late, starting dinner late, sitting to watch TV late.  But this week we couldn't be late.  This week was the start of the new NFL Football Season!!!  We knew we wanted to be seated in front of the TV for the kickoff and we made it happen. 

Our wine guy at the LCBO suggested a couple different bottles from the vintage section this week, but he leaned towards a cremant that was there.  We've had a couple cremants lately so we chose the other bottle.  This weeks selection turned out to be a nice prosecco from Italy, Tenuta Degli Ultimi Rive di Collalto Prosecco Valdobbiadene 2013.

I say it was nice because that's what it was, nice.  In fact that's about all it was.  Nothing particularly special, but not bad either.  To us it had a lot of nice sharp bubbles and a tart green apple-forward flavour. On Sam's notes page, the word "Tart" is written three times.  So quite tart.  Her final note read "nothing special but based on price alone would not get again... but yummy enough."

So there you have it.  A very, very long and full week.  I hope yours was fun too.

Cheers

Shane

• Brand: Tenuta Degli Ultimi
• Type of Grape: Not noted
• Sweetness: 10g/L
• Price: $21.95
• Tasting Notes:  Nice apple foward flavours with crisp bubbles. Would pair nicely with a scallop appetizer

A Full Week, Bubbles and... Disappointment???

Or from one Champagne Thursday to the next.

Would you believe it's September already? I'm blown away. The summers always tend to fly by, but this one feels like it moved exceptionally fast... Looking at some of the previous blog titles, even without reading the posts again, brings back sunny memories of laughing and friends. BUT! It's not over yet, and I plan to juice every last drop out of this season. 

Not that I don't love the upcoming seasons: pumpkin season through turkey season, sweater weather through red wine nights. There's just something so refreshing about the lazy (hah, yeah right) days of summer. 

It was a quiet week in Morven. The kids were out for the weekend, we went out to my parents' place on Monday, and then out to Shane's dad's on Thursday (pre-Champagne). Now that I write it out like that, it doesn't seem like a quiet week, but it felt like it at the time. We took the dog for a couple long walks too, so that helped us slow things down a bit. 

September 1, 2016

This week we chose our bottle solely on the label and the sugar content. It was a pretty blue label, with a fancy design, and the tag said the sugar content was low, around 7g/L. So we got the bottle of Mercat's NV Brut Nature from Spain (I'm not sure if that's their real website or an affiliate, but it's the best I could find...). 

Wearing my Champagne Thursday uniform, we popped the top on this bottle. It had a bit of a liquory scent, I got notes of sambuca, Shane agreed once it was verbalized. The first sip was very tart. I actually have "Tart AF" written in my book, but despite the topic of the blog, we are keeping it PG, so no swearing :). 

After the tartness subsided, or at least we were getting used to it, we got notes of fruit in the flavour. But not necessarily in a good way... like of like rotten or moldy apples? But it's strange, because we didn't hate this one, not like Beef Stew, but we didn't care for it. 

Nearing the end of the second glass, I asked Shane if he was getting anything else, and he replied "Yup, notes of disappointment." So... yeah... Not exactly sure how else to describe that flavour, but it was definitely in there. 

Needless to say we wouldn't recommend this one, and we won't be getting it again. 

Hopefully next week is better. We don't usually stay in a slump for long. 

~S

• Brand: Mercat out of Barcelona Spain
• Grape: Xarel.lo, Macabeo and Parellada
• Sweetness: 7g/L
• Price: $21.95
• Tasting Notes: Notes of apples, and a liquor undertone with a nice acidity. Would pair nicely with a warm, pull-apart garlic bread.