The Good, The Bad, and The Koo Koo

Wow, well, another busy week is ending, thank goodness. It's been a flurry ever since we posted the previous entry! The weekend went from the best time ever to the worst time ever: we went up to Burlington for a Thanksgiving get-together at my cousin and his wife's house. It was fantastic, we had a few too many drinks, caught up a lot, and spent the night there, getting to bed very late. The following morning, we were hungover (or maybe it was just me?). So we ate breakfast and hit the road. For about 10 minutes. And then the car died. The dash went all wonky, the air didn't work, the windows didn't work, the engine kept revving and turning the skid control feature on and off, and then the speedometer didn't work. Yikes. So we limp off the highway and call CAA for a tow. So now we're all (my folks too) sitting in the back of a tow truck for the looooooong ride home. And then CAA didn't cover the full tow. And tow trucks are EXPENSIVE. Holy smokes. So yeah, that wasn't the best time ever. Boots (the car) seems to be fine now though, got his alternator replaced and we're back in business. 

Meeting the band!

Monday, was ah-mazing! After work, we went with the Puddys to Ottawa to catch the Koo Koo Kanga Roo concert. Oh my goodness, hilarious and quite the dance work out. We got to see them in Boston a few years back when they opened for Frank Turner. It was an adult show, and this band was described to us as "kids songs but for adults"... We were skeptical, but were absolutely hooked after hearing them. The crowd was crazy pumped up, and dancing and laughing and just having a blast. It's contagious. 

We got our shirts signed! Scandalous!

We introduced the Puddys to their music when we got back. They loved it, hyper, catchy dancy music? What's not to love?? So yeah, when we found out they were going to be in Ottawa we knew we had to be there. It was an all ages show, and probably half the audience was under 7, but it was so worth it!

Anyways, the rest of the week seemed tame compared to Monday. The kids came over on Tuesday, and we went out to the farm to watch Survivor with my folks on Wednesday. Enter Thursday!

October 20, 2016

This week, Shane is sick, so he wasn't a heck of a lot of help for the tasting notes. We opted for Tenuta S. Anna's Processo Superiore di Valdobbiadene (I'm having trouble finding the winery's website, but on the back of the bottle was their Canadian Distributer's website). 

We didn't get much on the nose when we first popped the top (prior to pouring). That might be because it's usually Shane who makes those notes, as he's the popper... and he's sick. In the glass though, I got a dry, tart apple scent. It smelled really nice, and had a very clean appearance. It was a very pale straw colour. 

In the first couple sips, I wasn't sure that I liked it. It had a weird fruit flavour going on in there, and I couldn't identify it. Shane got it too, but he liked it right away. I got like a honey thing? And Shane said maybe appley-pears? We never really did identify it... 

It has lots of sharp bubbles, giving it a full mouth feel. I did notice a bit of a liquory after taste hiding in the background. I wasn't a fan of that at first, but it seemed to dissipate as the bubbly became less chilled (We didn't forget it in the freezer this week, huzzah! But it was still very cold...).

It had a bit of a "winey" flavour (technical term). Which was okay, not off-putting. Shane said that it had a very clean taste and mouth feel. This was a good thing, since his "skull had too much gunk in it already", lovely... 

All in all, it was a nice bottle. Shane liked it more than I did, but it did grow on me. Other than it being burpy, I wouldn't have any problems recommending this one. 

Til next time, 
~S

• Brand: Tenuta S. Anna
• Type of Grape: Glera
• Sweetness: 12g/L
• Price: $19.95
• Tasting Notes: Clean tasting, dry and tart bubbly, with some essences of apples and pears. Would go nicely with a brie and fruit dish. 

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Well, it was a busy week in beautiful, downtown Morven. The kids had a big football game Friday night, their Friday Night Lights moment against their rivals, and then we hosted Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. We smoked a turkey (yum), did all the fixin's, made pumpkin pies and butter tarts. Shane made an especially yummy stuffing (in the crockpot) by adding a couple honey garlic sausages into the mix. They added a lovely pop of meaty sweetness to the bite. Because really, when you think of a Thanksgiving dinner, you really need extra meat thrown in there. 

Sunday saw a relaxed day, we played hide and seek on the dog with the kids and watched the Green Bay game after they went home. Which brings us to Monday, ahhh, glorious Monday. Since it was a holiday, we took full advantage. I slept in quite late (it had been a late night after all, what with the football game), and then we took Tyson for a glorious walk, about 5km, in the crisp fall weather that we got. Beautiful colours, and just generally nice to be outside. After we got home, we enjoyed a gargantuan leftover Thanksgiving dinner made into a sandwich. Seriously huge. We sat outside with a cold beer, and enjoyed the sunshine. Then we went inside and watched movies for the rest of the day. Like I said, ahhh, glorious Monday. 

The rest of the week was pretty low key, dinner out with the Puddys, and a quick trip to the states to pick up whiskey glasses. Enter Champagne Thursday. 

October 13, 2016

This week we were on our own. Our Champagne Guy was busy with another client, so we were left to our own devices to make our pick. So, we did what we always do when on our own: choose based on label. This week we picked Louis Bouillot's Perle d'Aurore Brut Rosé. We have recently had another bottle from the Louis Bouillot's collection: the Perle D'Or.

Tyson was looking extra regal for his picture

First things first, we put this one in the freezer when we got home (which we normally do) and proceeded to forget about it (which we normally don't do)... so it was very very cold, even had frost on the bottle. Brr. That being said, the first glass still had lots of flavour going on. 

On popping the top we got a sweet yeasty smell, it smelled really nice. The first couple sips, although very cold, had a beautiful tart raspberry flavour. It was nicely dry. I poured some into a wine glass to let it warm up a touch. It also let me really get my nose in there to search for aromas. 

It's very berry forward, and really yummy. We also thought it had a nice crisp bubble. It didn't feel sharp like a prosecco, but not creamy like a typical crémant... Shane said it had a "nice bubble balance", I think that's the technical term for it... We also thought it had a nicely acidic bite, which may have been why the bubbles seemed crisper? 

All through the bottle, it had a nice and fresh scent, not like a bottled up wine smell. Shane thought it tasted like a breakfast cereal with marshmallows, maybe like Lucky Charms. We attributed it to the berry forward flavours presenting as marshmallows, and the sweet, yeasty scent being the cereal pieces. 

In conclusion, we really enjoyed this bottle. It was fruity, dry, tart, and bubbly. Very refreshing. Absolutely would recommend it. 

~S

• Brand: Louis Bouillot
• Type of Grape: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gamay
• Sweetness: 14g/L
• Price: $21.95
• Tasting Notes: Raspberry flavours, sweet and yeasty scent, would pair nicely with a hot and sunny afternoon in a beach chair!

#JenkinsDoA2

Why, yes, that is Shane sporting his Champagne
Thursday shirt on a Sunday!

Well, we did it! We made it to Ann Arbor and back again. We had a fantastic time. There was food, shenanigans, and so much laughter my abs hurt after. We tailgated for a University of Michigan football game, we hiked alongside the Huron River, wandered through Kerrytown, and ate and drank to our hearts' content (although not our livers'). It was a wonderful weekend, albeit much, much too short. 

Crazy Jim's Blimpy Burger,
and Shane had to
get the Quint, with,
obviously, 5 patties!!

The rest of the week was pretty mundane, but felt busy as we didn't get home from A2 (apparently that's what the kids call "Ann Arbor") until Monday evening. So then there was the kids night, then over to my folks for wings and Survivor, and then Champagne Thursday on a grocery shopping day. We certainly packed a lot into this short week!

October 6, 2016

This week we were all alone in the Vintages section of the LCBO, we arrived a bit later than normal, and so our Champagne Guy must have already gone home. We ended up picking a bottle from the Loire region of France. You may remember we had another one just recently from there. The region seems to be known for their crémants.

Tyson was not thrilled to be participating this week...
Seriously, that face though

This week was from Domaine Amirault, Les Quarterons (I think that's the link, but I'm having issues with it loading properly). On popping the top, Shane got a bready, sweet scent (very different from a sweetbreads scent...). I thought it smelled a bit dry... so we were quite divided. We both quite liked it, and I found it less dry after a couple sips. There were lots of creamy bubbles, typical of a crémant.

Shane said it seemed to have a sweet-tart thing going on, but then proceeded to say it was tart about 14 times... It seemed like it was dry, while seeming sweet at the same time. Very conflicted bubbly. 

I thought it had a bit of a yeast-y scent going on, and I had "liquor-ish" written down. I couldn't decide if it was a bit liquory, or if it had a touch of a licorice flavour in there... Shane thought there might be a green apple flavour in the background? Needless to say, this one was a bit tricky to nail down. 

It was really good, a touch sweeter than we normally like, without being outside our "sweet umbrella". We decided that we would get this one again. 

Until next time!

~S

***EXCITING NEWS***

You can now receive a notification whenever we post a new story to our blog!  Simply enter your email address in the appropriate spot (left side of the blog, near the top) and that's it - the system will let you know when something new is here!

• Brand: Domaine Amirault
• Type of Grape: Cabernet-Franc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc
• Sweetness: 15g/L
• Price: $22.95
• Tasting Notes: A solid, and predictable bubbly, with hints of sweet-tart apples, and lots of nice creamy bubbles. Would pair nicely with gourmet burgers or wood fired pizza.