Adult Pharmacy

I'm just going to skip over the fact that this is so late, and pretend like I hadn't promised myself a million times that I'd get better at this... 

Last week was pretty lovely. I had a quilting and sewing retreat with my mom, which resulted in my new living room quilt top being about half done (and it's looking glorious, if I do say so myself!). It is always so inspiring to see what everyone is working on, and it's such a great opportunity to dedicate some time to my own work and projects. Last year I worked on a baby quilt for one of my dear friends, and the year before that, another friend's baby, so this year it was quite refreshing to work on something that will be for my own home. It's a pattern that I've had for a few years now, and actually I've had most of the fabric that long too, so I was happy to finally get started. 

The rest of the week was pretty low key, I made some cupcakes for a bake sale, and we took a quick run to the states for turkeys. The only other very exciting part was that our wing friends D&S had their baby! A beautiful, healthy and bright looking baby boy they've named Ozzy. Yay! Our hearts are very full of love for this little guy already. 

Seriously, doesn't it look like it's from the 70s?

November 17, 2016

So, this week's "champagne" has a bit of a back story. Not long after we started the blog, our friend Kate said that we should try and find the cheapest bottle of champagne (or sparkling wine) we could, and review it. We all agreed it would be quite entertaining, and probably pretty awful. Anyways, so this week when we were in the States, we went back to the Rite Aid (we had found a bottle called "Flip Flop" there a couple years ago for $5) and went on a hunt. 

Yup, those are cinder block walls,
with the section painted on...
So you won't get lost!

First of all, Rite Aid: does that not make you think of a pharmacy? Yes, us too. Which we decided was kind of fitting, in that it's sort of a pharmacy for those who wish to self medicate. Second: really, this place looks super sketchy. Both inside and out. It looks like the bargain basement of booze. Which, when put like that, doesn't sound all that bad. But despite all its quirks, it actually has an enormous selection of everything. Sure it's got some waaaaay bottom shelf, far off the beaten path stuff, but it's also got some very high end stuff. Like Johnny Blue ($300 CAD) and other bottles well over the $100 USD mark. Impressive stuff. 

Why, yes, that is a $5.99 price tag...

So, this is how we found André. There were a few varieties in the André line up, and we chose the brut rosé (I know, shocking, we don't usually like it pink bubbly... except that we do...). The hilarious and disturbing thing about this one, is we don't know anything about it. It's not even on their website... So, yeah, that's just great... The other hilarious thing about these guys is their label (and very prominently boasted on their website), specifically the "California Champagne" that they call these bad boys... Direct quote. It's awesome. 

Okay, so onto the nitty gritty. What we're all dying to know... How was it? 

Weeeellllll, disappointingly, it wasn't terrible. I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. And that's without taking the $5.99 price tag into account. (Although, with the dollar the way it is, $6US is like $97CAN...)

That's quality right there... 

Okay, so on twisting the top (yes, that's right, it wasn't a pop the top night, it was a twist the top night) it smelled sweet for a "brut". Like, very sweet. The first few sips were an adjustment. This was not a brut. This was not a dry bubbly. It tasted like candied fruit. 

Around the mid-glass mark, when I started getting my bearings among the sweetness, I started getting some fruity flavours, strawberries or raspberries maybe, sweet with a touch of sour... The bubbles were nice, they helped to cut the sweetness as they had a very sharp mouthfeel. 

Yeah, he wanted to wear his Christmas
sweater... a touch early, but who
am I to say no? 

Into the second glass, in my notes I have: "tasty enough, but pretty effing sweet"... now, keep in mind, we know nothing about this guy. Maybe the alcohol content was ridiculously high and messing with our brains... It's possible. We were starting to get some peach flavours (or at least I was, Shane still claimed fake candy strawberries, like the gummy candies that are supposed to be "strawberry flavour" but are really just "red flavour"). It also seemed to get sweeter the further into it we got. 

All in all, it (shockingly) wasn't the worst we've had. I found that surprising, and Shane even said "I'd try some of the others in the André line up, mostly as a lark though". It wasn't particularly our taste, being so sweet, and when we tried to let Tyson try a bit, he sniffed and then snubbed it (that boy has expensive taste). 

But there you have it... I guess. The review that will disappoint the world as it wasn't as bad as we had all hoped. Don't kid yourself, you were hoping it was awful, and that we'd be regaling you with stories of us spitting it out in a comical, cartoonish manner, and then trying again and gagging and choking and whatnot... don't worry, we all were... 

Better luck next time...
~S

• Brand: André California Champagne
• Type of Grape: Who knows...
• Sweetness: Not sure, we guessed it around a 20-25g/L?
• Price: $5.99USD
• Tasting Notes:  Well, not as bad as we expected. There were strawberry and peach notes, very sweet, and nice bubbles. Would probably go nicely with something salty, like bacon (but then again, what wouldn't??)

Gotta Get Back on Track

It's late, yeah, yeah, I know, I was away over the weekend, so this is the first chance I've really had to work on it. 

It was a pretty full week, even if it didn't feel like it at the time. The kids were over on the weekend, insert running from friend's house to friend's house, work around the house, a brunch, and daylight savings time (ahhh, love the fall), it certainly felt busy enough.

I also went up with my mom to a friend's house to our annual Christmas Card Create-a-thon (self titled). This woman has stamps, and cutters, and punches, and glitter, and gadgets galore, so each year for the past 4-5 years we take a day to go up and visit her. We bring lunch, she provides the tools, and we all get our craft on. It's evolved from just Christmas cards to a bunch of different cards to have on hand, like thank you cards. It's fun, and a lovely kick-off to the holiday season. While I did that, Shane painted the living room! It's now a nice charcoal grey, and looks fresh and modern and lovely.

Also, while buying our Champagne this week, I had the honour of being full on IDed at the LCBO. Not just a quick scan of the ID, but a full-on break-out-the-UV-light-and-examine-that-puppy IDed. I didn't even know that there was a trillium emblem on our Driver's Licences that glowed under UV light... I thought there was just that kind of shiny little trillium on there, but no! There's a full UV light enabled circled logo hidden in there. 

November 10, 2016

This week we enjoyed a lovely bottle from Ca'Momi Winery in California: Ca'Secco. There wasn't too much going on with the popping of the top, although the bubbles were very loud in the bottle. 

In the glass, it had a dry, tart scent, kind of like granny smith apples. The first thing I got when I tasted it was crab apples. Shane agreed, and added that it had a bit of cranberries going on also, so basically tart and dry, with maybe a touch of sweet. 

It had a very creamy mouth feel with was nice. Shane thought it tasted very sweet, I didn't at first, but after a few sips, it did gain a sweet momentum, and seemed to keep getting sweeter. When we were pouring it, it appeared colourless, like bubbly water. In the glass though you could see a very pale yellow, but not much. 

Overall, we did like it, but it did end a touch sweet. So we would drink it again, but maybe not buy it again, for us alone. But we wouldn't hesitate to serve it to friends or to bring it to a friend's house. 

~S

• Brand: Ca'Momi Winery
• Type of Grape: Not noted 
• Sweetness: 13g/L
• Price: $17.95
• Tasting Notes: Dry apple and cranberry flavours, nice mouthfeel, would pair nicely with apple pie. 

Hectic weekend... delicious Champagne!

October is done and dusted (well, not really, hopefully November lends itself more to free time to dust...). Months of effort, planning and hard work all culminated in a frantic couple of days. 

Don't mind me in the mirror there...
Ooops, clearly not paying attention

We started the weekend off with a Blind Whisky Tasting. Shane, Drew and my dad all participated by purchasing 2 bottles of whisky, and I organized the blind tasting. Shane made fancy flight boards and placemats with fun facts. I made tasting note sheets, and we ordered some brandy snifters so everyone had the same glass. Not to forget my mom, who doesn't drink straight whisky, we set up 4 cream-based liqueurs for her to play along!

The evening resulted in some hilarious revelations (more expensive is not always better), and some great conversations. It was well worth the efforts, and definitely going to happen again. Next time, maybe we could focus on a particular region, or move away from whisky all together, and do beer or wine... It was a lot of fun. 

The next night was another big one for us. My sister is pregnant, and Shane and I have known for about a month what the gender of the baby is (no one else, not even my sister knew). So when Jake and Daryl came down, we organized a small gender reveal party. I even wore equal amounts of blue and pink to throw them off the scent. We had pink and blue chocolates and cupcakes, and old wives tales that we worked our way through to "predict" the gender. The wives tales ended up being split, if we take out what Jake and Daryl thought it was going to be, it was 8 "girl" results and 6 "boy" results. (If you're curious of the wives tales we used, let me know and I'll upload a better picture)

The only result that mattered though was in this box. 

Yup, that's right, we're getting a
NEPHEW!!

The rest of the week was full, but certainly less hectic than we had been. 


November 3, 2016

Can you tell that Shane took this picture?
Priorities are all wrong: Tyson is out of focus
and the bubbly is in focus... Almost like we
were making a Champagne blog... Silly man. 

This week we were on our own, our Champagne Guy is vacationing in the Dominican (JEALOUS!!). We saw a really cool bottle that we wanted to try, Blue Nun or something, which had little flecks of gold in it, but after an exhaustive search online and then eventually in the LCBO Employee's database, we found out it had 40g/L of sugar. I'm feeling the cavities followed by the sugar coma just thinking about it... 

We ended up with a bottle from France: Simonnet-Febvre's Crémant de Bourgogne Brut. It was a very bubbly bottle, when we popped the top, it sounded like fireworks were exploding in the bottle, and had a sweet-yeasty smell. 

In the glass, it was a lovely pale yellow. It was very fruit forward, with a sweet-tart flavour. We got hints of peach, with a citrusy thing going on, more lime than lemon... With that being said, it had a very nice acid balance, even with the citrus flavours, it didn't have an acidic mouth feel. It had lots of sharp bubbles (as we would have guessed by the bottle noises), but also resulted in a creamy mouth feel... maybe just because there were so many bubbles? Not sure. Usually sharp bubbles do not equal a creamy mouth feel... 

Ahh, that's better. Look at those
gorgeous eyes... :)

Shane said that his mouth was watering for quite a while after taking a few sips, so it was drier than it tasted. It was really good. A bit later on, we thought we got notes of pears? Or a hard stone fruit, like white peach?

We would definitely get this one again, it was quite nice. 

~S

• Brand: Simonnet-Febvre
• Type of Grape: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
• Sweetness: 8g/L
• Price: $23.95
• Tasting Notes: Sweet fruity flavours lead to a nicely dry finish. Notes of stone fruit, pears, and lime. Would pair nicely with a spicy chicken or fish taco.

"Dry" doesn't mean "Tart"

Late. Late. Late. It's just been crazy. This past weekend was... well, just wow. But that's for this week's post. 

Lil' Sweetheart

Last week, let's see... The kids were over, and we forgot to carve pumpkins... oops. It was busy with preparations for last weekend (next post). As was the week, really. Everything for the past month had been leading up to last weekend. 

Celebrating our anniversary
with a glass of wine

Except Monday. Tyson and I had our 7th anniversary together on Monday. I find it hard to believe that we've been together for 7 years. We've come a long way (both literally and figuratively). And a lot has happened. One of my goals for this year is to find all his little puppy pictures... I'm not sure where they've gone, but I've only got a few left on Facebook. They must be saved on an external hard drive somewhere, it's just a matter of finding them... Now that I've put it out there (here), I'll have to do it! Right? Accountability? Or something like that... 

 Anyways, enough chit chat. Onto the good stuff. 

October 27, 2016

This week we splurged. We saw a Megalomaniac bottle that we had tried in May on our tour, and loved it, but it seemed so pricey at the time... Anyways, it's now available at the LCBO, and didn't seem quite so pricey, so we got it. Megalomaniac's Bubblehead. Its bottle is so sparkling and beautiful that Tyson felt he had to get dressed up. Fancy-pants. (I tried to link directly to the Bubblehead's page, but it kept coming up at "not found" so... you're SOL.)

Handsome devil.

Anyways, on popping the top, I got a bread-dough scent. Shane said it was a little yeasty, but also sweet and tart... In the glass it has a sugary start, but with a nice and smooth finish. Shane thought that after its sweet start, it quickly moved to a tart after taste. 

There was a fruit flavour going on in there that wasn't of the normal varieties we quote (apple, raspberry, pears, etc.). This one, after a bit of thinking, I decided was plums. Shane jumped in with "Sugar plums", I asked him what that was, and he very confidently, and a little mockingly said "sweet plums". After a bit of research, we discovered this was not true at all. Sugar plums are expensive old candy treats that - depending on the size - could take days to prepare. Apparently very tedious, time consuming and finicky... Moving on. 

After a glass, I noted that I didn't really get sour, nor tart like Shane, but I got dry. Sometimes we're not great at differentiating but, obviously, dry doesn't always mean tart. This was one of those times. Shane later amended his "tart" to "liquor-y": It goes from sweet to almost like drinking a liqueur. 

We quite like this one. We'll probably get it again sometime. We have yet to decide if it's $10 better than our normal stuff.  

~S

• Brand: Megalomaniac
• Type of Grape: Pinot Noir
• Sweetness: 13g/L
• Price: $29.95
• Tasting Notes: Sweet plums at start, very smooth finish. Nicely dry and balanced. Would pair nicely with a Christmas-y baked brie with a cranberry chutney.