Carpene Malvolti

It's been a bit hectic here, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Last week we celebrated World Down Syndrome Day (March 21st) by wearing our blue and yellow bracelets and mis-matched socks to work. It was a great day celebrating how our differences are what make us beautiful, all while trying to smash the misconceptions surrounding Down Syndrome. 

March 24, 2016

On Champagne Thursday we enjoyed a quiet evening with a new-to-us bottle of bubbly: Carpene Malvolti's Brut Prosecco. It smelled a little dry at first, a touch bready with hints of fresh pairs in the initial fizz in the glass. 

There were lots of big bubbles in this one, eliminating the creamy mouth-feel that some bubblies get. It was a lovely gold colour. We thought it tasted sweet on the tip of our tongues, but then had a drier finish. 

After a few sips we thought we noted something fruity, maybe pears? Maybe strawberries? We couldn't identify it, but it was a really nice flavour. 

All in all, we really liked this one, and would definitely get it again. It did get me a little burpy though, so be warned!!

~S

• Brand: Carpene Malvolti
• Type of Grape: Glera
• Sweetness: "Dry", so anywhere between 5-17g/L according to the LCBO
• Price: $19.95
• Tasting Notes: A nice bubbly bottle, starts sweet, finishes dry, a slightly fruity essence. Would pair nicely with fish.

Green Champagne??

Happy (post) St Paddy's Day to everyone! I hope your day was filled to the brim with bright green shenanigans! We did the typical things: green clothing, green beer and corned beef, and then we dyed our champagne green!! Yikes! 

Other than that, we kept it pretty low key... not that those things were overly exciting, but you know. 

March 17, 2016

Even Tyson got into the spirit!

There was nothing new at the LCBO this week (we went in the morning and with Thursday being a delivery day nothing had been unpacked when we got there - trust me, our Champagne Guy checked but the new stuff was in the middle of the shipment). So we went with an old favourite: Momenti, by Vieni Estates. (Post 1, Post 2).

We dyed it green though, of course, which I think did change the flavour a little. On the nose, I got a slightly vitamin-y smell, where Shane got a sweet berry smell. Quite different, sometimes we're just not on the same page. 

We found that it had a nice and sweet start, but ended with a dry mouth feel. I also got a bit of a tart/sour taste halfway through the sips. 

It seemed to have a over-ripe peach flavour going on this time. Mixed with a hint of the tropics (how lovely does that sound, it was snowing here today!!). Nearing the end of the bottle I was getting sever sour-candy (cotton mouth?) going on, and it was starting to leave an icky taste in my mouth. I do think that this was the green dye more than the bubbly though. We'd been consuming green for a few hours already and we've had, and loved, this bubbly before. I think the green was just catching up to me. 

We will definitely get this again. It's a lovely, inexpensive bubbly to have in our back pocket. 

~S

• Brand: Vieni Estates
• Type of Grape: Vidal and Pinot Grigio
• Sweetness: 15g/L
• Price: $13.95
• Tasting Notes: Sweet berries, ripe peaches and a tropical feel. Would pair nicely with everything from brunch to potato chips!

Fancy Pants Prosecco

Last weekend was a busy and productive kitchen weekend. It was awesome. On Saturday we spent the day making sausages, we made 4 different types: maple bacon, apple sage, sun-dried tomato with mozzarella and basil, and tex-mex chili style. The first two turned out wonderfully, the second two were great with respect to flavours, but the texture needs a bit of tweeking. Practice will make perfect! On Sunday we spent the day making we're-done-with-winter cupcakes (aka Screw Winter Cupcakes). It felt really good to be so productive and to have so much to show for ourselves at the end of the weekend. 

In other exciting news, our amazing photographer got our wedding featured online with Today's Bride. We found that out yesterday. So Champagne Thursday was definitely a bubbly celebration, we even broke out the fancy glasses. 

Tyson has started actually EATING the corks,
so that phase of his life is over. Now he just
gets to break them in half and then we quickly
take it away. Silly hound.

March 10, 2016

This week we celebrated with a lovely bottle from Italy: Canella Prosecco Superiore, 2014. When I first smelled it in the glass, I thought I got a kind of mineral or vitamin scent, but after I tasted it and tried to smell that again, I wasn't able to. After our first sip we both said "Well, that's nice!", so that's a good start!

We found this one to have a sweet flavour, and a sweet aftertaste but a dry finish. So it dried out our mouths a little like you'd expect with a dry bubbly, but it still tasted sweet... It was an odd but pleasurable experience. It wasn't syrupy either, which is good.

It's got a very creamy mouth-feel, lots of smooth, tiny bubbles make it almost explode in your mouth. It's a very pale straw colour, almost colourless. It's difficult to see in this picture, but there is a hint of gold there, I promise. 

When we were trying to identify the flavour of the sweet, I struggled. Shane said that it reminded him of the fig jam we've had recently. I can get on board with that, but more the jam side than the fig side...

Verdict: In the end, we both really liked it and would have it again.  

That's all for us today. Spring is springing away here, and the weather is supposed to be mild this weekend, so I expect this weekend will be filled with yard work. Another productive one for the books, fingers crossed.

~S

• Brand: Canella by Empson Can, Inc.
• Type of Grape: Glera
• Sweetness: 12g/L
• Price: $19.95
• Tasting Notes: Light bodied, sweeter flavour, reminiscent of fig jam. Would pair nicely with a tangy goat's cheese and prosciutto. 

Optimistic about Freixenet Again

This past week felt busier than it probably was. We had Shane's kids over the weekend, and then Sunday night we took the boys (Emma stayed with her mom) up to Mont Tremblant for a quick ski day. We came home Tuesday, and then visited the farm Wednesday night. But the weekend was low key, the ski trip was low key (except for the travel), and the visit at the farm was low key... So I'm not sure where my head got to that made it feel hectic and rushed. 

Also, I won a donut on my tea the other day... right after we started our Primal Diet thing again (low carbs, low grains, high fat and protein)... Rats. But we're excited about going Primal. We've had success on it in the past, and we've kind let ourselves get on the cruddy food train recently... okay, since the summer... okay, since last winter... We're both down in weight already, on day 3. If you're curious or want to be inspired, go here: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

In any case, the hectic or not so hectic week made Champagne Thursday that much more relaxed and earned. 

March 3, 2016 (Happy Birthday Jake!)

This week we went into Champagne Thursday with a mission. We wanted to prove to ourselves that last week wasn't a fluke after being primed for a beefy bubbly. No, we didn't get the Freixenet Gold again, good heavens no. We got the Freixenet Cordon Negro. We've had this one in the past and quite liked it but that was before the incident... So after last week, we were a little nervous.

We shouldn't have been. We popped the cork on this one (with great effort actually, this one did not want to budge), and we were not overwhelmed with beefy aromas. Thank God. Instead we got ripened fruit scents. 

In the glass, it has lots of bubbles, mmm. It has a sweet flavour, although it's not a sweet bubbly. We got more fruity notes on the nose: it's very ripe sweet fruit... you know when it's almost gone off, but you get it just in time? It's just extra sweet?

On the nose it's tough to determine which fruit it is that is about to go bad, but on the palate it is a little more distinguishable... I got notes of tart/sour pineapple (it smells over ripe and tastes under ripe, if that makes sense...). Shane said it was kind of like the Tropical Five-Alive. I also got a honey flavour. Not a syrup or thick mouth feel, just a bit of honey flavour. 

After a couple glasses it started to get less sweet in flavour and went more towards the tart/sour end of the spectrum. This might be because it was warming up a touch and so it was opening up? Or it might have just been our imaginations... Who knows? 

Verdict: Yup, this is a nice, dependable bottle. Consistent flavours and a good price.

That's about it for me. We're planning on spending the weekend in the kitchen, so I'll let you know how that goes next week! 

 ~S

• Brand: Freixenet
• Type of Grape: Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada (same as the gold)
• Sweetness: 11g/L
• Price: $13.95
• Tasting Notes: Sweet fruity scents in a tart tropical fruity bubbly. Would pair nicely with an Asian noodle dish (might be because I'm craving that?)

Twofer

It's been a crazy week, hence the missing post from last week. I had meant to do last week's post on the weekend, but it fell by the wayside. Then I was away for work and just got back last night.

So I hope you'll forgive me! 

Anyways, I guess I'll get right to the meat of it.

February 18, 2016 - International Drink Wine Day

We celebrated this week with a lovely bottle of Château Moncontour Cuvée Prédilection Brut Vouvray from 2012. On popping the top, we got a couple difference scents... I got a raw pizza dough, where Shane got vanilla... Quite different... 

This was a very bubbly bubbly. It was a beautiful medium straw colour. It had a nice sweet flavour, but a dry mouth feel, which is a bit odd. It had a nice acid balance as well. As far as flavours go, aside from sweet, it had an earthy taste, which we have had trouble describing to each other. It isn't grassy, and it isn't like dirt or rocks... It has a bit of a minerally taste, but not like vitamins, and it's quite nice. Almost like a mineral water I guess.

Onto glass two, we were getting a few more flavours, I though maybe peaches, Shane thought maybe apples or pears. Nothing too overwhelming, which probably caused the split decision. In any case, we both quite liked it, but it was a little burpy... :)

We would definitely get this one again.

February 15, 2016

As I was away, Shane picked out this one. He was working from home, and so this is one from the Napanee LCBO (a lovely store, but the selection is pretty tame...). We have had this brand in the past, and quite enjoy it usually (did you catch that? Usually...).

This week we got the Freixenet Gold bottle: Carta Nevada Brut. We've had their black bottle before, and it's quite lovely. 

This might have been my own fault, I may have primed us for disliking this bottle accidentally. I was silly, and mentioned to Shane that Freixenet is a sister company connected with the Beef Stew bubbly we had a while back... I should have just kept that little tidbit to myself... 

Anyways, I didn't. I told Shane, and thus the night began... Right off the get go, it smelled a little off. We tried to ignore this. The taste was okay at first, light, refreshing, not super tart and not much as an aftertaste. But we couldn't ignore the slightly off smell, and we were starting to be able to identify the scent as the beef stew that we loved so much... (sarcasm).

I tried to ignore it some more, getting some positive notes in our journal: it's got lots of nice bubbles, it has a nice mouth feel and it's not too acidic. But try as I might, the scent was seeping into the taste, and it was starting to taste a bit beefy... And once it started a little, it started a lot, and soon it was like drinking a savoury bubbly. 

Needless to say, we wouldn't get this one again.

~S

Feb 18/16

• Brand: Château Moncontour
• Type of Grape: Chenin Blanc (I think, I'm having trouble accessing the website)
• Sweetness: 13g/L
• Price: $19.95
• Tasting Notes: Sweeter flavour with a drier mouth feel, hints of hard fruits, and earthy tones. Would pair nicely with a baked brie or another creamy cheese. 

Feb 25/16

• Brand: Freixenet
• Type of Grape: Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada
• Sweetness: 10g/L
• Price: $12.95
• Tasting Notes: Light and refreshing, lots of bubbles. A meaty/savoury flavour. Would pair nightly with fresh bread or savoury pastries. 

Chocolate... For dinner?

Holy smokes it's felt like a busy week. Last Friday we went out to my parents' house for a Fondue Dinner. Oh my goodness, it was amazing. There was cheese and meat and bread and veggies. Then there was oodles of creamy chocolate with fruit and pretzels. There was fancy rye for the boys (Crown Royal's Northern Harvest), and some very tasty beers and wines for the rest of us. Shane and I both had very productive weekends, him working in the shop on his work bench, and me in the house on a couple surprise projects. 

Then we had a Rib Eat-Off at Montana's with The Puddys. Dave and Shane stuffed themselves silly eating probably 10 pounds of ribs, while Cristin and I were much more civilized but still very full after. We had a quick Champagne Campaign on Saturday with them afterwards. This one, Petale Il Vino dell' Amour, is very very sweet. Dave (who hates wine) loved it, called it sugar water. 97g/L. So not my favourite. But it was a nice change, and would be good for someone who isn't accustomed to the drier bubblies yet (but it should be a goal for those people, hahah).

Then (oh yes, there's more) it was the Super Bowl!!! We fell a bit behind (making the wings and nachos, yum!), so skipped the half time show (but watched the commercials, of course), but we watched the whole game. Shane might have been starting to fall asleep by the end of it (still fighting his cold/man flu), but we powered through. We were thrilled with the out come. I quite like Peyton Manning, and so was happy that wisdom, professionalism, and experience won out over showmanship, cockiness and youth. Next year though, Packers! 

Okay, let's get on with it. 

February 11, 2016

This week we did a bit of a pre-Valentine's Day celebration. We have Shane's kids this weekend and will be doing heart pancakes and pizzas with them. So we wanted something a bit special for us. We did a charcuterie platter for supper with some fig jam and goat cheese, and we had a little chocolate fondue for dessert. It was lovely. We picked a bottle from France to join the celebration: Pierre Sparr's Brut Rosé (this label doesn't match what we had, so maybe a different vintage?). 

On popping the top, Shane didn't get much in the way of aromas right away. After it was poured, we both got hints of dry berries. There were lots of lovely little bubbles, and it was a beautiful pink. The first few sips I got a very tart green apple, with maybe a bit of peach? Shane didn't get much more than tart and dry. He decided later that he could give me peach. 

We quite liked this one at first, it had a nice fruity flavour, and was nicely dry. It had a sour candies type flavour going on. By the end of the bottle though, I had had enough. I was getting an acidic after-taste that wasn't really sitting nicely. 

Verdict: Yeah, we'd get this again, but we'd get it when we had people to share it with. 

~S

• Brand: Pierre Sparr
• Type of Grape: Pinot Noir
• Sweetness: 12g/L
• Price: $18.95
• Tasting Notes: Tart and dry fruity flavours, hints of apples and peaches. Would pair nicely with a light fruity dessert or brunch.

Gerard Bertrand Man Flu

Well, quite the week. Shane's got the Man Flu, so you can imagine how my week has been... just lovely. He's snored through a couple marathon evenings where I powered through several episodes of The Office. He says he was listening, but I must admit I find that hard to believe. Especially when I had to recap everything from after dinner to bedtime... Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a sore throat... which was exactly how Shane's started... *cue ominous music*

Anyhow, I guess I should get started with the real reason we're all here. 


February 4, 2016

This week I had to go to the LCBO alone, and our Champagne Guy was busy with a real customer, so I picked this one solo... It was from the south of France, by Gerard Bertrand: Cremant de Limoux Brut, 2013 (the linked info sheet is for their 2012, I couldn't find their 2013). 

Shane thought this one was going to pop everywhere, so he insisted that the glasses be closer than normal. This didn't happen but at least we were prepared. Shane's dad thinks that this is how you know if it's a good bubbly, that it foams over the top on corking... 

(Note: With Shane having the Man Flu, his nose isn't working, so he is NOT very helpful this time)

On corking it smelled like stale vitamin C tablets, mixed with a dry white wine. It had a lovely straw colour, and appeared to have lots of bubbles. 

On the first sip, I got a huge amount of fruit flavours. There were strong notes of green apples and pears. I noticed a bit of a peachy aftertaste, but that might be reaching... There were lots and lots of bubbles, right through to the end of the bottle. It had a nicely mild acidy aftertaste, which is in fact nicer than it sounds.

We both did notice that we were a little burpy with this one... Not one to be shared on a first date. 

Verdict: It was okay, I liked the fruit and we might try it again, but it's not one to start your Champagne Thursday adventure on.

~S

• Brand: Gerard Bertrand
• Type of Grape: Not 100% sure about 2013, but the 2012 was Chardonnay, Chenin, Pinot Noir, and Mauzac 
• Sweetness: 6g/L
• Price: $19.95
• Tasting Notes: Fruity flavours, notes of pears, apples and peaches. Would pair well with a creamy cheese, maybe a baked brie.