The United States Embassy and the United States Foreign Agricultural Service cordially invite you to attend the 2012 California
Wine Fair.

The California lifestyle embodies all the characteristics of a ne wine –vibrant, spirited and full of excitement. We invite you to drink in the famous, sun-kissed wine country of the Golden State and share our passion for liquid sunshine in the bottle.

Raise a glass to California and enjoy a unique opportunity to sample a wide selection of more than 300 premium wines from 90 of California’s top producers (PDF). This is the largest tasting tour of California wines in Canada!

Tickets are $70 for the general public or save $5pp if you are a member of the Underground Tasting Club (free to join here).

Check out this Food Network article where Groovy Grapes co-founder Stacey Metulynsky gives a simple and easy tip on reading a wine label properly. Easy to remember so you won’t have to feel lost next time you pick up a bottle at the wine store!

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Looking to host a wine, beer or spirits tasting? Contact us for some great ideas or try the ideas above for yourself.

We hosted a phone interview with Andrew Jefford this past summer and just had it formatted to finally share with everyone.  For those of you who don’t know this prolific wine and spirits writer please review his bio below or check him out in the world’s best wine magazine The World of Fine Wine.  Watch the video, listen to the audio or download the transcript and share your comments on this blog post.

Learn more about The World of Fine Wine“>The World of Fine Wine Magazine and how to get your hands on a subscription here.

Andrew Jefford grew up in Norfolk, England, the son of a vicar and the eldest of three brothers. An English degree and postgraduate studies under Malcolm Bradbury at the University of East Anglia were followed by a period as an editor for Paul Hamlyn’s Octopus Books. Then in the late 1980s Andrew saw the chance to combine his passions for wine and writing, and since that time he has worked as a freelance drinks journalist and broadcaster. He has written several books and guides, most recently Peat Smoke and Spirit, a portrait of the whisky island of Islay published in 2004. He has won a plethora of distinctions for his work, including eight Glenfiddich awards and consecutive Louis Roederer International Wine Writer of the Year awards in 2006 and 2007. The New France was awarded the André Simon Award, Lanson Award and Veuve Clicquot USA Book of the Year in 2003. It is surprising that he finds time for what he claims as enthusiasms – family, Bach, Shakespeare, birds, lonely places, swimming, and going to bed.

Wine and food pairing always seems to be a challenge for some people. Groovy Grapes co-founder and the Food Network‘s This Food That Wine co-host Stacey Metulynsky gives tips to decipher easy wine and food pairings in this great video! Check it out to perfectly pair your next dinner!

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Looking to host a wine, beer or spirits tasting? Contact us for some great ideas or try the ideas above for yourself.

When it comes to Icewine, it can be challenging to know the right time to pop open the bottle. And considering the price of Icewine, you definitely don’t want to get it wrong! Groovy Grapes co-founder Stacey Metulynsky explains in her Food Network article how to properly enjoy Icewine. Check it out!

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Looking to host a wine, beer or spirits tasting? Contact us for some great ideas or try the ideas above for yourself.

Daniel Drolet of Ottawa Citizen Style Magazine called looking for some New Year’s Eve party idea inspiration.  He enlisted us as one of his four experts (including a designer, partner planner and chef) to pull together a how-to guide for hosting a swish new year’s eve soirée.

Checkout our list of sparkling wines to try as an all bubbles dinner (thank you Lucie for such great drinks picks and recipe links!).

Stacey hosted a video walk through of how to sabre a bottle of sparkling wine right from our backyard in the video below.

“If there’s ever an occasion to party, it’s New Year’s Eve.

But in the rush to buy, wrap and exchange Christmas gifts, visit with family and digest turkey (and turkey leftovers), there’s not often time to plan the perfect New Year’s party. You know, the one with the fantastic food, delicious drinks, and smartly dressed guests exchanging witty repartee in a stylishly decorated home.

So we asked for some help. Here, in four easy steps, are ideas for hosting a great New Year’s party. Think of it as your smart and savvy guide on how to stylishly drink, dress, design and dine your way into 2012.”

Skillogale Sparkling Riesling NV, Clare Valley, Australia
Vintages 72868 $20

Charming to both the experienced wine connoisseur and the humble bubbly wine lover.  It’s a medium-dry sparkling Riesling.  A great value enjoyed on its own as with succulent seafood dishes.  This is a traditional-method sparkling wine from a well-acclaimed Australian producer. Crisp, smooth and expressive, with recognizable Clare Valley character. Just the right amount of sweetness to make it an ideal aperitif wine or a great match for fresh oysters to kick off a special evening. Try with Fresh Shucked Kumamoto Oysters with Ponzu Sauce (Japanese soy & yuzu lemon sauce). Checkout the Ponzu Sauce recipe here.

Peller Estates Ice Cuvée Rosé, Ontario.
Vintages 113035 $35.20
A well-made sparkling wine that’s finished with a drop of Cabernet Franc ice wine to give it a reddish hue and a pleasant red fruit character. It’s light-bodied and refreshing, with a great sense of the Niagara terroir and a well-balanced peach nectar on the finish. Ideal for richer dishes such as chicken or duck liver pâté with a spiced winter fruit compote.

Perrier Jouet Grand Brut Champagne, France
LCBO 155341 $64.95
This dry, elegant Champagne delivers consistent quality year after year, yet always falls under the radar. On the nose, one finds intense toasted almonds, brioche, pears and candied citrus fruit, which linger through to the finish. Try with Lobster Thermidor.

Blue Mountain Brut, B.C.
Vintages 206326 $32.95
A medium-weight sparkling wine blended from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from one of B.C.’s leading sparkling wine producers. Offers an array of waxy, leesy aromas and flavours that differentiate it from Champagne and are best enjoyed with food. Spendsa relatively long 24 months in the bottle, like decent Champagne. A lovely way to end a meal with an assortment of cheeses.

Katnook Founder’s Block Sparkling Shiraz 2008, Australia
Vintages 53330 $24.95
Opaque ruby in the glass; simply laden with full fruit aromas such as plum, cherry and delicious blackberry, with a hint of minty goodness that delivers just that extra touch of something special to end a holiday meal. Its creamy mousse ripe berry fruit taste makes it a winning combination with a chocolate-based dessert with red fruit condiment.

Tim Hanni is an internationally renowned ‘flavor maven’, known as the Swami of Umami who will be visiting Ottawa November 15/11 for a special seminar.  A professionally-trained chef, he is one of the first two resident Americans to successfully complete the examination and earn the title Master of Wine.  He has been involved with wine- and food-related businesses, education and research for over thirty-five years. Hanni has a unique perspective on food and wine, providing a modern and innovative approach to the subject. So much so that the world renowned Wine Spirits and Education Trust (WSET).

Here’s an excerpt from the new content he finished for WSET:

“The wine and food pairing messages used for marketing wine as an accompaniment to food have become more complex, imaginary, contradictory and convoluted over time. Basic rules were invented to“simplify” things for consumers and promote the enjoyment of wine and food. Over time these became generally adopted metaphors that began to generate even more confusion and contradiction, and a movement away from the inclusive and hospitable “if the guest prefers.” Simple rules, such as “red wine with red meat”, “light wines with light dishes” or the need to pair “complex wines with more complex recipes” provided the basis for increasingly imaginative and complex rationale and explanations for what to pair and why. These metaphors have now become erroneously adopted as general wine and food pairing “truths” but again should never impinge on one’s personal preferences.”

Stacey Metulynsky, co-founder of Groovy Grapes, gives a quick and easy tip on how to preserve an unfinished wine bottle in her Food Network article How to Store Wine Once it’s Opened. Check it out!

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Looking to host a wine, beer or spirits tasting?Contact us for some great ideas or try the ideas above for yourself.

Revolutionary research and thinking about “why we like what we like” comes to Ottawa November 15, 2011 with Tim Hanni, Master of Wine, Flavour Maven and the Wine Anti-Snob

Ottawa, Ontario November 4, 2011 – It is time for wine consumers to stand up and be heard. While there is a lot of success to celebrate in the world of wine, the fact is that a vast number of wine consumers still associate wine with intimidation and even embarrassment.  The mere mention of many of the world’s most popular wines, such as White Zinfandel and Liebfraumilch, often elicits a patronizing look that is enough to make any sweet wine lover run for the safety of the nearest cocktail. Well, get over it – research now shows that typical drinker of sweet, mild wines typically has the most acute taste and smell sensitivity. Read a copy of the summary report from a consumer study done in the U.S..

We also seem to have forgotten the fact that sweet wines like Vermouth and May Wine, wine cocktails like Kir and practices like mixing fruit juice with wine to make Sangria or plopping a cube of sugar and a little water into wine that was too strong, was apropos until relatively recently. Research clearly shows that as dry wine has become the standard, roughly beginning in earnest circa 1950, wine consumption in France has plummeted by well over 50%. There are a lot of health and social issues at play in this trend to drinking less but as wine has become so “special” and dry consumers have flocked to other beverage options and will continue to do so until we change our thinking and actions. The preference many people have for sweet wines is not an American or cola generation phenomenon and producers around the globe have lost out on a huge market opportunity due to our ignorance and arrogance.

Many of the most well intended wine enthusiasts increasingly live in an imaginary, pseudo-sensory la-la land exploding with the aromas of dark cherries, hints of fenugreek, enticing minerality and chasing the elusive perfect wine to pair with braised haunch of unicorn. It is time for some serious revisionist thinking of the out-of-date information, incorrect assumptions and inappropriate judgments that continues to alienate a very significant percentage of the very consumers with whom they are trying to communicate.

New generations of wine drinkers are entering the market and are unimpressed with the ramblings and values of the current wine establishment. Vast new Asian markets, beyond the prestige-based micro markets that are fueling rare and obscure classic wine sales, are ripe for the picking. The key is that 100 year old thinking and values are not going to provide the means to take full advantage of the opportunities at hand.

Advertising legend Sir John Hegarty’s offered the following insight in a speech to the Institute of Masters of Wine Symposium in Bordeaux, France; “‘This is [a] market that goes out of its way to confuse the consumer. You’ve seen it — the way people in restaurants nervously pass round a wine list. It’s fear. You as an industry have encouraged that fear. The wine industry is the most fragmented market I’ve seen. Fragmented, confusing, impenetrable.”

So how did wine, once considered the gold standard of adult beverages and the one most closely associated with civility, family and community, become so intimidating for so many people? In part it is because the industry has failed to recognize that human beings can vary dramatically in sensations they perceive. These differences of perception drive consumer wine preferences: sweet or dry, delicate or intense, high-alcohol extract of grape syrup or foaming fruity fizz. Additionally we as an industry have been perpetuating myths and misinformation about wine styles and traditions that end up alienating a large percentage of consumers.

I propose that consumers stand up for their rights and demand the wine industry cater to their personal preferences. If you are confronted by a wine person who in any way is trying to impose their will on your wine choice demand they listen to your needs and help put an end to the tyranny of the wine cognoscenti. It is high time that the industry learn that people live in different sensory worlds and the wine industry can do better by fostering in a new era of consumer education and appreciating rather than engaged in petty arguments and posturing over the meaning of terroir and who is right about points or ratings.

The wine industry will benefit by revising stale and incorrect information, completely reinventing the role of wine with food and most of all by  listening to and better understanding the entire spectrum of consumer wine preferences and values. A wine industry that learns to celebrate and market to these differences will expand beyond current expectations. It will be more vibrant, more capable of sustainable growth and wine will become more attractive to new and existing consumers around the globe.

To your — and the wine industry’s — health!

Tim Hanni MW, Napa, California

 

See Tim Live in Ottawa November 15, 2011 presented by Algonquin College, Lifford Wine Agency and Groovy Grapes Underground Tasting Club:

- Wine Enthusiasts: 6:30-9pm Why You Like What You Like Seminar and Tasting at Restaurant International, Algonquin College (70% sold out)

- Media, Wine Trade and Restaurant Trade: 2-4pm Why You Like What You Like Seminar (Trade Only) email support@groovygrapes.com or call 613-691-0668 x 103

 

Interview Requests:

- To interview Time in advance by phone or November 15, 2011 email support@groovygrapes.com or call 613-691-0668 x 101

About Tim Hanni mw

Tim Hanni, MW provides dynamic consulting, research, and education services to a wide range of companies around the world. Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as “The Wine Anti-Snob,” Tim is a renegade, researcher, and relentless crusader against wine snobbery. At the heart of this crusade is a quest to find the fundamental elements that shape our taste preferences, and to understand, embrace, and cultivate the interest of all wine consumers, not just a select few.

In 1990, he was one of two Americans to first earn the Master of Wine credential. Tim currently serves on the faculty at Sonoma State University in the Wine Business Management Certification program and the Wine & Spirits Education Trust in London, England, has adopted his wine and food principles in their international curriculum.

Tim’s research with noted Cornell University taste scientist Virginia Utermohlen, MD, is setting the stage for the next revolution in wine and food education and provides the basis for his popular workshops and seminars. He is a frequent lecturer at U.C. Davis, the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone and a popular keynote speaker at wine events around the world.