David Lawrason is a renowned wine writer who recently launched is own web site www.davidlawrason.com.  He will be hosting a four week wine course which we highly recommend.  One of our staff members attended the last session he hosted and she gained a lot of tasting experience not to mention direct access to David`s expertise over four weeks.  Read more about David`s wine course.

Stacey recently had lunch with David to discuss her new book.  David blogs about this and a couple of other wine books on the Toronto Life Wine Blog.

Catherine Jheon of Food Network Canada’s "Food For Thought Blog" recently interviewed This Food That Wine authors Stacey Metulynsky and Angie MacRae during their book tour in Toronto. Have a look at the post on Food For Thought. The blog post covers some wine and food pairing tips and also mentions a contest where you can wine a copy of the book!  While you are there have a look at the wine and food pairing tool (Stacey and Angie contributed to the wine and food pairing content).

If you love great meals that just happen to be inexpensive then you need to have a look at Cheap Eats.  Alexa and the crew at Cheap Eats just posted full details about the This Food That Wine book signings (much appreciated!). 

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of the Cheap Eats Guides for Ottawa and Toronto when you visit their blog!

Ron Eade, Ottawa Citizen Food Editor, covered the Futuristic Wine and Food Pairing Dinner we did with Chef Marc Lepine at the Courtyard Restaurant.  Have a read to see what he thought were the highlights. 

If you missed the Futurisic dinner and are interested in a similar event we are running in April at the urban element, check out our public event schedule.  Book early to avoid missing out!

This month, we caught up with the very busy Daniel Speck, Vice President and Director of Sales for Henry of Pelham Winery - he was actually on the road and chatted from his Blackberry!  Henry of Pelham is a premium estate winery located on the Short Hills Bench at the base of the Niagara Escarpment in St. Catharines, Ontario. Its 170 acres have been owned  and operated by the Speck family since 1988, on the premise that fine wine is grown, not made. Dan spoke about the role the winery has had in his life and some of their signatures wines.

Henry of Pelham Wines to Try:

Cuvée Catharine Rosé Brut
LCBO 004051 $30.15
An award-winning bubbly made from traditional Champagne grapes Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This wine is crisp and refreshing with a lovely balance of citrus and berry aromas and flavours, with a touch of toastiness. Perfect with seafood, including oysters and caviar.

2005 Baco Noir, Reserve
VINTAGES 461699 $24.95
This classic Niagara grape gives its best expression in this wine. It’s deeply coloured with rich, jammy blueberry and blackberry flavours, perfectly balanced with crisp acidity and a rich, long finish. Paired up with sausages or game meat like venison and you’ve got yourself some perfect Canadian comfort.

2002 Cabernet-Merlot, Speck Family Reserve
WINERY ONLY
An excellent choice for your cellar, this Cab blend offers concentrated dark fruit aromas and flavours, especially black raspberry. Produced only in vintage years this wine will age for at least 10 years. Can’t wait to open it? Decant and serve with a rich meal of braised lamb shanks.

My new book, co-authored by Angie MacRae and Chris Knight, will be released in a few weeks time and is an easy, fun guide to wine and food pairing, including more than 100 recipes with wine pairings. You’ll see it in bookstores across the country starting in mid- November 2007, and it’s also available for pre-order online at chapters.indigo.ca.

But if you can’t wait until then and need some help with wine and food pairing ASAP, check out this nifty on-line pairing tool that I helped put together for Food Network Canada. It’s a great way to find new recipes to pair with your favourite wine styles, or to help you figure out what to serve at your next dinner party.

Who doesn’t love starting off the day with a delicious meal and a glass of bubbly?! I know I do! Here’s your chance to enjoy a leisurely, 3-course brunch with a flight of three sparkling wines to match … including my favourite, pink Champagne!

Join us once again at Courtyard Restaurant in the Byward Market on Sunday, October 28th between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Seating is limited and reservations are required so be sure to call in soon to reserve your place at 613-241-1516. Brunch guests will be entertained by a live classical guitarist, and will take home wine pairing notes prepared by Groovy Grapes.

The cost is $29.00 per person, plus taxes and gratuity, and includes 3-course brunch with flight of 3 sparkling wines, and your copy of the Bubbly and Food Pairing Notes.

Are you ready for a different kind of wine and food pairing experience? Well, wait no longer, Chef Marc Lépine and Sommelier Stacey Metulynsky have joined forces to challenge your taste buds with creative, innovative cuisine paired with a mouth-watering line- up of wines!

Chef Marc is the Canadian Culinary Federation’s Regional Chef of the Year 2006 and Executive Chef of the Byward Market’s Courtyard Restaurant. Behind the scenes in the kitchen, Marc not only cooks up delicious food, he’s also dreaming up and experimenting with the most interesting, cutting-edge food concepts. Yes, liquid nitrogen is a standard in Marc’s kitchen, and that’s just the beginning …

Join us on Thursday, October 25th at the Courtyard Restaurant for a Futuristic Food & Wine Experience. Enjoy a 5-course tasting menu paired with 2 wines for each course (a total of 10 tasty wines), with enlightening discussion provided by Stacey and Marc. Meet and chat with the experts, learn something new, and discover what makes them excited when it comes to the future of wine and food pairing. Expect innovative cutting-edge cuisine and great conversation. A not to be missed event!

Seating is limited at this exclusive event, so make your reservations now by calling the Courtyard Restaurant at 613-241-1516. The cost is $125 per person plus taxes and gratuity, and includes a 5-course meal, 10 wine pairings, and discussion and interpretation of the meal with Chef Marc and Sommelier Stacey.

Today’s Globe and Mail Report on Business section ran an article profiling Groovy Grapes Co-founders in an article about small business office technology.  The print edition has us in our back yard working the phones and laptops.

Author/Sommelier Natalie MacLean suggests gobbling good wines at www.NatalieMacLean.com

Ottawa (September 13, 2007) - "No other holiday celebrates the gift of wine like Thanksgiving," says Natalie MacLean, author of the bestselling book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. "Wine is a taste of the harvest along with all the delicious dishes on the table. But actually choosing a bottle can feel like a thankless task, especially with so many flavors to match."

Relax. Have a drink. And try some of Natalie’s suggestions for great wines to pair with Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings. In Red, White and Drunk All Over, which has just been published in paperback, Natalie discusses wine and food pairing for Thanksgiving dinner. A new chapter in the book also addresses the five toughest matches for wine: vegetables, spicy dishes, chocolate, cheese, and fast food.

Natalie’s free online matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher complements her in-depth discussion in the book by allowing you to click on "turkey holiday dinner" to find wines that accompany all kinds of dishes, from roast turkey to turducken, from creamed corn to pecan pie.

Natalie also offers five quick tips for choosing a terrific Thanksgiving wine:

1. Start with bubbly. Sparkling wine is a great aperitif to sip while you wait for the turkey to finish cooking. It adds a celebratory note to the meal and goes well with starters like soup and salad.
2. Consider the turkey. Unlike most poultry and game birds, turkey meat is very dry in texture. So you need a mouth-watering wine to complement it. Good options are crisp whites like riesling and pinot grigio. And yes you can drink red wine with white meat: pinot noir, beaujolais and zinfandel all have juicy, berry-ripe flavors that go well with turkey.
3. Look beyond the bird. The range of side dishes means that you don’t have to match your wine just to the turkey. Since Thanksgiving dinner is often a banquet-style meal, with everyone choosing the trimmings, why not do the same with your wines? Offer both red and white, and possibly more than one depending on the size of your group.
4. Complement or contrast. A big, buttery chardonnay from California or Chile can complement the roasted, smoky flavors of squash, chestnuts and pecan stuffing. But if you’d rather have a contrast to the richness of cream sauces and dressings, try a crisp New Zealand sauvignon blanc.
5. End on a sweet note. If anyone still has room left when it’s time for pumpkin or pecan pie, offer a late harvest wine or icewine. If you’re a chocolate fan, try serving a liqueur with complementary flavors such as raspberry or blackcurrant.

Natalie’s online wine matching tool isn’t just about Thanksgiving dinner: it allows you to pair wine with other seasonal fall produce, game meats, pizza, egg dishes, TV dinners, breads and desserts. Visitors simply search by wine for meal inspirations or by food to find great wine choices. The site has more than 364,000 food and wine combinations, as well as thousands of recipes for those planning holiday parties and Christmas turkey dinner.

The matching tool is updated regularly, as Natalie responds to her readers’ suggestions for more dishes and wines. Many of these suggestions come from the 78,000 subscribers to her free e-newsletter, Nat Decants, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine. Got a dish or a wine to stump Natalie? E-mail her via the web site and she’ll suggest a match for you. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Natalie MacLean has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award; and she was named the World’s Best Drink Writer at the World Food Media Awards. Rex Pickett, author of Sideways, says that Natalie "writes about wine with a sensuous obsession" and is "often laugh-out-loud funny." Eric Asimov of The New York Times notes, "Ms. MacLean is the disarming Everywoman . she loves wine, loves drinking . a winning formula." The Financial Times observes: "Natalie MacLean is a new force in the wine writing world-a feisty North American answer to Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson.