Dear Wine Ladies,
Just a quick question about my most favorite red wine grape, the ruling king of grapes, the almighty Cabernet Sauvignon! A friend of mine maintains that the Cab’s lineage is from the second rate Cabernet Franc, and another grape he was not aware of. Tell me this isn’t true…
Thanks Wine Ladies
Geoff
Dear Wine Ladies,
A few weeks back in the Life Style section of the Globe, they were talking about budget sparkling wines for Valentines. In the photo I noticed they showed the wine being poured into one of those old coupe, dessert style glasses. I thought tall thin glasses were the best for bubbly? Are these others coming back into style?
Heather
Edmonton
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I heard that there is a winery in British Columbia that is actually owned and operated by an Indian Band. This is pretty cool! I’d love to know more! How are the wines and do they make any icewine…my new found passion! Is it possible to purchase any of these wines on line?
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Absolutely! The winery you are referring to is called NK’Mip Cellars (pronounced in-ka-meep). It is located in the Osoyoos region in the South Okanagan. It’s actually North America’s first aboriginal-owned and operated winery producing VQA wines. The Indian Band owns 230 acres at the Inkameep Vineyard. Some of the vines dating back to 1968. Forty of these acres are currently being managed by NK’Mip Cellars producing a variety of wines including Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Syrah.
Randy Picton has been honoured with multiple gold, silver and bronze awards from both domestic and international competitions. Do they make any icewine? Indeed they do. In fact with quite an impressive track record. The Nk’Mip Qwam Qwmt 2007 Riesling Icewine was awarded Double Gold at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. A Gold at the Okanagan Wine Festival and Best of Category at Vancouver Magazine International Wine Competition. The list of awards going back several years is pretty impressive.
The newer line NK’Mip Qwam Qwmt, is a reserve line of wines that have also garnered a lot of attention and been recognized with multiple awards. Apart from the winemaking duties of Mr. Picton, he is also involved in training some of the youth of the Osoyoos Indian Band. Training in both the area of winemaking and in the day-to-day operations of running a winery. In fact, a number of the young band members have enrolled at the Okanagan University College taking the winery Assistant Certification Course.
Dear Wine Ladies,
I am a culinary student and am part of a group project that is looking at cooking with alcohol. What are the reasons for cooking with wine, what does it do to the food and does the acidity in wine play a role? Help please.
Keith
Next week I’ll be having the ladies over for an evening of wine, food and fun. I’ve decided to go with Pad Thai for something a little different. I have no idea which wine to pair with it. I normally drink red, but I know most of the girls will only drink white. Any suggestions?
Leesa,
Houston Texas
Dear Wine Ladies,
A group of friends and I were out the other night at a restaurant (quite pricey) enjoying the food, but not so much the wine. It’s not that the wine wasn’t good, it was actually delicious, the problem was the server was less than attentive when it came to topping up our glasses. It was very frustrating! So, we were wondering, is it bad etiquette to take the wine and pour it ourselves?
Deb and Dry!