Wine for your Valentine

The month of February is the month to show your loved ones how special they truly are. Of course we should show appreciation every day but in reality we don't. It is not because we don't care or we don't want to. The fact of the matter is that we are often so caught up in our everyday lives that we may forget to appreciate the ones that are near and dear to us. But it is never too late! We know you can't make up for lost time but you can start to show your appreciation on Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is one of the most celebrated occasions of the year. People all over the world shower their loved ones with greeting cards, chocolates, flowers, special dinners, and gifts but why not surprise your special someone with an amazing wine as well? Aside from sending the usual gifts, send something a little sweeter such as wine for your Valentine. Why buy wine for your Valentine? If you choose the perfect wine, it will start the night perfectly and you won't want it to end. For more visit http://www.peller.com/

Niagara Wine Festival returns to its roots

The Niagara Wine Festival is strengthening its community roots. After spending a few years pursuing a more cosmopolitan crowd from outside Niagara, festival organizers have turned their attention to making the marquee event a real homecoming in St. Catharines.

Expect more local musical acts on stage at Montebello Park in September, and look for more of your neighbours walking in the popular annual grande parade.

Kimberly Hundertmark, the festival's interim director of events, said organizers are taking stock of what the festival means to Niagara and listening to calls from the community to bring it back to its roots.

Two years ago, many St.Cat h a r i n e s residents balked at beefed-up entry rules for the grande parade designed to make it more polished and ended up cutting out some local groups.

"When you look at it, it is a homecoming," said Hundertmark, the city's tourism and attractions manager who was brought in last month to organize this year's festival.

"There's a lot of people from out of town coming to it. But essentially the people that are in the cars (on parade day), and that are lining the parade route are people that have grown up here, people that live here. It just made sense to make it more local."

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Niagara Restaurants and Wines

Niagara wines are renowned throughout the world in competitions as one of the most outstanding, particularly the ice wines, which are prepared from grapes yielded after the first winter rime. The rich and potential soils with moderate climate also support the tender fruit growers with their crops, which comprise of peaches and strawberries.

The Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario wineries have shaped an exclusive microclimate appropriate for the manufacture of World Class Wines. An individual would experience the stunning countryside of this region as we spend the day itinerant from one winery to another.

There is a wine trail occasion happening every month. To sign-up or pre-pay for our events is not required - just simply you need to show up on the same day and pay your admission fees. A list of wine trail associates is supplied for your convenience along with restaurants and other attractions that may be of interest during your stay.

And as you are required to eat on your trip to Niagara winery in order to keep yourself energized for sightseeing and other activities, have a dining experience that is both pleasing to the appetite and romantic for you. Like some of the hotels in the area, there are many restaurants that overlook the Falls, offering you with romantic views that will help keep the ardent tone of your trip steady throughout. Though sightseeing in Niagara Falls is romantic in itself, the romance can also present itself in, restaurants we select to dine in. There are a variety of restaurants with various wines that overlook Niagara Falls, providing you and your special someone with breathtaking views and romantic moments.

Rose is the top wine for summer

Rose is the quintessential summer wine, and a sparkling rose, like the good value non-vintage Segura Viudas Brut Rose, is double the pleasure.

For my palate, Segura Viudas is the finest Spanish sparkling wine. I enjoy its top brut, Heradad, both for its elegant flavors and texture, and stylish silver-based bottle. But until a recent tasting of the brut rose, a year or more passed since my last taste of any Segura Viudas sparkling wines because, like many consumers, I order French and California sparkling wines instinctively. A twofold mistake.

In November 2003, I visited Segura Viudas, located in Spain's Penedes region. Its 11th-century farmhouse has been expanded into a modern winery with wine cellars descending five stories into the Mediterranean soil. Jose Ferrer and his family own Segura Viudas and the California sparkling wine company, Gloria Ferrer.

Segura Viudas is made according to the Champagne method: After the primary fermentation of changing the grape juice into alcohol, the wine is transferred to bottles, fresh yeast is added and the wine undergoes a secondary fermentation, which creates the bubbles and additional aromas and flavors. Lastly, the spent yeast cells are disgorged from each bottle, a small amount of fresh wine mixed with sugar (called dosage) is added to fill the bottle, and the cork inserted.

The non-vintage Segura Viudas Brut Rose is a blend of 80 percent Trepat and 10 percent each Monastrell and Garnacha, which are traditional Spanish grapes grown in the Penedes region. Two years of aging the wine on the yeast yields an eye-appealing strawberry shade with summer fruit scents of ripe cherries and strawberries.

A mouthful of cherry and raspberry flavor comes bundled with elegant bubbles and fresh, crisp acidity in the finish. Reflecting its Spanish Mediterranean origin, the brut rose is perfectly refreshing on a warm sunny day.

The wine's versatility makes it perfect as an aperitif, delightful with shrimp cocktail, grilled shrimp with yellow rice, mildly spicy ceviche, and fresh fruit salads with summer peaches, nectarines and plums. Its incredibly affordable price allows adding bottles to the ice bucket without freezing your budget. The non-vintage Segura Viudas Brut Rose is distributed by R&R Marketing in Fairfield. It retails for approximately $9.

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Five Reasons To Drink Pink Wine

Reputations can be tough to shed. Perhaps none are more stubborn than rosé's. Why? The wine industry--by cranking out millions of bottles and casks of bland, too-sweet white zinfandel in the 1980s--did its best to kill the notion that pink wine can be a tasty, refreshing, refined drink.

Today, though, rosé is no longer the pink-headed stepchild of the wine shop. According to data from the Wine Market Council, of those Americans who drink at least one glass of wine each week, 18% of the time they drink pink.

Chalk it up to a competitive global wine market, improved grape-growing and winemaking practices and a few important flag wavers such as highly regarded New Zealand winemaker Kim Crawford (in his case, with a rosé called Pansy!, mostly marketed to the gay community). Maybe it's a combination of all three that's made rosé one of the best value-for-dollar wine categories on the shelf.

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How to Pair Wine and Cheese

When trying to put together a tasty wine and cheese pairing, the thing you have to know is: If it tastes yummy, does it! I’m sure you’ve heard all the fancy chefs sharing about what cheese works with which wine; however, when you make your selection, it’s all about personal taste. You may prefer your favorite cheese with your favorite wine. Cheese and wine are often matched, and they have been enjoyed together since days gone by. Both result from fermentation. Both may be consumed while fresh, simple, and young or in their more complex forms when they are mature.

There are no hard and fast rules as to which wines should typically be served with a particular cheese. There is a general guideline that cheeses of a certain geographic locale are best enjoyed with wines of the same locale. But, just as one bottle of pinot noir from the Niagara Valley is not like that of another vintage or another producer, neither is one Blue Benedictin exactly like another. Both are living and constantly changing. This is what makes pairing cheese and wine fascinating as well as delicious.

Even though it comes down to personal taste, certain general rules have been approved by most of the experts. Here are some of those general guidelines:
o White wines work well with soft cheeses and stronger flavors.
o Red wines work well with hard cheeses and milder flavors.
o Fruity and sweet white wines (not dry) and dessert wines work well with a wider selection of cheeses.
o The more snappy the cheese you choose, the sweeter the wine should be.
o Accord should always exist between the cheese and the wine. They should have similar strength. There should always be a balance - strong and powerful cheeses should be paired with similar wines and delicate cheeses should be paired with lighter wines.
o A complete list of well paired wine and cheese groupings can be found at temecula-wine.net.

When offering a group of cheese selections in a wine and cheese pairing spread, white wines fair better than reds. That’s because several cheeses, particularly soft and creamy ones, leave a after taste of fat on the palate that block the flavor in reds, creating a taste that is monotonous and bland.

Ultimately, the perfect wine and cheese pairing is not a match made in heaven. It is a match made on the taste buds of each of your guests. Start with the basic guidelines above and then try the new pairings. You will be surprised which couple will be your choice selections.

ViVAS tips on food and wine matching

Most people already know that white wine goes well with white meat and red wine with red meat, but sometimes it can be a lot more complex. There are three basic principles in matching food and wine - matching weight, matching acidity and matching intensity,” says ViVAS marketing manager Henry John, “and if you stick to these, your matches should be a success.”

Weight - When matching by weight you need to pair big strong wines to big strong food and similarly light, simpler wine with lighter foods.

Acidity - Acidity is an important part of any wine. It’s the thing that makes your mouth water, makes the wine refreshing and stimulates you to take another sip. Foods with a lot of acidity, for example tomatoes or vinaigrette dressing, are better with a crisp refreshing wine. Wines which are crisp and mouth-watering will also be good with oily food. A great example of this is an Italian red wine with Italian food where the chief ingredients are olive oil and tomatoes.

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