Discover your wine style, one glass at a time
Friends,
Let us take a moment of silence to mark the end of a glorious two weeks of vacation. It was a brief staycation, cut short by my employer’s requirement that I actually return to work. Total buzzkill. This time off will be sorely missed. But it’s time to get back to saving the world, one translation at a time [translator’s note: this may be a gross exaggeration].
It was another rough day of wine tasting. But don’t worry, friends, I soldiered through. And I can now confirm something I already knew: Washington State is making GREAT wine.
Washington cabernet sauvignons have been among my favourites ever since I tasted them in my New World Wine course a few years ago. Since then, I have seen them rise through the LCBO ranks. At first, I was happy when these wines occasionally showed up in Vintages, then ecstatic when a couple of bottles became regular selections in the general listing, and finally over-the-moon to see my local LCBO had created its own Pacific Northwest section.
Picture this: It’s Friday—the weekend has started. It was supposed to rain all afternoon, but the sky is clear and the sun is shining. It has turned out to be a beautiful spring day, and you are practically skipping as you leave work. The party is in a gorgeous backyard, where a cool breeze rustles through the foliage. A tent has been set up to protect the day’s wares, an unnecessary measure considering the afternoon’s change in meteorological course. Along the perimeter of the tent, tables have been set up, and the wines have been laid out for the enjoyment of the garden party’s guests. It is the first Canadian stop on the Savour Australia Roadshow, and you have been lucky enough to receive an invitation. And yes, while you are there, you forget to take a picture, so you have to use words to describe it. In this case, a picture is worth 148 words.
Without further ado, here are my top picks from the Savour Australia garden party!
Well it’s been quite a week for Wining with Mel. It was bad enough that a terrible stomach bug had me out of commission for five days, but even worse that during that time the thought of wine…no…I can’t even…it’s too awful to say. The thought of wine for the last four days…repulsed me. Me! The lover of wine! I couldn’t even stomach the thought of it. Friends and family always know it’s bad when I turn down wine. It’s never a good sign.
I am hoping that I’ve now turned a corner. It has been much too long since the last post, and I have sooooo many wines to tell you about! As I mentioned, it was quite a big wining week before this gnarly illness took hold. And I am taking the fact that I can now imagine drinking these wines without my stomach turning as a sign that it is time to get back on the wine horse. That said, rather than enjoying a glass while I type, I am sticking with a cup of herbal tea this time around. Baby steps…
Spring has FINALLY sprung here in Ottawa, and besides making me ecstatic to see the end of winter, it’s making me take a step back and reflect. Both mornings this weekend, I sat in my backyard with my coffee, basking in the sunshine, taking the time to just be. I forget to do that sometimes. I forget to take time for myself. I get so caught up in work, in my various extracurricular activities, in the never-ending house renos, general housekeeping tasks, maintaining some semblance of a social life, and of course, keeping up with this blog.
So about that. Over the past couple of weeks, this wine blogging thing has taken up a lot of my headspace. Every time I taste a different wine, I put everything on hold to jot down a tasting note. My food goes untouched to keep my palate neutral, the conversation gets interrupted so I can concentrate, all for a silly tasting note that most of the time just sits in a notebook or on my phone. It makes me really annoying at dinner parties. Or when we go out for dinner and I have to tell my husband to stop talking for a minute while I taste this wine. Essentially, I’ve become a wine tasting monster. Continue reading
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