Karaoke, Punk and Wine

In my first post I made a statement: "I will recommend a wine to try and something fun to do while drinking that wine." Today, I have two activities for you to try while enjoying a glass of wine. Neither is a traditional wine activity, but that's what makes both activities so much fun and so me.

Wine and Norebang (aka KTV aka Karaoke)
While living in Asia, I developed a love for karaoke. Not the Western karaoke bar but the Asian karaoke room. Picture it: A group of friends in a room that is equipped with a karaoke machine, microphones, tambourines and an endless supply of great songs. Throw in some wine, and next the thing you know you are fighting over microphones during Sweet Child O'Mine. How can this not sound fun? The wine of choice you ask? Fat bastard's Cabernet Sauvignon. The reason for this choice was very simple: I love the name and the chubby hippo on the label. Cabernet Sauvignon is my go to wine, and I was with my go to girls, it was the obvious choice.

"Who knew that wine and punk from 1995 were such a good match?"
This was my Facebook status last weekend. I must say many people didn't agree with me. I stand by my status. While waiting for a friend to finish getting ready, I poured myself a glass of Trius Merlot and started perusing YouTube for some old favourites. Trius is probably one of the best wines in the Niagara Region and a little pricier than other. As I was sipping on my Merlot, I found myself drawn to mellower choices of music. That wasn't going to work. It was Friday night and we were getting ready to go out, and here I was drinking a Thursday night Grey's Anatomy wine. So I called on my lighthearted friend Riesling, and soon my friend and I were dancing around to Goldfinger and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. A great night ensued.

I challenge all of you to try an nontraditional wine pairing. If you need some help getting started, pour a glass of your favourite wine and have a listen to this video.

Wine Tasting from Different Perspectives

Here are two video on the art of wine tasting...I am hoping there is something here for everyone.

Check in later this week for Wine and Karaoke!

My Lighthearted Friend Riesling

I have had a few people ask me to recommend a wine for the person who doesn't like wine. I was trying to remember the first wine I started drinking and after many text messages with my best friend, we came up with nothing. We know it was white and cheap and that we bought it at the grocery store in Taiwan. The only wine that stood out in both of our minds was Australian Bush because the name makes us giggle.

For the novice wine drinker, white is way to go. My recommendation would be a Riesling. Anyone who says they do not like Riesling is lying. It is just so delicious. I think Billy Munnelly put it best:"Riesling always feels lighter and livelier than most other whites. It’s friendly and lighthearted – perfect for events when the wine needs to give everyone a good time." I have agree, maybe that's why Riesling and I are such good friends, we are both lighthearted.

For those of you who are reading to learn about wine you should know the Riesling grape originates from the Rhine region of Germany and has been cultivated since the 1400s! Wow, that is one old grape! The Riesling grape is very versatile and can produce wine that runs the gamut from dry to very sweet to sparkling.

For a nice local pick try the Cave Springs Riesling. This is one fun wine and I promise a good time will be had by all!

Can I Offer you a Glass of Fortified Wine?

One of the greatest things about visiting friends is that they often have wines that you normally won't buy. So when I was recently offered a glass of fortified red wine, how could I say no?

Unfortunately my wine knowledge up to this point does not include fortified wine. And even more unfortunate was the fact that my host had little experience with fortified wines also. We spent sometime speculating about what it could be. Before we plunged into the unknown wine, we decided to run a quick Google search to find out what we were getting into.

A wine that is fortified has a distilled alcohol added to it, usually brandy. The alcohol is added before the end of the fermentation process which kills the yeast and leaves the sugar. And voila you are left with a sweet dessert wine.

Upon this discovery, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. I am not that crazy about dessert wine and the the atmosphere wasn't really really calling for a dessert wine, but in the name of the blog I tried it.

It was a beautiful deep maroon and I loved the tears of wine a.k.a the wine legs a.k.a the church curtains a.k.a the the way the wine coats the glass. All wines will do this but a dessert wine does it best.

In the end, the fortified wine had a really nice rich fruity taste but after about an ounce I was happy to switch to some homemade Gewurztraminer. It may not have the legs, but the lower sugar content won't leave in me tears the next morning.

Tears of Wine