Staying home and learning about wine

The best way to learn about anything is to do it, which is exactly what I've been doing: learning about wine.

it's called learning, karen

A couple of weeks ago, during you-know-what, I set out on a journey to create a list of my favourite red wines after watching a video on YouTube called Random Empties + Rattlesnake Pasta w/ Chef Steph.

 the video in question

Immediately after watching it, I promised myself two things: I was going to learn more about wine and I was going to make rattlesnake pasta.

(Spoiler alert: I did both.

To become a true wine connoisseur, *I quickly learned, you needed to do more than just hit the bottle; you needed to hit the net too (#StayAtHome). 

*I realized this the morning after the first night of my journey, after finishing a bottle of one of my (now previously) favourite red wines, Revolution Red. I really enjoyed it on the spot (with the spot being my kitchen), but less so in bed, the following morning, with my pounding head.  

So I took a Masterclass with James Suckling, binge watched Chef Steph and started using the SAQ app, to keep track of my likes and dislikes and check for additional information about the wines I was trying.

Lesson #1: sugar content matters
Revolution Red has 10 grams of sugar per litre (g/L) of wine, which is around five more than my body can handle, apparently.

Sugar content can vary anywhere from 0 g/L to 50 g/L to 100 g/L or more, and corresponds to the amount of sugar that's leftover in the wine, from the grapes, after the fermentation process is over.

Lesson #2: type matters
I like jammy wines and no matter how "good" a red wine is supposed to be, I probably won't like it unless it tastes like plum, berry, vanilla, chocolate and/or coffee.

Side note: Two weeks ago I was tricked into buying The Chocolate Block. The name (and font) on the label led me to believe that I'd love it, but I did not. Especially at $40. 

It only had 2.5 g/L of sugar but it's a syrah, so, not very jammy...

After a few hits and misses, I can now attest to the fact that I most enjoy drinking cabernet sauvignon, with carmenere a close second. 

PKNT is a Chilean carmenere that was introduced to me years ago by a friend; at $12 a bottle, and just under 5 g/L, it's still a winner.

Lesson #3: price doesn't matter
Of all the wines I tried, my two favourites were Rain Cloud, a merlot/cab sauv blend from California that goes for $8.80 (in Quebec, where I live) and Bread & Butter, another cab sauv from California, that's $20 a bottle. 

***Note to self, and the universe: wine tasting in California!!!

I also really enjoyed Francis Ford Coppola Director's Cut ($32) as well as 19 Crimes ($19), Longshot ($15) and Tom Gore ($20) Cabernet-Sauvignon. 

If I had been choosing wines based on their name/label alone, like I pretty much used to, instead of selecting them based on type and sugar content, I would have never tried Tom Gore — but it was delicious.

I didn't try any wines over $40, because, you know, #finances, but there's one that caught my attention... so maybe next month?

Lesson #4: cleansing the palate
Have you ever tried a wine and loved it only to buy it again and hate it? If so, might I suggest that your palate was to blame, and not the wine. 

According to Suckling (my new catchphrase), one of the best ways to cleanse the palate before wine tasting is with an olive, which is exactly what I did one day, after brushing my teeth, before tasting a wine.

It worked.

Lesson #5: drink responsibly and enjoy!

The secret garden, part deux

Inspired by nature and unexpectedly left to my own devices, I recently made two recipes: vanilla cupcakes (care of Martha Stewart) and lobster risotto (care of IGA the SAQ).

I say inspired by nature because it seems as though the colours I recently captured in nature inspired me to make similarly-hued culinary delights.

Let me show you what I mean.

We had these beautiful pink buds, almost like cherry blossoms, adorn two trees in the backyard for about two weeks and I was so awed by their beauty (especially set against the bright blue sky and shining sun) that I had to Instagram them.

Subconsciously, I think the colours were painting a picture in my head because not long after I snapped these shots I looked up a long-forgotten Martha Stewart recipe for cupcakes and made them. 

This is how that looked.

In addition to being pretty to look at and easy to make they were also very tasty and I'd like to hone my cupcake-making skills to the point where I could attempt something like a red velvet or London fog.
Mmm. 

But on to the lobster risotto. Like cupcakes, I had never made risotto before. Every time I go to IGA and it's available I pick up Inspired, their free magazine, and usually get inspired by at least one recipe. It started with my new favourite appetizer - olive, basil, clementine and prosciutto (in that order) brochettes - and was quickly followed by another; bacon-topped pea and mint crostinis.

But hold on a sec.

In doing a little on the spot research, also known as rummaging through my recipes while I think about the next thing to write, I noticed that the lobster risotto recipe actually came from Cellier, the free SAQ magazine.

Hmm. I'm detecting another trend here.

I think what inspired me to make the risotto in the first place (other than the fact that I had leftover lobster... poor me!) was another picture I had recently taken of an almost phosphorescent, fern-like (???) plant in the garden.    

The recipe didn't call for them but I added peas and was left with a delicious, nutritious lobster risotto.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!