Category: Zinfandel Wine

Nova Scotia Wine

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Bay of Fundy tides called us to Nova Scotia, but we also wanted to try Nova Scotia Wines. Would it come as a surprise to you that there are six distinct wine growing regions in Nova Scotia?

We’re not talking Italy or California, though its longitude of 44 degrees north is about the same as Bordeaux, France which is also 44 degrees north. Not a bad wine growing area to be compared to, eh?…. so why not wines in Nova Scotia?

They produce grapes that grow well in this maritime climate. Marechal Foch, DeChaunac, Baco Noir, Leon Millot, Seyval Blanc and L’Acadie Blanc. Never heard of most of those varietals? Neither had we until we visited and tasted. They also grow nice Muscats, Chardonnays, and Pinot Noirs.

Our first introduction to Nova Scotia wines came in Lunenburg, the first town where we stopped for the night. The innkeeper at our B&B recommended a Domaine de Grand Pre L’Acadie Blanc. We had it with a wonderful seafood dinner overlooking the town wharf. Great dinner. Great wine!

Most of the white wines we tried go well with the wonderful sea food you’ll find… I mean it is a maritime provence, right? That gives it a moderate climate and good seafood. Nova Scotia is in one of the cooler climate ranges for growing wine grapes, but it has a long tradition for growing grapes going back to the 1600s.

The wine growing areas are in protected valleys and on sheltered hillsides. They are suited to growing cool climate grapes thanks to the long fall season and to the temperature moderating maritime influence.

The wine growing district of the Malagash Penninsula is in northeast Nova Scotia where you’ll find Jost Vineyards.

The tides of the Bay of Fundy had us spending a few days in the Annapolis Valley, so we tasted at Domaine de Grand Pre. Grand Pre is the oldest operating vineyard in Nova Scotia. They have a great tasting room and a nice restaurant.

We also tasted at Sainte-Famille Wines; a small family run winery with good wines and a nice little gift shop. There are a couple of other wineries in the area.

The LaHave River Valley district is on the Southern Shores with a couple of wineries near Lunenburg. There is also a small district in the Bear River Valley on the South West Coast. You can visit the Wines of Nova Scotia website for more information.

Several of these wineries make great Ice Wines. As you can imagine, the climate is good for this style of wine too.

One word of warning for wine lovers… Some of the wineries only make fruit wines like berry wine, so if you’re wanting wine from grapes, check first… especially if there is a tasting fee. We have nothing against fruit wines, but you have to know what you’re getting into.

We found tasting Nova Scotia wines was a great addition to the whole trip. We discovered some new favorites to share with our wine loving buddies at home. Go taste some for yourself and see what you think.

Wine Preserver

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Don’t you hate when you open a bottle of wine and have to leave it unfinished?

Because if you don’t finish it, the wine’s going to get stale. When you come back a few days later to pour a glass, the aroma and flavor have eroded. The wine doesn’t taste like it did when you first opened the bottle, and the best you can do with it is add it to spaghetti sauce.

Thank heavens they’ve invented wine preserver!

You see, when a bottle of wine is opened oxygen begins to decay the wine. Exposure to air deteriorates the wine’s color, fragrance and flavor. The principle behind wine preservers is to remove the oxygen, keeping the original wine characteristics intact as though the cork had never been removed.

There are a few different types of preservers available today, ranging in price from $ 7 to about $ 900.

The simplest one is a can of inert, non-toxic gas (the company doesn’t specify, but most likely it’s argon gas) that you squirt into the wine bottle while slipping the cork back in. The gas replaces the oxygen in the bottle, keeping the wine from spoiling.

This product, marketed as Private Preserve Wine Preserver, promises to give about 120 uses from one .60 ounce can. This preserver lists at $ 11.95 per can, although you may be able to find it online at about $ 7.

Another simple wine preserver is basically a vacuum that sucks the oxygen out of the wine bottle. Some offer bottle stoppers of different sizes in order to fit most wine bottles. Two popular models are Vintage Vac and V-Gauge Wine Vacuum, and they retail between $ 20 and $ 40.

A more complicated wine preserver is the Wine Saver PRO Preserve & Serve Wine System. This preserver allows five wine bottles to be simultaneously preserved with the argon gas canister located under the counter. Promotional materials state that this system will preserve opened wine for weeks, primed and ready to pour through their dispensing spigots. This model retails for about $ 900. It is designed primarily for bars, restaurants and hotels, or for the home wine cellar.

All of these products have received favorable reviews, indicating they do a good job at preserving the freshness of opened wine for days and even weeks at a time.

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Wine and Cooking!

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Cooking with wine and the type of wine being used for the cooking process is a question that is highly debatable, because the dish prepared clearly shows the wine that was used to make it. If the wine was a good quality one it’ll show and if it was a cheap low quality one, it’ll show!. Some people use drinking wines to cook while others use only cooking wines. Of course it must be remembered that a drinking wine can be used to cook, while keeping in mind that you are overspending where not required, but a cooking wine cannot be used to drink., Infact a cooking wine is salty and generally an inferior quality wine as compared to the drinking and is ok only for cooking and for nothing else.
Cooking with wine is as old as wine drinking itself. Infact it is assumed that originally fermented grape juices were used to prepare stews and casseroles and various other dishes. This fermented grape juice was accidently drunk by a member of a royal family, while he was in his kitchen and he liked it to the extent that a refined and better quality of the same juice was also created for drinking purposes from then on. That drinking juice later came to be known as drinking wine while the one that was used for cooking retained its name as a cooking wine.
As it was mentioned earlier, while purchasing a cooking wine keep in mind that whatever you buy will be reflected in the taste of the dish that is the end result. You can buy wine online. So a cheap quality cooking wine will give a bad tasting dish, and a connoisseur or a sommelier will easily be able to identify the type of wine that had gone into your dish! This does not mean that the higher priced a wine the better it is and the lower priced wine the cheaper It is. It only means that whenever you are purchasing wine for cooking, purchase the same from a reputed store or purchase wine online or go for the recommendations of someone who has bought and used a wine for cooking. Infact person to person recommendations are the best way to ensure that the wine you are purchasing is the best for cooking.
Another thing to remember is that older wines and vintages are usually not recommended for dishes that have a long cooking process. These wines somehow don’t hold up to the actual cooking process and long simmers. When using wines for cooking, especially at a time you are not buying a cooking wine and are using a drinking wine, shop around for bargains on young and powerful wines that have their own taste and mild aromas. These wines hold up well in the cooking process and easily intensify the taste of the dish by several folds! Also remember that a good quality leftover drinking wine can also be used in a recipient that calls for an option of a drinking red wine, white wine, champagne or rose!

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Constantia Wine route

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The Constantia wine route is located in the Constantia Valley in Cape Town. Constantia is on the eastern flank of the Cape Peninsula in the coastal zone. The maritime climate and cool position create ideal conditions for a wide range of grapes to grow. In South Africa viticulture usually takes place at a latitude of 34 degrees south and thrives in an area with a mild Mediterranean climate.  This climate features warm summers that are cooled by south easterly winds and cool winters with very little frost.

 

Positioned in the heart of this magnificent wine route is the elegant The Last Word Constantia, one of 4 boutique hotels owned and run by The Last Word hotel group.The Last Word Constantia is surrounded by the majestic Cape Mountain ranges that form a backdrop to the most scenic wine producing regions in the world and makes for an ideal form of Cape Town luxury accommodation for those wanting to explore the winelands and experience some tours of the eight wine farms that make up the region.

 

The eight farms, which all offer tasting tours, are Buitenverwachting, Constantia Glen, Constantia Uitsig, Eagles Nest Wines, Groot Constantia, High Constantia, Klein Constantia, Steenberg Vineyards all of them boast a rich history, dating back to 1685 as well as a unique terrior. This 5 star boutique hotelis situated conveniently close to main roads that lead to the Stellenbosch Winelands, for discerning wine connoisseurs seeking to experience other types of wine.

 

The Last Word Constantia has a swimming pool and surrounding tanning deck, set amongst manicured gardens and rolling lawns, allowing guests to take advantage of more than the extravagant mountain views that encompass this luxury hotel.

 

This particular luxury boutique hotel is also situated close to other Constantia attractions such as the up market Constantia shopping center and many high quality restaurants.

 

 

 

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Buy wine online

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“The soft extractive note of an aged cork being withdrawn has the true sound of a manopening his heart.” —William Samuel Benwell

Wine is a popular drink around the world,bringing joy, happiness and a hearty cheer. But wine of yester years was not the drink weknow of wine today. In those days there was no fermentation in stainless steel vats, no controlled temperatures and most definitely no technological advancements that we enjoy intoday’s production.

But then even without the modern facilities of today’s wine played an important role in those ancient times. Recent archaeological evidence suggests a thriving online wine industry in Greece as early as 4500 BC, supported by evidence of crushed grapes in the ruins. The ancient Greeks believed that wine was a gift from god Dionysus. And since corks did not exist as a wine closure the wine bottle mouths use to be coated with olive oil and sealed with pine bark. This method retarded evaporation of the wine and the olive oil prevented contamination by the air. The pine bark also lent the wine a nice fruity and piney aroma, a prized feature in many of the Australian wines of today.

It may surprise you to know that wine grapes are highly sensitive. The slightest change in the climatic conditions can spoil the grapes totally. Powerful winds can break the flowers from the wine and spoil the crop. Too much rain can cause the wine grapes to rot and too much sun can over ripen the grapes and quickly destroys the taste achieved by a long and slow ripening process. There are wines that don’t come to life until the grapes rot. For example Sauternes are a classic style of wine that can only be made when the grapes have been infected by the botrytis cinerea fungus. This infection is called the noble wine rot.

The barrels the wines are stored in, have a major impact on the taste of wines. White wine is normally stored in stainless steel vats and red wines in oak barrels. However contemporary winemaking is leaning to unoakedstyles as consumers prefer the lighter fruitier wines that are less oaked. This idea is backed up by many wine enthusiasts arguing that wine is supposed to taste like the fruit and not a tree.

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