Sip Wine Bar

To celebrate Valentine's Day, on Thursday night John and I went to Sip Wine Bar.

I walk passed it every time I go to and home from the subway and I've anxiously waited to go since the sign showed up in the window saying Sip Wine Bar, coming soon.

When it opened I read about it in Toronto Life and my need to go got a bit more urgent. 

So, since John would be gone on Friday, we got ourselves a table on Thursday night.

And it was worth the wait.

We shared a bottle of riesling from Rosehall Run in Prince Ed County (where we may go for our 2nd anniversary). 

The pizza's are true Neapolitan style and delicious. 

I ordered the Aduja pizza which comes with mozarella cheese, anduja sausage, and basil.

It was very flavourful and I was heartbroken when I pulled the remained out of the fridge the next day to eat and in the few seconds that I had turned around, the dog had gotten a hold of the corner of the tin foil and pulled it onto the floor. Half she ran off with, so... not edible. And the other half was face down on the floor so...also not edible.

Heartbreak.

John opted for the Sip pizza - half is mozarella cheese, muchrooms and basil, and the other half is folded like a calzone and stuffed with ricotta and prosciutto cotto. 

I tried the calzone half and it was to die for. 

The aftermath.

John did significantly better with his pizza than I did.

I filled up on the bread with the hummus and the amazing tapenade.

And to finish a very romantic night, John got me a dozen gorgeous red roses.

Find out more about Sip Wine Bar here and make a reservation to go check it out.

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day was full of love, whether you celebrated or not.

Christmas Market & Mulled Wine

On Friday night John and I made our way down to the Distillery District to meet up with some friends to check out the popular Christmas Market. 

Having never gone before, my expectations were high from seeing pictures in years past. I was not disappointed.

When you get to the Distillery District the first thing you see is lights, lights, and more lights.

It's magical.

Unless you go during the day, then I can't promise the lights will be as magical. 

It's just beautiful. I spent the first few minutes just squealing.

We stopped first for some free scotch (John) and apple cider & rum (me, because they had temporarily run out of mulled wine) and warmed up by the fires they had going in their beer market (see the first picture).

Then we walked around to check out the tree, the carousel, and the ferris wheel. 

On our way to the wine sampling (where there's wine, we'll find it) we stopped to pose with the Gingerbread house. Then we sampled a selection of Ontario wines from Malivoire, Henry of Pelham, and a few others we've yet to visit.  

Then after a quick stop for a grilled cheese with bacon sandwich, we made our way back to the adult beverages for some mulled wine and more scotch.

My first time trying mulled wine was Friday afternoon when I made my own. 

I'm hooked. 

I used Martha Stewart's recipe and made a few changes based on what I had handy.

Follow the original Martha recipe here 

Or my slightly different version below

1. Set a pot over high heat. Pour in one bottle of red wine.
2. Add in the zest  and juice from 1 orange, 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 1 tbsp cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, and 1/2 cup brandy.
3. In a tea bag, spoon in 1/2 tbsp nutmeg and 1/2 tbsp all spice. Bring up to a boil and add teabag to the mix. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Turn off heat and let wine cool slightly.
4. Pour wine through a strainer to remove the zest, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, and teabag.

Then pour contents back into the original wine bottle.

Mulled wine is best served warm so if you don't drink it right away heat it up again before serving.

And if you're feeling crafty - make a fancy new label for your bottle.

I made this one for the bottle I brought to my brother in law's birthday dinner last night.

Most of the alcohol burns off during the process so if you want you can add a dash of brandy to the finished process for more of a kick.

If not, just enjoy the wonderful taste of Christmas Sangria! 

First Anniversary: Day Two

After a nice sleep in our honeymoon suite we woke up and headed over to 5 Lakes Spa for our couple's massage.

I would gladly pay someone to massage me first thing in the morning every day.

I'd be so happy.

 

Then we got back on the road and made our way to a few more wineries.

First up:

 

 

The view was spectacular (as is the case with so many wineries in Niagara. Really, you need to see them all) and the wines were good (especially the rose!). We got a quick tutorial about red versus black soil and we attempted to taste the difference between cab francs grown in each. We didn't notice too much of a difference but once suggested you kind of catch it in the acidity.

 

We left with a bottle of the 2012 Cabernet Franc Rose and the 2011 Pinot Gris.

Then it was back on the road to finally visit a place I'd been dying to check out:

 

I had looked at this as a possible wedding venue but it's pricey... but so beautiful, inside and out.

If I win the lottery I'm throwing another big party so we can get married again here.

Not that I didn't love our venue, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't change a thing about our wedding.

I just want another one!

We tried more wines, John took a tasting "flight" with 4 pre-selected wines and I opted to pick my own.

We left with a bottle of the 2012 Aligote, the 2010 Gamay Noir 'Droit', and a 2008 Late Harvest Reisling.

 

Then, after some more fun pictures in front of the fountain, we packed up to hit another winery.

Our next stop brought us to one we'd visited in January:

 

I love the covered bridge and in January when we first visited there was a wedding party taking photos here. This would also be a beautiful spot to host a wedding.

Third wedding will be here.

We left with 6 bottles of the 2011 Vidal (it's $6.95, you pretty much have to get either a dozen or a half dozen). a 2009 Reisling, and a jar of red pepper ice jelly.

 

Then we decided to try another place we hadn't already visited:

 

The people here were especially lovely and chatty. I was surprised to find out this winery is responsible for the Sibling Rivalry wines! I suppose if I had bothered to read the label...

But we left here with a 2011 Baco Noir Reserve and a 2011 Estate Reisling.

There was one called 'Family Tree' with an amazing label but the wine we found too dry and we decided to go with the sweeter reisling.

This was obviously a reisling heavy trip.

 

Our last stop was reserved for the winery we had gone to on our actual anniversary but there was another wedding going on and we didn't want to crash.

 

They recognized us when we came in, saying, "the bride and groom are here!" which was so welcoming. We were given a glass of sparkling wine to celebrate, then we sampled a few and grabbed a glass each to take on our walk down memory lane.

We stopped for a few fun pictures along the way.

 

We sat on the secluded beach and just enjoyed our last day as newlyweds.

 

That first year went by entirely too fast but we had some wonderful adventures.

Now we're busy working on year 2 and the even more wonderful things our future has in store for us.

 

Including drinking the 21 bottles of wine we bought for ourselves.

 

And to cap off a perfect anniversary trip?

QPC-BLTs.

Barf.

 

First Anniversary: Day 1

After minimal sleep on Saturday morning we hit the road for our first anniversary weekend.

I was tired but I was more excited to spend the weekend with John and to visit more of the wineries in the Nigara region.

 

Our first stop was at Thirty Bench, where we were signed up for the Oysters & Reisling tasting.

 

 

The oysters (and much more after the event) were provided by Tide & Vine.

 

We were given a glass of the winemaker's reisling to start (we bought two bottles) and then they filled up our glasses with 3 more reislings and a pinot gris.

From left to right:

a 2009 Reisling that had a "wet stones'' quality to it.

2011 Reisling which was a little less acididc

2010 reisling with more fleshy fruit flavours

The pinot gris - any information I forgot to note, I was already pretty tipsy at this point. 

 

 

Let me start by saying this: oysters are gross.

I only signed us up for this event because I know how big a fan John is.

I tried them once long ago with my aunt and uncle who advised me to just swallow a little peice. It was like swallowing a booger.

So I thought, what the heck, let's chew this ugly looking thing and see if it doesn't taste any better.

It doesn't.

But I ate 4 of them. The last one doused in horseradish and some other wine-based sauce.

 

We had malpeque's from the actual malpeque bay, the "french kiss" malpeque which is from New brusnwick and is less salty (but is also HUGE so I gave this one to John), the "Beach Angel" from B.C.'s Quadra Island which had a more creamy texture, and lastly the Kumimoto from Japan which was also quite creamy but also had a bit of a metallic taste.

(Note: all of these descriptions are from the guy who was telling us about them, I wasn't concentrating on flavours. I just wanted to chew, swallow, and get back to my wine).

 

 

The things I do for love.

 

 

Toronto Wine & Spirits Festival

After our trip to Baldwin Street Burger several Saturdays ago, John and I made a stop at a Portugese bakery for a half dozen delicious lemon custard tarts called natas and then we made our way home to get ready for the Toronto Wine & Spirits Festival.

 

 

This was my first time attending but it certainly won't be my last.

The event was held at Sugar Beach, a man made beach with white sand right by Lake Ontario and with a great view of the city.

 

 

Upon entrance you get your wristband, a sample cup, and 5 tickets to use for sampling. Some were 1 ticket and some were 2. We didn't venture to try anything more than 2 tickets.

Availble to sample were a ton of wines, ciders, beer,  a scotch & cigar lounge, ribs and prawns, cesaers and vodkas, there was free applewood smoked cheddar and parmesan cheeses, and live entertainment.

 

John and I used some of our last tickets to try bone marrow croquettes.

I was excited to try a new food but I was told that the bone marrow was incorporated into the bread so I couldn't make out it's flavour.

 

This event runs for a weekend and it is well worth checking out the next time it comes around.

Be smart and buy your tickets early! You save almost $10 - ten extra bucks which can be spent on more sample tickets!

 

Sip & Savour Ontario

Back (way way back) in June, John and I went to the Sip & Savour event in the Distillery district.

Having never attended this event before, I was unsure what to expect but was very excited at the prospect of eating amazing foods and sampling tons of wines.

 

And sample wines we did!

Here's a list of the participating wineries - HERE - and I can proudly (?) say that we almost sampled wine from every single one.

Almost.

I think my last glass was around Kacaba... I tried another white after a stop at that booth and then promptly shattered my wine glass.

 

And then cut myself off.

 

 

The Distillery District in Toronto is absolutely beautiful to walk through and there's usually an event of some kind going on most weekends.

Here's the calendar of events for the rest of this month.

 

Cheese was featured quite prominently (much to my liking) and we sauntered in to a presentation on cooking with cheese - wisely suggested to use by the food guru herself, Ginger Rose.

 

I don't have the information that they gave us with me so I can't tell you what types of cheese we sampled.

I can tell you they were delicious and the servers also topped up our glasses with pairing wines.

 

The food was delicious.

My hands down favourite was the duck confit crepes, shown below.

 

There was a good deal of seafood up for sampling too which John dug into.

He was fortunate enough to grab the last of the halibut sandwiches.

 

We also grabbed plates which were promptly filled with freshly baked bread, cheeses including cheddar and a feta & watermelon salad, then spicy peppers, pickled beans, and jams like cherry chocolate and plum.

I went back for a second plate of this.

 

I forgot to take a picture (truth: I did take a picture but the picture is of the deserts I had put in my purse to take home) of the amazing mouses that were offered. They had raspberry and triple chocolate among a few others.

 

Also very tasty were the choux pastries from Popelin.

They had blueberry, lemon, and ice wine flavours. All 3 were to die for but the lemon might have been my favourite.

This was also where I broke my wine glass, trying to set it on a non-ledge so I could fill my grubby little hands with pastries.

 

Me, esentially:

 

 

All in all, it was a fantastic night that I would highly recommend checking out. Tickets run a bit on the pricey side but you certainly fill your tummy with wonderful foods and it's an opportunity to get drunk in the classiest of fashions.

 

 Plus the Distillery District is just beautiful.

 

 

The Miller Tavern

For the past 3 years, John has wanted to go to The Miller Taven for his birthday dinner.

So this year was no exception.

 

I love this place. I always enjoy my meal, my wine, and the general ambience of the place.

 

We started the night with Malpeque oysters (ugh gross) for John and some bread with maple butter for me.

(Oh how I miss bread so badly on this cleanse. I almost caved and ate a baguette with cheese earlier this evening.)

 

 

We also got a bottle of a wine we've purchased from Cave Spring before (and drank pretty quickly) - The Dolomite Riesling.

The dolomite is so named because of the dolomitic limestone that can be found in the Niagara Escarpment and which gives the wine a real minerally, delicious taste.

Highly recommend this one if you're looking for a good sweeter white.

 

I was torn between the burger, the Sri Lankan chicken curry that seems to be my go-to, and the jerk chicken sandwich.

Lured by the combination of pineapple and bacon, I went with the Jerk Chicken Sandwich ($15).

It came loaded with grilled pineapple, bacon, pickled red onion, mango aïoli,

and jalapeño jack cheese.

And it was good.

I cut it in half thinking I'd save half but ... the sandwich was gone pretty quickly.

 

John, having been wowed off his seat last year when he ordered the burger, decided to go a different route and got the Portobello Mushroom Ravioli ($18).

It came with asparagus, pea shoots, rosé cream sauce and chipped reggiano.

I had a bite and even though I dislike mushrooms (cooked, I'll eat them raw), this ravioli was pretty good.

We were too stuffed to enjoy any desert but I bought him some cupcakes from a place near us called Bakes & Goods and I sang a proper happy birthday to him the next night.

 

Check out The Miller Tavern especially if you love seafood.

It's pricey but well worth it if you're willing to splurge.