Talks, Demos and Book Signings, Oh My!

It seems every weekend since mid-September has been busy for the Toronto food community, and this coming one is no different, with events like Picnic at the Brickworks, among others. Before I realized how very crowded it would be, I said yes to a pair of events where I'll be talking and signing books.

This Saturday, October 1, I'll be talking about canning basics and demonstrating microbatches of jam at the Markham Fair. I believe my sessions are at at 10 a.m., 11:30 and 1:30 p.m. in the Agri-Food Tent. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to have a look at the fair between sessions!

On Sunday, October 2, I'll talk about growing your own garlic in the "Incredible Edible" program of talks at the second annual Soupalicious in support of the Plant A Row, Grow A Row program. I'm on at 3 p.m. at Heritage Court, Exhibition Place. I'm pleased to be able to support a good program that uses some produce from my own neighbourhood Ashbridges Eco Community Garden.

If you plan to be at either of these events, please come and say hi!

Wines of Chile Tasting

Of notable wine countries, Chile, I must admit, has been one of the ones I was least familar with; at least until Tuesday, when I had the chance to visit the Wines of Chile tasting. Possibly the most surprising fact I learned, however, was not about Chilean wine, but about the LCBO. Until now, I had no idea that the LCBO's Vintages Online sold some wines that are not available in the bricks-and-mortar stores. An advantage over some online wine retailers is that it allows wine buyers to order a single bottle of unusual and premium wines rather than being required to buy a case.

For instance, the dark red-brown Altaïr 2005 (LCBO #38430) is only available online. Priced at $65, its scent reminded me of the sea, and it tasted of woody things like cedar and pine. It's a wine that's recommended to be aged for two to four more years. Same with the Emiliana Coyam 2007 (LCBO #63891). At $29.95, it's a pretty dark red colour with a flavour of berries and maybe balsamic vinegar. It's also expected to age well.

If you want to really impress your dinner guests with a rarity, though, you'll head to shops as soon as the October Vintages catalogue comes out; there will only be 25 bottles in Ontario of the 2009 Casa Lapostolle Borobo. Priced at $99, it's an inky-red blend of carmenère, syrah and pinot noir that offers a combination of strong, dark flavours like blackberry and tobacco. It could also apparently age well for as much as five years.

I was joking with one of my co-tasters that a decent cheater's tip for Chilean wine might be to head for wineries that start with the letter E. I enjoyed wines from El Principal, Emiliana and Errazuriz, especially the Emiliana 2010 Novas Viognier, a pale yellow wine with a celery scent and a nicely balanced apple-pineapple taste. It's a good value at $14.95, but not available in LCBOs. However they are carrying the Emiliana Coyam ($29.95, LCBO #63891), a very dark raspberry-coloured wine that tasted like rich raspberries, leather and tobacco. It's quite high alcohol: 14.5%.

I was one of the people who really liked the 2007 Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve, also not appearing on LCBO lists. At $79.95 it can't be called a bargain wine, but I enjoyed its rich aromatic berry scent and its rich, tanniny, raisiny taste, which comes mainly from cabernet sauvignon grapes with some merlot.

One section of the event was devoted to wines produced "naturally", including some that are organic or about to be certified. I found many of them to be delicious. Among the whites I liked the pale yellow Carmen 2009 Nativa Single Vineyard Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, which is Certified Organic ($19.95, LCBO #975359), for its very pleasant grapefruit taste; the Cono Sur 2011 Organic Chardonnay ($11.95, LCBO #230565), which was pale yellow with a very slight sparkle and a sharp, clean citrus-green apple taste, and the Emiliana 2011 Adobe Sauvignon Blanc ($12.95, LCBO #211912), another pale, clean-tasting wine redolent of bright lemon. It's due for release in LCBOs in Spring 2012. I especially enjoyed the organically grown Via Wines 2010 Chilcas Organic Sauvignon Blanc, sadly, not in the LCBO. It's a very pale white with a bouquet of lemon, lychee and grapefruit.

Among the reds, I enjoyed the gently spicy Yali Wetland Cabernet Sauvignon-Carmenère, the dark and juicy San Pedro 2010 35 South Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot B.O. ($12.95 LCBO #218859) and the fruity and spicy San Esteban 2010 In Situ Cabernet Sauvignon Eco-Reserva, all priced under $15. (The pricier Emiliana Coyam is also "natural".)

Having finally taken a step towards learning about the diverse geography and prolific production of Chile and its winemakers, I'm now looking forward to learning more!

Thanks to Alexandra Hood for the photo of me with affable pourer Michael Anderson.

Ontario Apple Tasting at Spadina House

Partly in honour of the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the McIntosh apple and partly just for curiosity, a group of inquisitive apple lovers gathered last Saturday at Spadina House (or, more accurately, in the historic gardens) at the invitation of apple aficionado Suzanne Long to taste more than 30 types of local apples. These included an intriguing collection of mystery specimens from an old Loyalist farm, supplied by Laura Watt of Cubit's Organics.

Having once set up a less ambitious version of the same kind of event, I was keen to expand my pomological expertise. I was amazed how few types I had tried before, and delighted that Suzanne had managed to get her hands on a few genuine antiques and rarities. I had a chance to look at a beautiful little book I now know I want: Apples by Roger Yepsen.

One one table (pictured above), she grouped all the types that were descended from the McIntosh. On the other (below) were samples of other strains developed from the 1600s onwards. We led off the tasting with a good old, tart and delicious McIntosh, the apple everyone knows. Then we tried the McIntosh descendants.

• Princess Louise: A Canadian apple of the1880s, originally named Wolverton. Looks like a large McIntosh, and tastes pearlike. Slightly less crisp than the Mac but still good and crunchy.
• St. Lawrence: Another early Canadian type. Softer, less tart, with beautiful red and green tiger stripes.
• Lobo: Discovered near Ottawa. Pearlike, with a yielding texture. This is the hero of all apples, according to one of my friends who grew up in eastern Ontario.
• Cortland: Bred in New York. Sturdy, chewy,with a thick skin and moderately tasty.
• Sunrise: A large, yellowish B.C. apple, a very soft and pearlike cross between a Mac and a Golden Delicious.
• Macoun: A cross of  McIntosh and Jersey Black developed in New York's Geneva Research Station in 1923. It looks like a very large Mac, and offers just a hint of ginger in its juice.
• Burgundy: Child of the Macoun and the Russian Antonovka from 1953. Beautiful pink flush under the thick skin. Dense, with a subtle winelike flavour.
• Freedom: Like Burgundy, the child of Macoun and Antonovka with a more matte skin texture and a tart, reserved taste.
• Spartan: A familiar grocery store apple. Crunchy but not very crisp; a little sour.
• Empire: Also fairly familiar, another New York apple with a good firm texture and a gentle taste.
• Novamac: A gentle texture and a skin that felt nice to bite through.
• Dayton: Very pearlike, with an agreeable texture.
• Shawnee: Nice crunchy, dense texture and a mild taste.

Next we sampled the fruit from the table of mixed varieties of many shapes, sizes and colours. I was excited to try some that have become famous to me but which I've never knowingly tasted, like Gravenstein and Tolman Sweet. Some of the other names are so redolent of past eras; they tell the whole history of the settlement of northeastern North America in their allusions: Belle de Boskoop, Blenheim Orange, Golden Reinette... not to mention the cheeky pair of Irish Peach and July Tart.

• Irish Peach: An old Irish apple with a soft and very uniform texture and a pleasingly dull taste.
• Blenheim Orange: An English apple of about 1740. Firm, with an unusual orange-apple taste.
• Golden Reinette: A child of Blenheim Orange. Very pearlike, with a firm, even texture.
• Gravenstein: A beloved apple in New York, dating from 1669 and an important crop used in the making of applesauce and dried apples for American troops in WWII. Pale green with red tiger stripes, it has a winey, cidery taste and a pleasantly mealy texture.
• Golden Russet: Once very popular, this apple keeps a long time. Dark yellow green with the characteristic scaly "russeting"; hard to cut into, with a gentle taste.
• Belle de Boskoop: A Dutch apple that goes back to 1850 with an odd, lumpy shape. Pink and greenish yellow with a matte finish. Hard to cut into, and able to be stored for a long time. Its taste is a little sour, but complex.
• Mother: A North American apple of the 1800s with a delicious yielding texture, yellowish flesh and a gentle cidery taste.
• Baldwin: This used to be a big commercial apple, but was reduced by one bad winter. Firm and chewy, with an almost piney taste.
• Jefferis: A small and lumpy US apple of the 1800s. Yellow, with a mellow taste.
• Tolman Sweet: Looks like a large Mac with a chewy texture and a gentle taste.
• Wealthy: Looks like a large pale matte Mac. Soft, pleasant texture and a good taste.
• July Tart: Looks like a Granny Smith. Soft, crunchy and tasty.
• Pink Pearl: A seedling of an apple called Surprise from 1944. Like its parent, although the skin is mainly yellow with a faint pink blush, when it's cut open it reveals a gorgeous pink-fleshed interior. Tart and tasty.
• Chestnut: Actually a large crab apple, a beautiful pink-red colour, and very sweet, tart and tasty.

All in all, a completely satisfying event, which gave me the chance to taste quite a few apples on my geeky imaginary life list of heirloom varieties. Now, if they're available around here, and whenever they come into season, there are only a few more I long to try, including Rome Beauty, Cox's Orange Pippin, and above all the very early Canadian apple that may have been the progenitor of the Mac: the Fameuse or Snow apple. Anybody have one of these babies in their lunchbox? Please invite me over!

Toronto Underground Market

I dropped into the first-ever Toronto Underground Market at the Evergreen Brickworks on Saturday night as part of a marathon day that saw me biking all over; from one of the highest points of downtown (Casa Loma) to almost the lowest (the foot of the Don Valley). Along this trajectory I had my first-ever chance to explore Milkman's Lane, which was mildly hair-raising due to the current "severe erosion issues", but definitely a fascinating part of the city I intend to explore further.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Underground Market; what I found was a bustling food fair with an avid, youngish crowd eagerly lining up, tasting and comparing the foods on offer. I have been told that, in other cities, the wares tend to be prepared, packaged foods like the spices above, or sauces, preserves and so on. Here, however, the emphasis was squarely on street eats and sweet treats.

If TUM is to be judged as a trend indicator, then French-inspired baking is still a force to be reckoned with; macarons are holding their own, and cupcakes are nowhere. Whether by coincidence or otherwise, Philippine cuisine was well represented. And of course there was a huge lineup for La Carnita, the renegade pop-up taqueria that doesn't actually sell tacos. Instead, they sell t-shirts that entitle you to sample tacos, in order to circumvent regulations that would make their operation inadmissible in this town.

Which of course is the point of TUM: it showcases skilled food vendors whose wares would currently be outlawed under our health and business codes. As such, it's an interesting part of the network of battlegrounds over the regulation (or deregulation) of small-scale and artisanal food production; and I look forward to seeing where the next action on this front will occur.

Café Fiorentina Opens on Danforth

Can it possibly be an entire week ago that I attended the launch party for Café Fiorentina (236 Danforth, east of Broadview, 416-855-4240), the charming new project of Tina Leckie and Alex Chong in the former Dash space? Amazingly so.

The café is one of this city's many lovely little spots where you can find soup and sandwiches, coffee and fresh baked goods. Only difference is that Leckie (daughter of the late councillor Dan Leckie) and Chong have ridiculously high credentials to be running a coffee shop. The roster of places they've worked is formidable: Susur, Didier, Célestin, Dufflet, Opus and Niagara Street Café, not to mention Michael Stadtländer's revered Eigensinn Farm and a stint by Chong at La Petraia in Chianti, Italy.


Not only will the two be offering a range of home baking (a delicious, not-oily carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies will be staples, with other treats, like beignets, tarts, shortbread, bread pudding and cheescake available as well), but they plan to create a changing seasonal menu of local farm-sourced light lunch and weekend brunch items, with some meats cured in-house. I sampled their porchetta on a house-made olive oil and rosemary bun with sauted rapini, havarti and roasted garlic aioli. It was gently sweet, not too salty, and subtly scented with a touch of lemon confit.

They'll also be serving and selling their own house-made preserves. I surveyed the labelled jars displayed around the space and admired their approach to flavour combinations: Cherries in Sambuca; Fig, cardamom and ginger jam; Raspberry mango jam, and Onion fennel jam. (Incidentally, their Faema E61 was praised by James Chatto. I don't know from espresso machines, but who am I to disagree?)

Café Fiorentina had its soft opening at the beginning of August (and sold their house lemonade as fast as they could brew it up throughout the Taste of the Danforth). They're now open Tuesday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Photos courtesy of Café Fiorentina's Tumblr site.

Cooking for Geeks Book Review

I was originally sent a review copy of Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks by a publicist who thought I might want to write a Father's Day piece about it – in June, of course. I was instantly attracted to the book by its pre-ripped and pre-stained cover, and started to read it right away. Four months later I am only now posting about it because I swiftly realized I wanted to read every single word of every one of its 400-odd pages. And they are odd.

Here is Jeff. If you've been to Toronto's Colborne Lane or any other temple of molecular gastronomy, you'll already know that you can make instant ice cream with liquid nitrogen. But how many people do you know who are geeky enough to try this at home, folks?

Some of the other potentially unsafe (i.e. life-threatening) kitchen tricks that Jeff gets up to include turning a home oven into a fearsomely hot pizza oven by disabling the automatic lock that engages during the self-cleaning cycle, and cooking a hot dog (or making it light up a bunch of LEDs) by connecting it to a suicide cable. But Cooking for Geeks is not really about applying for the Darwin Awards. It's actually the most complete and interesting manual of kitchen science that I've ever had the pleasure of poring over for hours on end.

In this book, which I will from now on consider to be an indispensable reference book, fit to stand on my cookbook shelf right next to the Joy of Cooking, Potter explains in delightful detail what a Maillard reaction is, and all about how it works. (If you don't already know, that's the change that makes certain cooked foods like steak delicious for their browned, slightly crunchy exterior.)

He provides all kinds of simple, useful tables and lists where you can easily check things like the ideal interior temperature of rare beef, how much alcohol will remain in a liquid that's been boiled, and how hot an egg must be to have a solid white and a liquid yolk. The book is also a bible of food safety information. It tells you in detail what the risks of foodborne illness are and how to avoid them.

Cooking for Geeks assumes no prior cooking experience, and tells you how to set up your kitchen in the most efficient way (with top-labelled spice jars in a drawer, for instance). And yes, there are plenty of recipes for the absolute beginner; the first three are for hot chocolate, pancakes... and duck confit. It has a thorough description of sous-vide cooking – including an inexpensive hack with store-bought, vacuum-packed salmon.

Potter also explains, in an easy and engaging way, with plenty of pictures, the science behind "fancy" cooking techniques like the preparation of mousses, stocks, roux and various leavened breads. When he runs to the end of his own (astonishing) expertise, he includes interviews with other extremely cool people in the cooking and tech worlds, as well as a wealth of links to their websites.

Cooking for Geeks is my new favourite culinary guide. I think every curious home cook needs a copy.  How could I not love a book that explains how I can count my own tastebuds to find out whether I am a Super Taster, mill my own flour, or cook brownies in an orange? Cooking for Geeks is exuberant, charming, funny, good looking and intellectually stimulating. And what more could one possibly ask in a kitchen companion?

Baking With Jams and Jellies

Around this time of year, people who like making preserves probably have a fair supply of jams and jellies in the pantry. In fact, some may be wondering what they're going to do with all those jars. If you're among these, here's a quick list of some of the baking projects you might like to try over the fall and winter.

• Brown Butter Bars: You had me at "brown butter".
• Crepes: Made to be filled with fruit, but you could use jam instead.
• Devonshire Scones: Cream tea, anyone?
• Fruit bars: Gluten free! 
• Granola Bars by Karen deMasco of The Art of Baking, as suggested by Cathy Barrow of Mrs. Wheelbarrow. 
• Hamantaschen: Get ready for Purim...
• Homemade Pop-Tarts: Not a full recipe, but lots of inspiration.
• Jam Sweethearts: I just tried a variant of these, and they were great!
• Jam Tarts: Little ones from a contributor to Jamie Oliver's site or big ones from Smitten Kitchen, based on a David Lebovitz recipe.
• Jelly Doughnuts: You'll have to buy this one, but all the Better Baking recipes are wonderful.
• Jelly Rolls: Again, not a complete recipe, but lots of food for thought.
• Pancakes: Buckwheat, no less!
• Thumbprint Cookies: From Tigress' kitchen, and a nice vegetarian version suggested by @VeganTriangle.

And please feel free to share your favourites below!

Recipe for a Microbatch of Raspberry Jam for Filling Cookies

Last weekend was a milestone for our family: the first time my sister has ever been away overnight since the birth of her daughter nine years ago. I was pleased to be asked to step in and pinch hit as the overnight grownup for two nights in a row, and it was my niece who decided that one of our key activities for the weekend would be to make some Jam Sweetheart cookies from a rather nice children's recipe collection: the Mom and Me Cookbook by Annabel Karmel."And," she added, with the touching confidence of youth, "We'll make the jam!"

In fact, heading over to my sister's place for the weekend, I armed myself with a jar of Beverley Barnett Graham's gorgeous bright pink and cinnamon-scented apple jelly, an acquisition from the Well Preserved preserve swap of last February. When I opened it, Tara was clearly entranced by the colour and the smell, and would happily have used it instead of our own jam. But as we were waiting for the dough to rest and chill, I noticed a plastic clamshell of raspberries in the back of the fridge, and thought "Oh well, let's go for it!"

I had so much fun making Tara a single serving of grape jelly a few weeks ago that I thought I'd cook up a batch of raspberry jam just big enough to spread on one batch of cookies. As you can see from the picture above, Tara and my brother John are delighted with the results of the baking, and so was her mom when she returned home to a happy household.

We did also use some of Beverley's jelly, which meant we had a little leftover raspberry jam – never a problem, to my mind. And – kudos to Annabel Karmel – Tara was able to follow almost all the steps herself, with a little measuring advice and some final dough stirring assistance.

The recipe for the jam was simplicity itself, but in case there are any novice jam-makers out there who'd like to make it their first foray into jamming, here's what you do:

Raspberry Jam for a Batch of Cookies

Makes about ¾ cup of jam.

• ¾ cup of raspberries
• ¾ cup of sugar

1. Combine the berries and sugar in a non-reactive pot with a thick bottom. Heat to the boiling point over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to make sure the sugar dissolves.
2. Boil gently, stirring constantly, until the berries have mostly dissolved and the jam has reached the setting point. This will only take about 5 to 10 minutes. The jam will have reduced and become thick and sticky by this point.
3. Remove from heat, cool and assemble your cookies!

English Pork Pie for Charcutepalooza

"Here in Shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time, lost in Victorian rural England..." Channeling my inner Ruth Goodman to create this honest-to-goodness Shropshire meat pie, I had my best experience of Charcutepalooza so far, which demonstrates two points:

1. At heart, I'm a baker, not a cook.
2. Although I'm genetically about one-quarter French, clearly, when it comes to meat appreciation, my inherited predilections are Rule Brittania all the way.

The English Pork Pie recipe in Michael Ruhlman's Charcutepalooza is fairly cheap, quick and simple. The filling is ground meat with a few seasonings and some chicken broth, well mixed to help it emulsify (see! I'm learning!) In my atavistic British fervour I left out the ham and garlic, which, after all, seemed a little... French. (And did I mention that Niamh and I watched watched back-to-back episodes of the latest Doctor Who season while we cooked?)

I also completely forgot to sauté the onions – thus breaking a Two Fat Ladies rule by missing an opportunity to add more butter to the dish – but they were not at all injured by being tossed in raw to sizzle in the butter, lard and pork fat that were already in the mix. And there is no aspic or gelatin in this pie. In fact, I'm delighted I didn't slave away over Madeira-soaked reductions, because there is simply no room in this pie to add any aspic.

I had planned to pick some fresh thyme from the garden, as the recipe calls for fresh, but it was so dark by the time I got to that stage that I axed the fresh thyme and used dried, but added in some sage. It was great anyway.

The crust is equal parts butter and lard with flour, water and a single egg. I thought the dough was so soggy that it would have no flakiness when baked, but it's a genius recipe: somehow it puffs up delectably (that'd be the egg). Nonetheless, it's immensely sturdy and resilient, so I was able to build a proper Medieval-style coffin for the filling. I brushed the outside not with an egg wash, but with 1% yogurt, which gave a pleasant matte finish.

There was lots of dough left over, so I baked cutout hearts on the sheet next to the pie. They were done within about ten minutes; none, however, made it to the photo stage.

I am very grateful that I laid parchment paper on the baking sheet because it was immensely helpful when it came time to transfer the pie, now piping hot and dripping with rich oils, onto a serving plate.

In the photo, the meal shared by Niamh and me, with some well boiled carrots and beans, and the final remaining jar of the apple chutney I made last year from a recipe by Audra of Doris and Jilly Cook. (The posted recipe is for a peach chutney, but if you leave out the lime you can switch out apples for peaches. In fact, Audra allowed me to include the recipe in that variation in my book.)

As I rarely eat meat these days (despite my Charcutepaloozitude), I was floored by the richness of a dish in which the crust is fattier than the pork filling (!), but I loved making it and will certainly think of incorporating it into my own Christmas seasonal rotation. And that crust! I can't wait to use the recipe again in many variations, like a huge apple pie, or a series of smaller ones. Thank you, Charcutepalooza, this month's assignment was a complete delight.

Catch Byron Ayanoglu While He's Back at Avli!

As a fan of the charismatic chef and former NOW Magazine food editor Byron Ayanoglu, I was pleased to see he's making a visit from his current home in Montreal to tweak the menu and cook a special lineup of four-course dinners (priced at $40) at Avli (401 Danforth near Chester, 416-461-9577), whose original menu he helped create back in 1995. Ayanoglu will be a guest in the Avli kitchen every night until Sunday, September 18 (except next Monday, September 12). I was especially excited to be invited to taste some of the old and new menu offerings.

The modestly sized room with the little patio has a comfortable, traditional ambiance, with its tan-and-coral walls, its painted terra cotta vases and its warm wood floor. The menu includes specialties from all over the Greek mainland and Crete, and the signature dishes include somewhat unusual fare like rabbit pie. Among the new menu additions created by Ayanoglu are Grilled calamari served chilled with a dressing of almonds and cherry tomatoes, Roasted leek with feta and olives, Turkish-inspired Eggplant Begendi with octopus, Grilled scallops with blackberry sauce, "and a couple more surprise dishes," says Avli owner Lambros Vasiliou.

I was especially taken with the Horta-pie with kasseri, a wedge of filo garnished with fresh dill that encloses chopped rapini, mustard greens and dandelion greens along with a mellow sheep and goat cheese called kefalograviera. It was not as salty as I had expected; instead, the warm flavour of the greens shone through.

Why redesign the menu now, after 16 years? "It's not me; it's the boss," quips Ayonaglu. "He wanted some new things." Although there's lots of indulgence on the menu, it's kind to those who are trying to eat lighter, more healthy fare. Of course, as he says, "People go to restaurants to break their diets;" nonetheless, his interests are "taste and health; I only cook things I eat."

Vasiliou is considering the possibility of bringing Ayanoglu back several times a year and moving to a more seasonal menu. "I believe personally that Greek cuisine is very rich in variety, and it has not been introduced in North America properly," Vasiliou says. "This is the only way I can have a menu of a fair size but also introduce that so-rich cuisine."

While Ayanoglu is in the kitchen, there are several special events planned, including the launch of the third edition of his hugely successful Simply Thai Cooking. Co-written with Wandee Young, it's a great primer in Thai cuisine, and newly embellished with new colour photos. Although Ayanoglu's own background is Mediterranean, he's a dab hand with Thai dishes (I have very happy memories of him ebulliently churning out brilliant pad thai on the spot for several hundred guests at one of the NOW Magazine staff parties in the '90s. Ah, those were the days.) In any case, the book launch and signing takes place at Avli on Wednesday, September 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. Rumours suggest a few Thai snacks will be on offer for attendees.

Also, tonight, beginning at 11 p.m., Marion Lewis of the Hummer Sisters will perform cabaret songs. On Thursday, September 15, you can catch an 11 p.m. screening of the short film Mortar&Pestle, about Greek food and joie-de-vivre by Ayanoglu and his photographer partner Algis Kemezys. (That night, TIFF cardholders receive a $5 discount on dinner).

I'm glad to be reminded of Avli, and to taste Ayanoglu's cooking again. If you haven't been there for a while, it might be a good time for a repeat visit.

Photo of Byron Ayanoglu by Algis Kemezys.

A Niagara Wine Tour

I was fortunate enough yesterday to be among a group of bloggers and other journalists invited to spend a day touring wineries and sampling wines in the Niagara region as part of the kickoff to the LCBO's Go Local campaign promoting Ontario wines. My group visited Coyote's Run Estate Winery, Creekside Estate Winery and a particular favourite of mine, Malivoire. We tasted characteristic wines from those wineries, as well as Jackson Triggs Winery, Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery, Cave Spring Cellars and Strewn.

I think we're very lucky in the Toronto area to be so close to two important wine regions: Niagara (which includes several subdivisions like Beamsville Bench) and Prince Edward County. Scores of wineries lie within a short drive of Toronto, and all of them offer free or extremely inexpensive tastings; often $1 to $2 per glass, and very often without prior notice; you can simply drop in. In the photo above, our group gets to talk to Coyote's Run winemaker David Sheppard.

I always find it such a treat to talk to someone who actually makes wine, both because I usually learn something and because they tend to be so excited about what they're doing that they're the opposite of the "wine snob"; they seem to just expect everybody to think wine is as much fun as they do, and don't seem especially bothered about the depth of your knowledge or what you're wearing or how you hold your glass.

The other benefit of going right to the winery is that they offer some wines that you can't even pick up at the LCBO. I was very pleased to spot a bottle of Malivoire's "Albert's Honour" Old Vines Foch 2009, which I've been dying to try again since I shared a bottle of it with friends at a lovely dinner at La Palette (now on Queen West; then in Kensington Market). Some time ago I had a chance to ask aptly named Malivoire winemaker Shiraz Mottiar about it, and from what I recall, it's made from a grape that's a hybrid of a Canadian native grape and a European one, and it's fussy to make, so they don't do it every year. I look forward to trying this bottle.

Here's a fun detail for a fruit geek like me: David Sheppard led us out to the vineyard to look at the grapes, and showed us that the darker ones, which are pinot gris, are spontaneously mutating into pinot blanc – sometimes on the same bunch of grapes!

Part of the exercise was supposed to be to search for a favourite wine, but I'm afraid I couldn't possibly name one; that would be like trying to name a favourite jam: beyond me. However, the visit introduced me to some new chardonnays and especially sauvignon blancs available at the LCBO in the $12 to $20 price range. Much as I enjoy travelling to the vineyards, I'm pleased to know that I can walk round the corner to pick one up for dinner any time I like.