Question: I’m hosting a barbecue over this holiday weekend including lots of hamburgers and hot dogs. What wine should I serve?

Answer: Very topical question generated by the celebrations for the July 1 Canada Day & July 4 Independence Day holidays! A little bit of a semantics issue on the use of the word “barbecue” because many people think this means simply to use a barbecue sauce while others use it in a wider connotation to include all grilling. Further complicated by so many of us now using propane gas rather than the traditional wood or charcoal. The flavours on your food – including hamburgers and hotdogs – will be quite different depending on these choices as will your preferred wine selections. Difficult to make a single recommended wine choice. The usual cop out answer of the wine and budget you like best works well for a barbecue. However, spicy California Zinfandel, Australian Shiraz, Argentina Malbec, Chilean Carmenere, Italian Negroamaro and others in that style should work well as your foods should have some rich, smoky, chargrilled sweet spicy caramelized flavours. Don’t forget that a wider selection could include Sparkling (aperitif – maybe with a syrah dosage for colour and sweetness), Rose (versatile – dry and sweet styles – for pulled pork), Sauvignon or Fume Blanc (vegetables like asparagus & tomatoes – other veg like peppers, onion, eggplant, zucchini can be enhanced with Rioja), New World Chardonnay (Chicken), Unoaked crisper Chardonnay or Chablis (Seafood), Languedoc-Roussillon (Mediterranean herbs), Syrah, Cab or Merlot (charred meats). I generally avoid pinot noir and Piedmont as being too delicate and subtle for the bold assertive barbecue foods. My wife Joan and I are judging on July 12 the Similkameen British Columbia 2014 BBQ King or Queen competition but they will be serving a very wide selection of BC Okanagan grape varieties and blends to serve with this barbecue.

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In full disclosure I am not a big sugar fan – except for my daily addiction to dark chocolate! Never have liked soft drinks. Also hesitant to get involved in any controversy over “toxic refined white sugar” and “high fructose corn syrup”. However you have to admire honey bees as a key component in world agriculture pollination regardless of your thoughts on honey. Still there is increasing popularity for the use of honey as a natural sweetener. There are many types to discover from light mild to dark strong with unique flavours influenced by the local flowers – clover, buckwheat, alfalfa… I have fond memories of the old days trying to locate some tupelo honey after admiring Irish singer Van Morrison’s song of the same name – “she’s as sweet as tupelo honey”. Some comparisons could possibly be made to wine with the different complex “terroir” contributing to both products. Less processed raw honey is in increasing demand as is unpasteurized and unfiltered – rather than simpler commercial ones. The National Honey Board in the USA has volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings promoting honey for an energy boost during physical activity. We all have used lemon and honey in a hot drink to soothe a sore throat. Recently watched Dr. Oz on his TV show endorsing honey supported by 4 key points: immune boosting antioxidant (may even help with allergies over long term use but not yet scientifically substantiated); cough suppressant; heals wounds (especially New Zealand native manuka bush honey); and may help your blood sugar & high cholesterol. Regardless of all these health claims I still find I am using honey more (and sugar less) – especially at breakfast trying out different exotic interesting honey in my no fat Greek yogurt! My wife Joan really enjoys from the Okanagan wine region in British Columbia her pure unpasteurized wildbrush/wildflowers creamed honey on her morning toast. What about you? Lots of choices out there so what is your favourite go to honey?

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By Joseph Temple

After inviting friends and family over for a special occasion, no task can be more daunting than having to clean all of your dishes, especially glassware.  Whether it’s tumblers, beer mugs or your best crystal, each style seems to have its own set of rules – especially when it comes to wine glasses.  Some are dishwasher safe and some are not. Many have narrow necks, making them a challenge to keep spotless and residue-free.  And if you decant your wine, cleaning the odd-shaped vessel is a formidable task all by itself.

But if you follow these ten helpful tips, you can keep your glasses and decanters sparkling and odor-free for all future dinner parties:

FOR DISHWASHERS:

1.  If the wine glasses you use are dishwasher safe, clean them separately from all plates, knives, forks, spoons and any other tableware.  With their own wash, you’ll prevent tiny food particles from sticking to the glass.  And set it to the shortest possible cycle without adding detergent.  The use of cleansers will leave both residue and a small odor impacting the wine’s taste over time.

2.  Place the bowl of the glass upside down so that it doesn’t collect any water during the rinse cycle.  Once completed, open the door of the dishwasher to let out all of the humidity, which can tarnish your glasses over time.

3.  Dry each glass with a lint-free linen cloth.  Letting them drip-dry will smear it with water spots.

FOR WASHING BY HAND:

4.  First, fill your sink with warm water and apply soap to a lint-free cloth to wash.  Rinse each glass under lukewarm water and smell the bowl after to make sure all the detergent has been removed.

5.  If you want to take it one step further and make your glasses shine like they’re in a TV commercial, try steaming them by placing the glass over a pot of boiling water before drying.

6.  When drying a wine glass, never hold it by the stem.  Doing so cannot only break the glass but also severely cut your hand.  Instead, hold it by the bowl and use a wooden spoon wrapped in a linen cloth to clean the bottom as needed.  Forcing the cloth to the bottom by hand can break the glass as well.

FOR DECANTERS:

7.  After rinsing it out with warm water, wrap a damp linen cloth around a nylon rope and feed it inside the decanter to clean out the bottom.  For drying, make sure the cloth you use is also arid.

8.  To remove those stubborn stains, place copper balls or lead shots into the decanter and shake them around.

PROPER STORAGE:

9.  Avoid storing your wine glasses in cardboard boxes or inside closed cupboards.  Glasses can absorb all sorts of smells that alters the taste of the wine so keep them upright and on an open shelf or rack so air can circulate around them.

10.  If you think your glasses have picked up any odors, either rinse them in cold water or pass them through the air quickly several times.

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Question: What is a “long finish”?

Answer: Easy. A long finish is just what it says – lingering flavours of food or especially wine that you can still savour for some time after tasting. That distinct aftertaste stays with you. I know people who like eating garlic and tuna but don’t like the strong or fishy lingering aftertaste of those foods. For wine this is usually an admirable thing because it indicates that there is some special intensity and depth there. A long finish is a particularly important factor in assessing the potential for aging of a young fine wine before all the elements are matured together. Generally this is a good characteristic to appreciate and admire but can also be overrated sometimes. For example if you are wanting a light elegant refreshing wine the overall balance will be a more important factor than a long finish. However, for quality more expensive wines from lower yields a long finish is something you are paying extra dollars for so be sure to take the time to enjoy it.

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Fond memories of those old style elegant Rioja from back in the twenties and thirties – particularly from Riscal & Murrieta. Now there are so many more wine regions in Spain competing with Rioja for world recognition. Changes started slowly in the seventies with the Torres family in Penedes (looking forward on July 15 to a four decade retrospective of their flagship wine the single vineyard Mas de Plana cabernet sauvignon) and about the same time the first use of French oak (instead of American oak) by de Caceres, emerging super region Ribera del Duero led by Vega Sicilia & Pingus, Palacios family in Priorat & Bierzo, value priced Toro and others. Now Rioja finds itself trying to reach out to the younger consumer with a more modern wine and is becoming somewhat an older wine region in transition.

This change was brought home strongly to me last week with a vertical tasting of Valenciso (www.valenciso.com) wines from Rioja Alta. The whole Rioja region has 128 kilometres (80 miles) length into 3 regions totalling 63,000 hectares: 27,000 Rioja Alta (cooler nights at higher elevation), 13,000 Rioja Alvesa (fuller) & 23,000 Rioja Baja (hotter). Valenciso is producing a high quality only Reserva wine from 100% tempranillo grapes (excluding garnacha, graciano, mazuelo etc.) using 100% medium toast French oak (new and used) for 16 months. Their 2006 and current release 2007 show impressive lovely fruit with elegance from lower yields of 3-4 tons/hectare fermented in underground modern concrete vats. They also make a highly acclaimed 15 barrels of a creamy white from 70% viura & 30% white garnacha using Russian oak from the Caucasus and a bright Rosado (14 hour saigne) 2013 from tempranillo. As well as older vintages back to 2000 & 2001 their 2007 estate red was shown against bottled 2007 samples of that year aged in 100% new American, Russian & French oak.  The results were dramatic: American big open vanilla and in your face coconut, Russian lighter subdued more neutral – doesn’t stand up to robust red, and new French classy balanced subtle with finesse & lift.

Interesting to note that the use of America oak in Rioja from about 90% recently is now down to 85% and dropping. A problem is developing within the classifications in that a growing number of wineries such as Valenciso don’t fit within their restrictive categories (same in Toro and other regions): Generic with 46% of the sales requires less than 1 year in barrel; Crianza with 36% at least 1 year barrel; Reserva 16% at least 3 years in barrel and bottle with at least 1 year in barrel & Gran Reserva 2% at least 2 years in barrel and at least 3 years in bottle. These classifications are not really a true indication of what premium quality wine may or may not be in the bottle you are opening. Times they are a changing in Rioja.

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