SOUTHERN ITALIAN WINE APPELLATIONS

Calabria, Basilicata, Molise, and Puglia are southern Italy’s big wine producers but less popular wines.

Puglia produces approximately 33 per cent of all wines of the country

Of all, Puglia, aka Puglia, is the best known, and its wines are exported to many European and overseas countries. They are much less expensive than Piedmontese and Tuscan wines.

Puglia has eight hundred kilometres of coastline, olive groves over two thousand years old still turning out olives, and a winemaking history reaching back to at least 2000 BC. Horace was writing admiringly about the wines of Taranto in the first century BC. This is not a region in need of an introduction but deserves a wider one.

Most people know Puglia for Primitivo, rich, warm, generous. Fewer know that Primitivo is genetically identical to California’s Zinfandel, and that both trace back to Croatia, where the grape is called Tribidrag.

Bombino Nero, mostly used for the region’s rosati, is pale, dry, and considerably more elegant than its name suggests.

Susumaniello, deeply coloured and intense, little donkey: the vine carries an enormous load when young and gradually eases off with age. It is one of the most exciting rediscoveries in the Italian south, and still largely unknown outside the trade, which is precisely why now is the moment to try it.

One last thing about Puglia: it makes roughly a third of all the wine in Italy. For most of its history, almost none of it was sold as Puglian. It went north, into other people’s bottles, giving weight and colour to wines that took the credit.

Several Italian wine conglomerates from Tuscany and elsewhere in the country have bought vineyards and invested in modern equipment to produce superior quality and export.

They are much less expensive than northern Italian brands and represent good value.

Several are available on the LCBO general list and released as Vintage specials.

PROFESSOR B’S WINE RECOMMENDATIONS

Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right.

Mark Twain

White wines

Iconoclast Sauvignon Blanc.Semillon, 2024, Creekside Estates, Ontario
$24.75 Vintages essential

Quarry Road Chardonnay, 2023,Tawse, Ontario

$ 36.95

Petit Chablis, 2023, William Fevre, France
$ 30.00

Vintages essential

Red wines

Chateau Argadens, 2021, Famille Sichel

Vintages essential

$ 19.95

Osoyoos Larose :Le Grand Vin, 2020, British Columbia

$ 60.95 Vintages essential

Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva Single Vineyard, 2023, Vina Carmen, Chile
$ 17.`95

Drink red wines at 15 C

White wines 12 C

Sparkling wines 9 – 10 C

Rest wine bottles for three or four days after purchase

RUEDA – SPAIN’S LITTLE-KNOWN WHITE WINE REGION

Unlike other Spanish wine regions, Rueda specialises in white wines.

Rueda in the northwest of Spain experiences hot summers and cold winters.

Since 1970’s the region started producing white wines, whereas previously it specialised in sherry-style oxidised wines.

Wineries from Rioja and elsewhere in the country established modern wineries to produce dry, fragrant and relatively low alcohol, balanced and appealing wines.

Verdecho is Rueda’s signature grape, but viognier, chardonnay, viura (aka macabeo) and palomino fino are being planted and employed for blending with verdejo.

The latter must constitute at least 85 per cent in the blend.

Verdecho wines are typically light to medium bodied with herbaceous and fruity notes that may hint at Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire, where the variety originates.

Verdejo wines are considerably less expensive than other varietal white wines in Ontario, ranging from $ 15.65 to $ 18.35, and are becoming popular.

Verdecho wines taste best with roast chicken, Indian butter chicken, creamy seafood, roast loin of pork, and olive oil sautéed Brussels sprouts.

GUIDELINES FOR WINE AND CHEESE EVENTS IN HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS

Event organisers now plan elaborate wine and cheese receptions instead of sit-down dinners. They feel the informal atmosphere is more conducive to mingle, carry conversations with different people. Some others feel more business can be transacted if one has a chance to converse with many instead of those to his/her left and right.

Be it as may, such parties must be set up carefully to focus on the objective of the reception. The objective may be to introduce a new product, or look for new markets or new ideas.

Wine and cheese receptions must be carefully planned with a limited number of cheeses (two soft, two medium-hard, and two aged). All must be presented in a fashion for easy service (cubed for hard, sliced semi-hard, and natural for soft).

Unsalted biscuits and nut breads (three or four types) are recommended.

For fruits, select those that people can pick with ease, i.e red and green grapes, strawberries, and blueberries. Nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds) for texture contrast are recommended.

As for wines, you can either opt for stations (three or four), each of which will offer two to four white and red wines, or you can have servers circulate with trays of glasses that are half-filled with one brand of wine.

Both setups offer advantages and disadvantages.

Stations can be overcrowded, and one may be more popular than the other; the circulating server method is prone to people discarding their glasses if the wine fails to please them.

Needless to say, all glasses must be properly washed, polished and spotlessly clean to let each wine shine.

Wine and cheese receptions require less space, are less expensive (if the wines selected happen to be moderately priced), offer more contact opportunities and are wrapped up within two to four hours.

Wine and cheese complement each other. Enjoying both when they match perfectly can be a great experience.

Some cheeses complement a certain style of wine better than others.

Organising wine and cheese parties can provide an opportunity to learn how different cheeses can enhance the taste and texture of some wines and not others.

Here are some suggestions for a successful event.

Determine a budget

Make a list of people you want to invite

Compile a list of cheeses or ask if organisers have suggestions.

Calculate 120 – 150 grams of cheese per person (more if you choose soft cheeses only, less if semi-soft and hard).

Choose crackers and biscuits you wish to offer or ask organisers for their preferences.

French baguettes, Calabrese bread and whole-wheat organic breads

are popular breads for such events.

Ensure that a sufficient number of glasses are properly washed, polished and spotless (If you don’t have enough, you can rent)

Ensure that there are enough plates and appropriate cutlery to cut cheeses.

Prepare a list of the wines and calculate 375 ml per person.

In big cities, there are enough cheese wholesalers to meet almost any demand. In smaller cities, the selection is limited but still adequate for a successful event.

Cheeses are texturally grouped into:

Fresh (cottage, cream, ricotta)

Soft (Brie, camembert)

Semi-soft (Mozzarella, Havarti, St. Paulin)

Firm (Brick, Edam, Cheddar)

Hard (Asiago, Pecorino, Parmigiano Reggiano

Blue veined cheeses fit into the semi-soft group, but taste-wise belong to a separate and distinct group.

Fresh cheeses are generally too bland and therefore inappropriate for wine and cheese events.

Soft cheeses possess a creamy white, bloomy crust with butter-coloured paste. Well-ripened cheeses have spotty brown crusts, are runny, and smell of ammonia.

Quebec cream cheeses remain relatively firm regardless of their ripeness.

Some of the more popular soft cheeses are from France, Quebec or Ontario in Canada, and the U S A.

When it comes to semi-soft cheeses, the choice is big – Mozzarella, Bocconcini, Havarti, Oka, St Paulin, Limburger, Monterey Jack fall into this group.

Firm cheeses that enjoy popularity are – Brick, Colby, Cheddar, Emmenthal, Buttercheese, Gruyere, Edam, Raclette, Friulano, Marble, Provolone, Bel Paese and Vacherin.

Processed firm cheeses are milder in flavour.

Hard cheeses are most flavourful and are much liked by millions of cheese lovers.

Here are some you can ask for or let the hotel management suggest – Parmigiano Reggiano, aged cheddar from England, or Ontario.

Note: Wisconsin, Argentina, and New Zealand produce imitations and sell them as Parmesan or more frequently as Parmigiano Reggiano. They lack the flavour of the authentic product.

Blue veined cheeses such as Roquefort, Bleu d’Auvergne, Danish blue, Bleu de Bresse, Gorgonzola, Cambozola and Ermite bleu from Quebec are much liked by many cheese lovers, but not all.

Blue veined cheeses go best with very intense wines such as Amarone, Georgian red wines, Rhône Valley reds, as well as those from Ribera del Duero, Jumilla, and Yecla.

Goat cheeses are occasionally grouped as a sub-group. They are soft with intense, acidic flavours depending on region of origin and species of goat. Canadian goat cheeses are much milder than those from continental Europe.

Insist that cheeses be served at room temperature and wines at correct temperatures. Hotels and restaurants are notorious for serving cheeses cold and wines too warm.

Here are some true and tried wines and cheese matches:

Bocconcini: Beaujolais Villages, Zweigelt (Austria), Pinot Noir from Oregon, or California’s Carneros district, Ontario Pinot Noir

Brick – Cabernet Franc from Ontario, Merlot from Casa Lapostolle

Carmenere from

Brie – Chablis from William Fevre, Soave Riserva Masi, Pinot Blanc Konzelmann, Pinot Gris Vineland Estates

Double Cream cheeses from Quebec – Auxerois Chateau de Charmes, Segura Viudas, Codorniu

Triple cream cheeses – Rueda wines, Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Sancerre

Camembert – Barrel-aged reserve Chardonnay from California or Ontario

Cheddar mild – Chardonnay from South Australia, Chile, Ontario Riesling.

Cheddar old Cabernet Sauvignon, or blends, Merlot from Washington State

Crottin de Chavignol – Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, or Ontario, Sancerre, Pinot blanc

Emmental – Australian shiraz, South African cabernet sauvignon, Washington State cabernet sauvignon, Ontario Meritage, or cabernet sauvignon kiln-dried from Ontario.

Mozzarella – Beaujolais, or gamay or pinot noir from Ontario

Oka – Merlot from Bordeaux, Baco Noir reserve from Ontario, Paso Robles red wines, Ontario cabernet franc, California cabernet sauvignon

Vacherin – Riesling from Germany or Ontario, or New Zealand, Marsanne from the Rhône Valley

TEA – THE BEST QUALITY AND HOW TO BREW IT

Well before a goat herder discovered the effects of coffee beans on his goats, the Chinese were enjoying the flavour and refreshing effects of tea (Camellia sinensis).

A Chinese emperor (Shennong) in 2737 B C accidentally discovered the refreshing and deep flavour of tea during one of his hunting trips.

Ever since, the Chinese, and later much of the world, have been drinking tea in a variety of brewing techniques.

The English made tea popular not only in Britain but worldwide, and got rich at the same time.

The following quality levels of tea are: whole leaf, broken leaf, fannings, and dust.

Of the whole leaf, orange pekoe and golden flower orange pekoe are the best and most flavourful.

Now, Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, is considered the best source of quality tea.

The tea plant is a shrub that grows in fields from 100 metres up to 1500 metres above sea level.

The best and most flavourful leaves grow at high altitudes and are plucked by dedicated workers. The tips of these leaves yield orange pekoe and pekoe tea, which are processed by drying and then roasting.

Originally, tea estates in Sri Lanka were owned by rich and influential English trading companies that owned the means of production, transportation, distribution, and sales.

The best method to brew a cup of tea is:

Get a properly designed teapot; rinse with hot water

Put a teaspoon of tea per person, and one for the pot

TAKEOUT, ONLINE FOOD ORDERS AND WINES In 2025, 55 per cent of Canadians have used either SkipTheDishes, Uber Eats, or DoorDash. According to information gathered, a majority of adult Canadians regularly use at least one of these platforms to order in food.Many young working people and women use these services for a variety of reasons – too busy, don’t know how to cook or want no time or no motivation.Commercial food contains more salt and generally is less healthy, less fresh in many cases, and when it is delivered, less appealing and insufficiently hot to enjoy fully.Chinese food is the long-standing leader, followed by Italian, led of course by pizza, Thai, Indian fourth, Mexican and Middle Eastern foods. As far as preferences go, the board looks like this:1) Butter chicken2) Poutine3) Pad thai4) Shawarma5) Sushi6) Chicken sandwiches, burgers & friesThere’s a particular kind of denial that grips an industry right before it changes shape. Ask any Ontario restaurateur how business is going, and you’ll likely hear “busy” — and on paper, they’re not wrong. Restaurants Canada’s own data shows Canadians still walk through restaurant doors roughly 23 million times a day. What that daily tally obscures is where the actual growth is happening; not at the table, but on the couch, where folks — fork in one hand, phone in the other — track a delivery driver’s icon across a map. The numbers tell the story plainly enough. Canada’s online food delivery services were essentially non-existent as a consumer demand a dozen years ago.Forecasts have the market climbing to $39 billion by 2030. This is an industry all by itself.Here are a few wine suggestions from the release to try with Canada’s most ordered takeout dishes.For butter chicken- Ontario sauvignon blanc, or from the Loire in France. Chenin blanc from South Africa is also a good choice.For pizza (traditional) – sangiove based wines, like Chianti and others.Poutine – Ontario gamay wines, or BeaujolaisShawarma – merlot from southern France, Languedoc, Valpolicella from Veneto, Ontario cabernet franc.Pad Thai- gewurztraminer from Alsace, Ontario rieslingSushi assyrtiko from Greece, dry sparkling wines, or Chablis from FranceChicken sandwich, burgers and fries: lagers from Germany, chenin blanc from South Africa or the Loire Valley in France, dry white German wines, grignolino from Piedmont in Italy. The dazzling growth of takeout foods shouldn’t be mistaken for a crisis for wine. It’s really an opportunity. The dinner table hasn’t disappeared — it’s just moved to the coffee table, and it’s carrying dishes from three different continents at once. The fun now is matching what’s in the glass to that reality, not to some imagined regional orthodoxy that never had shawarma on the menu.

GRIGNOLINO -PIEDMONT’S UNIQUE GRAPE VARIETY

Grignolino is a wine of contrasts, a wine that has never followed trends.

Grignolino is one of Piedmont’s historic grape varieties, with a presence documented for centuries, particularly in the Monferrato and Asti regions.

Its name probably derives from the Piedmontese term ‘grignòle’, which refers to grape seeds; these are particularly abundant in this variety and contribute to the wine’s distinctive tannic character – one of the elements that makes it instantly recognisable.

Originating in the hills of Monferrato, Grignolino is one of Piedmont’s most ancient anddistinctive grape varieties: it has undergone periods of great popularity and more difficult times, only to return to the limelight today thanks to the growing interest in authentic, terroir-driven and less standardised wines.

Grignolino doesn’t aim for immediate impact, but rather for the ability to intrigue and tell a different story.

Grignolino does not try to please everyone, but rather one that opens up a whole new world if you just stop to listen and appreciate its hidden complexity. The first thing that surprises you about Grignolino is its appearance. In the glass, it often appears as a brilliant ruby red with complex aromas, freshness and a structure that pairs very well with food.

On the nose, it reveals floral and fruity notes; on the palate, it is dry, fresh, elegant, slightly tannic and bitter, with a lingering aftertaste that is sometimes pleasantly almondy.

One of the best reds for the summer: perfect served chilled from the fridge, like a white wine, at 6–8°C, to pair with grilled meat, savoury tarts and salads.

Grignolino is a very demanding grape variety, not easy to cultivate, requiring the right soil composition and exposure, and one that is also challenging to vinify. The result, however, is a truly exquisite wine.

Wineries produce Grignolino to preserve an important part of Monferrato’s history. The hills of this area, characterised by soils rich in marl, clay and limestone, offer ideal conditions for bringing out its freshness and elegance.

CHIANTI – ITALY’S MOST FAMOUS RED WINE

This northern Italian region was famous in the 14th century and has become world-famous due to emigration to North America, Australia, and South America.

In all these countries, Italians opened restaurants and featured Italian red wines, including Chianti.

The appellation has two distinct divisions classico, was original, simple Chianti was added much later.

Today there are 70 000 hecters for Chianti

and classified

Chianti

Chianti superiore

Chianti Riserva Gran Selezione

Gran Selezione wines may include cabernet sauvignon and merlot but must be at least 85 per cent sangiovese, Italy’s most planted red wine grape variety.

Gran Selezione is unquestionably the best tasting of all, depending on the vintage.

2019, 2020, and 2021 were the best in this century so far.

In a recent tasting, the following Gran Selezione Chianti

were chosen by experts.

Chianti Classico Gran Riserva 2023, Barone Ricasoli

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Roncione 2020, Barone Ricasoli

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Colledila, 2023, Barone Ricasoli

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigneto Il Poggio, 2021, Castello Monsanto,

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna Graspoli, 2021, Lamole di Lamole

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna Il Corno, 2021, Castello di Rada

Chianti Classico Riserva, 2019, Castello di Monsanto

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna di Sessina, 2022, Dievole

Some of the above may be offered in the future by the Vintages, a division of the LCBO.

Prices vary from anywhere from $ 55.00 to well over $ 100.00

WINE CRYSTALS

Colloquially known as ‘wine diamonds’, these small crystals are not only harmless but also a possible indicator of quality. Some equate their presence as a mark of quality, in that the wine has not been overly manipulated in the cellar.

The main component of these deposits is potassium acid tartrate, the potassium salt of tartaric acid. Traces of other elements – pulp, dead yeast cells, tannins, pigments – contaminate, and potentially colour, the potassium acid tartrate crystals. This is why in white wines the crystals are mostly colourless and perfectly-shaped, while in red wines – and to an extent orange wines – tannins and pigmented tannins make the crystals reddish brown, smaller and irregularly-shaped.

Malic acid is partially or fully converted to the creamier-tasting lactic acid during malolactic fermentation. Tartaric acid, on the other hand, is chemically more stable and remains dissolved in the finished wine, contributing to the wine’s final pH levels and resistance to microbiological spoilage.

Tartaric acid compounds are less soluble in alcohol and water solutions than in water or grape juice. While it may remain in a supersaturated state in the final wine, it will crystallise, mostly due to temperature fluctuations that change solubility levels. The pressure from consumers and retailers to avoid these unexpected findings led the industry to develop multiple techniques to ensure tartrate stabilisation.

The solubility of tartaric acid compounds increases with temperature. Colder temperatures therefore cause crystals to form.

If you find crystals in your wine at home, once formed they will never disappear, but they won’t affect the aroma, taste or quality of the wine.

Most mass-market wines will undergo tartrate stabilisation to avoid the unpredictable formation of crystals. The most common process is cold stabilisation: the wine is refrigerated for several days before bottling to between -5 and -10℃, which causes the tartrate crystals to precipitate. These are then filtered out, and the wine is brought back to cellar temperature. The final tartrate levels are low enough for it to be very unlikely for more crystals to precipitate in a customer’s fridge, restaurant’s cellar or supermarket stock room.

Because many of these processes can hurt the flavour and structure of the wine – mostly because they will also remove other components and, because the pH increases, the wine will be microbiologically more unstable – higher-quality and/or age-worthy wines will likely avoid tartrate stabilisation. Hence why you will likely find sediments of some sort in aged bottles of renowned wines.

How a wine is stored will determine how and where the crystals will cluster – and whether they will be noticeable at all. Tartrate crystals will typically gather and stick to the cork – and therefore be removed when the wine is opened – if a bottle is stored upside down. If stored upright, the crystals will settle at the bottom and likely be poured out with the last glass.

Instead of being alarmed, you should view the presence of crystals as a sign of lower-intervention winemaking in which the preservation of the wine’s full character and its longevity have taken precedence over reassuring predictability.

TANNINS – HELP PRESERVE WINE Tannins are bitter, astringent chemical compounds found in nature, particularly in the bark of many trees and in numerous leaves, legumes, and fruits, including grapes. They combine with other molecules, especially proteins, causing them to precipitate. Because tannins bind with other proteins, including those in human saliva, they create a characteristic astringent, mouth-coating sensation in the mouth. Their primary role is to make unripe fruits and seeds unpalatable, to dissuade animals from eating them when not yet ripe. Ripening changes the structure of the tannins through polymerisation – an increase in their overall length due to the combination of smaller molecules – and interaction with pectins (sugar compounds whose presence increases with maturation) and anthocyanins (red colouring compounds). Different harvest dates therefore mean different tannin structure and, ultimately, different tannic structure of the final wine, provided no corrections are made in the cellar. In wine, they originate primarily from the skin, seeds, and stems of the grapes. During alcoholic fermentation, the juice, skins and pips (and stems if the winemaker decides to do full or partial whole-cluster fermentation) macerate together. As sugar is processed and alcohol produced, colour and tannins are released into the wine. Tannins are water-soluble; the longer the skins and pips macerate during and after alcoholic fermentation, the more tannic the wine will be. White and rosé wines are fermented by excluding skin contact, and tannin levels are lower than in reds. White wines fermented with extended skin and pip contact have tannins, and the colour changes from yellow to amber. Tannins can be best described through the tactile sensations they produce, like mouthfeel rather than aroma or flavour. Bitterness is a taste character, while astringency is a textural sensation. Even though tannins are not flavour compounds, they can produce a feeling of bitterness in addition to the mouth-coating sensation, especially towards the end of the tongue. This is particularly true for young red and orange wines. Some grapes are naturally higher in tannins than others. Varieties notably high in tannins include cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo, sangiovese, malbec, mourvèdre/monastrell, syrah/shiraz, tannat and tempranillo. Thinner-skinned grapes – such as pinot noir, gamay, and grenache yield less tannic wines. The latter also accounts for the different expressions of the same variety originating from different regions. Barossa shiraz is softer than a Rhône syrah. In terms of winemaking, decisions such as fermentation temperature, length of maceration, number and vigour of punch-downs or even the type of yeasts used will have an impact on the amount of tannins that are extracted from the grapes and leached into the wine. The amount of wood tannins leached into the wine increases the longer it remains inside the barrel. Finding the sweet spot at which the ideal wood influence has been achieved is a complex and extremely subjective decision. The presence of tannins generally gives wine more longevity. Tannins are mostly associated with red, dark rosé and skin-macerated white wines.