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Tight Wad Oenophile - Summer Sippers Edition

Posted on June 24, 2017

Presented by Nancy and Abigail

It was a perfect â€œalmost summerâ€ evening for our bargain hunter tasting and we had 19 eager oenophiles ready to discover their next favorite summer sippers. The following were presented in order of tasting:
Domaine des Aubuisieres Vouvray Brut - $26.99
Loire Valley, France
The Chenin Blanc grape shone brightly in our welcoming glass of bubbles. Bernard Fouquet, wine maker, is a star performer in the Loire and his wines are internationally recognized as being among the best available. Â Lovely, fresh, creamy and wallet friendly!
Vina La Rosa La Palma Rose - $14.99
Cachapoal Valley, Chile
La Palma is Spanish for palm tree and at ViÃ±a La Rosa, the vineyards share the land with thousands of native Chilean palm trees - hence the name. This Rose is a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon at a price that will make you blush with pleasure. Aromas of wild strawberry and red cherry and a hint of apple and pear. On the palate you'll find luscious notes of very ripe strawberry and hits of red apple and ripe pear. A mouth-filling array of flavours, with crisp acidity and a clean finish. La Palma RosÃ© pairs nicely with green salads, grilled vegetables and California rolls. $14.99
Lot 205 Winery Chardonnay - $14.99
California
This California winery was especially created to produce affordable wines that everyone can relate to. Whether you have a well-tuned palate or are just getting your feet wet in this crazy world of wine, Lot 205 won't disappoint! Â This is a ripe and generous Chardonnay showing aromas of baked apple, ripe citrus, pineapple, toasty oak and a touch of butterscotch. Â The wine is clearly intended for drinking now! Lush and smooth on the palate, its creme brÃ»lÃ©e oak notes and fruit keynotes of baked pear and pineapple make it a great partner for meatier grilled fish such as ahi and equally delicious with lighter poultry dishes.
Verum Pinot Noir Patagonia - $23.99
South America, Patagonia
Our first red was from a small boutique winery thatâ€™s still family owned. Verum is a beautifully priced Pinot Noir from Patagonia, Argentina's southernmost tip. Notes of cherries, clay and spice, this red is a winner paired with duck, chicken, turkey or lamb.Â Everyone loved the price as much as the wine!
Diego Murillo Organic Malbec - $10.99
South America, Patagonia
Best value of the night, hands down! Organic, family owned, and soooo wallet friendly! Patagonia is one of the world's southernmost wine regions and just 1,400 miles north of Antarctica! Aside from being organic, it's very affordable and very, very cheerful. Rich, smoky aromas, ripe black cherries and dark earth with an abundance of spice. Lots of dark fruit, cocoa and prune flavors. Smooth and hearty with a mouthwatering spicy finish.
Borgata Primitivo di Puglia - $17.99
Puglia, I...

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Summer Wine Pairing Ideas Part 2 - Chicken and Pork

Posted on June 21, 2017

Looking for more summer wine pairing ideas? Here are some ideas for Chicken and Pork delivered to you by the wine staff of Kensington Wine Market. If Â you are looking for pairing ideas for beef and fish you can look here. Read on to see pairing options from Bryan, Abigail, and Davis.

Chicken

Bryan

Crivelli Ruche 2016 - $42.99
What a beautiful aromatic crunchy wine. Ruche is a great Piedmontese red from Castagnole Monferrato (Asti area) it (should) be a must try. Floral with geranium and rosy violet like tone. Soft and caressing with touches of quince, apricot and wild fruits. Try with "cacciatora" chicken. "Hunter" chicken with onions, herbs, peppers and tomatoes.

Poggio Sole Chianti Classico - $29.99
This 'modern interpretation' of Sangiovese is supple and fresh. A Kensington Wine Market exclusive - this Italian wine has wonderful structure and concentration. Try with Italian chicken fricassee - chicken stewed in tomatoes and mushrooms.

Abigail

Sumenjak Alter 2013 â€“ Jakobski dol, Slovenia -$31.49
A so-called â€˜orange wineâ€™, this Riesling and Chardonnay blend is a perfect for people wanting to try something different. Produced just outside Maribor, Slovenia, this wine is fermented on skins, in open vats for 5 days, and then fermented further and aged for 2 years in wooden barrels. It produces a wine with a golden/amber colour, with notes of apples, citrus, nuts and stone, and bright acidity. Pair with homemade grilled chicken Caesar salad.

Terre di Leone Valpolicella Classico 2014- Veneto, Italy
From a small, family-owned production in North East Italy, this wine is a true representation of Valpolicella Classico. With a complex body and racy acidity, this wine shows notes of spice, red berries and a touch of oak. Recommend serving with a slight chill, alongside a â€˜fresh off the grillâ€™ chicken burger.

Davis

Tiare Collio Sauvignon - $32.99
Collio is found in Friuli right at the northern tip of Italy. The cool climate and clay soils are perfect for producing the incredibly unique and bold Sauvignon Blanc. The wine is fermented in Stainless steel, but 20% does see malolactic fermentation to soften the acidity of the wine. Once you pour a glass you will be bombarded with intense mango and apricot, with hints of grapefruit and elderflower, and strong minerality on the palate. The acidity and bold fruit flavours will match perfectly with spicy and sticky grilled chicken.

Coca I Fito Tolo do Xisto Mencia - $32.99
Coca i Fito is owned by two brothers that have vineyards in Northeast and Northwest spain, who tend to focus their wines on being modern, yet still an expression of the soil the grapes are grown in. Mencia is a cousin of Cabernet Franc found in northwestern Spain above Portugal, in this case grown in a sub region called ...

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The Refreshing Beers of Summer

Posted on June 21, 2017

Finally,Â our long winter is over! At long last,Â we wake from our hibernation and shed our sweaters and boots, puffy coats, and prepare to rejoice in the biological production of vitamin D. The first thing that comes to mind after all that is "What's going to be my beer this summer?" Can I choose just one? Probably not, but heck that's why I put on tastings like this one! Now, Andrew is against me taste testing all these beers all at once on my own for some reason, so I invited 18 or so of our good customers, and asked Peasant Cheese for some tasty accompaniments, and started cracking bottles! So get ready for this veritable water slide of refreshing beers!
Yellow Dog Take a Walk Wit: A Belgian Witbier with pillowy frothy head, soft wheaty malts with a light sweetness along with notes of orange and pineapple with hints of spice and coriander. ($4.99 for a 472mL tall can)
Wild Rose Ponderosa Gose: This is refreshing incarnate! A tart, light and lightly salted wheat beer made with passionfruit, and it ainâ€™t messing around. Not too sour as to turn off the novice beer drinker, and complex enough to satisfy the most stubborn of beer geeks! ($12.39 for a 4-pack of tall cans)
Coronado Sea Coast Pilsner: A beautiful, spicy and floral pilsner with crisp bready malts and a refreshing bitterness. Seems to cross the lines between German and Czech.(Currently out of stock)

Blindman Saison Lumiere: Crisp and spicy, low in alcohol and ready for lunch! Blindman makes one of the best Saisons in Alberta, and itâ€™s always a treat to get a keg or two! ($10 for 1L, $19 for 2L growler pour)
Four Winds Pale Ale: Smooth pale malt keeps the beer going down easy. Light caramel and a soft but prominent bitterness come through along with flavours of orange, and a touch of pine. (Currently our of stock)
Bridge Side Cut NEIPA: Absolutely saturated with mango, citrus pith and guava notes, along with a hint of spearmint herbaceousness, and a full feeling(not too heavy) body. ($15 for 1L, $29 for 2L growler pour)
Cascade Apricot Sour (2014 vintage): Moderately full and intensely sour. Cascade does not mess around. Giant lactic puckering oily acids, dense enough for bright apricot tones to dance on top of. The 3 years spent in the bottle rounded out all the sharp edges, leaving elegant deliciousness.($44.49 for a 750mL bottle)
Collective Arts Stranger than Fiction: A full-bodied porter with plenty of roast flavours as well as hints of molasses and chocolate. Ridiculous amounts of chocolate and pale ale malts make this porter smooth and creamy. ($3.79 for a 473mL can)
Not bad right? Of course, I can't discriminate on beer colour -that would be wrong- so you see I cover all bases that way. So what were the favourites of the night you ask? Well, they are only a tiny bit surprising, but first place was the Bridge Side Cut, followed by Four Winds pale, and coming up in a very close 3rd, Blindman Sa...

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Summer Wine Pairing Ideas Part 1 - Beef and Fish

Posted on June 12, 2017

Summer seems to be here - at least in so much as summer is ever here in Calgary. The days are getting longer and hotter and even if it ends up raining it still feels like a good time to barbeque.

With that in mind here are some summer wine pairing ideas to match with the meal you want to enjoy. In part one we will cover a few different ideas for Beef and Fish as chosen by our wine staff. Bryan, Abigail and Davis know their stuff so we asked them what their current favourite pairing ideas are.

Beef

Bryan

Heidler Loss Gruner Veltliner 2015 - $23.99
This Austrian White Wine comes to us from the Heidler Family which has been producing wine in the Langenlois region for more than two centuries. They are pioneers in ecological wine growing. This wine is precise and clean with generous richness. Spicy (peppery) and tangy, very refreshing. Try pairing with spicy Sichuan beef and grilledÂ vegetables orÂ ThaiÂ CurryÂ WithÂ eggplant, sesame seeds and basmatiÂ rice.

The Hedonist Tempranillo - $27.99
When was the last time you drankÂ Australian Tempranillo? This super limited biodynamic Red Wine from the Mclaren Vale may surprise you. Full of dark chocolate covered Atramentous Cherries, fragrant anise, peppery plum with silky tangyÂ tannins. Enjoy with slow-cooked beef shankÂ Osso BuccoÂ with lemonÂ gremolata.

Abigail
Coca i Fito Tocat I Posat Emporda - $49.99
Sourced from the beautiful coastal region of Emporada (just south of Barcelona), Tocat I Posat Negre is a beautiful blend of old vine Garnacha and Carinena. The wine is a beautiful representation of Emporada, with the limestone and slate-based soil coming through on the palate, accompanied by delicious black fruit. Enjoy with chimichurri steak.
Barrel Monkeyâ€™s Shiraz 2014 - $22.99
Hailing from the Mclaren Vale, this wine is an ode to new winemakers, who all start out as â€˜barrel monkeysâ€™. They spend their days dragging hoses, clambering over barrel stacks and digging out and scrubbing tanks. The wine itself is generous, with rounded tannins, and subtle notes of vanilla and smoke coming from the use of American Oak. Deep crimson, with stewed dark plums, mulberries and spicy blackberry, this liquid velvet wine is perfect with a steak fresh from the barbeque.
Davis
Carlisle Two Acres Mourvedre Blend - $63.99
A unique Russian River field blend made from Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Carignan, Peloursin, and Alicante Bouchet planted 117 years ago. Most years they pick and ferment the varietals separately, but in 2014 the grapes happened to ripen all at once and they did a co-fermentation, which has made for a very interesting wine. Despite only having 15% new oak, this wine is big, loaded with dark fruit, Christmas spices, burnt caramel, plum, and cinnamon. Try Carlisle Two Acres with grilled beef, either in a Â ...

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New Beers for June 7

Posted on June 8, 2018

Hello beer fans!
Iâ€™m back with one more quick update before you get your weekend started. Just a quick note regarding a few new arrivals this week, current growler pours, and a new community support initiative from Village brewing, so here we go!
Being a very community oriented business, Village has reached out to local community associations in a generous way! Until August 31st of this summer, donate the receipts from your Village beer purchases (this can be done in-store) and the West Hillhurst community association will receive 15% back in donations! This is a fantastic opportunity to quench your thirst AND help out your community!
Ok, now onto some beer! Here are the new products, growler pours, and some sale products!
Lemon and Lime Kettle Sour by Blindman: Lightly sweet, lightly tart, with big lemon and lime notes all over the place! This is perhaps both one of the best patio beers for this summer, and a fantastic radler replacement for those looking for something different! ($14.39 for a 4-pack of cans)
Saison du Parc by Dieu du Ciel: As always with Dieu du Ciel's limited releases, you won't want to miss this tropical fruity and spicy saison. Notes of passionfruit, pineapple and citrus all rest on a wonderful grainy bed with light funk and spice notes, with a lively carbonation. ($16.29 for a 4-pack of bottles)
Tart nâ€™ Juicy sour IPA by Epic: Tart, crisp and zingy sour combined with a fruity and nearly bold IPA! Epic brings you the best of these two awesome styles with Tart nâ€™ Juicy. The single can format is perfect to bring on a hike to quench your thirst! ($4.49 for a 355mL can)
Take a Walk Wit by Yellow Dog: Take A Walk is a Belgian Witbier with pillowy frothy head, soft wheaty malts with a light sweetness along with notes of orange and pineapple with hints of spice and coriander. ($4.99 for a 473mL tall can)
On the olâ€™ bar, Iâ€™m pouring these goodies(until they are gone that is!):
-Coronado Seacoast Pilsner
-Trolley 5 High Fives IPA
-Four Winds Pale ale
-Powell Street Hop Hash IIPA

And coming up on deck is Outcastâ€™s New England Super Session, Bench Creek Pale Horseman Pale, and Bridge brewingâ€™s Side Cut New England IPA.
And finally, there are some remnant sale items from our big birthday sale, and for a limited time you can still take advantage of these savings! These include select beers from Stone(25% off), The Bruery(up to 25% off), Still meads (20% off), Tilquin Quetsche (20% off), Rogue (15% off), La Trappe (25% off), Dunham beers (15% off) and Stillwater beers (15% off).
So thatâ€™s about all for now. Be sure to come in and check the new growler pours as I tweet them!
And on that note, follow me on Twitter @ShawnsBrewsCGY.
Until next week,
Cheers!

Shawn
Beerguy@kensingtonwinemarket.com
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