SommEvents

What determines your character? North Americans believe that the month you were born and the positions of the planet do. The Japanese are convinced that your blood type decides your personality. And for centuries, the Chinese have firmly claimed that it is the year of your birth that maps out your behaviours. At SommEvents, we believe that everything you need to know about a person can be found in their wine taste! So, what does your taste in wine say about you?

To start, let’s look at some general preferences:

Red

You are a robust wine drinker who likes to drink loudly and with friends. You enjoy drinking with a company and at parties.

White

White wine drinkers are quieter and tend to drink a little less. Though they don’t shy away from friends, white wine drinkers are comfortable have a quiet glass by themselves at home while watching TV.

Expensive

If you tend to drift to the pricier wine aisle, you are proud of your knowledge and taste in wine. You are not afraid to say “this is what I like and I want everyone to know it”.

Boxed Wine

Unpretentious and not fussy, boxed wine drinkers just want to get down to the business. They like what they like; not because someone tells them they should like it. Boxed wine drinkers tend to enjoy wine as a social event; they like the camaraderie.

French

If you prefer to drink wine from France, then you have dreams of going abroad and visiting foreign lands. Romantic and wistful, you love to send your heart and taste buds on exotic adventures.

Now, let’s look at variety:

Cabernet Sauvignon

Strong, assertive, and direct, those who prefer Cabernet Sauvignon have personalities that command attention and demand to be heard.

Merlot

In contrast, Merlot drinkers are laid back and affable conversationalists; They are easy to get along with and up for anything.

Pinot Noir

Enthusiasts of Pinot Noir are elegant and graceful, but demand to have it their own way.

Shiraz

The life of the party, Shiraz drinkers are the free spirits who dance all night and are spontaneous. They drink life in as much as they drink wine.

Riesling

The wine-drinkers that everyone likes. Riesling drinkers are very nice and down-to-earth. They give good advice and you can always count on them to be a good friend.

Sauvignon Blanc

Connoisseurs of Sauvignon Blanc are classy and sophisticated. They like complicated conversation and are drawn to complexities. Always an Alpha, they are in charge of everything they do.

Malbec

Deep and soulful, those who drink Malbec also love long, heart-to-heart conversations. Getting caught up in the detail, be prepared for some serious talks when drinking with them. They prefer a few good close friends than a crowd.

So, what does your wine taste say about you? Want to learn more about wine in a fun and friendly event? At SommEvents, we match your fun event with wine. Whether it is a product launch, a client appreciation day, or a team-building event, SommEvents will make sure that everyone remembers it. Some of our events can include a wine-tasting course, wine etiquette, and even a chef-catered dinner. Whatever you are looking for, we can provide. Discover wines in a fun event-setting. Contact us today!

Merlot is famous for being one of the main components in Bordeaux wine blends. Being America’s second-favorite red wine, after Cabernet Sauvignon, it holds its own in the world of wine. With less tannins than Cabernet Sauvignon, it is more food-friendly. On the palate, you can expect to experience notes of cherry, plum, chocolate, bay leaf, and vanilla. Depending on the blend, Merlot can be oak forward or more plum forward. Merlot is considered a medium-full-bodied wine with little dryness but an even presentation of tannins and acidity. This combination makes it ideal for pairing and “plays well with what’s on your plate” if you will.

When it comes to picking the perfect cheeses to pair with a “crowd-pleasing Merlot,” you can go pretty far on the cheese variety scale- from sharp cheddar to light creamy brie. With less dryness in this wine, it makes it more compatible with heavy and light taste profiles, compared to their more tannins forward cousin, Cabernet Sauvignon. When pairing with other foods, think tomato-based sauces, creamy, and rich. A fire-roasted pizza, bbq chicken, beef short rib, or a rustic ratatouille. This wine would also pair beautifully with a roasted turkey…perfect for Thanksgiving dinner!

At this stage, you might be wondering “how do I try them together?” Well here is the standard cheese and wine pairing order of events:

Take a bite of the cheese by itself to assess its taste

Take another bite and hold it in your mouth with the wine

Consider how the two interact with each other to determine if it’s a match

Now with the tasting knowledge, the cheeses we suggest pairing with Merlot are gorgonzola, brie, camembert, and cheddar.

The first cheese we suggest pairing with Merlot is a gorgonzola. Gorgonzola as a cheese is sharp, creamy, with a hint of sweetness to offset the pungent properties which are prominent in blue cheeses. This cheese is known for taking simple pasta and burger dishes to the next level. Similar to Merlot, it is considered a “full-bodied cheese” for its richness and complexity in taste. The creaminess and slight sweetness of the cheese marries well with Merlot, but the sharp bite it can have at the end helps the cheese not get lost in the tannins or acidity of the wine.

The next cheese we suggest pairing with Merlot is brie. Brie can be mild and slightly chalky or decadently gooey and quite strong in flavor. Pairing with a Merlot might seem strange, however, the subtle tanginess and rich cream flavors from the cheese pair surprisingly well with a full-bodied Merlot. These components in the cheese actually help subdue the acidity in the wine, leaving a nutty, buttery taste on the palate.

The third cheese we suggest pairing with Merlot is camembert. Similar to the Cabernet Sauvignon, camembert cheese will enhance the wine and make the fruity, dark berry flavors really shine. Camembert is loved for its rich and creamy texture and taste. Pairing this cheese with a Merlot will act as an enhancer for the wine, rather than the cheese. The richness of the cheese will coat your mouth in a way- once again minimizing some of the tannins and acidity in the wine.

The last cheese we suggest pairing with Merlot is cheddar. If you’re looking for a hard cheese to pair with a Merlot, a sharp cheddar will do the trick. The bold sharp flavors of cheddar contrast nicely with the rich and smooth characteristics of a Merlot. In this case, the Merlot will really showcase the bold flavors of the cheese, bringing out the sharpness but also the more subtle nutty flavors. As Merlot is a crowd favorite in the wine world, sharp cheddar is also a crowd favorite in the cheese world. You can’t go wrong with this match made in wine and cheese heaven!

For the next time, you go grocery shopping, you now have a list of cheeses to add to your list! Oh, and you can’t forget the Merlot of course. If you really want an enhanced Merlot tasting experience, try getting a few bottles from different regions, for example; Bordeaux, Italy, and Chile, to see how they stand up to each other and the cheeses!

Happy pairing and look out for next week’s wine and cheese pairings.

Cheers!

The SommEvents Team

Bring the right Wine to your Holiday Meal

As you know, there are so many different kinds of wine, it can be intimidating to select the right wine to go with your holiday meal of turkey and stuffing.  Some wines are made to have on their own, some wines are made to cellar and wait decades to drink and there are some wines that are made to have with food, all kinds of food.

Some people have very different opinions on what wine to drink with holiday fare.

I am happy to share with you some of my thoughts about the subject of turkey and stuffing paired with a variety of wines, such as rosé, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

A Holiday Turkey Goes Best with these wines

Starting with a rosé wine to go with turkey and stuffing, which I really enjoy when the stuffing is a light one. A friend of mine does a stuffing with cheese and mild sausage which keeps the stuffing lighter than the traditional bread stuffing.  With this cheese and sausage stuffing, I enjoy a nice dry rosé wine from Provence, France.  This keeps the wine lighter and fresh to go with the turkey and a side of stuffing.

An ideal wine for turkey and stuffing is a Pinot Noir from Europe.  I specify from Europe as the Pinot Noir from the west coast of North America tends to be much more full-bodied and could over-power the meal.  Then you have the Pinot Noir from New Zealand which is a nice in-between that is also enjoyable with turkey and stuffing.  Pairing a Pinot Noir with your turkey and stuffing keeps the wine and meal well balanced so that neither the food nor the wine takes over but are very enjoyable together.

For those of you who enjoy that full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah/Shiraz, this pairs very well when your stuffing has nuts, bread and sausage in it. This is usually a stronger stuffing and has a distinctive taste.  This is when a full-bodied wine is a good pairing to go with the turkey and stuffing.

If you are bringing the wine for the turkey and stuffing holiday meal, ask your host what type of dressing he/she will be making and pair the appropriate wine to go with it.  You will give all the guests at the table a new experience of pairing your wine with your turkey and stuffing dinner.Enjoy your turkey and stuffing this holiday with a new twist on your wine selection!

Interested in learning more about wine? Why not have a wine tasting class at home? SommEvents is now booking for January 2020. Contact us today to get started!

Mulled Wines are a time-honoured holiday tradition around Christmas in most old-world countries. They can add some warmth to our cold and short winter days and has evolved over the time. I am often asked where the tradition stems from, and what kind of wine to use when making Mulled Wines.

What is Mulled wine?

Mulled wine can be served either warm or as a cold drink and uses the following ingredients:

Simmering Wine

Brandy or Cognac

Sugar and spices such as cinnamon and star anise

It’s History

According to Wikipedia, Mulled Wine originated in Rome during the 2nd century, and was first recorded as spiced and heated. The Romans would use the heat from the wine to protect their bodies against the winter weather. When the Romans had defeated Europe, their love for mulled wine spread across the commonwealth and the regions they traded with. In Nordic countries like Sweden, mulled wine is referred to as, gløgg (sometimes spelled as glog or glug) as is a popular drink of choice during the Christmas season.

There are lots of different variations of Mulled Wines recipes.  We share a few of our favourite Mulled Wine recipes below.

Mulled Wine Recipes

Classic Mulled Red Wine Recipe

4 oz Red Wine (preferably Zinfandel)

2 oz Unfiltered Apple Juice/Cider

5 Allspice berries

1 Cinnamon Stick

Orange Peel for garnish

1 oz brandy* (*optional)

Party-Sized Mulled Wine Recipe

1 bottle (750 ml) Red Wine (preferably Zinfandel)

1 1/2 cups Unfiltered Apple Juice/Cider

3 Tbsp Allspice berries

5 Cinnamon Sticks

Orange Peels for garnish

6 oz brandy* (*optional)

Directions: In a large pot, heat the apple juice, wine and spices together on the stove just until it starts to bubble on the sides of the pot (94º C). Strain the liquid into a glass and garnish with a curl of orange peel.

Tip! If you can’t find Zinfandel red wine, try Primitivo from Italy as it is the same grape varietal. Some recipes also call for white wine as an option and some add port or cognac to their mulled wines.  Feel free to add fruit such as raisins and figs and some fresh ginger. Add what you like and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Not crazy about mulled wines, try this seasonal cocktail!

Prosecco & Apple Cider (Recipe thanks to Brenda Sills, world renown travel agent)

Mix cinnamon and sugar on a plate large enough to hold the rim of your glass

Use a bit of lemon on the rim of the glass

Press the rim of your glass in the plate of cinnamon and sugar

Pour ½ Prosecco and ½ apple cider – or to your taste

Serve cold and enjoy

Cheers!

Indulge yourself this holiday season with a wine tasting or wine class, contact Sommevents today!

Source: Wikipedia contributors. (2019, October 15). Mulled wine. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:08, November 8, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mulled_wine&oldid=921330243

It’s icewine season and what a great season it is for those of us who enjoy and appreciate it.

I am often asked how this wine is made and why it is so expensive.

A wine can only be called icewine if the grapes have been left on the vine to freeze, then picked and pressed while the grapes are still frozen.  With these conditions in mind, you have to realize that the grapes are often left on the vine well past the time most grapes are picked and made into wine. The grapes for icewine will sit longer on the vine, exposed to all the elements, and will lose some of their juice and moisture.  The result is a lot less juice to come out of each grape.  The other factor to take into consideration is that the grapes need to be picked while still frozen, which means this is often done in the middle of the night/they are often picked in the middle of the night to ensure they stay frozen until they are pressed.

Can you imagine the size of the grape, shriveled and frozen?  It is not very big.

It takes a lot of grapes to fill those tall, slim bottles of icewine.

Which brings me to the next question I am often asked.  Why are the bottles so small and so expensive?

It takes a very large number of frozen grapes to make icewine.  The grapes are hand-picked in the middle of the night, which requires a lot of people to work at very unusual hours, which in turn adds to the cost.  Then is bottled in half-bottles because it is not consumed like other wines.  When you serve it, do it in small amounts, maybe 1 or 2 ounces (30 to 60 ml), so that the bottle will serve a good number of people. You will get about 12 pours of 1 ounce (30ml) per bottle.  Compare this to a bottle of red wine which will offer 3 people about 2.5 glasses of wine.

If you don’t use all the wine in one evening, you can easily put it in the refrigerator with a good airtight cap and enjoy it for a few consecutive nights.

For those who don’t like their icewine quite as sweet, try a red, it’s just a little less sweet.  If you really enjoy the sweetness, then you will enjoy a Riesling or most white icewines.

Enjoy the season for icewine in the vineyards this winter and support all those courageous people who work nights in freezing weather to bring us such a great delicacy!

Interested in learning more about wine and how it is made please visit: www.sommevents.com/wine-tours/

Contact SommEvents for a personalized tour this winter season.

Referrals can help grow your business for a much lower cost than acquiring new clients… but how do you grow your referral business?  Simply ask for it!

This blog offers you some information on the importance of a referral program, how to build a referral program, and some ideas for referral programs that work. Let referrals be the largest lead generator for your business.

Tip #1

Most salespeople forget to ask for referrals and they are missing a huge opportunity to grow their business.  There is no fail-proof system but asking for a referral is a first good step.

There’s a 37% higher retention rate when customers are referred by other customers and a 200% increase in spending by customers acquired through referrals.

These are pretty remarkable statistics.  Why would you not want to use your existing clients as a referral source?

A referral program based on word-of-mouth and can carry a lot of weight in a person’s decision-making and help you grow your business.

Tip #2

People like to do business with those they like and trust, that is a known fact. When your clients have a positive experience, they like to share the experience with those they know.  That is the strength of word-of-mouth.  Keep those people talking about you with a program that will guarantee to keep up the chatter.  Reward them for spreading the good word about your business.

Tip #3

Give your referral sources an incentive to continue talking about your business.  That is the basis of a good referral program and why they work so well.

More than 50% of people are likely to give a referral if offered a direct incentive, social recognition or access to an exclusive loyalty program. –  Software Advice

As a result of referral programs, the loyalty that is built represents a substantial increase in sales and higher profit margins.

Referred customers bring you 25% higher profit margin. – Annex Cloud

A referral program can take many different forms: you can simply ask for the referral, you can offer a special discount when someone refers your product or service, or even offer free products to those who refer you to others. No matter the type of referral program you offer, it will grow your business and create loyalty.

At SommEvents we can help you create a distinctive referral program for your loyal customers and those who refer their friends and colleagues to you.  Select the type of wine that best represents your business image, combine it with innovative, branded packaging and personalize it with tasting notes and a personal thank you note. This creates a memorable referral gift and it also offers your client an experience they will remember you by.

After all, wine is one of the fastest growing consumable products.

“Over the next five years, Canada’s wine consumption growth rate will be twice that of the rest of the world”  Toronto Star Feb 17, 2015

SommEvents will help you build your own original referral program and you can watch your business grow.  Some of our clients tell us that our referral program has transformed their business to 75% referral for all their new business. Would you like to see your business double simply from referrals?

Contact SommEvents.com for more ideas and a quotation.

I often see the puzzled looks when I talk about how wine tastings are used to create team bonding, and I understand that this can seem like a bold idea.

Bold ideas are a good thing!

At SommEvents, we create all kinds of experiences—using wine—to create team bonding.

Here is one idea we use to create teams and watch them bond together:

We randomly choose people from the group to create new teams and put them to work at an experience they have never had before.  This gives the groups an opportunity to work together to solve a problem or guess a type of wine, or even create their own Bordeaux-style wine.   When people are out of their element, creating or doing something new, a bond is developed among those who share the experience.

No special skills are required to participate in these experiences, but it is wonderful to see which skills people bring to the experience.

Often, the group will see skills in one of their teammates that they never witnessed before.

For example, someone will have a great nose and can detect aromas the others can’t, making it easier for that person to help the team decide which wine they are tasting.

How about the person you have never seen take the lead on a project, who all sudden organizes the team and directs the whole operation to win the contest?

At one of our events, the winery owners liked the marketing pitch of a new wine so much, they asked the team if they could use the name of the wine they had made up.

We see that happen at every one of our events… someone comes out shinning and surprises the rest of the group.

How will your group surprise you?

A team bonding experience can take as little as two hours or it can be a full-day event.  We can come to your office or we can take your group to a winery, extending the experience for a full day.

Does someone in your group have special needs? Let us know and we can accommodate them.

Do you want us to join your group at a different location where you are having your annual meetings or retreat?  We can arrange that as well.

Let us know what you want to achieve, and where.

Contact us and we can make a wine event happen for your group!