Sushi in the Exchange District

Despite being located in the middle of the continent, Winnipeg is home to some fabulous sushi restaurants. Edohei, Wasabi (both locations), Asahi and Yujiro are all fabulous (and one is dangerously close to my home).

But the office where I toil away at my day job is located in a sushi dead zone. There are lots of other options (including one of Winnipeg’s only wine bars). But there isn’t anywhere nearby where I can scarf down some raw fish.

Edohei is about a fifteen minute hike away in good weather, and Asahi is close enough by bus. But there’s nowhere that I can walk to for a few pieces of salmon and a bakudan roll. So when I saw that BluFish, a new sushi restaurant had opened up on Bannatye (a mere three blocks from my door), I was curious.

All moved in

Thanks to the sweet sweet user-friendliness of WordPress, I’ve managed to transfer over all of my old posts from Blogger. You’ll notice that some editing needs to be done (all of my photos are royally screwed up) but I think that I’m all moved into my new home here.

So it’s official - set your bookmarks here: http://pegwine.wordpress.com/

I’ll post a link on the Blogger site for now, but I’ll probably take that site down after a couple of months.

And as part of the move to WordPress, a new member will be joining the team. Watch for more news and some new posts from the mysterious new writer in the next couple of weeks.

My new home!

This is the new home of Wine in the ‘Peg - which is currently active on Blogspot.com. Over the next few weeks, I plan on shifting as much of my existing material over as I can, and I hope to have this version up and running by early October.

Cheers!

South Africa takes on Washington - and wins!

There has been plenty of wine lately. I brought back some great bottles from BC (and I have a rant about the BC retail market too). But time is in short supply as my day job gets busier and busier. These tasting notes should (ahem) ‘wet’ your appetites for more - which will follow soon.

Franschhoek Vineyards ‘Anvil’ Sauvignon Blanc (South Africa, 2005)

Wow. Tasting notes for a South African Sauvignon Blanc. Who woulda thunk it? This is a well-priced and very tasty wine from a company apparently in the midst of reinventing itself. This wine didn’t appear on their website, but I’m sure it’s just their regular Sauvignon Blanc packaged for the North American market. If I’m wrong, feel free to correct me.

And as for the wine itself, it’s your typical South African Sauvignon Blanc. Lots of acidity, lots of fruit and a nice mineral wash in the background. This is the reason why South Africa is a better choice than New Zealand in the under $15 category (and the $15-20 category too). Before you ask, no, it wasn’t as good as Fish Hoek is. But I loved it anyways. It was great on its own, great with a fresh salad and just as good with the brutally hot chipolte-fuelled BBQ burritos that we concocted on Monday.

For $11ish, you could do a lot worse than this. More information is available from their Canadian distributor. And I’m sure that I’d make good wine too if I got to work in a place as beautiful as Franschhoek (check out that scenery).

It’s available at the Kenaston Wine Market. I’m not sure if it’s exclusive to them or if other private stores carry it too.

Snoqualmie Sauvignon Blanc (Columbia Valley, 2004)

This wine was a bit disappointing. I tried the Snoqualmie Syrah at the Winnipeg Wine Festival and loved it. So when I saw this wine on the shelf at the Kenaston Wine Market (not sure if it’s available elsewhere), I had to pick it up. At $14.95, it seemed like a good deal for a Washington State wine, and I’m always ready to try a new Sauvignon Blanc.

Not sure, but I do believe that Snoqualmie is owned by Chateau Ste. Michelle, although their website doesn’t advertise it. My Spidey sense tells me that CSM is involved, due to the web address on this tasting sheet.

Enough conspiracy theories. How was the wine? I guess disappointing would be the nicest way to put it. It’s well-made but the taste and texture was more in line with some of the bigger, riper Sauvignon Blancs coming out of California. It was aged on its lees, which gave it a creamier texture and riper taste than I expected.

The nose was full and ripe, and I swear I could pick out peaches in there. In the mouth, it was rich and creamy without too much acidity. More fruit (cantaloupe?), but no crispness. It was good, but not for me. I own my bias here. I really do prefer crisp, acidic Sauvignon Blancs and this didn’t fit the bill at all. If anything, it reminded me of a good (if light) Pinot Gris.

So I’ll pass on this in the future. But if you’re a Chardonnay fan looking for something different without straying too far afield, this would be a nice wine to try.

Vacation time

Just a quick update;

I’m headed out to BC for a few days and won’t be back until late next week. Since traffic on the site seems to have slowed down with the nice weather (and since my updates have been sporadic at best), I’m guessing that nobody will mind too much if I don’t post until the end of next week.

In the meantime, if you find yourself sitting at the computer, be sure to check out some of the links to your right. An update of the links section is LONG overdue, so I’ll try and add a few more links before I leave tomorrow.

And in other news, I’ve now got an email address set up for this site. If anyone has wine-related questions and comments, you can reach me here:

winnipegwineATgmail.com

(I don’t think I need to tell you to replace the AT with a @)

Cheers!