Grape Expectations: The Launch with Karen Principe

Wine tasting is an art, and we’re finally ready to pull the cork! Join us for the premiere of Grape Expectations, our new monthly deep dive into the world of wine. 

In this debut segment, we sit down with expert Karen Principe to deconstruct two distinct classics: the vibrant, orchard-fruited Gray Monk Pinot Gris and the structured elegance of Fleur de Charme Bordeaux.

Karen guides us through the professional essentials of a tasting—from using bread and coffee beans to cleanse the palate and nose, to the science behind the perfect cheese pairing. We explore the unique flavor profiles of each bottle and share the tips you need to host your own tasting at home.

Make sure to tune in at the start of each month for more fabulous wine recommendations, fun facts, and perfect pairings!

Let us know your thoughts in the comments and leave us a review!

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Transcript

0:18

Hey there, welcome to a very special edition of Grape Expectations! Jennifer? This is the first official segment, Cam, that we're doing. Now, we did do a podcast before Christmas. But this is the inaugural segment of Grape Expectations. Right, and so, get your expectations. Ha ha, you like how I did that one? Jennifer, that's amazing. I don't know how you come up with these. That's incredible. Do listen to these monthly. That's right. So, this is going to be a monthly segment that we do with our very, very special guest. And Jennifer, as always, I'm going to let you introduce our guest. Cam, our guest today is our resident wine expert. This woman is amazing. She is none other than Karen Principe. That's right. Well, thank you for that beautiful introduction. That's so kind of you. Well, and I channeled Gene a little bit with my expectations there. I caught that. I caught that. She caught that. I didn't catch that. I caught it. I caught it. Anyway, so folks, we're glad to have you join us. This is a segment we're going to do monthly. And we thought it would be very interesting, as when we talked about in our podcast, to do a segment on wine and wine tasting and all that goes with that. And that's why we have Karen with us, because Karen, you are a wine expert. Well, yeah, I like to think I am, anyway. I study it. I've taken two levels with the WSET, W-S-E-T, and I'm practicing a lot as well. Right. That's the best part. That's the best part of being a wine expert, is you get to practice. So you have two levels. If you take the third level and then you will become an official wine sommelier. That's kind of the base level, like the starting level of a sommelier. So I know you have a very busy life, but are you planning on doing that third level? I sure am. You are? Yeah. Do you go somewhere to do that or how do you do that? Well, they actually offer it right here in Edmonton. Okay. Well, that's fantastic. Okay. So folks, we have the expert here for Grape Expectations. This is going to be an exciting segment. I am so excited about this. So why don't we get started this morning? Let's turn it over to Karen. All right. Let's do this. I'm so excited. I'm so glad to be back here with you. I had so much fun the last time and I'm looking forward to many more. Yeah, this is going to be great. Yeah, this is great. So today I brought two wines, one red one and one white one. We'll start off with the white one here. It's called, it's the Gray Monk Pinot Gris. Gray Monk? Gray Monk. Yeah, this is a Canadian wine in BC. From BC. Actually, Jennifer, would you mind doing the pouring? Sure! Would you pour out here three glasses? If I'm correct, Gray Monk is Kelowna or West Kelowna. It's in the Okanagan. Okanagan, yeah, yeah. Yes, that's right. Oh, can you get it? I have hand lotion on, people. Yeah, that's what she says, but that's not really the reason. Okay, so. So here we're starting off with the Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris. Yeah, Pinot Gris. Now, the interesting fact, Pinot Gris is a French style wine, where the Pinot Grigio is the same grape, but that's an Italian style wine. So we are drinking the Pinot Gris, which would be a French style wine. However, it's made right here in Canada. Okay. Now, but let me ask you the question then. So you explain to us perfectly the grapes and all of that. So whenever these wineries started, did they import these grapes from say France or Italy? How did they get started with this? Is it? Yeah, well, that would have been many years ago and they likely would have started their own vineyards. Right. With growing the grapes here. There is a chance. I'm not sure I know if they imported the grapes here or if they just grew the grapes themselves. Ah, I see. Okay. Yeah. Likely both. Yeah. Likely. So with this Pinot Gris, what I want to do before we actually start and sample the lovely wine we have here, we're going to cleanse our palates. So I brought us each a piece of bread. Okay. So when Karen walked in the door, I asked if we were having sandwiches. Yeah, that's right. You say the bread and thought... Because she walked in with the bread. Gonna be having peanut butter and jam or something. And this, I'm so excited to learn about why bread. Why bread? It's just a good cleanser for your palate. So you don't want to have, you know, if your teeth hurt, if you just brushed your teeth, or if you just had a glass of orange juice, it can really change the flavor of the wine. Interesting. So having a piece of bread, here we go. Let's just munch a little piece of bread. Yeah. Let's have a little piece of bread. There's a little bread. It's like a mini sandwich with nothing on it. It's kind of cool. It helps cleanse your palate. I feel it cleansing already. Yeah. Just to get ready for the flavor. So it just enhances the flavor. Yeah. And now another thing that you want to do is cleanse your nose. Now cleansing your nose, I have right here with me, the Wall Coffee Roasters Coffee Beans. See, I did know this as a way to cleanse your palate. Yeah. The coffee beans. To cleanse your nose, yes. I knew this not with wine though, but with perfume. When you go to like the perfume section, they, yeah, to cleanse it, yeah. Yeah. That smells good, doesn't it? It's a nice blend. I know. I could just, yeah. It smells so lovely. It smells so lovely. Okay. I feel my nose and my palate are now cleansed. Now, if you don't have your Wall Roasters coffee beans on you, you know what you can do? And this is, I think, a very interesting fact. Yeah. Sniff yourself. Now, like your arm. Yeah, not your arm pit. I wouldn't suggest your arm pit, but just sniff your forearm. Give it a sniff. Okay, wait a minute. Wait. Sniff your forearm. That's a way to cleanse your nose. Really? Yes. Okay, that's fascinating. That is the first time in my life. Yeah, that's amazing. I didn't know that's, yeah, okay. That's good. Isn't that great? Yeah, I like that. So you don't need anything but yourself. That's right. A little bread and yourself, and you're good to go. That's right. I like this. All right. So now we're going to take a sip of our lovely wine here, the Pinot Gris. So y'all can't see us because we're not on video. We can cheers, though. But yeah, we can cheers, and we actually are taking a sip of this. So here we go. Yeah. Now, flavors that you may be tasting here is stone fruit, like peach or nectarines. Oh, I do. I really like this. Maybe taste some pear. Pear? Pear. I taste pear. Can you taste pear? Yeah, sometimes it's hard to recognize what you're tasting, but when someone points it out, you're like, oh yeah, I can pick up a hint of that. I definitely feel the bread and the coffee bean has helped. Yeah. And then a hint of citrus, orchard fruits, melon, and there's actually just delicate spice notes. So it's not very spicy wine. I was going to say it's very fruity and floral. Yes, it's floral. Yeah, very good. See, you picked up on that. Thank you. Yes. Excellent. That's wonderful. This is a... It is. I'm sorry. She's good at this. She is. In the podcast, we saw that. She talked about it for days after. I did. Cam's just a little jealous of my wine knowledge. She's going to catch up. She'll take level one and two and she'll do level three with me. Then away we go. Then it'll be... I got to... This is a lovely wine. Full disclosure, I'm not a big wine drinker at all. I'm not. But I really like this. Yeah, it's lovely, isn't it? Yeah, it's a medium body. It's an off dry wine. And this is something that pairs well with seafood or a pasta with cream sauce. I could see that. Or even a chicken sandwich. Yes. Yeah. Now, you know what? You're so kind to bring some cheese today. Yeah. So we have some cheese to try with this wine. Cheeses that would pair well with this are creamy, mild. You drank all your wine. You're supposed to like keep the wine so that you can have the cheese. You're not supposed to say that. Yes, I can. No, you're not. Yeah, you're supposed to sample it, okay, we need to give him more wine. I'll sample the cheese. No, no more wine, but this could be a very long segment. So the cheeses that would pair well with this are creamy, mild type cheese, like a brie, which we have here today. We have some brie here. So yeah, we can try the brie and just see how it complements this wine. Well, that's a nice brie. I like that. Isn't that lovely? It's fabulous. And see how just it intensifies the flavor of the wine and the cheese is just lovely together. Oh, that's delicious. That really changes even what I'm tasting in the wine. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that fascinating how that happens? Just that how it enhances the flavors. It does. So you like that one? I love this one. I love that one. Great. And Karen, I think that this would be even just a nice like sipping wine without food. Some wines I feel you need food. You're right. And others like this, I feel you could just have a glass and be okay. You're absolutely right. Yeah. It's a lovely wine to sit out on the deck and have a glass of wine. You don't necessarily have to eat food with it. It's very, very lovely to have on its own. So this is the Gray Monk, 2024 Pinot Gris. Limited edition. We'll put this up on our website so people can see it. And yeah, I really like this. This is really nice. I'm glad you like this one. Karen, I have another important question. Karen, price point of a wine like this? Yes. Oh, good question. I was going to write it down. Even a range. I think that one was about $25. Okay. And for a Canadian wine, that's not out of line. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. No, I bought a $30 wine at Christmas for my stew. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the guy told me it will be perfect in my stew. Yes. Yeah. It was all right. But anyway, yeah. Oh, wine is lovely. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was good. Yeah, you got to. Yeah, it's great. Just saying. I didn't know. I just asked the guy. He didn't know either. A lot of people have the expertise at the stores nowadays, and it's great to just ask advice. Next time I'm phoning you, I'm calling Karen. I should have done that. I didn't want to bother you, but next time I'm bothering you. No, you never. It's never a bother. Anytime. Anytime. Jennifer, could you pour this next one for us as I start chatting about this one? This one is a Bordeaux. So this is called Fleur de Charme, I think. I'm not sure. My French isn't very good. This Bordeaux is a blend typically of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This wine itself also has a blend of Cabernet Franc, and it's a French wine. So this is from France. With this one, with the blend, because it's a blend, it helps balance. So Cabernet Sauvignon can be a heavier wine, a very bold wine. So when you mix it in with the Merlot, it helps just to balance it. And this one, so the tannins are nice and balanced in this one. And this, we have a Merlot cheese here. Oh, yeah. To sample. Okay. Should we taste this? Cam, do you have any Merlot cheese? I do. I have a little piece of Merlot here. So should we try it without first? Try it without first? Perfect, Jennifer. See, she knows what she's doing. Don't egg her on. Yeah, she's so good. It'll just be all week. I mean, seriously. Okay, that's nice. Oh, it's definitely different than the last one, for sure. But yes. Yeah. One of the, I think you can you maybe taste the dark fruits? Oh, yeah. Definitely darker. Like a plum or blackberry? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So this is what you, and some spices. I was going to say, I can taste the spice. This one has a little bit of spice in it. Interesting. And this is very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the floral is more like a violet. Right. Floral. So what would you so so this would go well with meat? Yes. Yeah. So the types of meat that it pairs well with would be, very good. See, Cam, you're good too. Thank you, Karen. Very good. Very good. Not a competition. This one, yeah, chicken, pork, potatoes, that kind of dish would pair well. And then with the Merlot cheese, because there's Merlot in the wine and in the cheese, it would be a good complement. A little bit of cheese and... Oh, I wish you could all taste this online. That is so good. Oh, that's amazing. That's fabulous. It's delicious. Folks, listen, we're going to start selling tickets to this segment because y'all are going to want this. This is amazing. Isn't that great? Didn't you used to get a red wine cheese at Costco? Yes. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, and this is, this totally reminds me of that. Love it. Yeah. This is fabulous. It's delicious. I should have put this in my stew. This is way better. And again, it changes the flavor that you taste. Yeah. This is so good. Oh, that's great. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Unbelievable. I could just do this all day. Oh, you know what? We forgot to cleanse our palate in between. Oh, I'm good. I mean, this is fabulous though, man. But it probably would have been, yeah, it's probably a good idea, right, to get a clean, full, clean taste. But this is, I really love the taste of this. Yeah, the good thing is, yeah, the difference when you're trying a white wine and a red wine. Yes. They're significantly different. That's really good. So it's not as important. That's fantastic. Yeah, great. Let me see that, so we can tell everybody what this is over here. You want to take a look at that bottle of wine? There you go. Fleur de Charme Bordeaux, Superior, 2022, Product of France. Yeah, what would this cost? That one was $25.$25. So we're still in a good price range. We're still in a good price range. Yeah, very good price range. So this is a very nice wine. I can see this, like you say, with maybe your main course. And I would use, I would, not that I'm an expert on anything, but I would definitely use this in cooking. This would be a good cooking red wine. Yeah, and that's usually what we recommend, is if you like the wine to drink it, then you'll like to cook with it as well. Very nice. Fabulous. Well, we'll have this one on our website as well. I don't know how often I've gone to the French section in the wine store. No, it's true. People get used to, I think, certain countries and what they like. And sometimes you're a little afraid to like try outside the box. Yeah, it's good to experiment a little bit as well. But that's why we have Karen here, because she's helping us to step out of the box a little bit. And this is fantastic. So a beautiful white wine, a great red wine. This was fantastic. Great cheese. Incredible. I know. Folks, we'll have the wines up on our website so you can take a look at them. And you got to check it out because this is just amazing. And wow, what great wines. Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it myself. Anything else you want to tell us? It went so well with the cheeses. Anything else you want to tell us about any of these? No, just I hope you all enjoy it, give it a try. And yeah, I think that's a great idea. We should start having like a course and bring, inviting people. Because I just want to share it with everyone. Folks, where this could lead, one never knows, but we may have to have a studio audience. Yeah. And Karen can do the whole deal. Or a little event, Cam. A little event. A little event. We are talking about an event. Anyway, stay tuned for the Coffee In The Park event. And who knows how that'll shape out. But nonetheless, this is fantastic, folks. Check it out. Check out our website and share this weekly or monthly. I guess we're doing a monthly segment with everybody. Because I think this is fantastic. And let us know, did you try these wines and what did you think? Yes, that's right. Drop us a line. Go to our www. That's not the wine, folks. That's not the wine, folks. It's just Cam today. www.coffeeinthepark.com. And you can leave a comment in our section there. And just tell us what you think about this. Or maybe tell us, you might have served it at a party or at a dinner or something and what your guests thought about it or how you served it, that kind of stuff, and what you paired it with. Yeah. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Karen. So I'm so excited about this every month. This is going to be incredible. Folks, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your enemies. If you don't have a friend, this definitely is a good way to get a friend by saying, hey, listen, have you listened to Grape Expectations with Cam and Jennifer and Karen? It's fabulous. So every month we're going to be doing this and we hope you take a listen. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, everyone. Bye.