It is a VERY BIG RED.

This red wine has even exceeded my appreciation for the Heartland Shiraz I reviewed a few weeks ago.

It’s so big and luscious that I can only think of one term every time I have a sip: black cherry jam. Not the kind that Smuckers would make. But rather one that your grandmother would make with cherries as big as plums.

Like those Lapin cherries.  Have you ever had Lapin Cherries?

Nugan Estate Front of the Bottle - Am I BIG ENOUGH FOR YA?!

I know what you’re thinking…Brooks is on a huge Aussie Shiraz kick right now. And you’re right. The wines coming out of that region are awesome.

The other reason is that the people deciding what to buy in our government run system are picking wines that are really good from Australia. We have a huge selection of well merchandised, priced and displayed Australian reds in our liquor store.

This red should be winning awards left and right. The label says that you’ll get pepper in addition to other flavors - I didn’t get much pepper…probably because my palette is fried from eating so many spicy things.

2006 Nugan Estate Shiraz Back of the Bottle

If you want a REALLY hot and spicy red, check out my Seven Sinners Syrah review.

Anyway, this is a wine for special occasions or a night together with that special someone. It doesn’t borderline on a desert wine, but definitely will evoke that cherry jam flavor.

I totally loved this wine. If you like robust, full reds, I highly recommend you find this one and try it - it’s NOT going to let you down.

I promise.

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heartland shiraz front

I haven’t.  In fact, the more I drink wines, the more I realize how much I like them.  And also how much I don’t know about them.

Recently, I tried a wine by famed Ben Glaetzer called Heartland Shiraz. This stuff is very very good.  I like big, bad, huge smooth wines.  The kind you need a knife and fork to drink. The kind of wine that if Chunky Soup did a commercial for, would sound something like …”drinks like wine and is bigger than a huge, heavy meal”….or something like that.

This wine is is big AND smooth.  Bigger and smoother than Boris Karloff and Barry White put together.  Even people who don’t like red wine will like this product.

Anyway, what you need tonight is Heartland Shiraz.  Just get it. And drink it with someone you care about. It’s awesome product and I’ve had a few bottles since these pictures were taken.

heartland shiraz back

This is a great bottle to take out as a gift or to drink when you’re tired of slurping three buck chuck.

It’s fantastic stuff (as is anything Ben Glaetzer makes).   In Western Canada, you’ll pay about $27.00 a bottle.  I saw some in California on my last trip for about $14.

Heartland Shiraz is one of my favorite red wines.

Let me know if you like it or if you’ve got something better!

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raw cacao nibs

For the past year, I’ve been snacking on cacao nibs…I don’t remember where I read about them…but if you pressed me for an answer…I think it was my friend John Berardi out east.

I am always looking for natural ways to help my body deal with stress, recover from my crazy workouts and simply get more out of this awesome life. I read about cacao nibs and decided to try them.  Since then, I’ve been hooked.

Dark chocolate is something I love for many reasons, including keeping depression out of my life.

Cacao (in its raw form) happens to be one of the best, most incredible superfoods you can find anywhere!

According to the research that I’ve done, raw cacao is the highest source of antioxidants of any food. It also provides a huge amount of magnesium, which happens to be the most deficient mineral for us North Americans.

It will come as no surprise to the yummy snack cognoscenti that Cacao is more commonly known as the main ingredient in chocolate and that’s why hack ‘health experts’ like me advise eating chocolate that is at least 70% dark chocolate - because anything less is just junk food in my opinion.

You can get raw cacao in two main forms: raw cacao nibs and raw cacao powder.  The company whose products I like the best is Navitas Naturals. I am in no way affiliated with Navitas, I just happen to like their products.

I buy the cacao nibs and eat a teaspoon sized helping twice a day. It comes in a self sealing, plastic bag that I usually take on the road if I’m travelling.  I get a bit of a boost each time I eat them.  I just pour the nibs into my hand and chuck ‘em back…ensuring that I chew them very well.

These things are truly a SUPER food and you want to eat them simply because they have to be the single best thing you can put in your mouth.

Eating them is nowhere near as pleasurable as chocolate, however, because they have more antioxidants than blueberries, green tea, cherries or red wine combined, I don’t have any trouble muscling them down.

Navitas also has a pure cacao powder which you can put in smoothies too.

Cacoa has one of the highest ORAC numbers of any food.  ORAC is the standard for how well food can scavenge free radicals from your body and get rid of them.  (That’s the bad stuff that causes inflammation, cancer, etc. )  Wikipedia has a good description of the ORAC rating. 

Sadly…they don’t even have cacao nibs on their list!!!

Anyway, cacao nibs are loaded with Iron, Fiber and some essential fats.  Good for your skin, hair and immune system.  And whenever I eat them, I find that the effects last for hours and help me to relax and curb my appetite.

If you’re looking for a cost effective, extremely healthy addition to your lifestyle, Google this stuff and try it out.

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The scenery here in the Okanagan valley is as beautiful as anything you’ll see anywhere in the world, the wines are usually excellent and the people are friendly.

The Naramata bench is a very small, boutique wine region within our larger Okanagan Wine Growing Region - where I live.

If you like wine, beautiful scenery and hot weather - you’ve got to visit. One of the wineries we visited was Hillside Winery, which is right on Naramata Road.

We tried all their wines and picked up a bottle of their Mosaic, which is a blend of Merlot, Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

I love the big, beefy reds and this 2005 they were selling was awesome.

Okanagan reds have historically been a little on the green side (meaning not ready to drink yet), but some of the wine makers in the valley are now producing reds that are ready to drink today or lay down for a few years and get even better.

Hillside’s 2005 Mosaic is one of those wines that’s ready to drink today and with it’s novel blend of the above varietals (which I love each on their own) it’s got incredible complexity and must be tasted to be understood and appreciated.

Here’s some video of the winery and their excellent, professional staff.  There was no tasting fee at Hillside.

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Second, this wine was a 2004 vintage when I bought it, so it’s had a good 4 years to lay around (hopefully without too much temperature change and movement). Many Syrahs today are great right out of the bottle.

Most of the stuff that came out of Napa (where this wine is from) in 2004 was good product. It was a great year for most vintners in the “valley”. So for trying out a new label, ‘04 it was a safe gamble in my opinion.

Third, I just loved the packaging. I liked the name of the winery - Seven Sinners. Hmmmmm. As I stood in the aisle holding the bottle contemplating what’s in this brands name, I had fantasies of the owners being seven ex-cons who had successfully laundered their money and parlayed it into a mainstream winery business, implicitly naming their legitimate enterprise to showcase their eternal bond of dirty deeds. This particular product was the tribute to their former business model: RANSOM.

Probably not! But it was a fun thought just the same.

The glass was big and strong, not el-cheapo for sure. And of course the label, who can miss the label: Flames. I love the symbolism of fire and this product’s merchandising did a great job of everything good merchandisers should do. On the shelf in the store and on the table at home, this bottle has a presence. It looks bad. Not Michael Jackson bad, but Harley Davidson bad. Devil bad. Borderline evil.

Fourth and last, it was on sale. The regular price was $35 and I think I paid $28. I’m always up for a deal on decent wine and this was no exception.

Ok - onto a quick review. Decanted for 20 minutes. On the nose, lots of cherry and a little menthol for me.

On the palette, I could have sworn that someone artificially flavored this product with ground chili. At first I thought the bottle might even be ‘off’. Then I thought - whoa, this stuff is way too hot…almost like what a straight shot of isopropyl alcohol must be like. Then I realized it wasn’t hot in the sense of too much alcohol, but hot in the sense of spicyness.

Spice is the overwhelming quality that I and others at dinner picked up. It is actually a very novel twist on what is otherwise a very smooth and drinkable varietal. Many will not like this product for it’s spicyness. It is a product that’s totally in line with the packaging on the bottle - now the flames made perfect sense to me.

If you wanted to cool off the spicyness, I’d suggest letting it breathe for a few hours and that might balance out the spicy quality with the other notes like dark red cherry. It does live up to its back label description of purity. It tastes pure.

The finish is even and strong, like most Syrah’s.

Could I drink this wine every day? No way. Would I drink it again? Probably not. It’s too much of a departure for my favorite Syrah flavor profile to buy again. But that’s just my preference. Was it worth trying? Absolutely. Value? Not great, at least here in B.C. In the U.S., probably much better value.

And let’s not forget about that packaging - it’s evil looking in a fun kind of way. Maybe you could bring a bottle to a biker party or your next Ouija Board outing to help summon the evil paranormal forces?

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This product is certified organic and is fair trade certified - so you’ll feel good buying this product because as it says on the side of the bar “it’s good for the planet, good for the growers and good for you”.

Chocolate is well known for its antioxidant properties and the high magniesium content is helpful for releasing tension in tight muscles. The little buzz you get from good chocolate doesn’t hurt either. Plus it just tastes soooooo good.

I’m always on the hunt for good, dark chocolate and when it’s mixed with two of my favorite spices: chili peppers and cinnamon, it’s even better. This product is terrific. It’s a little on the bitter side at 72% cacao, but has enough sweetness to balance itself out.

This product shows a few supplementary ingredients on the label: Horny goat weed, which according to a report by the Office for Food and Science at McGill University is alleged by the marketeers out there as both an aphrodisiac and sexual dysfunction aid. Do I really need that???? It also includes Maca root, which is backed by much more science as an adrenal support supplement. Lastly it includes Damiana leaf, which I’ve never heard of. But according to Wikipedia, the leaves of the Damiana plant used to be made into tea and used as an aphrodisiac by the Mexicans and South Americans to enhance love making.

Clearly Zazubean has a vision of what consumers of this chocolate bar should be doing after they eat it.

Anyway, it’s a great product that as of this writing can only be purchased online at Abaco Health, here in Kelowna of all places.

If you’re looking for something a little different, with some spice and great chocolate flavour, check this treat out. I paid about $5.00 CDN for it, which admittedly is quite high for a 56 gram chocolate bar, but if it delivers the goods based on the implied message in the ingredients, it’s got to be way cheaper than Viagra!

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We decanted this wine and allowed it to open up - for all of 10 short minutes before we got into it (we couldn’t wait). But I did take my time with the first glass. It went into a Riedel tumbler, which allowed for some of the warmth from my hand to bring the temperature up a little faster. Once that happened it really started to open up. The color is a dark ruby - also consistent with the label description. On the palette, what stood out for me was the finish. I love a strong, balanced, lingering finish in the manly reds like cabs. With Pinots, that’s a little harder to achieve. This wine had all those finish qualities that I love. To me this is the wine that I want with a grilled New York steak and my favorite Cesar salad. It tastes like a Cab should - full bodied and strong. I’m going to lay another bottle of this down for a few more years and try it then. I like the packaging too. The heavy textured cotton label feels nice on your finger tips and is classy looking number. The glass is a quite a bit heavier than most of the South American producers. Way to go Argentina! I’m going to have another glass now…

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Okay - the price. I paid about $12 CDN for this wine which is at the low end of the price range for wine product in western Canada. I think the cheapest wine on the shelf here in B.C. is $8.00. Typically, I don’t get excited about wines at this price point, but lately we’ve been finding winner product that is worth talking about and I am going to review more of them. I am not a wine expert, but I am friends with a number of well known wine experts and wine makers here in the Okanagan valley. I’m sure many would agree this Jacob’s Creek is a decent value. So much so, that if you didn’t know much about wine, you could feel confident taking this wine to a party or adding it to the menu for a party you’ll be hosting to round out your selections while keeping price point down.

One of the things that made me go “hmmmm, this is interesting” is that I had this wine open for more than a few days. Granted, I had it sealed with the Vacuvin system, which does tend to prolong wine life for more expensive (read: better) wines. Typically wines at this price point don’t even last a day or two even with the Vacuvin system. In fact some of these cheaper wines fall apart by the end of the evening if they aren’t consumed by then.

Anyway, the flavor of this product was good, but not great and certainly not excellent. However, I don’t think that you would be disappointed with the flavor profile. Expect to smell some plum jam and fresh blackberries on the nose. On the palette the notes are the same, but you’ll get some dryness and a bit of oak. I think the dryness probably comes from the Cabernet and the softer notes like the plum, probably come from the Shiraz. This particular wine was a 2005, which means its had some time to age and mellow out.

Final conclusions: When you factor in the value equation, a different summary presents itself beyond just basic flavor. This is a product that I think will appeal to large percentage of the casual drinking population, it is a winner in my books for keeping the buzz going later in the night or if you entertain a lot on a budget and don’t want to drink something that tastes like foot soak. In fact, I would say this is a wine worth keeping a case of in the cellar (or under the bed).

Here’s my video review of the wine:

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