Mon | Dec 29, 2025

The wonderful world of wines

Published:Sunday | November 7, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Smiles and toasts all around from participants in Friday, October 29's wine-tasting session held at The Gleaner Company's North Street headquarters as part of the activities leading up to Restaurant Week. They are (seated from left) Ayako Robinson of Café Blue; Marjorie Burrough of Stewarts Automotive Group and Stephanie Scott of SSCO Events Management; (back row, from left) Barbara Ellington, The Gleaner's Lifestyle editor, David Walton, Appleton Estate; Trina Lowe; Brenda Wong of Pure Country; Kim Bernard of Stewarts Automotive Group; Debra Taylor, Appleton Estate; Ian Wong, Pure Country; Jean Lowrie-Chin, NORGE; Sharon Roper, Flow and Christopher Barnes, The Gleaner's deputy managing director. - Gladstone Taylor/Photographer

As sponsors of The Gleaner Company's Restaurant Week get ready for the weeklong event of November 13-20, Debra Taylor, category manager for international brands, representing this year's beverage sponsor Hardy's, conducted a wine-and-food pairing session for fellow sponsors at the newspaper on Friday November 29.

The very informative session will help sponsors to educate their staff, clients and families about the wonderful world of wines.

Topics covered included: the definition and classification of wines, wine-producing countries, types (red, white, rose), and style (sparkling, still); weight (light, medium, full). Debra Taylor, who facilitated the session, explained some of the more popular types such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Riesling.

Some key wine terms such as body, complexity, dry and complexity were explained, as were the range of red and white wine colours. Taylor also went through the tasting vocabulary and the importance of temperature to wines.

Hardy's wines are perfect for your favourite Jamaican meat dishes. Everyone's favourite stamp-and-go can be paired with Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, and if you are having ackee and salt fish for breakfast, try pairing this with a sparkling white wine and orange juice for a mimosa. Pair oxtail with Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon and pair curried chicken with a Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. Curried goat goes well with a Shiraz, roast beef is great with a Cabernet or a Shiraz and stewed peas is perfect with Merlot or Shiraz.

Present were: Pure Country's Ian and Brenda Wong, Stewarts Automotive's Kim Bernard and Marjorie Burrough, Norge's Jean Lowrie-Chin; Trina Lowe from Lascelles Wines, Flow's Sharon Roper; Appleton Estate's David Walton, Café Blue's Ayako Robinson, SSCO Events Management's Stephanie Scott and Gleaner Deputy Managing Director Christopher Barnes.

See our Thursday Gleaner's Food section for more valuable tips on understanding the wonderful world of wines. Give the gift of wines this Christmas.