(upbeat music)
- Today's event is brought to you by LCBO and Trade Partner.
Please remember to enjoy responsibly.
Hi everyone.
I'm Danielle Finestone
and I'm the content creator behind ToFoodies
which means I'm a photographer and a videographer
and I'm always sharing my food adventures
around Toronto and beyond on social media.
I'm also a recipe developer and a host
which brings me to here today, celebrating Valentine's Day.
We have a few different products here, as you can see,
and we're going to be tasting them all,
as well as sharing the perfect pairings for each one.
And the perfect pairings are actually
showing the progression of a four course meal.
Um, delicious.
You're going to want to share this with a loved one
whether it's romantic or whether it's Valentine's Day
and you're getting together some pals
or it's Galentine's day
and you're getting together your girlfriends.
I just love that Valentine's day is really a time
to bring people together and show them how special they are
and do something that's a little out of the ordinary.
So that's what it's all about today,
bringing some shine and some light
into what we're doing for Valentine's Day
sharing it with the people that we love.
I just love this line up here.
We go appetiser, main course, dessert
with a little cocktail to start.
And if you're inspired
by anything that you see here today, don't worry about it.
Don't go crazy on your notepad.
We have all the descriptions of the products themselves
and the recipes and the links right in the bio here.
So you can follow along with us and just enjoy
and ask us a bunch of questions in the chat box.
We want to hear from you and we're here to answer live.
And if you see something you let tonight,
we've made it even easier for you by offering free delivery
for all orders over $250 until February 6th.
So you have some time to get those orders in,
get really prepared, even though you don't have to do
any of the thinking,
we've done all the curating for you right here,
so that's for a limited time, and it's going to get you
right into gear for Valentine's Day.
So shall we get tasting?
We have our first pairing right here,
and this is from Victoire.
I'll show you the bottle.
This is a really beautiful colour, I can already tell
and I'm going to pour it up,
so we get those gorgeous bubbles.
Ooh,
yum.
So already I'm seeing this gorgeous colour.
This is a salmony pink,
and the bubbles are just so lively.
I'm giving it a good smile.
So this is Champagne Victoire, Brut Rose.
It is $49.35
at the LCBO.
And this is going to be an amazing kick off
to your Valentine's Day.
Cause we've got the Rose, a little homage to roses
if you will.
And oh, that just smells so delicious.
I'm getting some strawberries
and some cherries,
like fruitiness, for sure.
And they're right there on the pallet as well.
This is just a beautiful kickoff.
Nice to kick off your dinner with popping a bottle,
making it feel extra special.
And there's some complexity here, of course, as well.
Cause we've got some, like, vanilla notes
on the finish and this is just really, really lovely.
We actually have a cocktail recipe for you
and this is also rose inspired with the Rose,
so it's called the Bohemian Rose Flip.
And as you can see here, we've got that rose garnish
but we also have, what you may not know,
is that we have rose syrup inside.
So this recipe also teaches you how to make that rose syrup
and just put together a beautiful beginning
that is so Valentine Day themed.
And then,
next up we have the French Kiss.
This is from Sandbanks, French Kiss VQA.
It is now $17.95.
It's regular $19.95.
So this is one of our more accessible bottles that we have
in our lineup of Valentine's Day items.
This, as you can see is a red Merlot-Cabernet 20/20.
Delicious and I can just tell, well, let's get the,
let's get the glass out here so I can start looking
at the colour.
Nice burgundy.
I love that, already can tell from the looks of it
but I just want to talk about Sandbanks a little bit
'cause this is a Canadian wine region
and this is one of the oldest wineries to come out of
Prince Edward County so it's always a must try,
and if you're in the region
definitely pay them a visit,
but again the bottle, I love how topical this is,
Sandbank's French Kiss.
So what, what a great thing to have
on Valentine's Day
and also to go from that bubbly rose to something
a little more bold.
So here we go.
And another thing that goes into this name
is that this name is not just a name,
it's actually aged in French Oak.
So we're getting a little bit of that oakiness here
on the scent and not only is it aged
in French Oak for nine months
but the owners are French Canadian of the winery.
So this is a very special bottle for them.
They're also hopeless romantics.
So we have a good theme and a good story
that's tying into the theme of our dinner tonight.
So let's have a little cheers.
This is, (smacking) mmm,
also getting cherries, also getting cherries here.
So that's really fun to see that we've kind of gone
from the cherries and the rose earlier
to something that's completely different.
One thing I want to say about the finish is that it's really,
it kind of stays with you, which I love in a red wine
and this has these peppery notes that are going on.
So when we think peppery
that's kind of getting us thinking about what kind
of food is going to go with this and compliment it very nicely.
So let's think about the entree course.
We have two different options for you for this one.
We have the warm mushroom salad with age cheddar and walnut.
So this is a nice vegetarian option.
This is going to play nicely
'cause we have that saltier age cheddar
and then we have the peppery notes
of the red wine and that more warm mushroom sound.
That's going to be really nice and meaty to play nicely
with this red wine that we have here.
And then we also have an even meatier option for you.
This is the individual beef and stout pie.
This is a food and drink recipe
and I love, look how cute these are with the little hearts
on top but I love how they're individual just for you.
Perfect for, you know, like I said, romantic night,
Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day, everyone gets their own
and it's just, you know, a really fun, little cute treat
but also we've got the thyme in there.
We've got garlic and beef.
So all of those things are going to play really,
really nicely with the red, with those peppery notes
and with that boldness.
Next up, we have this beautiful bottle, again from Victoire.
This is another gorgeous one and I love the bottle.
I love the classic-ness.
I love that we're also going back to a champagne.
This is a Champagne Victoire Brut Prestige, $42.95.
And again, it's okay if you go sparkling red
and back to sparkling,
cause champagne is just such a classic.
As you may know, it can only be called champagne
if it's from the Champagne region, which Victor is.
So this is going to go excellently with a main dish
because it's really going to be the star beside the star.
So I would love to show you this recipe that we have here.
It's a fun play on the Mac 'n' cheese,
but it takes it up a notch.
Should be a little bit more luxurious with some lobster.
And this is another food and drink right recipe for you.
Mm.
Well I enjoy.
So let's go to that recipe
so you can see it for yourself on the food and drink.
This is the ultimate Mac 'n' Cheese Lobster Carbonara
for two.
And again, how luscious,
how luxurious to have some lobster in there
with the creaminess of how it's a lobster carbonara.
So we love this for it also being for two,
so this is kind of a more romantic date idea
where you have a recipe,
that's just, just for you guys, just for you.
Perfect portion, really great use of lobster.
And then because we have that lemon in this
or the citrus notes like dried lemon flavour
that's coming out in this Victoire,
what goes amazing on seafood?
Lemon.
So what's going to go amazing with our lobster carbonara?
This champagne.
Cheers.
For our final,
dessert.
We can't not leave some room for dessert.
That's so important to Valentine's Day.
So we have a very special bottle from Bottega.
This is the Nero and this is from Veneto, Italy.
This is $24.95 for a 500 millilitre bottle.
And this is a chocolate liqueur.
And I hope you're getting the full effect.
You can see the bottle here a little bit closer up
of this frosted glass, how it's super thin
and then, you know, large from the front.
This is so gorgeous on a bar cart.
This would make a awesome gift because it's very versatile,
actually.
This could be drank alone.
This could go on desserts.
This could go in a cocktail.
So there are several uses for this
and I've already poured some out for me here.
And one thing that may surprise you
and surprises me when I look at just how viscus this is,
this is lactose free.
This bottle right here is chocolatey
and packs the punch, but no lactose.
So for all your lactose free friends,
anyone who's just not having dairy,
this is something that you can get and have no problems.
Mm, delicious.
Sweet, but not too sweet.
Ah, just the perfect dose of chocolaty-ness
Um, you could have this over ice.
You could pour this into a lot of things.
We have some cocktails for you actually
but I just want to talk about the creamy smoothness.
Here are the cocktails that go.
So you can imagine this in a hot chocolate cream
where winter Wonderland cocktail.
Either of those pictures, you can see
that it's like hot chocolate, but we've taken it up a notch
with the ingredients and with the echucha moms,
the garnishes.
So that's something that you can do
that's really easy and perfect for this weather,
winter wonderland, what could be better.
And as we're stepping out of it,
we're thinking about spring, we're in February
and we just want to appreciate, you know, where we are.
I think a whole hot chocolate cocktail says that entirely.
And it's also a bit romantic too,
cuddle up by the fire, you know,
with your cosy cocoa that has a little extra something.
And as the end of your meal, you could have a liquid dessert
with those hot cocos that we just mentioned.
Or I would also like to show you a recipe for a dessert too.
This is a Valentine's chocolate cake.
As you could see, it's a bit of a lover's chocolate cake
in that shape.
So you can actually use the Nero
as a garnish itself by drizzling this on top.
So see that picture there from food and drink?
Imagine it with a beautiful chocolate drizzle on top.
That's going to be you,
and as a food content creator myself,
I'm just going to say whip out that camera
and get a little video
of that drizzle because that's movie magic to me.
So I truly believe that you could bring any of these
four items to someone's house
and they are going to love it as a gift.
They're going to keep it for themselves
or they're going to want to share with you if you're lucky
or this is for you to host the night of your dreams
with your gal, your pal,
or your most loved one in a romantic way.
So I really am so thankful
for you to join me.
Thank you so much for joining me.
It's been absolute pleasure tasting with you.
I'm Danielle Finestone.
So I'm always eating and drinking
around the city of Toronto and beyond.
You can catch me on social media @Tofoodies on Instagram,
and if you go there, you'll get all my other links.
But most importantly,
you only have a few days left to get
into gear for Valentine's Day.
So it's the perfect time to put in a little bit
of extra effort for the person that you love.
As I mentioned earlier, LCBO.com is a great place to go
for all the inspiration.
And if you head there, we have a page
for gifts for your Valentine's Day
and check out those super cute bags over there.
You can get those in stores,
so we've taken care of your packaging as well
and there's going to be free delivery on all orders over $250
so we've got that taken care of you as well.
That's available until February 6th.
So we want you to be ready.
We want to have everything in gear.
We're making it super easy for you.
You can come into the store
or you can have it delivered to your door.
And I just really hope
that today brought you a little bit of inspiration,
a little bit of way to go a bit above and beyond
and show your loved ones a bit extra love.
I think these are really the perfect pairings
and if someone made me that food and drink meal,
I'd be extremely, extremely happy.
So this was an event with LCBO and their trade partners.
Please enjoy everything responsibly
and we'll see you next time.
Thank you so much.
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