Pascual Toso celebrates 125th Anniversary in Toronto

Fabulous Faith at Pascual Toso 125th Anniversary celebration in Toronto

Toronto, ON - October 12, 2016

The National Club, located in the financial district of downtown Toronto. Traditionally filled with the upper echelon of Toronto's business community, today hosted Argentinian winery Pascual Toso.

Pascual Toso's current Winemaker Felipe Stahlschmidt, described his expansive vineyard that features a variety of altitudes and soil types offering the ability to produce a variety of high quality grapes. With over 300 acre's and over 40 lots of various Malbec and Cabernet grapes, Argentina's warm Climate affords a long ripening season allowing for a diverse variety of flavors to develop.  

Beginning in the 1890s, Italian immigrant Pascual Toso stumbled upon Argentina's ideal climate for growing grapes and established his first winery in San Jose. Then later, at the beginning of the 20th century, he acquired further land and built another winery at his estate making Pascual Toso one of the oldest and most prestigious wineries in Argentina.

Unlike other wineries, Pascual Toso doesn't depend on recipes.  Their master wine makers taste the wine daily and decide when it's ready for market  and what quality has been created. Today, for this exclusive wine tasting event, we were delighted with a celebratory tasting of 12 varietals to mark the 125th Anniversary of their vineyard and award winning wines.  All of the Malbecs, Cabernet Sauvignons and red blends were lovely but here are my favorites:

Everyday wine - Pascual Toso Malbec Limited Edition

Made of 100% Malbec grapes aged in American Oak, this mid-weight flavorful wine exudes a sweet berry aroma.  Upon meeting your palate, you are greeted with a rich balanced peppery fruit flavor, followed with a clean berry finish that rolls right off your tongue.  At just $16 it's perfect for dinner tonight and everynight!

Special Occasion - Magdalena Toso - Ultra Premium Blend

Further to the above, it seems like I enjoy a lot of fruit flavors in my wine :) So this varietal was definitely the mack daddy of them all, like loaded with ripe juicy berry-plum flavor. It's rich and strong, like loads of tannins but unfortunately it's aged for 18 months in premium French Oak barrels in limited quantities which pushes the price point to up to $100 a bottle. Making it the perfect gift for the wine lover in your life, your boss you need to impress or a last minute gift for that special person in your life.  But that special person could be you too, I mean it's definitely going to be me on pay day.

Kale Salad & Kale Chips

Kale's everyone's new favorite super food. But let's face it, kale salads are usually unpalatable rabbit food or smothered in high fat dressing. Kale chips are everywhere these days but they are too expensive, especially when preparing fresh is so simple.

I picked up a giant bunch of red kale on sale at the market this week, as having greens on hand is the first step towards cooking them and being recently diagnosed with P.C.O.D. I am trying to make the drastic changes required to balance my hormones naturally. So having a giant bunch of kale staring at me everytime I open the fridge is the reminder that I need that eating healthy is just a few chops away.

So on to the food.  I felt like asian flavors so I created these delicious and healthful recipes that are easy to prepare and can be stored for up to a week.

Asian Kale Salad

Ingredients:
3 cups finely chopped kale
1 cup finely chopped cabbage
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of roasted sesame seeds

Dressing (prepared asian sesame or peanut would work well if you don't have the time!)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon miso paste
1 tablespoon tamari
Splash mirin
Splash pineapple juice
Splash sesame oil
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch onion powder
Pinch ground ginger

Instructions:

Combine dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk until combined.

Add the other ingredients and toss until coated.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.


Kale chips

Ingredients:

3 cups roughly chopped kale leaves
2 tablespoons tamari (or soy sauce)
3 tablespoons sesame oil
Pinch granulated garlic

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Toss ingredients until the kale is evenly coated and layer onto a baking sheet.

Turn the broiler on the lowest setting and bake for 10 minutes and then check to see if the kale leaves and dry and crispy. If not return to oven for a few more minutes and then check again.

Allow to cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.